Iced Out Jewelry Glossary: The Terms Buyers Hear Most

Iced out jewelry comes with its own vocabulary. Some of it is borrowed from fine jewelry and watchmaking, some of it grew up in hip-hop, and a few words get used loosely enough that two sellers can mean different things by them. This list covers the terms our customers ask about most, in plain language, with a note where a word is often misused.

Where a term describes something we sell, we say so. Where it does not, it is here because you will meet it while shopping.

Numbers and A to B

925: The stamp for sterling silver, meaning 92.5% pure silver. The other 7.5% is other metals, usually copper, which make it hard enough to wear. Pure silver is too soft for jewelry. Our pendants and grillz are 925 sterling silver.

Baguette: A long, narrow rectangular stone with step-cut facets. Baguettes give clean lines and bright flashes rather than scattered sparkle, and they are used in rows on watch bezels, on statement rings and as accents in pendants.

Bail: The loop or tube at the top of a pendant that the chain runs through. Its inside opening decides which chains will fit. On iced pendants the bail is often set with stones too.

Bezel: On a watch, the ring around the crystal. It can be plain, fluted, eight-sided, rotating for timing, or set with stones. On an iced watch the bezel takes more knocks than any other part. Watch Bezels Explained covers each type.

Bezel setting: A way of holding a stone with a thin wall of metal around its whole edge. Secure and smooth to the touch, though it covers a little of the stone, so it shows slightly less sparkle than prongs. Not to be confused with a watch bezel.

Bust down (also buss down): A watch set with stones almost everywhere: bezel, dial, case and bracelet. Both spellings are in common use. The term grew out of watches taken apart and iced after they left the factory, and today it is used for any fully iced watch.

C to D

Carat: The unit of weight for gemstones. One carat is 0.2 grams. It measures weight, not size, so compare stones by their millimeter size. Not the same as karat.

Channel setting: Stones lined up in a groove between two walls of metal, with no metal between the stones themselves. Common with baguettes and princess cuts in rows, and smooth enough not to snag.

Clasp: The fastening. On a watch bracelet it is usually a folding clasp, often with a safety catch or push buttons, plus small holes for fine-tuning the length. On chains, lobster and box clasps are the most common.

Cubic zirconia (CZ): A lab-made crystal of zirconium dioxide. Cheap and bright when new, but softer than moissanite, at 8 to 8.5 on the Mohs scale against moissanite’s 9.25. With daily wear its facet edges round off and it tends to look cloudy. Fine for costume and trend pieces. See Moissanite vs Cubic Zirconia.

Cuban link: A chain or bracelet of thick, interlocking curb links that lie flat, usually closed with a large box clasp. One of the most recognizable hip-hop chain styles.

D/E color: Grades borrowed from the diamond color scale, which runs from D (colorless) down to Z (noticeably yellow or brown). D, E and F are the colorless grades. Our moissanite is listed as D or E color, which looks white with no visible tint.

Dead spots: Patches in an iced piece that look dark or flat instead of sparkling. Causes include poorly cut stones, stones set at an angle, a missing or chipped stone, or simply dirt packed behind the stones. Cleaning fixes the last one; the others need a jeweler.

Deep cut: In grillz, a cut shaped right up to the gum line and around the outline of each tooth, so it looks closest to permanent dental work. A regular cut stops a little short of the gum and is easier to put in and take out.

DEW: Diamond equivalent weight. Moissanite is lighter than diamond, so sellers often quote the weight a diamond of the same size would have. Millimeter sizes are the clearer comparison.

Dial: The face of a watch, under the crystal, carrying the hour markers and hands. A pavé dial is covered in small stones; a skeleton dial is cut away to show the parts behind it.

E to H

Eye clean: No inclusions visible to the naked eye at a normal viewing distance. Every VVS stone is eye clean, and so are many stones of lower clarity grades.

Fire: The flashes of rainbow color a stone throws, caused by dispersion. Moissanite’s dispersion is 0.104, more than twice diamond’s 0.044, which is why it shows more colored fire, especially under spotlights and in sunlight.

Flooded: Covered with so many stones that little metal shows. Used about watches, pendants and chains, and close in meaning to iced out, usually implying heavier coverage.

Gold-filled: A thick layer of gold bonded to a base metal, usually brass. In the US the gold must make up at least one twentieth of the total weight. It lasts far longer than plating but is not solid gold.

