The Solace

My daughter chose it and had it sent to me. The surprise on opening was how low the profile sits, much shallower than it looks in the hand, and the satin runs right over the rounded edges without a bright line anywhere.

Size 12, ordered in April. Our wedding was in June and it fit from the day it arrived through the ceremony and every day since, with no adjustment. Straightforward.

My previous band was 8mm and I never got used to it. This is 5mm with a rounded profile and a satin face. It disappears under a glove.

My wife ordered it for our fourth anniversary and it arrived two days before, which she said was tighter than she had planned. She had expected me to want something wider. I have worn it since that evening.

I put it on at the kitchen table expecting to send it back for something wider. Size 12, close at the base. The moment was looking down at it next to my watch, where the satin sat quiet against the steel instead of competing with it.

My old band was also a 10 but square-edged and it pressed. This 10 is rounded on both faces and sits closer. No mark on the finger now.

The Enso band I wore at work had a hard shoulder where the face met the side. This one has no shoulder at all; the satin face rolls straight into the edge, which is the whole reason it sits so low.

My fiancée ordered it three weeks before our September wedding and it arrived within the week. The ceremony was in a stone church with very little light, and the satin held an even grey rather than going black in the photos. My mother noticed that before I did.

I had looked at a Blue Nile satin band in a shop and its finish was closer to brushed, with visible lines. This one has no directional grain at all, which is why it reads as a soft grey rather than a striped one.

I asked before ordering whether satin dulls, and they said it develops a slight sheen at the contact point over a year or two, which is exactly what has happened. It has been on throughout.

I bought it for my son in a 10 and it fit him at the base without any messing about, which given I guessed the size was lucky. It came boxed with a sizing gauge and a cloth. My only gripe is that the gauge was the printed paper kind rather than plastic.

The size 10 felt loose on day one and I assumed I had gone up too far. A week later it had settled and sits close at the base. Under a thumb the satin is soft rather than grainy, closer to brushed silk than sandpaper.