Silver hardware is usually palladium-plated, with a relatively standardized and stable color. Gold hardware, typically made with PVD real-gold plating, requires extremely precise tone control. If done poorly, it can easily look gaudy or excessively bright and yellow.

Low-end replicas often use titanium coatings, aluminum alloys, or ordinary nickel-chrome plating. These finishes tend to look pale or whitish and fade easily over time.

Shebag insists on using a brass base consistent with authentic Hermès hardware, combined with thick-layer PVD real-gold plating or high-quality gold electroplating. Using real gold is the foundation for achieving accurate, non-deviating color.

Authentic Hermès gold hardware features a calm, elegant gold tone with a soft, refined luster rather than a harsh shine.

The real challenge for Shebag lies in controlling the purity of the gold, the plating thickness, and the addition of trace elements during the plating process, in order to precisely reproduce that subtle, “not overly yellow” look, leaning toward champagne gold or light gold.

Through precise colorimetric measurements and manual visual comparison, Shebag ensures that the hue and saturation of the gold match the authentic pieces exactly, avoiding the common low-end replica problems of overly flashy “rich gold” or dull bronze-like tones.

Hermès hardware typically has a mirror-like yet gentle sheen. Shebag performs multiple stages of fine manual polishing and finishing before and after plating, ensuring that the surface is smooth and flawless, and that the final luster matches the authentic hardware’s perfectly balanced shine rather than an excessively reflective, cheap appearance.