Trend File: Charmed (Bracelets), We’re Sure

The retro style gets a sleek update

For some, the charm bracelet conjures up images of wrists jangling with cheapo enameled Santas and “I Love Daytona Beach” pendants.

But the charm bracelet is one of the oldest and most enduring jewelry styles in history—dating (way, way) back to the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and Hittites in 600–400 BC.

In the early 1900s, Chanel and Tiffany & Co. made the style extra-covetable with the debut of some very signature charm bracelets. And in the 1950s and 1960s, teens the world over went bananas for the style—collecting charms to commemorate every milestone. Furthermore, Queen Victoria catalyzed the rage for charm bracelets among the European upper classes and even popularized mourning charms (mainly lockets encasing locks of hair from the deceased).

This season’s charm bracelets embrace the style’s classic good looks, evolving the accessible aesthetics of Pandora and Alex and Ani—the two brands that ushered charm bracelets back into mode in the early 2000s—by embracing the retro.

Many of today’s most chic iterations are monochromatic, with charms matching one another in tone, if not metal color. Gone is the constant clink-clank of randomly assembled—and overloaded—charms. These babies are sleek and chic.

Here, a few 2.0 charm bracelets for your consideration: