Coupling element comprising precious metal adapted for coupling an eyewear frame with a temple

An eyewear apparatus comprising:

• a frame adapted to house an optical element, the frame substantially comprised of a first precious metal alloy;
• a first temple, the first temple substantially comprised of a second precious metal alloy;
• a first coupling element, the first coupling element adapted to rotatably couple the frame and the first temple, wherein the first coupling element comprises a precious metal material and the precious metal material is both harder than and has a higher specific gravity than the frame material and the precious metal material is both harder than and has a higher specific gravity than the first temple material;
• a second temple, the second temple substantially comprised of the second precious metal alloy;
• a second coupling element, the second coupling element adapted to rotatably couple the frame and the second temple, wherein the second coupling element comprises the precious metal material and the precious metal material is both harder than and has a higher specific gravity than the frame material and the precious metal material is both harder than and has a higher specific gravity than the second temple material.

An eyewear apparatus comprising:

• a frame adapted to house an optical element, the frame substantially comprised of a first precious metal alloy;
• a first temple, the first temple including a jewel element and substantially comprised of a second precious metal alloy;
• and
• a first coupling element, the first coupling element adapted to rotatably couple the frame and the first temple, wherein the first coupling element comprises a precious metal material and the precious metal material is both harder than and has a higher specific gravity than the frame material and the precious metal material is both harder than and has a higher specific gravity than the first temple material.