Vintage OroAmerica Solid 14K White Gold Heart Link Chain Bracelet - 7 Inch

Vintage OroAmerica solid 14K white gold bracelet built from alternating heart and round links, marked 14K with the OR in a heart maker's mark on the clasp plate. Every other link is a flat polished heart, and between each pair of hearts sits a doubled round link, two rings running side by side rather than one. The hearts all face the same direction down the length of the bracelet and sit flush against the rounds on either side, so the chain reads as a continuous run of hearts with the round links almost disappearing between them. The closure is a box clasp with an integrated safety.

The doubled round links are what make this chain sit the way it does. A single round link between hearts would let each heart twist freely and show its edge, while a pair of rings holds the heart captive between two planes and keeps it facing outward through the whole length. That is also why the bracelet lies flat on the wrist instead of rolling. In white gold the effect is a continuous bright line of hearts with almost no visible mechanism, and the flat polished heart faces give broad clean reflections that read from a distance rather than the busy sparkle of a stone-set piece.

Bracelet length 7 inch. The box clasp closes flush with the chain so the line of hearts runs unbroken all the way around.

Verifications:
Solid 14K gold has been verified using an Auracle Gold Analyzer.

Details:
Designer: OroAmerica
Metal: Solid 14K White Gold
Hallmarks: 14K, OR in a Heart
Design: Alternating Heart and Double Round Links
Finish: Polished
Clasp: Box Clasp with Safety
Bracelet Length: 7 Inch
Condition: Excellent estate condition

Fun Facts:
OroAmerica was founded in Burbank, California in 1977 by Guy Benhamou and grew into the largest manufacturer and distributor of gold jewelry in the United States, running plants in California, South America, the Caribbean and Indonesia. For a company whose mark most people have never looked up, an enormous share of the American gold jewelry of the period came through its doors.
White gold is an invention with a specific motive. Gold has no naturally white form, so it is alloyed with bleaching metals such as palladium or nickel to kill the yellow, and the technique was developed and commercialized in the 1910s and 1920s expressly as a substitute for platinum, which wartime governments had restricted to military use. An entire category of fine jewelry exists because a metal was rationed.