hey sit in the palm of the hand, slip into the crook of the wrist, yet transform an outfit from ordinary to elevated: cufflinks. After their glory days in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries, cufflinks spent the next decades in the shade — all the better to reclaim their place in the sun.

No longer a relic of our grandfather’s day, confined to black-tie events, cufflinks are resurfacing in a more casual everyday context. Blame it on a handful of tastemakers and on younger generations of all genders, in search of vintage accessories with which to sign their personal style.

David Gotlib, Black Skulls cufflinks

David Gotlib, Feathery Charm cufflinks

Round, rectangular, elongated, hexagonal, quirky or with precious stones, cufflinks are among the few jewels that men have been wearing for centuries. Statement accessory or quiet signal, they belong to a long tradition of elegance that extends from royal courts to fashion designers.

Centuries of cufflinks

The forerunner of the cufflink was a simple ribbon or cord that tied cuffs together. Cufflinks as we think of them today appeared in the latter half of the seventeenth century when, under the reign of Louis XIV of France, a new item appeared known as a “sleeve button”, composed of two buttons joined by a chain. When in 1666 Charles II of England declared that his court would replace the doublet with a vest and coat made from English wool, he gave a boost to the country’s wool merchants and effectively invented the three-piece suit, which he wore complete with flashes of silver and gold at the wrist. From simply performing a function, the cufflink became an adornment and a symbol of refinement.

Chopard Ice Cube cufflinks

By the eighteenth century, cufflinks were a part of every aristocratic wardrobe, signalling the wearer’s elevated social standing. A gentleman might be gifted cufflinks, which were made to commemorate royal occasions and other notable events.

With the Industrial Revolution came mechanisation and mass production. In 1876 George Krementz visited the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, where he saw machinery that produced cartridge shells for bullets. He adapted the concept to manufacture collar buttons and cufflinks. Now produced inexpensively and in mass, cufflinks were accessible to the middle classes. This would be the golden age of the cufflink.

Villa Milano cufflinks

The nineteenth century was also the era of the three-piece suit, worn with double or French cuffs that required an elegant fastener. Whether in Victorian England or Second Empire France, gentlemen wore dark colours as a sign of respectability, and cufflinks added a welcome flash of sparkle.

Floral flourishes of the 1900s gave way to the clean lines of Art Deco. Cufflinks were fashioned from platinum, set with diamonds and onyx, painted with enamel or sculpted from jade. The invention of the Boyer fastener in 1924 made them easier to wear, which contributed further to their popularity.

Fashion has fun with the cufflink

The popularity of cufflinks declined with the introduction of button-cuff shirts and a relaxing of menswear in the 1960s and 1970s, but by the 1980s the cufflink had resurfaced, this time as a fashionable accessory, spearheaded by British designers whose humorous take did away with any last remaining “starchiness”: the likes of Paul Smith, Vivienne Westwood and Simon Carter. Dubbed the King of Cufflinks, Carter’s Aspirin model includes a screw-top compartment for holding a pill. At the opposite end of the scale, the storied jewellery houses have continued to propose cufflinks, whether as part of their collections or bespoke commissions. Founded in 1786 in Birmingham, Deakin & Francis has perpetuated the tradition of the cufflink for centuries.

A rapidly expanding market

Even so, cufflinks continued to linger on the sidelines of masculine dress. It would take Millennials’ appetite for vintage watches and jewellery, the renewed popularity of French cuffs and the power of social media to return them centre-stage. According to an analysis for 2024-2028, covering Europe, North America, APAC, South America, Middle East and Africa, the cufflinks market is forecast to grow by USD 1.7 billion, at a compound annual growth rate of 6.29 per cent.

Hemmerle cufflinks, Phillips November sales, lot 301

Despite their offering only the smallest of canvases, some jewellers have made cufflinks their speciality. Villa Milano is one. The family-owned Italian firm has more than 1,500 styles in its catalogue. “Our designs range from the most classical, with finely carved ornamental stones and ageless geometric forms, to the most imaginative, inspired for example by hobbies, symbols, animals or micro-mosaics. We also offer a bespoke service. Cufflinks have captured women’s imagination, too. This traditionally masculine accessory takes an unconventional air on a woman’s cuff,” noted Alice Villa, owner and artistic director of Villa Milano, at the GemGenève fair.

Pure player

After twenty years as a diamantaire in Antwerp, David Gotlib felt the urge to pursue a more creative path and embarked on a new career in jewellery design. The question being, how to stand out from the multitude of existing brands? He chose a radical solution: to make cufflinks, and nothing but cufflinks. “Twelve years ago, my grandmother gave me a pair of gold cufflinks that had belonged to my grandfather, which she wanted me to wear for a ceremony. I had to go out and buy an appropriate shirt. The following day I told my wife of my plan to launch a brand selling only precious cufflinks. Those closest to me tried to talk me out of it, insisting that no-one wore cufflinks any more,” recalls Gotlib, who was at the Jewellery Geneva high jewellery show in May.

Akillis Bang Bang cufflinks

Undeterred, “I went ahead and we now have some thirty models in our collections, in every colour of gold. When I started, I had no idea how to target customers. I imagined we’d be selling to people in their fifties when in fact my customers are between 30 and 40, and are looking for an item of jewellery as an alternative to a watch. Cufflinks appeal to younger generations, too. My sons’ friends, who are in their twenties, wear them.”

Whatever form these diminutive jewels take, they express the wearer’s taste and personality in a way that can be as subtle or as statement as they like. As the finishing touch to a starched shirt or perpetuating a family tradition, cufflinks are one of the few pieces of masculine jewellery to have spanned centuries.