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Rolex Calibre 3035
I have been fortunate in the past few days to be able to completely dismantle a Rolex movement and reassemble it.
A big thanks to Louis, our Rolex technician. He is truly a watchmaker in every sense of the word, and has the ability to fix many different types of watches, not just Rolex’s. And as it turns out, he is VERY patient!
It was through Louis’ guidance that I was able to disassemble this movement and then put it back together. Many people like to say that Rolex is overpriced, and you are paying for the name. I wish everyone could have the chance to fully disassemble a mechanical timepiece because then I think they may very well appreciate the technical aspects of the watch and realize just what it is you are paying for.
Look at the watch on your wrist. It may be a Rolex, it may be a Timex, but regardless of the brand, for a moment try to understand how it is keeping time. If it is digital, or battery powered, it will have a circuit board and a battery in it. If, however, it is mechanical, you may have absolutely no idea how those hands move around, and how they move around in very precise intervals (seconds, minutes, hours). There are so many parts that have to come together it is quite incredible, especially how delicate these parts are. And the fact that the movement must stand up to all kinds of beatings that the wearer will put it through, how they keep time at all seems almost like a miracle!
The many gears, tiny screws, springs, bridges, jewels, and oils, all working together in perfect harmony is really…well it is art.
I cannot believe this will be my 3rd visit to Basel! How the time flies…(pun intended).
This March I will be making the trek to Basel, Switzerland, to meet with some of the most prestigious brands in the world. The trip will be very short, and packed full of meetings and dinner parties, but should be quite enjoyable.
I’m quite excited to have the opportunity to sit down with a few new brands that Winnipeg does not have. I do not know if we will bring these brands to the ‘peg, or if we can for that matter, but it will certainly be great to physically handle these watches. What brands you ask? Well I think for the time being I’ll keep that secret safe with me…I’ll let you know how it goes after Basel.
I will be posting information to our Facebook fan page, so if you haven’t “Liked” us yet, please feel free too. There will be lots of pictures going up, assuming the iPad/iPhone doesn’t fail me while I’m out there. Also, if you want to follow us on Twitter, I will be “Tweeting” as I go.
Not long ago we brought in a line of engagement rings by the New York based company, MaeVona. I actually discovered this brand when a fellow jeweller friend from Vancouver called me and in our discussions MaeVona came up. He suggested we look into the brand, and well here we are.
MaeVona is a very unique and beautiful line of engagement rings. Maeve Gillies is the designer and her designs are inspired by her Scottish heritage. Take a look at the rings and I guarantee you will be able to see where the Scottish influence comes from.
I really like her designs because she is getting away from all the pave style engagement rings you see on the market today. The popular trend right now is to have tons of little diamonds strewn everywhere on the ring, typically with a larger center diamond. MaeVona is much more simpler than that; Gillies seems to focus on having intricate designs with the gold and even puts design into the claws that hold the diamond, something that is rarely seen with engagement rings.
All the rings are available in 18K gold or platinum, and can be special ordered to take almost any size of diamond. We only have these ring at our 493 Notre Dame Ave. location. Take a look on their website to see all of MaeVona designs.
Well it’s Valentine’s day, a day where men can express their love for their partner, and hopefully vice versa. Yes the above picture might be crass, but it is pretty funny; I just couldn’t resist putting it in.
People often ask me if today is a crazy day in the store, because, well, it’s Valentine’s day, and everyone should be buying jewellery. As nice as this would be, Valentine’s has turned more into a day of roses and chocolates than into a day of jewellery. However, there are still some guys who want to come in and buy there loved one a special piece. We do have some beautiful diamond pendants, heart shaped pendants, and quite a large selection of diamond jewellery that would make any women’s heart melt.
For me, this is my first Valentine’s in a very long time (doesn’t matter, don’t ask) that I get to spend with someone special. Yes I will be getting her flowers (I recommend Academy Florist, they do incredible work). Yes I’m making her dinner. And that’s as far as my plans got! What do you have planned for your loved one? I would be interested to know.
Have a fantastic day, wherever you are and whoever your with!
I’ve just returned from Florida where I met with Pandora Jewellery and enjoyed some seminars on the company and upcoming product. There are lots of new beads that we have ordered and are very excited about for the coming spring.
Pandora is beautiful, customizable sterling silver jewellery. The company and it’s product has taken the world by storm, and has become incredibly popular. The interesting thing about Pandora is that their product really appeals to females in all age brackets. Their main product, the bracelets and beads (seen above), make a great gift idea since you can keep adding on to it. And women love to constantly change their bracelets and add to them to make each one unique.
Pandora Jewellery has expanded their offerings to include a full line of sterling silver jewellery including rings, earrings, pendants, and more recently, timepieces!
We are very proud to have the largest shop-in-shop in Winnipeg at our 493 Notre Dame Ave. location, and we are the only jeweller in Polo Park Shopping Centre (across from Forever 21) that carries the line.