GRA: A name you will see on many moissanite grading reports and on the tiny laser inscriptions on stones. There is no industry-wide grading standard for moissanite of the kind that exists for diamonds, so a report records what that lab found; it is not an appraisal.

Grillz: Removable decorative covers for the teeth, made from an impression so they fit one person. Ours are 925 sterling silver and can be set with moissanite. See Grillz: Fit, Styles and Care.

Hand-set: Stones placed and secured one at a time by a setter working under magnification, who raises the prongs or beads of metal that hold each stone. Slower than other methods, and the stones tend to sit level and secure.

Honeycomb setting: Stones set in small six-sided metal cells packed together like a honeycomb. You see it on pendants, rings and watch bracelets, where it gives an even, textured look.

I to M

Iced out: Set with a lot of stones. The broadest term on this list: an iced out piece might have a stone-set bezel only, or be covered completely.

Karat: The purity of gold, in parts out of 24. 24K is pure gold; 18K is 75% gold, 14K is 58.3% and 10K is 41.7%. The rest is other metals that add strength and set the color. Our solid gold rings are 14K. Not the same as carat.

Loupe: A small hand magnifier. Clarity grades are judged at 10x magnification, so a 10x loupe is the standard tool for checking stones and settings.

Lug: The horns, usually four, at the top and bottom of a watch case where the strap or bracelet attaches. The lug-to-lug length, measured from tip to tip, tells you more about how a watch will fit your wrist than the case diameter does.

Machine-set: A loose label for stones set by casting or automated methods rather than one at a time by hand. In one common method the stones go into the wax model before casting, so the metal forms around them. Quality varies widely, so ask what the term means for the piece in front of you.

Micro pavé: Pavé with very small stones and tiny beads of metal, usually set under a microscope. The surface reads as almost continuous sparkle.

Mineral crystal: Hardened glass used as the clear cover over many watch dials, including ours. It resists everyday scuffs better than acrylic but can be scratched by harder materials. Sapphire crystal is the more scratch-resistant option.

Moissanite: Silicon carbide. First identified by Henri Moissan in 1893 in fragments from a meteorite crater, and so rare in nature that all gem moissanite is grown in a laboratory. It is 9.25 on the Mohs scale, has a refractive index of 2.65 to 2.69 and shows strong fire. More in What Is Moissanite?

O to R

Octagonal sport watch: A sport watch with an eight-sided bezel, often held by visible screws, and a bracelet that flows straight out of the case. A popular base for iced and two-tone watches.

Open face: In grillz, a design with the center of each tooth cut away so the natural tooth shows through inside a metal frame.

Pavé: From the French for paved. Many small stones set close together and held by tiny beads or prongs, so the surface looks covered in stones. Pavé dials, pavé bezels and pavé pendants all use it.

Plated: Coated with a thin layer of another metal, such as gold or rhodium, by electroplating. The layer is measured in microns and wears first where the piece rubs. Our two-tone and gold-tone watches are 14K gold-plated over stainless steel. Plating can be renewed; see Gold, Silver and Plating Explained.

Prong: A small metal claw that holds a stone at its edge. Prongs let more light into the stone than a bezel setting. A prong that snags on clothing may be bent or lifting, and is worth checking before the stone works loose.

Rhodium: A hard, bright white metal from the platinum family, plated over silver and white gold to brighten it and slow tarnish. It wears thin over time, first on the parts that rub, and can be replated by a jeweler.

S to Z

Skeleton: A watch with the dial, and often parts of the movement, cut away so you can see the wheels and bridges inside. Also called openworked.

Solid gold: Gold alloy all the way through, stamped with its karat, such as 10K, 14K or 18K. Nothing wears off to reveal a different metal underneath, though it can still scratch.

Tennis chain: A flexible line of individually set stones, usually all the same size, linked end to end. Also made as bracelets.

Top 6: Grillz covering the six upper front teeth, canine to canine. A top 8 goes one tooth further on each side; bottom sets are named the same way.

Two-tone: Two metal colors in one piece, such as steel with yellow or rose gold-tone links. Our two-tone watches pair stainless steel with 14K gold plating.

VVS: Very, very slightly included. A clarity grade meaning any inclusions are extremely hard to see even for a trained grader at 10x. VVS1 is a step cleaner than VVS2. Our pendants use VVS1 moissanite.

For how the different settings hold stones in place, and which ones stand up best to daily wear, see Stone Settings Explained.