David Yurman Classic Cable Bracelet (silver + 14k gold)

Fifty feet of wire

David Yurman was a sculptor before he was a jeweler. He grew up in the Bronx and, at 15, met the Cuban welder and sculptor Ernesto Gonzalez, who taught him to weld. The line that would define his work turned up again and again in his drawings and in his direct-weld sculpture: helical strands of DNA, hanging vines, twisting columns, nautical ropes and suspension cables.

The first Cable bracelet was a gift. In the late 1970s, in a studio in Tribeca, Yurman twisted 50 feet of wire into a cuff for Sybil, a length the company compares to the height of a five-story building. When a stranger stopped her on the street to admire it, Sybil gave the bracelet away and told David he would make more.

He did. In 1982, according to the company, the first Cable bracelet in production debuted as part of the Renaissance collection, and it immediately became the Yurmans' signature piece. A magazine history agrees on 1982; a reseller's history gives 1983.

David and Sybil

David Yurman and Sybil Kleinrock were both born in New York in 1942, two months apart. Sybil was a painter and ceramicist. They met in 1969, moved to Carmel in upstate New York in the early 1970s, and formed Putnam Art Works, which made sculptural jewelry and showed it at galleries and craft fairs.

In 1977 Yurman was one of 12 jewelers chosen for the first New Designer Gallery at a major jewelry trade show in New York. The couple married in 1979 and founded the David Yurman company in 1980, with Sybil as co-creator in every part of the business. In 1981 Yurman was named Designer of the Year by the Cultured Pearl Associations of America and Japan.

The company describes the business as, in the founders' words, "one long art project," and credits it with creating a category it calls American designer jewelry. Their son, Evan Yurman, joined in 2003 and is now president and chief creative officer.

1982

The Cable arrived in a year of blockbusters and firsts. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial opened in June 1982, the first compact discs were produced in Germany that August, and Michael Jackson released Thriller in November. Britain and Argentina fought the Falklands War that spring.

In American jewelry, the designer-name business that Yurman helped build was still young. The company did not open its first store until 1999, and its first advertising campaign, shot in St. Barts by Peter Lindbergh with Amber Valletta, ran in 2000.

How the Classic Cable is made and marked

This entry is the Classic Cable Bracelet in sterling silver with 14k yellow gold, 7 millimeters wide, finished at each end with a dome of 14k yellow gold. The same model comes with gemstone end caps, such as amethyst, blue topaz, citrine, black onyx, prasiolite or pearl; the gold-dome version carries style number B04425 S4GG.

An appraiser's guide notes that a genuine Cable bracelet should have eight filaments with no gaps between them, with oxidation in the twists applied evenly, and that the gold wrapping near the end caps should sit straight. Pieces are stamped D. Yurman, D.Y. or David Yurman, usually with a copyright symbol, and two-metal pieces carry both the gold purity mark and the sterling 925 mark.

The bracelet is a current model sold in four sizes. In October 2026 the maker listed the gold-dome version at $1,050 in small, medium and large and $1,070 in extra large.

A form that runs through everything

The company says Cable now appears throughout every David Yurman collection, as an accent, a setting, a clasp or a quiet signature. Evan Yurman reworked it as Sculpted Cable, flattening the helix into a carved relief.

In 2017 Rizzoli published David Yurman Cable, the brand's first book, with essays by Paul Greenhalgh, William Norwich and Carine Roitfeld. Its popularity has also drawn imitators: in March 2019 a federal court in New York awarded the company $1,550,000 and a permanent injunction against 31 defendants running websites that sold counterfeit David Yurman goods.

The numbers

Metal

Sterling silver with 14k yellow gold

Width

7 mm

Ends

14k yellow gold domes

Style number

B04425 S4GG

Construction

Eight twisted filaments with oxidized recesses, per an appraiser's guide

Production

Current model in sizes S to XL; no production figures published

Timeline

1. 1942

   David Yurman and Sybil Kleinrock are born in New York, two months apart.

2. 1969

   David and Sybil meet.

3. 1977

   Yurman is one of 12 jewelers in the first New Designer Gallery at a New York trade show.

4. 1979

   David and Sybil marry.

5. 1980

   They found the David Yurman company.

6. 1981

   Yurman is named Designer of the Year by the Cultured Pearl Associations of America and Japan.

7. 1982

   The Cable bracelet debuts in the Renaissance collection and becomes the company's signature.

8. 1999

   The first David Yurman store opens in New York.

9. 2000

   The first advertising campaign, by Peter Lindbergh with Amber Valletta, is shot in St. Barts.

10. 2003

    Evan Yurman joins the company.

11. 2017

    Rizzoli publishes David Yurman Cable, the brand's first book.

12. Mar 2019

    A federal court awards the company $1,550,000 against counterfeit sellers.

13. Oct 2026

    The gold-dome Classic Cable Bracelet lists at $1,050 to $1,070 depending on size.

The world in 1982

• Apr 2, 1982

  Argentine forces take the Falkland Islands, starting the Falklands War.

• Jun 11, 1982

  E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial opens in the United States.

• Jun 14, 1982

  Argentine forces surrender at Stanley.

• Aug 17, 1982

  The first compact discs are produced in Germany.

• Sep 29, 1982

  The Chicago Tylenol murders begin.

• Nov 29, 1982

  Michael Jackson releases Thriller.

• Dec 2, 1982

  Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, David Yurman Classic Cable Bracelet (silver + 14k gold) is number 99 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (74 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The first Cable was twisted by hand from 50 feet of wire, about the height of a five-story building.
• Sybil Yurman gave the very first Cable bracelet to a stranger who admired it on the street.
• David Yurman learned to weld as a teenager from the Cuban sculptor Ernesto Gonzalez.
• The company opened its first store in 1999, nearly two decades after it was founded.
• A genuine Classic Cable should show eight filaments with no gaps between them.
• In 2019 the company won a $1.55 million judgment against 31 counterfeit sellers.