Cartier rose gold - how to maintain the color

Greenbling

Greenbling

Member
Jun 8, 2015
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74
#1
My 10 year old Intrelaces necklace has lost all its pink. The SA had to check the serial number to believe it is a RG. Just bought a love cuff in RG and would love to keep its color for as long as I could. Apart from avoiding chlorine, what else do I need to do/not do to keep the color? TIA
 
#6
Greenbling said:
My 10 year old Intrelaces necklace has lost all its pink. The SA had to check the serial number to believe it is a RG. Just bought a love cuff in RG and would love to keep its color for as long as I could. Apart from avoiding chlorine, what else do I need to do/not do to keep the color? TIA
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What do they suggest to bring back the pink? Is there anyway to bring it back?
 
#7
I’m starting to suspect Cartier’s rose gold isn’t solid but is a dipping or coating of a yellow gold piece. You are not the first to mention this problem.

As I understand the process of making real rose gold, it is made by adding copper alloy to the pure gold so the colour should be internally consistent and should not fade in any way.

And I understand that the theory is that the copper oxidizes but I’m still not sure how that changes it to a traditional gold colour. It should lighten not disappear.

But I’m definitely not an expert.
 
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#11
Greenbling said:
They said they can't do anything for the necklace but the love can be polished. From what I understand, it is the copper that creates the pink color, which is lost when the copper oxidises from contacting sweat and chlorine. So polishing off the surface will allow the pink to show again.
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How often should one polish the love? I’ve heard it’s only good to bring them in for a cleaning a few times during the bracelet’s life, but is a cleaning different from a polish..?

Edited to add that I workout just about every day so maybe a sweat band (while annoying) might not be the worst idea to buy.
 
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#13
Yeah there are three different degrees of cleaning. Pls excuse my wording as I'm not a jeweler.

1 - Standard cleaning like cleaning dishes. I usually refer as to having a bath for my items - they really put them in a hot water dish with detergent and use ultrasonic waves. Really shows a difference. Try to bring in as much of my items whenever I visit a boutique. Still don't want to take off the Loves. Scratches obviously will remain.

2 - Deep cleaning. Not sure what they use exactly; most likely a cloth rouge. Look like new but large scratches remain and not possible with diamonds

3 - Intense polish. Not more than 2-3 times, will remove scratches but takes off a layer of gold and may alter the shape. A Love of my SA was treated mistakenly but it looked just perfect, maintaining the sharp edges. Diamonds and emeralds have to be removed first.

This is what I learned over time. As said my PhD is in Chemistry so sbd may know more
 
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#14
To add: 1 and 2 are for free, 3 you need to pay for.

2 and 3 difficult with WG if rhodinated = the diamond items which obviously have diamonds :biggrin: to be removed first anyway
 
#15
scheurin said:
Yeah there are three different degrees of cleaning. Pls excuse my wording as I'm not a jeweler.

1 - Standard cleaning like cleaning dishes. I usually refer as to having a bath for my items - they really put them in a hot water dish with detergent and use ultrasonic waves. Really shows a difference. Try to bring in as much of my items whenever I visit a boutique. Still don't want to take off the Loves. Scratches obviously will remain.

2 - Deep cleaning. Not sure what they use exactly; most likely a cloth rouge. Look like new but large scratches remain and not possible with diamonds

3 - Intense polish. Not more than 2-3 times, will remove scratches but takes off a layer of gold and may alter the shape. A Love of my SA was treated mistakenly but it looked just perfect, maintaining the sharp edges. Diamonds and emeralds have to be removed first.

This is what I learned over time. As said my PhD is in Chemistry so sbd may know more
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This is incredibly helpful (I knew you would have answers)! Sounds like I’ll want to go for option one maybe 1x a year depending on how the gold reacts to my lifestyle and maybe buy a cloth rouge to use sparingly (again, depending on how the bracelet wears over time). thanks again
 
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