Cheap vs. Expensive Cufflinks: What Are the Differences?

Cufflinks are a great accessory to boost stylish looks. Today, we discuss cheap versus expensive cufflinks, what you get when you buy one, and why you may want to choose one over the other.

Cufflinks are one of the most iconic accessories in classic menswear. They create unexpected visual interest, they denote your personal style, and they can tie an outfit together. And, of course, they also do their most vital duty by keeping your shirt cuffs together.

Here at the Gentleman’s Gazette, we love cufflinks a lot. I’ve made a collection post; we have guides; we even sell them in our shop, and it’s not just me. Preston and other people on our team enjoy them, too.

When you’re just starting out, you might wonder, “Why would I pay a lot of money for a little button if I can buy an inexpensive one? After all, they all serve the same purpose, don’t they?” Well, yes and no. We discuss what you can expect at different price points in terms of quality, detailing, workmanship, and what things you might want to avoid.

What is “Cheap” or “Expensive”?

“Cheap” is obviously a relative, and, if you live in India, it’s a very different amount than if you live in the United States. For the purpose of this post, we consider everything under $50 cheap for a pair of cufflinks. Expensive, everything above $300, and then there’s the in-between ground. 

Cheap doesn’t mean inherently bad; it just means “inexpensive.” And expensive doesn’t automatically mean good value; it just means “high cost.” Yes, this distinction is very important because a pair of designer cufflinks may cost you a lot and are, therefore, expensive, but the quality and workmanship are really shoddy and more on par with something that you’ll find in a dollar bin.

But, hey, as long as there’s a brand name on it, people know I look expensive. On that note, we have another post that may be helpful for you.

On the flip side, an individually made pair of cufflinks from a master jeweler also have a higher cost, but they were designed by one person for one person bespoke. They use precious metal, great workmanship, and an ingenious design and, therefore, warrant their price tag.

At the end of the day, we want to help you to find the best value cufflinks for your money – may that be vintage, secondhand, at flea markets, or new.

Parts of a Cufflink

So, when we dissect the cufflink, we basically come up with three parts. One is the face. This is what most people see on the outside, then there is the shank, which is the connector between the face and the foot. Most cufflinks pay attention to their face because that sets the tone of the look, but they often neglect the foot or the shank.

1A. Cufflink Face – Cheap Cufflinks

In my experience, 98% of cheap cufflinks come in either of two face varieties. Number one: it’s a very plain and simple face; or number two: it’s gaudy or over the top. There’s not much middle ground typically. Also, because they’re cheap, they’re never made out of precious metals. They’re maybe plated with gold, silver, or they’re made out of brass or other alloys, such as Zamac, which are inexpensive.

Most cheap cufflinks also have a T-bar closure, but we’ll talk more about that later. Simple, cheap cufflinks are designed to be utilitarian and appeal to a wide range of men or women who might just want something that closes their cuffs without going with regular plastic or Mother-of-Pearl buttons.

Conceptually, there’s nothing wrong with these faces, but once you get more interested in classic menswear and you want to add your own spin on your take and your style, you may be frustrated with their simplicity. After all, there’s no real way to stand out with these cufflinks.

Often the faces of cheap cufflinks all have the same dimensions, so it doesn’t come across as very refined or tasteful. When it comes to art or something people find beautiful, often there are elements of proportion and nuance that play into it that people can’t quite pinpoint.

Just ask Piet Mondrian, whose “Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow” is even to be found on cheap cufflinks.

There are other cheap cufflink faces that emulate the look of a much more expensive cufflink. Obviously, they’re made of thinly-plated metals, so they look gold. But, if you wear them for a month, likely the coating will already rub off. Also, the stones that look so expensive are not diamonds, but zirconia stones or other faux stones that are rather inexpensive. A connoisseur will immediately notice the difference.

Most of the cheap cufflinks today are made in Asian factories, and they have a large portfolio of designs that span every aspect of life. Whether it’s a pizza slice, your favorite animal, your favorite sports team, or anything else under the sun, there is probably a cufflink design you can find in it.

