A Sparkling Mistake: The Peculiar Story of Tennis Bracelets

Now a classic piece you can find in any respectable jewelry store, the tennis bracelet entered our lives relatively recently. Until 1987, this bracelet design was known as an “eternity bracelet”.

The term tennis bracelet was earned entirely by mistake, and in an unlikely setting: In the 1987 US Open, tennis star Chris Evert asked the officials to stop the game because her diamond bracelet had come unclasped and fallen on the court. She searched for it, taking time to scan the court and retrieve her valued piece. Since then, the bracelet has been referred to as a “tennis bracelet.”

Tennis bracelets are lightweight and flexible, with a serpentine structure and inline diamonds. Although the diamonds can vary in size, cut, color and clarity, the diamonds set in tennis bracelets are usually of the same size and set closely together, one after the other, all the way around the circumference of the bracelet. They are held together with a secure clasp. Colored stones other than diamonds are also used.