Types of Chains for Men: Every Necklace Style Explained

Estimated reading time 12 minutes

If you've been looking at types of chains for men and every necklace seems to have a different name, you're not alone. The same link gets called curb in a Lincoln shop, Cuban on TikTok, Miami Cuban in an American catalogue and just "a chain" by your dad. Every one of those names describes how the links are built, and the build predicts almost everything about how the chain behaves on your neck. It decides whether the chain kinks, whether it pulls chest hair, whether a pendant will hang from it and whether a jeweller can fix it when a link opens. Here's how every style compares, with the three we make picked out where they fit.

1. What Are the Different Types of Chains for Men?
2. What Chains Lie Flat and Wear Well Alone?
3. What Are the Strongest Chains for Everyday Wear?
4. Do Simple Link Chains Suit Lighter Pendants?
5. What Chains Kink and Can't Be Repaired?
6. How Thick Should a Men's Chain Be?
7. What Chain Is Best for a Pendant?
8. Does Gold or Silver Change How a Chain Wears?
9. Choosing the Right Men's Chain for Your Wardrobe

Eleven styles cover nearly every men's chain sold in the UK. They sort into four families by how the link is made: flat open links (curb, Cuban, Miami Cuban, figaro, mariner), twisted or woven strands (rope, Franco, wheat, byzantine), simple round or square links (belcher, trace, box, ball) and smooth plate-built chains (snake, herringbone).

The family tells you more than the name does. An open link can be cut, closed, soldered and polished by any high-street jeweller, so a chain built from them is repaired one link at a time. A chain built from flat plates holds its shape beautifully until the day it kinks, and then it won't go back.

British and American names for the same link trip up more buyers than anything else. Belcher is rolo, trace is cable, spiga is wheat, marina is mariner or anchor, and Venetian is box.

Here's how the different types of chains compare on the things you'll actually feel:

Read the pendant and hair columns together: the chains that carry a pendant best have a clear gap in the link, and that same gap gives hair a way out.

Curb, Cuban, figaro and mariner, plus the Miami Cuban. All of them share a link that's been twisted and pressed so the chain lies face-on against the chest, which is why they're the chains men wear without a pendant. Mariner links are the odd one out: ovals with a bar across the middle, borrowed from ship's anchor chain, and the bar stops the link collapsing so the chain stays where you put it.

Yes, and it's the most useful thing to know before buying one. A curb link is an oval that's been twisted and flattened so each link sits face-on. A Cuban link is the same idea with thicker, rounder, more tightly packed links, so the chain reads as one solid band. The style took off in Miami's Cuban community in the 1970s and 80s and came into hip-hop from there.

Miami Cuban is the tightest, heaviest version of the same link, packed so densely the chain barely shows daylight between links. Its weight is the point, and it's why the style is nearly always worn alone.

It carries one well, and it's usually worn with one. Figaro is an Italian pattern of three short links then one long oval, repeating down the chain, and the rhythm is why a cross or a medallion sits so naturally on it.

We recommend: 6mm Stainless Steel Cuban Chain

Best suited to: A chain worn on its own every day, gym included, by a man who wants presence on the chest without a pendant.

Rope, Franco, wheat and byzantine, the woven family. Strength here comes from several strands sharing the load, so a woven chain outlasts a plain link chain of the same width, as long as the strands are solid.

Rope is several strands of small links twisted round each other into a spiral. The load is shared and the surface catches light from every angle, which is why Run-DMC made it the chain of the 1980s. The reputation for strength is deserved, with one condition. Hollow rope chains, made as thin-walled tubes to keep the gold weight down, wear through to sharp edges that scratch skin and pull hair. Once a link is repaired, the joint becomes the strongest point on the chain, so it breaks again next to the repair. We build our rope chains solid, not hollow-tube, so there's no thin wall to wear through.

Cuban or rope? At the same width the Cuban lies flat and still, while the rope has texture that moves and glints.

In my personal opinion, I would choose a cuban over a rope, purely because of the strength of a cuban chain, allowing them to offer both durability and subtlety.

Franco is built from four faces of curb-style links stacked so they form a V pattern down every side. That gives a dense, square-section chain that's smoother against the skin than a rope of the same width and holds a pendant without twisting. The interlocking V is what lets a 2.5mm Franco carry a coin or a Saint Christopher all day.

Wheat, called spiga in the UK trade, is four strands of oval links braided into a plait. It's one of the strongest chains for its width, but a braided chain can't be opened one link at a time, so a break usually means replacing a section. Byzantine is a chainmaille weave in which each link passes through four others, alternating direction, which gives a supple, rope-like texture. It's a chain to wear alone, because the weave has no gap for a pendant bail to settle into.

We recommend: Silver Rope Chain, 2.5 mm Silver Franco Chain

Best suited to: Sweat, sea and summer on a man whose chain never comes off, with the Franco for anyone whose neck has argued with a rope.

Yes, and they're where most pendants start life. Belcher, trace, box and ball are the plain links, and a simple round or square link has a clear gap a pendant can hang straight from.

Belcher is a chain of round or D-section links all the same size, said to be named after James Belcher, an 18th-century bare-knuckle boxer. It's the UK's everyday pendant chain, because the larger gap between links lets a pendant hang straight off it. Cooksongold, the Birmingham bullion supplier, rates it as good load-bearing for its size. Trace, or cable, is the same idea in a finer oval link for lighter pendants.

Box chain is square links folded so the chain forms a smooth four-sided cord, which is why it's also called Venetian. It's sleek enough to disappear behind a pendant. That's the job it does on our It's Okay to Talk Pendant, made with Andy's Man Club, where the message needs the attention.