While it may look cool, at first, to have a pair of cufflinks that reflects your hobby, upon closer inspection, you’ll notice that the details are often wrong, the finishing is kind of sloppy, and overall, it’s not very nice, especially if you’re passionate about something.

If you look at a selection of cheap cufflinks, you’ll also notice that the face might be different, but the foot and the shank are all the same. Basically, you can buy the foot in the shank mechanism – especially in a t-bar – in bulk, then just attach it to whatever face you want to add to a cufflink. If you take a closer look, you might even notice that the shank isn’t always in the center of the face, but slightly off-center. Again, someone just glued that thing on.

These cheap cufflinks can typically be bought for two to three dollars wholesale. So, if you sell them for 20 to 30 dollars retail, you still have a 90% profit margin.

1B. Cufflink Face – Expensive Cufflinks

Conversely, more expensive coupling faces, typically, have something special about them. If you’re in a medium segment from $50 to about $300, you will find the classics, you will find better detailing.

When it goes into the expensive range, chances are you get even more design refinement. Of course, it always depends on how the cufflink face was made. Does it come out of a mold that was injection molded? Was it 3D printed? Or was it made like a bespoke jewelry piece where a jeweler first made a wax model, then made molds, then cast in a proper way, and so forth? 

Expensive cufflinks in, I would say, the three to six hundred dollar range, typically, are not made of solid, 14-karat, 18-karat, and so forth gold or platinum. They might be sterling silver. They might be Vermeil, which means sterling silver that is thickly gold-plated. But, typically, gold itself is so expensive that you couldn’t afford to make a pair of cufflinks for just six hundred dollars.

Often, expensive cufflinks are elaborate pieces of art. That can be either because they use precious stones or a special technique. For example, think about enamel. First, you have a base metal, which is like sterling silver or brass, that is then machine-turned so you get an intricate pattern underneath; and then glass dust is applied under heat, so you get this translucent surface that you can look right through. Or something can have a true yellow finish, which requires quite a bit of expertise and the right chemicals to get a certain look.

And of course, last but not least, there’s an element of individuality. If you have a very expensive cufflink, one of one piece, it’s very different from if you have a mass-produced cufflink that comes by the hundreds of thousands.

Sometimes, expensive cufflinks also have other types of enamels or crystals that are back-painted by hand. There’s also fusion-staining, micro-mosaics, or pretty much anything you can think of creatively.

The British firm of Deakin & Francis, which produces expensive cufflinks, has a line where you have items with kinetic features. So, for example, here, you have moving parts on the wings of a ladybug or an eye-popping skull that can open the jaw.

Personally, it’s too much for me, but just because something is expensive, doesn’t mean it has to be classic. There are definitely crazy cufflinks out there that cost thousands of dollars.

More often than not, the faces of expensive cufflinks are created by artisans. You could say, “If you produce a hundred thousand cufflinks, the design cost isn’t very big compared to the production cost, so why not invest in a really expensive, high-end designer?”

Well, sometimes, if you have a more intricate design, it’s actually much harder to cast. There’s a lot more waste, and it’s more difficult to finish. Because of that, if you’re producing a large scale, you try to push all the other costs down, so it works.

For example, if we compare two fish cufflinks, both have fish as their main face element, but the one is intricately carved. You have enamel applied to it, so it looks really cool and dimensional; versus, the other one just looks like cheap plastic that you would maybe give to a kid if you’re sure they won’t swallow it.

At the end of the day, the face of a cufflink and the style that you like is subjective, and you should go with what you feel comfortable with and something that you like. Of course, sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know, so you see something and think, “Oh! This is great! That’s all I need!” And then, you see a very similar, more expensive cufflink, and you’re blown away, and think, “Wow! I had no idea something like this existed!”

2A. Cufflink Fastener – Cheap Cufflinks

Functionally speaking, the shank and the foot of a cufflink are more important than the face because they hold everything together.

