I own eleven necklaces. For two years I wore three.
Not because I had gone off the other eight. Because I could not do their clasps up on my own, and somewhere along the way I had stopped asking anyone to help.
If you have a drawer like mine, you already know the arithmetic is quietly awful. Good chains. Pieces chosen carefully, some of them given. All of it sitting in the dark because of a catch roughly the size of a grain of rice.
The clasp is the cheapest part of a necklace. It is also the part that decides whether you ever wear it.
Before you read on. If you can fasten a lobster clasp behind your own neck in five seconds flat, you do not need this page and I would rather not take your afternoon. This is for everyone who has stood at a mirror with both arms up, lost the catch twice, and put the necklace back in the box.
And one group these are genuinely not for: if you have a pacemaker or an implanted defibrillator, please do not buy these. I come back to why in section 6.
Hazel Winslow
Hazel Winslow Jewelry · written about a set we sell
| Clasp type | Lobster clasp | Spring ring | Screw barrel | Heart’s Ease |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fasten one-handed | No | No | No | Yes |
| Behind your neck, no mirror | Difficult | Difficult | Very difficult | Yes — the magnet finds itself |
| Works on chains you own | n/a — it is the clasp | n/a — it is the clasp | n/a — it is the clasp | Yes, clips on. No jeweller |
| Releases if it snags | No | No | No | Yes |
| Best suited to | Any weight | Light chains | Any weight | Light to mid-weight chains |
| Price | n/a | n/a | n/a | $29.99 for five |
1. They do not look like a solution to a problem
This is the part I care about most, so I am putting it first. Most things sold to make jewellery easier to fasten look like what they are: beige, clinical, obviously an aid. People buy them, use them twice, and go back to the drawer. The problem was never that the aid did not work. It was that nobody wanted to wear it.
These are a small heart or a plain round disc, in a warm gold tone or a soft silver, about the size of the clasp they replace. Worn at the back they read as part of the necklace. Worn round the front — which I now do, deliberately — they read as a deliberate little charm.
2. One hand, no mirror, about two seconds
You bring the two ends of the chain towards each other behind your neck and the magnets do the aiming. There is no catch to line up, no tiny lever to hold open with a thumbnail while your other hand finds the ring.
The honest version: it is not instant, and the first two or three times you will still check in a mirror because you do not yet trust it. By the end of the first week you will be doing it with one hand, in a hallway, on the way out.
The test I use: can I put it on while holding something in my other hand? With a lobster clasp, never. With these, every time.
3. They go on the necklaces you already own
This is the bit people miss. You are not replacing the clasp. Each piece has an ordinary lobster catch at either end, so you clip one end onto your necklace’s existing clasp and the other onto its ring, and leave it there. Nothing is cut, soldered or thrown away. No trip to a jeweller, no two-week wait, nothing permanent.
It also means it is reversible. If you decide you want the original clasp back for a particular evening, you unclip it in a second and you are exactly where you started.
4. Five to a set, so you stop moving one around
I tried this first with a single clasp and it failed for a stupid reason: I kept it on whichever necklace I had worn last, and the ones in the drawer stayed in the drawer. A fix you have to remember to apply is not really a fix.
A set is five. Put one on each of the chains you actually reach for and the problem simply stops existing — every necklace in the drawer is already ready.
5. The magnet lets go before the chain does
The first question everyone asks is whether it will fall off. It will, under enough pull — and that is a genuine trade, not something I am going to talk you out of. What I would say is which failure you would rather have.
A fixed clasp that catches on a scarf, a seatbelt, a grandchild’s hand, transmits all of it to the weakest link in the chain. A magnetic one separates and drops into your lap. For a fine chain, that is usually the difference between picking something up and paying to have it repaired.
Heart’s Ease · set of five
Put one on every chain for $29.99
Five clasps to a set.
Choose one finish — each set is five of the same.
Put one on every chain →30-day money back Free US shipping Set of five
6. What they will not do
Every page like this one has a section where a shop borrows somebody else’s authority. I do not have one to borrow, so here is the other thing I could offer instead: the list of reasons not to buy these, written by the person selling them.
They are not for a heavy pendant
A magnet this size holds a fine or mid-weight chain comfortably. Hang a substantial pendant, a heavy locket or a chunky statement piece on it and it will part under its own weight, probably while you are walking. Keep those on their original clasps.
