FLOAT 100 · Jewelry · No. 59
Tiffany T1 Narrow Diamond Hinged Bangle (18k gold)
A single letter that Tiffany first put on a gold bracelet in the 1970s, sharpened into a diamond-edged bangle and launched online while the company's own stores sat dark in the spring of 2020.
- Year
- current
- Maker
- Tiffany & Co.
- By price in jewelry
- 60 of 100
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- Tiffany T, T1 sub-collection
- Maker
- Tiffany & Co., New York
- Designer of T1
- Reed Krakoff, Tiffany's chief artistic officer at launch
- T1 launched
- Spring 2020, rose gold first; white and yellow gold followed that fall
- This model
- T1 Narrow Diamond Hinged Bangle in 18k yellow gold with round brilliant diamonds
- Diamonds
- Carat total weight 1.00 (size medium, per the maker's listing)
- Sizes and colors
- Small, medium, large and extra large; yellow, white or rose gold
- Fit
- Size medium fits wrists up to 6.25 inches
- Maker's price
- $17,500 for size medium, yellow gold, as listed October 2026
- Motif's roots
- A 14k gold T bracelet in the 1975-76 Blue Book, per Tiffany; the designer John Loring dates his T pattern to the mid-1980s
A letter that became a logo
Tiffany's own account traces the T to a 14k gold bracelet bearing the letter T that first appeared in the company's Blue Book catalog for 1975-76, which it calls one of the first times a house monogram was used in fine jewelry. The company says the modern Tiffany T collection, launched in 2014, was inspired by that archival bracelet, and that each design since has evolved the motif.
John Loring, Tiffany's longtime design director, tells the story differently. In a 2020 conversation with a fashion trade paper he traced the T to the Atlas collection he created in the early 1980s, a watch and then jewelry line built on block numerals and stripped of ornament. When Atlas could expand no further, he said, the team asked, 'Why don't we just look for a T for Tiffany?' Loring said he drew the overall pattern and that in 1986 the company got a copyright to use it on gold jewelry, later extending it to jacquard scarves and leather goods. Both versions are on the record; this page does not try to reconcile them.
Loring described the T as the dawn of branding in fine jewelry, but insisted it was meant to be 'something so basic everyone would recognize' rather than a logo hung on a chain. When he joined Tiffany in 1979, he recalled, the company's global sales were about $70 million.
From Amfitheatrof's T to Krakoff's T1
The collection now sold as Tiffany T began with Francesca Amfitheatrof, a Tokyo-born designer educated in England who had worked on jewelry and accessories for fashion houses and served as head curator of a museum in Florence. Tiffany appointed her design director after a five-year search; she held the post from 2013 to 2017 and was the first woman in the role. Tiffany T, a range of minimalist necklaces, cuffs and rings meant for layering and daily wear, was her first collection, launched about a year after she arrived. A 2014 profile noted she was only the eighth person to hold the job since 1837.
Tiffany T was introduced in the fall of 2014. A New York weekly reported that October that T bracelets in rose or yellow gold were priced at $5,000 and in sterling silver at $950, and that the launch was celebrated with custom engraving at an art gallery on West 22nd Street transformed into a steam-train platform.
Reed Krakoff, then Tiffany's chief artistic officer, built on that base. T1 was his third addition to the T line, following T True, which took the motif into engagement rings in 2018, and T Color in 2019. He said the collection took about 18 months and many iterations to balance 'edginess and strength and femininity.' His stated aim was to honor the T while modernizing it 'with hand-set diamonds in the beveled edges.'
By 2020, the trade paper reported, Tiffany said T designs had become its largest collection by revenue and had led steady growth in its gold jewelry sales.
A launch in lockdown
T1 arrived at an odd moment. Tiffany had planned an all-star rollout, but in the spring of 2020 its headquarters and much of its store network in North America and Western Europe were closed by coronavirus lockdowns. Instead the company simply released the collection on its website and in the stores that were open. A fashion magazine's May 1, 2020, review framed fine jewelry as one of the 'more durable experiences that can provide solace' during the crisis.