Most expensive cufflinks have a decorative face, but also a decorative foot. If it’s a small face, they can be identical. If it is a bigger face, typically, the foot is a little smaller because you’ll still have to get it through the holes of your shirt cuffs.

This brings us to the fastening part of the cufflink: the shank and the foot, which sometimes is one element; sometimes, they are two elements.

If you’re interested in all the different kinds of cufflinks – such as snap cufflinks, chain cufflinks, T-bar cufflinks, and so forth, check out our definitive guide to cufflinks.

It pays to know that cheap cufflinks almost unanimously have T-bar closures. You’ll also find expensive cufflinks, even in solid gold, that have T-bar closures. But, personally, if I spend a lot of money on a pair of cufflinks, I don’t just want the same mechanic that I can find on a two-dollar pair of cufflinks.

So, why is it then that cheap cufflinks almost ubiquitously have T-bar closures? Actually, the reasons are manifold. They’re somewhat easy to put on. They’re easy to manufacture. They are produced in scale. So, they’re inexpensive, which is a big reason for a cheap cufflink that you would use that kind of closure. Because, if you have to create a closure mechanism individually, it’s, of course, much more expensive in the R&D department.

Not all T-bar designs are the same. Some are curved, and they have a wheel toggle. Others are more straight. Some have more crevices than others, and dirt will collect in them, so, sometimes, it can color off onto your white shirt cuff, for example.

Sometimes, cheap cufflinks also have t-bars. They are stiff to move or very loose, or the bar or the T on top is a little short, so they may open up and move if you have a larger buttonhole on a cuff and come undone. If the shank is glued on poorly, it may even come off. But if it’s a cheap pair of cufflinks, you’re not going to be as upset as if you spend a thousand of dollars on your pair of cufflinks.

If you go back twenty years ago, if you had a pair of chain cufflinks, they were almost certainly expensive cufflinks because there were no cheap cufflinks with chains. These days you can also find inexpensive chain cufflinks and cash in on the cache of the higher quality of this mechanism style of cufflink. Often, the plating on the chains is not very high quality, so, if you wear them, all the buttonholes get dark. Sometimes, they’re also too short or too long, making it awkward to wear them.

Of course, sometimes the chain can also break, which renders the cufflinks useless.

2B. Cufflink Fastener – Expensive Cufflinks

Cufflinks in the range of 50 to 300 to 350 dollars also often have t-bars. But, typically, they’re not just glued on; they’re solidly there. If they have chains, they work well, and you can rely on them to last you for years to come.

Expensive T-bar cufflinks often have a decorative foot that distinguishes them from cheap T-bar cufflinks. Also, the chains they use are typically solid enough to last you for several years.

Of course, if you talk to any engineer, if you have moving mechanical parts, it’s usually more prone to issues than if you have something fixed.

So, for the Fort Belvedere cufflinks, we partnered with a master jeweler who designed them just like he designs his bespoke, one-of-one pieces. We also wanted them to be unique and not just a standard, but very functional, and we designed them so you can hand them down to your kids, grandkids, and, hopefully, great-grandkids.

For example, for our monkey’s fist knot cufflinks, you have the face, which is a larger ball – all hand carved with ropes. The foot on the other side is the same just in a smaller size, so it fits through your shirt bar. And when we prototyped this cufflink, the shank in the middle, also had a rope structure, but it didn’t look very nice, so we made it simpler, elegant, and thin, yet really stable and solid.

Casting a cufflink like this, it’s much more tricky from a technical point of view, and you can feel it. When you have these cufflinks in your hand, they are heavy, and they feel like quality. You don’t have to put them on. You’re like, “Yes! This is a nice piece of jewelry.”

In terms of longevity, fixed bar cufflinks are definitely the way to go.

In our minds, cufflinks are pieces of art that you wear to decorate yourself, beautify yourself, and make yourself more stylish. So, why settle on something that is not thought through and well-designed? Most people may not think about the longevity of their fasting mechanisms or the look of it.

But, if you think about it for a minute, you realize you see the face as much as the foot, so why not make it look good as well?

3A. Cufflink Materials – Cheap Cufflinks

In terms of materials, cheap cufflinks are usually made of cheap materials. Remember those silk knots? Well, they’re not really silk. They’re just some form of cheap elastic that you use.

Other cheap cufflinks are maybe made out of brass. But, these days, with the price of brass, I think they’re mostly resorting to things like Zamec. And then, of course, there is plating.

Not all gold plating is alike. Most things these days are electro-gold-plated, so you get a uniform thickness across the entire piece, which is typically measured in microns. Back in the day, you had things like gold-filled or rolled-gold cufflinks, but even then, they were typically not utilized in cheaper cufflinks.

A hallmark of cheaper cufflinks is also their lower weight. Oftentimes, they’re hollow because, if you have less material in the cufflink, it will be less expensive as the final product. Some feel so flimsy, they hardly feel better than something major from aluminum foil.

Other cheap materials include wood or cloth fiber. Sometimes, you see rubber or low-grade fabric cufflinks that peel very quickly and are ready for the bin.

If cheap cufflinks are plated with gold or something like platinum, it is so thin that it will easily come off. We’ve found that, for example, a ring is really bad in the plated material because, no matter how thick it is, you will wear it down.

On the other hand, with cufflinks, they’re not subjected to that much wear. So, if you get a thick amount of gold plating – five, six, seven microns – that won’t rub off over the course of a hundred years.

So, for example, Fort Belvedere cufflinks, which show 925 sterling silver, which is a very standard material. But, sterling silver oxidizes. So, when it tarnishes, you get black elements, which can look nice, especially in the crevices. But, it will color off on your shirt cuffs.

We did not want that, so we added a really heavy, thick gold plating of several microns. We have yellow gold, rose gold, and silver ones coated in platinum. Platinum is even harder than gold, so it will wear off even less, and also, you won’t get those oxidizing patterns that you would get with pure sterling silver, for example.

3B. Cufflink Materials – Expensive Cufflinks

Obviously, expensive cufflinks take much more consideration about how long something should last, how it wears, and what it will be like 50 or 100 years from now. Cheaper cufflinks, on the other hand, are more focused on what it looks like the day you buy them, and then, it just degrades rather quickly.

Sometimes, you can also see the crown jewels of cheap cufflinks, which, at first glance, seem to be made fully of precious stones. Upon closer inspection, it’s more stuff like glass. They may be advertised as rubies, but you don’t find them for $3.99, even if they’re created in the lab. And, yes, you’ll find plenty of cufflinks advertised as 18-karat gold. But, at a price of $12, that means extremely thin gold plating.

Don’t believe me? Well, currently, a gram of gold is $55. “18 karat” means 75% pure gold. No way in hell is a cheap pair of cufflinks made with a thick layer of that stuff.

The material is obviously one of the biggest factors where cheap cufflinks distinguish themselves from expensive cufflinks. But, the material that you hold in your hand doesn’t tell the whole story.

For example, when we cast our Fort Belvedere cufflinks, we end up with about the same amount of waste. Because of the way they’re cast, sometimes there’s maybe an air bubble, so you cannot fix that after the fact.

Cheaper cufflink manufacturers may reuse that same silver, which is not at the same quality level anymore. Technically, the best way to do something in terms of quality is to send it back to the people who purify the silver and make sure sterling silver has exactly the right alloy, so it’s perfect and lasts for years to come.

Obviously, when you buy a pair of cufflinks, you don’t know how much waste there was and how much cost that involved.

Also, keep in mind that “expensive” doesn’t always mean “classic style” and “easy to combine.” For example, these cufflinks from Jacob & Co. made of an 18-karat white gold alloy with lots of real gemstones, and a fancy T-bar closure may not be the easiest thing to combine.

