How to measure your wrist for a bracelet or watch strap

A bracelet is sized on its length, and the length is your wrist plus a little room. Measure your wrist just below the bone, then add 1.3 cm for a snug fit, 1.9 cm for a comfortable fit or 2.5 cm for a loose one. Those are the jewelers' ½, ¾ and 1 inch, and they're the values Ruban Size's Find my size uses.

How to measure your wrist

1. Take a soft tape, or a thin strip of paper. Paper is better than string, which stretches.
2. Wrap it just below the wrist bone, where a bracelet or a watch sits.
3. Keep it flat against the skin, neither tight nor loose.
4. Mark where it overlaps and measure the strip flat against a ruler. That length is your wrist.
5. Add room for the fit you like:

6. The result is the bracelet length to look for, from end to end, clasp included.

A worked example

A wrist of 15.6 cm (6⅛ in):

• Snug: 15.6 + 1.3 = 16.9 cm
• Comfortable: 15.6 + 1.9 = 17.5 cm
• Loose: 15.6 + 2.5 = 18.1 cm

On a chart of bracelet lengths 1 cm apart (15.5, 16.5, 17.5, 18.5...), that's an S for a snug fit, an M for a comfortable one and an L for a loose one. Same wrist, three sizes: the fit you like is part of the measurement.

Watch straps

A watch strap is measured the same way: your wrist, just below the bone. Charts list strap lengths differently, though. On the Ruban Size template, the length shown is the full strap, buckle side and holes side together. When a chart gives both the wrist each size fits and the strap length, compare your wrist with the wrist column: the room is already built in.

Bangles and cuffs

A rigid bangle has to slide over your hand, so the widest part of the hand decides its size, not the wrist alone. If a store sells bangles next to chain bracelets, the chart should say which measurement each one uses.

The bracelet template

The Ruban Size template for bracelets and watch straps gives both numbers: the wrist each size fits, and the length of the bracelet or strap.

Its how-to-measure steps give the same rule: "Add 1.3 cm for a snug fit, 1.9 cm for a regular one, 2.5 cm for a loose one." The values are typical ones: replace them with the real lengths of your pieces, and edit the steps if your pieces are meant to be worn closer or looser.

Common mistakes

• Measuring on the bone or up the forearm. A bracelet sits just below the wrist bone; measure there.
• Pulling the tape tight. A squeezed wrist gives a bracelet that pinches.
• Adding room twice. If a chart lists wrists, compare your wrist with it directly. Add room only when the chart lists bracelet lengths.
• Using a string that stretches. Paper keeps its length.
• Sizing a bangle on the wrist. It has to pass over the hand first.
• Rounding inches loosely. 1.9 cm is ¾ in, not 1 in. A quarter inch is one comfort step (more in centimeters to inches for size charts).

What it means for a Shopify store

Say which number your chart gives: the wrist a size fits, or the length of the piece. Both work. Mixing them up is the mistake to prevent: a shopper who adds room to a wrist range ends up a size too big, and one who compares a bare wrist with a bracelet length ends up a size too small.

Write the header plainly ("Wrist (cm)", "Bracelet length (cm)"), put the fit rule next to the table, and give US shoppers inches with a switch. If you sell rings too, the ring size converter and how to measure your ring size at home cover the finger the same way.

How Ruban Size handles bracelets

On a bracelet chart, Find my size asks for Wrist, with a line under the field: "Measure your wrist just below the bone, the tape flat against the skin, neither tight nor loose." A table whose only measurement is the wrist is read as a bracelet chart on its own, and so is a chart titled bracelets, bangles or watch straps. The chart's Fit tab can set it too.

How it reads the table depends on the line:

• A wrist line ("Wrist (cm)", as in the template) is read as it is: the shopper's wrist against each size's wrist range.
• A bracelet or strap length line (a header such as "Bracelet length", which the editor reads as the wrist measurement) gets comfort room for the fit the shopper picks in "Fit I like": 1.3 cm for Snug, 1.9 cm for Regular, 2.5 cm for Loose. That's the 15.6 cm example above: S, M or L.

The merchant can change that room in the Fit tab ("Comfort room"), for pieces meant to sit closer or hang looser than usual. Every answer says why, one line per measurement ("Wrist 15.6 cm: M, middle of the range"), with how sure it is. Bracelets are one of the types covered by fit by product type, with rings, hats, gloves and belts. The bracelet template opens as a draft, ready to fill with your own lengths.

Questions

How do I measure my wrist for a bracelet?

Wrap a strip of paper or a soft tape just below the wrist bone, flat on the skin, mark where it overlaps and measure the length. Then add 1.3 cm for a snug fit, 1.9 cm for a comfortable fit or 2.5 cm for a loose one.

How much bigger than my wrist should a bracelet be?

About 1.9 cm (¾ in) for a comfortable fit; 1.3 cm (½ in) for snug and 2.5 cm (1 in) for loose.

How do I measure my wrist for a watch strap?

The same way, just below the wrist bone. Compare your wrist with the wrist each strap size fits. On the Ruban Size template, the strap length is the full strap, buckle side and holes side together.

What size bracelet fits a 16 cm wrist?

On the Ruban Size template, 16 cm is where M (15 to 16) meets L (16 to 17): Find my size suggests L for a regular fit and M for a snug one. As a bracelet length, that's about 17.9 cm for a comfortable fit.