Jewelry Stores as a Family Tradition

I grew up in a tiny Southern town. If you were looking for jewelry, your options were best served heading to Nashville, but there was this tiny little jewelry store in the middle of the K-mart parking lot. It had this faded purple trim on the outside and it has been run by the same family for some five generations, three of which still worked there. The latest son to put his hand to the family trade actually designed and manufactured custom pieces in the back. He let me watch him set a ring once, after I had admitted to some junior rock-hound tendencies. 

Anyway, speaking of family traditions, ours was my mom's pot roast recipe. When my brother-in-law was stationed at the Army base next to our town (where my dad had been stationed, years ago), mom would make her roast, about once a month, and my sister, brother-in-law and their four kids would come over. Mom used to tease her and tease her until one Sunday, she decided to make a roast herself. She learned that day that she didn't have a meat thermometer. It was dry and tough and overcooked like cafeteria food, but Mom wanted to celebrate her success. She bought her a meat thermometer. So she bought one of those cheap-o metal-ringed dial thermometers and brought it to our little local jewelry shop and had it engraved with the date of the dinner and the words “You're cooking now!” So now all our engraving and jewelry needs are taken care of by that family. Do you guys have a shop your family has always gone to? Take a moment and check online and your favorite family run store just might be waiting for you.

The Jewelry of Time - Preferred Jewelers International

When one thinks of jewelry, many will think of rings, necklaces, bracelets and earrings, but not watches. Wrist and pocket watches alike deserve to be considered jewelry. You might ask why, but to me, there is a clear reason.

All jewelry of today is created as a work of wearable art. Just because watches have the additional function of telling you what the time is, doesn't make them any less a work of artistry. In many cases, a watch can surpass the artistry and value of the majority of standardized jewelry. Intricate carvings or engravings on the cover and on the back can rival the most vibrant diamond. It can inspire emotions on the level of some of the greatest paintings throughout history.

On top of the artistic value, we can't forget the skill and precision required to design, fabricate, and assemble a device with such a simple ideal, yet so complex in practice. Anyone that makes these intricate time telling machines has most likely had an amount of training and schooling to rival that of a doctor.

Just because they aren't worn on the finger, around the neck, or dangling from one's ears, doesn't mean that watches of any kind aren't jewelry. Sure, a plastic banded Casio digital watch might be a stretch in the definition, but no more than a twenty five cent plastic ring from the little candy/toy vending machines at the front of the grocery store would be.