Ball chain is small metal beads joined by short bars, the chain the military hung identity tags on. It still carries a dog tag better than anything else. The beads let the tag slide and turn without twisting the chain. Our Engravable Men's Stainless Steel Dog Tag Necklace comes on a 22 inch ball chain for that reason.

We recommend: It's Okay to Talk Pendant, Engravable Men's Stainless Steel Dog Tag Necklace

Best suited to: A pendant that should do the talking. Choose a box chain that disappears, or a ball chain built to let a tag turn freely.

Snake and herringbone. Both are built from flat plates or curved segments instead of open links, which gives them that liquid, smooth surface, and it's also why a kink in them is permanent.

Rarely, and the reason decides whether you should hang a pendant on one. Snake chain is tightly fitted curved plates forming a flexible tube; herringbone is flat V-shaped segments laid side by side into a ribbon. Bend either hard and the plates jump past the small indentations that hold them in line, so they hump up and won't slide back. Bench jewellers on the Ganoksin Orchid forum describe burnishing the hump down a little at a time and watching the kink return. One shop owner there counted ten herringbone repairs a week coming back within days, which is why several now refuse the job and scrap the chain for its metal. If you love the look, keep the pendant light and take it off to sleep.

Between 4mm and 6mm for most men, and the deciding fact is that weight climbs far faster than width. Our 4mm Cuban weighs about 20g, the 6mm about 30g in steel and the 8mm about 63g, so doubling the width roughly triples what's hanging off your neck. At 2.5mm a Franco is around 7g and disappears under a collar. At 4mm a Cuban is visible but forgotten by lunchtime. At 6mm you'll notice it on the back of the neck by evening. At 8mm you've made a decision everyone in the room can see.

The 4mm and 6mm are where most men start, and the 8mm tends to go to men who already own one of the other two. Our men's chain length guide covers where 20, 22 and 24 inches each sit on the chest.

We recommend: 4mm Silver Cuban Chain, 8mm Stainless Steel Cuban Chain

Best suited to: The 4mm for a first chain or one you'll layer, the 8mm for a man who wants the chain to be the outfit.

A 2.5mm Franco or a 3mm to 4mm rope for most pendants, and the rule underneath is to match the bail and the weight before you think about the style. The bail is the loop on the back of the pendant, and it has to slide over the chain's widest point. That's why a pendant bought for a fine chain often won't go onto a 6mm Cuban at all. A flat Cuban link will carry a heavy pendant and stop it flipping if the bail clears, but the pendant gets lost against a wide band and the chain leads; on a 2.5mm Franco or a 3mm rope, the pendant leads instead.

We ship every coin, compass and Saint Christopher pendant on a 24 inch rope chain for that reason: the silver Saint Christopher is the clearest example, a medallion that turns as you move and needs a chain with enough texture to hold it centred. If you're buying a pendant separately, check the bail's inside measurement against the chain width before you order.

One chain or two? Two works when the widths and lengths both differ, so a 2.5mm Franco worn a couple of inches longer than a 4mm Gold Cuban Chain gives the pendant room and stops them tangling. Light pendant chains also tend to have their clasp creep round to the front under the pendant's weight; a slightly shorter length helps.

We recommend: 2.5 mm Gold Franco Chain, Silver Stainless Steel Saint Christopher Pendant, Silver Lion Coin Pendant

Best suited to: Anyone who's chosen the pendant first and wants a chain that carries it without competing.

Less than the link does, and more than the colour suggests. Every chain we make is stainless steel underneath. The silver chains are polished steel. The gold chains are steel with an 18K gold plating or a gold PVD coating, depending on the chain. So "gold" and "silver" in our names describe the finish rather than the metal. Our post on the types of metals used in jewellery compares plate, PVD and sterling in full.

That matters for two reasons. First, hallmarking: in the UK it's compulsory on silver over 7.78g and gold over 1g, applied by an Assay Office, so a chain sold as silver with no hallmark is silver-tone steel however it's described. Second, skin: stainless steel does contain nickel, around 10 to 12% in the 316L grade, but UK law limits how much an item can release into skin over a week, and steel binds its nickel tightly enough to pass that limit. Nickel remains the most common contact allergen, with around one in six patch-tested patients reacting in the North American data StatPearls summarises. If you've had a ring mark your finger, our post on why rings turn your finger green explains which metals did it.

Can you shower in it? Polished stainless steel doesn't tarnish in water or sweat, and a plated gold finish lasts longest when it's rinsed and dried after a swim; our men's jewellery care guide covers the rest.

We recommend: Gold Rope Chain, 6mm Gold Cuban Chain

Best suited to: A man who wants gold-tone without solid-gold worry, in a rope for texture or a Cuban for a flat band.

Decide in this order: alone or with a pendant, then width, then finish. If the chain is the piece, a Cuban between 4mm and 8mm lies flattest and rotates least. If a pendant is the piece, a 2.5mm Franco or a 3mm to 4mm rope carries it and lets it lead. Finish comes last, since every style we make comes in both.

Here's every chain and pendant recommended above, side by side:

Notice that every pendant sits on a rope and every chain over 4mm is worn alone. The two columns line up because the bail and the width decided them before the style did.

Every chain above is covered by our lifetime guarantee against accidental breakage, tarnishing, discolouration and skin reactions. The Cuban and Franco chains can be laser engraved at the clasp tag in Lincoln through our engraving service, which adds around two days. If you're not sure which link suits you, or whether a pendant you already own will clear a 6mm Cuban, get in touch with the chain width and a photo of the bail and we'll tell you straight.