Also, for most men, having diamonds and precious stones is often reserved for their evening cufflinks. So, when you buy a pair of precious stone, sparkly cufflinks, keep in mind, how often do you think you’ll be able to wear them for a Black Tie or White Tie event for example.

If you want to wear your cufflinks in the evening as well as during the day, solid metals – as well as semi-precious gemstones – may be the way to go for you. Think of lapis lazuli, malachite, carnelian, maybe a garnet, tiger’s eye, onyx, maybe a citrine. These are all stones that work well, are not super expensive, and not too shiny generally. They may not be as bling, but they’re far more versatile.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with buying solid 18 or 14-karat gold alloy cufflinks. The reality is, that they’re quite expensive these days. So, if you can’t afford that, especially in the design that you like, having something that is sterling silver that is heavy-plated and designed to last for decades to come, you have a good buy, and you pay a lot less.

Personally, I’ve always found I prefer a slightly heftier, weightier pair of cufflinks. Because, when I stand, they pull down my cuffs into proper position, and there’s just something very satisfying to hold something in your hand with a certain weight that oozes quality.

So, at the end of the day, cufflink materials can be a weighty subject, but we hope we’ve taken some load off your mind.

Conclusion

In summary, cufflinks are a unique component of your outfit. They’re instantly noticed, and they always elevate your outfit. Because of that, we feel it makes the most sense to invest in quality. But, frankly, we believe quality goods are probably the better choice in most regards.

Why? Well, if you support true craftsmen, you have a product that is more satisfying. It will last longer, which by definition, means it’s more green.If you wear something for a hundred years, then you don’t have to reproduce it. Rather than wasting energy by recasting, even if you recycle it, it’s not as green as something that you don’t have to replace.

Having a carefully-selected, smaller cufflink collection in silver tones, gold tones, and rose gold tones, maybe with a few semi-precious stones, will be super versatile. You can wear them with pretty much any outfit in your wardrobe, it’s easy to travel with, and they’ll be satisfying for decades to come. Best of all, your kids and grandkids will likely fight over them.

As you know, quality things don’t always have to be expensive if you’re willing to shop secondhand. How you can do that, we’ve covered in many other guides on the website.

Yes, I know, once you consider your time, vintage shopping may not be as inexpensive anymore. But, it can also be fun. Or, alternatively, you just save up some of your money, and then buy exactly the pair of new cufflinks that you really want. Having that delayed gratification just makes them more valuable to you.

Outfit Rundown

In today’s outfit, I’m wearing a single-breasted, Donegal tweed jacket with flat patch pockets that I got secondhand. My shirt is striped in blue, white, and lighter blue from Eton. My cufflinks are a pair of yellow gold and garnet, double-sided, chain cufflinks that I found secondhand years ago.

My ring, I bought at Brimfield Flea Market. It is a citrine stone that picks up the yellow tone of my silk knit tie from Fort Belvedere, which you can find in our shop. 

The pocket square is also from Fort Belvedere. It has a light, beige-brown tone with yellow cross stitches, so it picks up the tones of the jacket, as well as a tie, and harmoniously blends in.

My wristwatch is a vintage Gruen Precision, which definitely has that old-school look. I’m not gonna lie, most of these days, I wear an Apple Watch because I like the whole modern fitness tracking abilities.

My pants are full-cut, flat-front, high-rise corduroys with a nice heavy 9-wale in a beautiful yellow that matches that of my tie. They’re actually Fort Belvedere prototypes, so stay tuned. We hope we can soon offer them to you in our shop.

In terms of footwear, I’m sporting a kind of half-length Chelsea boot from Loake 1880 in a dark brown suede.

My belt is very close in color. It’s a dark chocolate brown Fort Belvedere belt, which is part of our system, which you can find in the shop. We’ll hope to add suede belts to the system soon.

Last but not least, I’m wearing a pair of navy and yellow, shadow-stripe socks from Fort Belvedere.