SIHH: Salon International De La Haute Horlogerie.
This is a watch show that takes place in Geneva each year in January. However, they have started a mini version of this in Las Vegas, and Independent Jewellers has been invited to attend. The brands that are represented are mainly brands under the Richemont Group: Montblanc, Baume et Mercier, Panerai, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Audemars Piguet, and others.
This will be my first time attending a SIHH event and I am looking forward to it. The brands that are represented here employ some of the world’s most prestigious watchmakers and are extremely exclusive. Some of the timepieces that will be shown will be highly limited and cost well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars!
In a month I will be attending the Baselworld tradeshow in Basel, Switzerland. Having been to Basel twice now, and never to a SIHH show, it will be nice to see the differences between the two tradeshows. More to come!
Diamonds are fascinating gemstones to say the least. They are formed in the earth, miles below the crust, under pressure and temperature’s that are truly mind-boggling. They are then pushed up through the crust, also under tremendous heat and pressure. Estimated time to make a diamond: 1 billion years, give or take.
When talking about the “quality” of a diamond, many people get hung up about the clarity and colour, when in fact, these two attributes are merely characteristics about the rarity of a diamond. We have no control over clarity, colour, or even carat weight, because these are decided by nature. What we do have control over, however, is the quality of the cut. The better the cut, the better the performance of the diamond. And by performance, I am referring to how the diamond handles light.
Poorly cut diamonds do not sparkle well at all, whereas ideal cut diamonds have lots of fire and scintillation. The reason for this is because the poorly cut diamond will leak light out the bottom and sides. The ideal cut diamond returns the maximum amount of light to the human eye, therefore, it is brighter and full of life. The man who discovered the ideal cut that we know today was Marcel Tolkowsky (1899-1991), and he discovered this through a number of different mathematical equations.
It is easy to convey the colour and clarity of a diamond over the phone, over the internet, through email, etc. However, when referring to the quality of the cut, the only way to truly know if you like it is by seeing the diamond in person. Cut quality is on a spectrum just like the other characteristics, from poor to ideal and many variations in between. Unfortunately, there is no real good way to convey just how beautiful a diamond is, you need to see it in front of you under proper lighting conditions.
We are proud to announce that we are now carrying Victor Diamonds.
What is a Victor Diamond, and why might you want it, you ask? Victor Diamonds are Canadian diamonds taken from the Victor mine located in the James Bay Lowlands of Northern Ontario. These diamonds are considered to be Products Of Canada, which means that the diamonds themselves have been mined, cut, and polished in Canada. This can be confusing as there are lots of “Canadian Diamonds” on the marketplace. Often is what will happen is that these diamonds will be mined in Canada, however once mined, the rough diamond will be shipped internationally where the labour to turn it into a finished diamond will occur.
The beauty of Victor Diamonds being Product’s Of Canada is that all the labour to turn the rough diamond into a finished one is done here. This of course is great for the economy, and one can know for certain that their diamond is completely Canadian.
We often get requests either to buy estate jewellery, or if we have any estate jewellery. Well the simple answer to this is “yes”…to both questions.
*This is a sample image, not in stock*
Right now we have quite a nice selection of estate jewellery located at our 493 Notre Dame location. We do not have it on display, so if you do decide to come down, please ask a salesperson to see some of our collection. At some point in this year (2012…hopefully the earlier part of it), I do intend on creating an estate jewellery section on our website so people can see some of the beautiful items we have (and HAVE had).
If you do decide you have something you would like us to buy, we would be more than happy to have a look. However, please do not be offended by the price we may offer you, as sometimes it might be lower than your expectation, or the “appraised value.” Sometimes the price we offer will be a scrap gold value (we will weight it for the gold and pay you out per gram), but if there are some special gemstones involved there might be more value in it for us, and therefore more money in it for you.
If you do have some special piece(s), and you are wanting to sell, please come down to our 493 Notre Dame Ave. location, or give us a shout (774.5544) and set up an appointment with Jeremy, Jonathan, or Ernie.
Blogging, as it turns out, is a very hard job. I mean, the job itself is easy; fingers pushing down little keys with letters on them is not exactly taxing on the body. But a blog is hard to keep up with, and needs to be maintained, and someone needs to be continually writing.
This year, I, or someone from Independent Jewellers, will blog once a week. Every Tuesday, at 10am Winnipeg time, there will be a new post on this blog. Most of the time it will have to do with jewellery… or watches… or other jewellery store stuff, but sometimes this blog will talk about other stuff too.
Also, it is our 75th year in business this year!!! It is hard to believe that my grandfather, John H. Epp, started Independent Jewellers in 1937. If you have any stories of him, or his sons, or just of Independent Jewellers, we would love to hear them. If you could please send them to jonathan@independentjewellers.com that would be much appreciated.
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Watches | Jonathan March 6, 2012 | 
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