Custom Cuban Link Chains Built to Your Width, Length and Ice

Pick width and length first. Everything else follows from the amount of chain you are building.

Tell us the width, length, gold, construction and how much ice you want. We send back the design and the exact price before anything is made. After you approve, the chain is made and delivered with insured shipping, or picked up at the Miami showroom, where you can also try widths on before you decide. Start the request on the custom page.

Miami is the city most tied to the Cuban link's rise. The style's exact origin is not documented, but it became popular in the 1970s and 1980s and is widely credited to Miami's jewelers and its Cuban community.

Width sets the look; length sets where it lands. As a starting point:

On most men, 20 inches sits at the collarbone, 22 inches on the upper chest and 24 inches mid-chest. Wide chains look shorter than thin ones at the same length because they ride higher on the neck, so many people add 2 inches when they go above 10 mm. Our Cuban link width guide shows each width in detail.

Weight is the honest way to compare Cuban chains. These are our own 10K Cubans with their listed gram weights and starting prices:

Published weights from other makers run much higher for solid 14K: one New York jeweler lists a solid 14K 8 mm Cuban at about 96.8 g for 18 inches, and a 14 mm at about 219 g for 16 inches. Other sellers publish far lower figures for similar widths, because link thickness and construction differ by maker. The only weight that matters on a custom order is the gram weight written on your quote.

Look at two rows in the table above. Our solid 5 mm Miami Cuban weighs 37.8 g. Our hollow 8.5 mm weighs 43.25 g. Hollow construction lets you wear a much wider chain for roughly the same gold. That is its whole appeal.

The trade-off is durability. Hollow links have a thin wall, so a hard knock can dent them, and a dented hollow link is often hard or impossible to restore cleanly. Solid links hold their shape, feel heavier and last longer under daily wear. Diamonds need solid metal to hold their settings, so iced Cubans are built solid.

Our solid vs hollow Cuban comparison goes deeper on weight, dents and resale.

• Plain polished: the classic look. Price is mostly gold weight.
• Iced clasp only: a diamond box clasp on a polished chain. A little sparkle for a modest stone count.
• Alternating: every other link set with stones. Half the stones of a full ice, with a striped look.
• Fully iced: every link face set with diamonds. The heaviest stone count and the brightest piece.

Stone counts climb fast on a full ice. A 22 inch chain is about 559 mm long. At 12 mm wide, with links roughly every 10 mm, that is around 55 links. At 10 to 20 small stones per link face, a fully iced chain carries roughly 550 to 1,100 stones, each set by hand. That count, more than the gold, is why an iced Cuban costs what it does. See diamond Cuban link chains for finished examples.

Cuban chains above about 5 mm almost always use a box clasp: a tongue that clicks into a box, plus one or two side latches that lock over it. The side latches are the safety. If the tongue ever slips, the latches hold the chain closed. On a heavy or iced chain, ask for double latches.

Fine Cubans under about 3 mm usually use a lobster clasp, which is lighter and easier on a thin chain. Our lobster vs box clasp comparison explains when each one is the right call.

Even plain Cubans have design choices: how round or flat each link is, how tightly the links sit, whether the edges are polished or diamond-cut, and whether the box clasp is plain, engraved or iced. On iced chains, the render shows how stones sit on each link face and how the clasp lines up with the links. Ask for a close view of three or four links and the clasp at real scale.

On a chain weighing 100 g, karat choice is a big number. With gold near $4,074 an ounce in late October 2026, 10K gold is about $55 a gram and 14K about $76. The melt value of 100 g is roughly $5,460 in 10K and $7,640 in 14K, a gap of about $2,180 before any labor. That is melt value only, not a price.

10K is also the hardest of the three, which helps a heavy chain resist scratches and stretch. 14K has a deeper color. 18K is the richest and softest, and is rarely worth it on a daily-wear heavy Cuban. All of our ready-made chains are 10K.

A fully iced Cuban can carry a large total carat weight, so origin decides a big share of the price. Lab-grown diamonds are real diamonds with the same look in pavé and cost far less, which is why most fully iced chains today use them. Natural diamonds suit a chain meant as an heirloom. The FTC requires lab-grown stones to be disclosed as laboratory-grown, so your quote should list origin next to total carat weight.

A Cuban bracelet from the same design matches the chain's links, color and clasp exactly. Most men wear 8 to 8.5 inches; wide links take up room inside the circle, so size up about half an inch for links over 10 mm. Our Cuban link bracelet sizing guide walks through the measurement.

Whether you order custom or buy ready-made, check these on the finished chain:

1. Tight links. Lay the chain flat. Links should sit snug with no uneven gaps, and the chain should not kink when you lift one end.
2. Even polish inside and out. Turn a few links over. Rough or dull insides point to rushed finishing.
3. A flush clasp. The box clasp should line up with the links and close with a firm click, latches snapping over cleanly.
4. A karat stamp. Look for 10K, 14K or 18K (or 417, 585, 750) near the clasp. The FTC requires karat disclosure for gold.
5. Weight that matches the quote. Put it on a gram scale. A chain that weighs well under its quoted weight is not the chain you paid for.
6. Stones set level on iced links, with no stone sitting higher than its neighbors and nothing that moves when you press it with a fingernail.

A Cuban works alone, but many people hang a piece from it. Plan the two together. The pendant's bail has to clear the chain width, and the pendant should be large enough not to disappear: roughly 5 mm of pendant height for every 1 mm of chain. A 6 mm Cuban carries a 30 mm piece well; a 12 mm Cuban wants 60 mm or more. If the pendant will be iced and the chain plain, white gold or two-tone links can tie the colors together.

Plain chains move faster than iced ones. Setting hundreds of stones by hand, sourcing natural diamonds and adding a matching bracelet all add time. Your timing comes with the quote, starting when you approve the design.

Price follows gold weight first on a plain Cuban, and stones first on an iced one. To compare quotes, ask for gram weight, karat, solid or hollow, total carat weight and origin in writing. Browse finished pieces in Cuban link chains, or come try widths at the showroom.