Hermes Glenan Double Tour Bracelet Rose Gold Swift Calfskin and Metal Étoupe H071689FO18T2

Buying a leather bracelet is a wager on how the leather will age, so choose the colour with that in mind. Etoupe is the safest bet in this range: it starts as a cool grey-taupe, and because Swift calfskin drinks in natural oils from skin and daylight, it gradually warms toward stone and beige. After a year of regular wear mine is a different, better colour than it was new.

The bracelet wraps twice on a wrist measuring 5.7 to 6.1 inches, with a braid of three millimetres and a Glenan closure plated in rose gold. Two turns of a braid that fine stay comfortable all day, even in heat, and the metal sits flat enough that you can rest your wrist on a table without noticing it. Made in Italy, with distinctly tidy finishing.

Styling Etoupe leather is almost cheating. It goes with cream, camel, grey and navy, it looks fine against bare skin in summer, and it stacks with enamel bangles without any risk of clashing because it has no strong hue to argue with. My favourite combination is this bracelet with a thin gold ring and nothing else, which reads as restraint rather than as an empty wrist.

The honest caveats: Swift marks more easily than grained leathers, so a dropped set of keys can leave a scratch, and the same absorbency that gives it that lovely patina means water leaves a cloudy patch. Coil it, don’t fold it, keep it out of the shower, and it will reward you. Made in Italy.