Humphreys & Son Jewelers

Mar 9

DAYTONA BEACH, FL

In their own words

“Paul Newman would come in, and he’d pull his cap down and sit in the chair because he liked to people-watch. Evel Knievel wanted us to create a motorcycle out of gold with diamonds in the wheels and an emerald in the breather. My son, Sean, who is the master jeweler, carved it out of wax and worked until midnight to create this wonderful 14-carat gold motorcycle. Evel came in to look at it and went, “Oh, that’s terrible.” We were crestfallen. “What’s the matter?” my son asked him. “I never rode a bike with two wheels on the ground. You’ll have to make it do a wheelie.” Paul Newman ended up getting the first one we made, and then Sean made it do a wheelie for Evel.”

-Helen Humphreys

Jason’s Interview with Helen

Jason

Come with me to Meet the Jewelers. Today's another family-owned and operated business, Helen Humphreys from Humphreys & Son in Daytona Beach, Florida. How did you get into the industry?

Helen

It was started out not as jewelry, it was coins. People would buy American early gold coins and want them in mounting so they could wear them. Slowly, we started carrying gold necklaces and bezels. Interestingly, some people would come in and say, “We need a bezel for our coin.” We started carrying those and then they would like them fancied up, perhaps with diamonds. And so slowly, it grew and we needed larger quarters. I built where we are now, not realizing that we would be smack in the middle of where Bike Week would happen—and so, Paul Newman would come in and he’d pull his cap down low and sit in the chair because he liked to people watch.

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Also, another gentleman whom I'm sure a lot of people will recognize, Evil Knievel. He ended up visiting one of my stores. He wanted us to create a motorcycle out of gold. He wanted diamonds in the wheels, an emerald in the breather. My son, Sean, is the master jeweler. He carved it out of wax, working until midnight to create this wonderful 14-carat gold motorcycle. Evil came in to look at it, took one look, and went, “Oh, that's terrible.” We were crestfallen. He said, “I never rode a bike with two wheels on the ground. You'll have to make it do a wheelie.” Paul Newman stood up and he ended up getting the first one we made. Sean rebalanced it and made it do a wheelie.

We ended up making smaller ones for women and putting several together, making bracelets. We ended up doing trophies for IMSA and for several other race companies. The North American Endurance Cup main trophy, which is 60 pounds of bronze, we designed it. Only the owners would get the trophy and we convinced them that the fellow that did the driving ought to get something. So we designed the smaller trophy out of pewter for them. It's been a fascinating way this business has grown. It's all family and several really good friends who have been with us now for 10 or more years. We're gearing up right now for Bike Week, which is a week away. We change the showcases, take out the pearls and the diamonds, and put everything that pertains to motorcycles in the jewelry line, all of which we make here.

Jason
I also heard that Willie Davidson from Harley Davidson has a cool story. Tell us about that.

Helen
We ended up making some jewelry for him. Also, for his wife. And for his bodyguard. We take old American Morgan dollars and we fashion them into rings. I actually pick the coins, so ours have nice definition and look really good. I'm a professional numismatist. That's a fancy word that means I'm a coin expert. We have so many facets. We do estate. Just about every bank, every law firm. We have a showcase with estate jewelry.

Jason
Tell us about three standout pieces.

Helen
We have a famous football player, and we have his custom-made diamond bracelet. We are not the ones that designed or made it, but after he had that made, and then bought a couple of Lamborghinis, he found out that the IRS wants their tax money. So, we are selling his bracelet. He is one of the winners in the Super Bowl.

Jason
Tell us what your store represents.

Helen
We really want perfection. We listen to what someone wants done with their jewelry. If it's a repair or if it's redesigning. We have a lot of fun listening to people. We're near NASA, so we have actually designed very creative engagement rings for some of the people who are involved in launching things to Mars and the moon.

We just finished an absolutely incredible engagement ring for a couple. They're very much into sailing and just had beautiful ideas. We were able to create the ring for them. And then the surprising thing is they invited us to their wedding. We actually closed our business early and went to the wedding.

Jason
You've been part of a lot of proposals. Tell us some proposal stories.

Helen
We have some people who buy the engagement ring, turn around to the young lady, and say, “Okay, here.” We tell them that they have to be creative, come up with some wonderful idea. One of my favorite ones, the young man went down to the tower where they used to protect ships from crashing into shore. He paid the keeper of the lighthouse to leave early in the morning. And he had fixed a beautiful breakfast in a basket and he got down on his knee and proposed. She started to cry—his fear was that she would drop the diamond and he would never find it again from the top of the lighthouse.

Jason
And your son's a master jeweler. I'm sure he has ambitions to continue the family business.

Helen
Absolutely.

Jason
You do so much for the community. Here's your chance to talk about any causes in Daytona. Tell us about some of the charity work that you do.

Helen
There's an Easter Seals center here and we're very much happy to be involved with them. We make the Bike Week coin—there's 1,500 of them and they're made out of 1,000-ounce bars of pure silver and several 100-ounce bars of silver. We design them. They come from Russia, Germany, France, Tasmania, Scotland. We hear all kinds of languages.

Jason
Here's your chance to say whatever you'd like to Meet the Jewelers.

Helen
We'd love to hear their stories. If there's something that they need help with, we’d love to at least come up with ideas and try to help people. We love having people come in and find out where they're from. It's just a good meeting place. I'm thrilled to still be here and enjoy this wonderful business.