The first pieces were 18k rose gold bracelets and rings in wide and narrow widths, some set with pavé diamonds in a honeycomb pattern. White and yellow gold versions were scheduled for that fall, part of what was described as a yearlong series of global launches. Prices at launch ran from $850 for a plain rose gold ring to $28,000, with a separate high jewelry necklace of mixed-cut diamonds priced at $150,000.
The company itself was in transition. When T1 came out, Tiffany was a $4.4 billion business awaiting acquisition by the French luxury group LVMH, a deal then valued at $16.6 billion. A later account put the final purchase price at $15.8 billion.
How to identify the narrow diamond hinged bangle
The piece tracked here is the T1 Narrow Diamond Hinged Bangle in 18k yellow gold, set with round brilliant diamonds. Krakoff described the collection's diamonds as hand-set in the beveled edges, and Tiffany describes each 90-degree angle in the collection as formed by its craftspeople 'in a swift, exacting motion.'
Tiffany's current listing for size medium gives a carat total weight of 1.00 and a fit for wrists up to 6.25 inches. The bangle is offered in small, medium, large and extra large and in yellow, white and rose gold, and the listing's related SKUs are marked as made in Italy. The maker lists the yellow gold medium at $17,500 and notes the item can be exchanged but not returned.
Because the same bangle comes in several sizes and three gold colors, any price comparison should match size, metal and diamond weight, and should confirm the piece is the narrow diamond version rather than another T1 bracelet.
Retail and resale
This is a current production piece, so its main reference point is Tiffany's own retail price, which the company sets and changes. FLOAT's record previously cited a 2024 retail figure of $14,200 for this bangle; that number could not be confirmed from an archived page while preparing this story, and the maker's listing in October 2026 shows $17,500 for the yellow gold medium.
Pre-owned examples appear regularly from resellers, usually below new retail. Asking prices vary with size, gold color, condition and whether the original box and papers are present. An asking price is what a seller hopes to get, not what a buyer paid.
The numbers
- Carat weight
- 1.00 carat total weight, round brilliant diamonds (size medium)
- Color/clarity
- Not published on the maker's listing
- Origin mine
- Not published for this model
- Cutter
- Not published for this model
- Metal
- 18k yellow gold (also made in white and rose gold)
Timeline
A 14k gold bracelet with the letter T appears in Tiffany's Blue Book for 1975-76, according to the company.
John Loring joins Tiffany; he later recalled global sales of about $70 million that year.
Per Loring, Tiffany obtains a copyright to use his T pattern on gold jewelry.
Francesca Amfitheatrof becomes Tiffany's design director, the first woman in the role.
The Tiffany T collection launches, Amfitheatrof's first collection for the house.
Two-day T bracelet engraving event opens at a gallery on West 22nd Street in New York.
Amfitheatrof's tenure as design director ends.
Reed Krakoff's T True takes the T motif into engagement rings.
T Color, Krakoff's second T addition, is introduced.
T1 is reviewed at launch, released online and in open stores during lockdowns; rose gold pieces come first.
White and yellow gold T1 styles are scheduled for release in the fall.
Tiffany lists the T1 Narrow Diamond Hinged Bangle in yellow gold, size medium, at $17,500.
The world in 2020
The World Health Organization declares the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
The United Kingdom formally leaves the European Union.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 2,997.10 points, the largest point drop in its history.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases pass 1 million worldwide.
A Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo becomes the first zoo animal reported with COVID-19.
Japan declares a state of emergency in response to the pandemic.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 1, 2026 | $17,500 | Asking price, not a saleMaker's retail listing, 18k yellow gold, size medium, 1.00 carat total weight. |
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 T1 Narrow Diamond Hinged Bangle (18k gold) is number 60 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 (59 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Tiffany dates the T to a 1975-76 catalog bracelet, while John Loring, who led design for decades, dates his T pattern to the mid-1980s and a 1986 copyright.
- T1 was released without its planned all-star launch because Tiffany's stores across North America and Western Europe were closed by lockdowns.
- The first T1 pieces were all rose gold; yellow gold, the metal of this bangle, came later in 2020.
- Reed Krakoff said the T1 collection took about 18 months to design.
- Francesca Amfitheatrof, who launched Tiffany T, was only the eighth design director in Tiffany's history, according to a 2014 profile.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026