The Simmons Bedding Company has been in business for over 135 years and their first factory was built in Wisconsin in 1870. In 1876 they began mass producing mattresses and in 1900 they patented the wrapped coil spring. These springs were originally wrapped by hand but in the mid 1920's a Simmons engineer developed a machine that could rapidly coil wire and wrap it. This approach formed the basis of the Simmons Beautyrest mattress.
The Simmons Beautyrest mattress has now been on the market for some 85 years and the mattress line presently includes:
The Beautyrest Classic The Beautyrest Anniversary The Beautyrest World Class The Beautyrest Exceptionale The Beautyrest NxG The Beautyrest Black
If you are in the market for a Beautyrest you will probably want to read some detailed Simmons Beautyrest reviews which can be found on a number of good sites on the Internet. However a level of basic model information is helpful in focusing one's investigation. Simmons Beautyrest mattresses are available in a range of sizes and comfort levels. The different comfort levels are typically a function of coil wire gauge and layers of foam. A firm mattress will have thicker gauge wire coils while a plush or pillow top will have thinner gauge wire coils and layers of foam.
The least expensive Beautyrest model is the Classic and the most expensive is the Black. There are a number of differences between all the models, however the key differences include coil density, edge support, and foam layers. Coil density is a measure of how many coils are in the mattress (typically a queen size). The Classic has 800 pocketed coils, the Anniversary 850, the World Class and NxG 1000, and the Exceptionale 1960. Simmons seems to have made an effort not to publish coil density for the Black. Other key differences in the mattress models include edge support and foam layers as described below.
The Classic: Edge support - basic Foam - premium foams
The Anniversary: Edge support - Beauty-Edge foam encasement Foam - premium foams, energy foam
The World Class: Edge support - Beauty-Edge foam encasement Foam - energy foam, premium foams including NxG memory foam and Progressive Support latex, foam quilting
The Exceptionale: Edge support - 3 inches of high density foam Foam - premium foams, visco-memory foam, latex foam
The NxG: Edge support - Beauty-Edge foam encasement Foam - energy foam, NxG advanced memory foam, latex foam
Simmons market the Beautyrest Black separately from the other Beautyrest mattresses and it doesn't appear in their comparison charts nor on their main website. It is the highest-end Beautyrest and it has a site of its own. The Black also has silk, wool and alpaca comfort layers as well as layers of memory foam and natural latex. It uses a slightly different pocketed coil design from other mattresses. This is called the advanced pocketed coil design and it involves interspersing both softer and firmer pocketed coils around the main pocketed coils. This approach, according to Simmons, helps limit motion transfer and provides better conformability.
There are eleven different models of Beautyrest Black mattress and these are divided into four comfort categories. These categories are Firm, Plush, Pillow Top, and Plush Pillow Top. The models differ predominantly by the type and amount of fabric and foam used.
