The Vale

Eighteen months of daily wear before I would say anything. The band it replaced was flat and rolled constantly; this one has two raised edges either side of the dish, and those edges give the finger something to sit between. It has not turned once.

At a dinner in April someone had a Blue Nile band with a flat face and we compared. Size 12, close at the base and over the knuckle without force, and the difference is that a dished face holds a line of shadow down the centre where a flat one just shines.

Two years before I would compare it to the titanium band I wore for eight. The titanium was smooth and I spun it constantly without noticing; this one has a knurled surface that gives the finger something to hold, so it stays where it is put. That became obvious at a wedding where I did not fidget once.

Size 10, worn since our May wedding. Running a thumb along it now, the two raised edges have gone slightly smooth and the hollow between them has not, so the ring actually feels more dished than it did. The fit has not changed.

The hollow across the face is machined to a consistent depth the whole way round, which you can check by turning it against a lamp and watching the shadow line stay the same width. Nothing about it is pressed.

I had the flat version in the basket and swapped at the last minute, which I second-guessed for a fortnight. It's the shadow line down the dish that settled it. Size 11, worn daily for a year since, and the fit has not moved.

I ordered it three weeks before my wife's birthday and it came in five days, so there was no anxious week. She had expected something plain and spent a while turning the dish under the lamp. She has worn it since.

My wife gave it to me in a size 10, which fit at the base first go. She pointed out that the dish is deeper in the middle than at the edges rather than being a constant curve. It came in a hinged box with a sizing gauge and a cloth.

I chose it for my father's seventieth. He had said he did not want anything and then wore it out of the restaurant, which told me more than anything he said, and he has had it on since. Worth ignoring him.

Bought it for my husband in an 11. He has had it on daily for sixteen months through work and a fortnight abroad, and the fit has not changed at all. Money well spent.

My brother wears a solid Fossil 8mm and mine comes in noticeably lighter at around 12 grams, because the dish removes material from the middle. At a wedding in June he said his felt like a bolt next to it. Same width on paper.

Day one the dished face looked like a mistake. A week later it was the reason I liked it. The hollow is machined, with even depth all round.