They are not sterling silver or solid gold
These are cast in alloy and plated, in a gold tone and a silver tone. They are made to sit alongside good chains without pretending to be one. There is no precious-metal hallmark on them because there should not be.
If your skin reacts to costume jewellery
Plated alloy findings commonly contain some nickel, and this one sits against the nape of your neck all day. I have not had these independently tested, so I am not going to tell you they are nickel-free. If you know you react to costume jewellery, treat these the same way you would treat any other plated piece.
Not if you have a pacemaker or implanted cardiac device
Magnets worn close to the chest can interfere with pacemakers and implanted defibrillators. If you or whoever you are buying for has one, please do not buy these, and ask your own clinician rather than taking my word for anything.
Keep them away from children and pets
A swallowed magnet — or worse, two — is a surgical emergency, not a wait-and-see. These are a small object with a strong magnet in them. Store them where a small child or a dog cannot reach.
7. The necklaces that came back
The thing I did not expect was how quickly the drawer emptied. Not because I went out and bought anything — because eight necklaces I already owned went back into circulation inside a fortnight. A thin gold chain I had not worn since before the studio moved. A pearl strand that had been a gift and had quietly become an ornament.
I had been telling myself I had stopped being someone who wore necklaces. It turned out I was someone who had stopped being able to fasten them, which is a completely different problem and a much smaller one.
Nothing about my taste had changed. Only the five seconds between the drawer and the door.
8. If your hands have stopped cooperating
I want to be careful here, because I am a jeweller and not anything else. These are not a medical device and I am not going to tell you they treat anything, because they do not.
What I can tell you is the practical bit. A lobster clasp asks for fine pinch grip, steady hands and a certain amount of rotation at the wrist, all at once, behind your head where you cannot see. If any one of those has become harder — arthritis, tremor, long nails, a shoulder that will not go up that far, or simply being tired at the end of a day — the clasp is where a necklace stops being worth the effort. A magnet removes the grip and the aiming from that list.
One practical note
If fine grip is the difficulty, the round disc is the easier of the two shapes to handle. The heart is prettier; the disc is slightly larger to hold.
9. How you actually put one on
It takes about twenty seconds, once per necklace, and then never again.
- Lay the necklace out flat and open its existing clasp.
- Clip one half of the Heart’s Ease onto that clasp.
- Clip the other half onto the ring at the far end of the chain.
- Let the two magnets meet. That is now the clasp you use — the original stays attached and does nothing.
Repeat on four more chains and you are finished with the drawer.
10. The arithmetic I would rather you did yourself
I am not going to invent a number for what is in your drawer. You know it better than I do, and it is almost certainly larger than you would like to say out loud. So fill this in instead.
| A chain you stopped wearing | $ |
|---|---|
| The one that was a gift | $ |
| The one you wear twice a year | $ |
| The pearls | $ |
| Jewellery you own and do not wear | $ |
| What it costs to put all of it back in use | $29.99 |
That is the entire case. Not that these are remarkable — they are a magnet and two catches, and I have told you plainly where they fail. Only that the gap between a drawer full of good jewellery and actually wearing it turns out to be about twenty dollars wide.
And if I am wrong about that for you, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee — write to us within 30 days of your order arriving and we will sort it out. One thing worth knowing before you order rather than after: on a change-of-mind return the postage back to us is yours to pay, and it can be a long way back. The full policy is here and I would rather you read it first.
Heart’s Ease · set of five
Every chain in the drawer, ready to wear
Five clasps to a set.
- Clips onto necklaces you already own — nothing is altered
- Fasten one-handed, without a mirror
- Heart or round disc, in gold tone or silver tone
- 30 days to ask for a return if they are not for you
30-day money back Free US shipping Set of five
This page is written and published by Hazel Winslow Jewelry about a product we sell. It is our own account of our own piece, not independent editorial and not a review by anyone else.
Heart’s Ease clasps are a jewellery fastening. They are not a medical device, and nothing here is a claim to diagnose, treat or relieve any condition. Magnets can interfere with pacemakers and implanted cardiac defibrillators — if that applies to you, please do not use these and speak to your own clinician. Keep away from children and pets: swallowed magnets require immediate medical attention.
Cast in plated alloy, not sterling silver or solid gold. Suited to fine and mid-weight chains; not recommended for heavy pendants. “Five to a set” describes one set as sold. Prices in USD and correct at the time of writing. See our Return and Refund Policy, Shipping Information and Terms and Conditions.