Braunschweiger Jewelers

May 13

In their own words

“We do a lot of a vintage jewelry, people come in every day to sell pieces. I like going through the product that comes through the front door, it always comes with a story. ‘This was my grandma’s back in World War II, and she brought it over from Europe.’ I get a kick out of that. There’s a really cool ring in the case right now, it’s a purple channel set in the center with rose cuts going around. We dated it around 1890. Anything from the 1800s is just amazing—to think that the diamonds were probably cut by candlelight.”

-Brian Braunschweiger Smith

Jason’s Interview with Brian

Jason

We're back on Meet the Jewelers and today we get to know Brian at Braunschweiger Jewelers. How did you come into the business?

Brian

I started back in high school in my Mom’s store. I started with the cranky old watchmaker, the old Vietnam vet, that changed all the watch batteries. I never thought I would end up in the jewelry business. I did go to college, graduated with a four-year degree, and then I came back. I was working for a jewelry company called Alex and Ani. They couldn't give me a full-time position, so that's when I decided that I needed a full-time job at the store.

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Jason
Now you're back in the family business. Your parents—what was their take on it?

Brian
My dad actually is in a different industry. It is my mom. It's my entire mom's side of the family. My mom likes it. We have a great relationship.

Jason
What's her story?

Brian
She probably started in high school as well. She'd been in the jewelry store all her life. I don't think she’s ever had a job anywhere else.

Jason
Was there ever a point where you thought, “Being a jeweler is not for me”?

Brian
Yeah. I struggled the first year and a half. I was never one of those people that knew what they wanted to do. It was always changing. Every six months I wanted to be something different. When I started working here full-time, I was like, “I can't see myself doing anything else.” I like interacting with the customers, jewelry is pretty cool. The technical aspects and the geology, the different colored stones and cool pieces drew me in.

Jason
What's your favorite thing to do on the job?

Brian
I like seeing the customers. We have a great customer base that's pretty loyal after being in business for eighteen years. We do a lot of estate jewelry pieces and people are constantly coming in selling their pieces. I really like going through the pieces that people bring in. There's a really cool ring in the case right now. It's a purple channel set in the center and then rose cuts going around. It's a really old vintage piece. I think we dated it around 1890. Anything from the 1800s is amazing.

Jason
What's the company culture like?

Brian
It's not so serious. It’s a feel-good business. You're here because you're celebrating an anniversary, celebrating a birthday.

Jason
How big is the team now?

Brian
We employ twenty-one people.

Jason
Highlight some of the great charities you give back to.

Brian
We do a lot of community outreach. We’ll try to do our best to donate what we can. Either we’ll donate a piece for a silent auction, or even donate a couple of bucks. But we do a lot. Like the New Providence High School and community service kitchens, Assumption Church. They do a fundraiser every year and we’ll donate a piece of jewelry.

Jason
What's your hobby outside of the store? Tell me something that nobody would expect.

Brian
This is funny and they make fun of me, but I'm into amateur radio. It’s ridiculous, but I go to this radio club in town. Everybody there's like fifty and older. And it's great. They meet at the senior center in town. My dad, he's an airplane mechanic and could fix everything. Whenever he goes to fix something, he starts probing around the circuit boards and seeing what's wrong. And a way to learn electronics is through amateur radio.

Jason
I want to talk about your craft. Tell us what makes you different.

Brian
I think we offer the best service. We've been around a long time. We've been around the block, we know what we're doing. We have a full-service department, we do repairs and redesigning. We're very trustworthy in the community.

Jason
Why do you think people trust you?

Brian
I had a guy come in looking for an engagement ring. He brought in his grandma's old engagement ring with the appraisal. He gave me the appraisal. I opened the appraisal and my grandfather's name is on the appraisal when I opened it up. He's not around anymore, so it's really cool to see an appraisal come in with his name on it.

Jason
What are you doing to keep up with trends?

Brian
We're trying to get into CAD. There'll be a time where we can all do that in-house and everybody's trained on it. But we're trying to get some new friendly fresh faces in here. We're trying to be current on our merchandising, our social media presence. We carry twenty lines. We have David Yurman, Marco Bicego, John Hardy. We're a little bit more towards the trendy fashion market, but we do have that estate case, which is everybody's favorite. We try to keep a range of styles to kind of accommodate everybody.

Jason
What's the most expensive thing that you've sold last year?

Brian
I didn't sell it, but it was the biggest sale in Braunschweiger’s history. I think it was a five-and-a-half carat fancy vivid yellow diamond and 420 carats. Gorgeous. It was 400,000+ dollars.