Tiffany HardWear Graduated Link Necklace (gold + diamonds)

A bracelet from the archive

HardWear began as a piece of Tiffany's own past. The collection is built on the gauge link, a rounded, industrial-looking link taken from a bracelet in the Tiffany archive. The date of that bracelet depends on when you ask: the launch coverage in 2017 and a Tiffany press release in 2022 describe a 1971 unisex bracelet, while Tiffany's current product pages and collection page say the inspiration is "a quintessential bracelet from 1962."

Either way, the idea was the same: to take a design from the house's vaults and scale it up into something bold, metallic and urban. Tiffany frames the collection as a tribute to New York City, its energy and its uninhibited spirit, and today calls HardWear "an expression of love's transformative strength."

The graduated link necklace is the clearest statement of that idea. Its gauge links are set in graduating proportions, so the chain changes scale along its length rather than repeating one uniform link.

The design director and the pop star

HardWear arrived at a moment of transition at Tiffany. Francesca Amfitheatrof, born in Tokyo in 1968 and raised between New York, Rome, London and Moscow, was the house's design director from 2013 to 2017 and the first woman in the role. Her tenure included HardWear, but trade coverage of the launch noted that the collection followed her departure from the company. In April 2018 she became artistic director of jewelry and watches at Louis Vuitton.

Tiffany introduced the collection with the biggest stage it had ever used. On February 5, 2017, it ran its first Super Bowl advertisement, a 60-second film starring Lady Gaga, even though the company had made the Vince Lombardi Trophy for 50 years. The campaign was photographed by David Sims with Grace Coddington of American Vogue as creative director. "In New York, you're born knowing that Tiffany is the best," Gaga said.

Pre-orders opened the day of the ad. The collection, in silver and gold, reached stores worldwide on April 28, 2017, and Tiffany's website on May 2.

2017: a jeweler goes loud

Tiffany launched HardWear in a turbulent year. The Women's March drew millions into the streets worldwide on January 21, the United Kingdom triggered Article 50 to begin Brexit on March 29, and Emmanuel Macron won the French presidency on May 7.

For a jeweler then 180 years old, a Super Bowl spot with a pop star selling heavy, industrial-looking gold and silver links was a striking change of tone. Tiffany's brand officer said Lady Gaga's "originality, creativity and courage" reflected the spirit of the collection.

From silver chain to diamond statement

HardWear kept growing after launch. Tiffany made ROSÉ of BLACKPINK a house ambassador and the face of HardWear campaigns in 2021 and again in 2022, when the campaign was shot in New York by Mario Sorrenti and debuted on March 14. That year Tiffany added black titanium links, 18k rose gold and diamond styles in July and full pavé diamond styles in November. The 2022 release already listed pavé diamond graduated link necklaces among the existing pieces.

Today the graduated link necklace comes in several versions. As listed in October 2026, the plain 18k yellow gold necklace, 18 inches long, costs $24,900; the version with diamonds, 19 inches long with a carat total weight of 3.19, costs $62,500; and the version with pavé diamonds, 18 inches long with a carat total weight of 9.07 set in a honeycomb pattern on alternating links, costs $95,000. A sterling silver graduated necklace sits far below all three.

Tiffany's current HardWear campaign features its house ambassador Natalie Portman.

What to look for

The FLOAT 100 entry is the diamond-accented gold necklace. Tiffany describes it as a design that "reimagines our signature gauge links at a magnified scale," crafted in 18k yellow gold with round brilliant diamonds. It is 19 inches long, has a carat total weight of 3.19, and is listed as made in Italy under SKUs 72615875 and 73129842.

The pavé version is easy to confuse with it but is a different piece: it is an inch shorter, carries nearly three times the diamond weight, and alternates diamond-set links with plain gold ones. Buyers comparing secondhand examples should match the length, the diamond layout and the paperwork to the right model, since the prices differ by tens of thousands of dollars.

Like other HardWear pieces, the necklace is defined by its signature gauge links, here graduated in size.

A modern Tiffany icon

Less than a decade after launch, Tiffany calls HardWear necklaces a modern Tiffany icon and describes its necklaces as continuing "to define the trend of contemporary jewelry design into 2026."

The graduated link necklace carries the collection's whole idea in one object: an archival link, enlarged, cast in gold and, in its richest versions, covered in diamonds.

The numbers

Carat weight

3.19 carats total weight, round brilliant diamonds

Metal

18k yellow gold

Length

19 inches

Production

Made in Italy; SKUs 72615875 and 73129842

Maker

Tiffany & Co., HardWear collection (2017)

Color/clarity

Not published on the maker's listing

Timeline

1. 1962

   Date Tiffany now gives for the archive bracelet that inspired HardWear.

2. 1971

   Date given for the unisex archive bracelet in 2017 and 2022 launch materials.

3. 2013

   Francesca Amfitheatrof becomes Tiffany's design director.

4. Feb 5, 2017

   Tiffany's first Super Bowl ad, starring Lady Gaga, introduces HardWear; pre-orders open.

5. Apr 28, 2017

   HardWear arrives in Tiffany stores worldwide.

6. May 2, 2017

   HardWear goes on sale on Tiffany's website.

7. Apr 2018

   Amfitheatrof becomes artistic director of jewelry and watches at Louis Vuitton.

8. Jan 7, 2021

   LVMH completes its purchase of Tiffany.

9. 2021

   ROSÉ fronts a HardWear campaign.

10. Mar 14, 2022

    A second ROSÉ HardWear campaign debuts worldwide.

11. Jul 2022

    New HardWear necklaces and bracelets add black titanium, rose gold and diamonds.

12. Nov 2022

    Full pavé diamond HardWear styles launch.

13. Oct 2026

    The diamond graduated link necklace lists at $62,500 from the maker.

The world in 2017

• Jan 21, 2017

  Millions join the Women's March worldwide the day after Donald Trump's inauguration.

• Mar 29, 2017

  The United Kingdom triggers Article 50, starting Brexit negotiations.

• May 7, 2017

  Emmanuel Macron wins the French presidential election.

• Aug 21, 2017

  A total solar eclipse crosses the contiguous United States.

• Sep 20, 2017

  Hurricane Maria strikes Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm.

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, Tiffany HardWear Graduated Link Necklace (gold + diamonds) is number 43 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 (64 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• HardWear was introduced in Tiffany's first-ever Super Bowl ad, in 2017.
• Tiffany had already made the Super Bowl's Vince Lombardi Trophy for 50 years before it bought a Super Bowl ad.
• Tiffany's own materials give two different dates for the archive bracelet behind HardWear: 1971 and 1962.
• The pavé version of the graduated necklace carries 9.07 carats of diamonds, nearly three times the diamond-accented version.
• Pre-orders for HardWear opened on Super Bowl Sunday, months before the collection reached stores.