About

When buying jewellery or watches on-line there are a number of things that should be considered.

First, how do you know that what you're paying for is what it claims to be and is the site secure? The site should ensure that the item purchased can be returned and that the way it is paid for will be secure.

Second, does the seller have a good reputation? This can be learned about by looking for reviews, checking the brands they carry, and even calling the Better Business Bureau.

Third, what is the actual dollar cost to get the product to me? Often times, especially with cross border shopping, duties, taxes, and exchange can bring the price up to comparable levels with what you would pay if you bought it locally.

Fourth, what happens when I need a repair? Often time's warranties do not apply when bought in different countries or the cost to ship and repair an item is very high. To add to this, the cost of poor craftsmanship (claws not being tipped properly, gemstones not set right - these types of things can't be seen until you have the ring in hand) bring the actual cost of the ring well above normal retail.

An appraised value is the value that is placed on it for its owner to replace it. It is not likely that you will be able to sell it for that price, but if done by an accredited appraiser it can be a reference tool for comparison or for insurance replacement purposes.

Jewellery prices are subject to many different factors such as the price of gold, the availability of diamonds and other precious gemstones, and sometimes things more political in nature such as civil war, trade sanctions, and even popular culture. Today gold is FOUR times higher than it was in 1999, something that significantly affects the price of jewellery, but this may be attributed to fear in the economy and people fleeing to gold as a vehicle for saving. Jewellery prices typically climb slowly over the years and using jewellery as an investment needs to be done very carefully; while some items will no doubt appreciate in value, there have been instances where jewellery depreciates.

Sometimes the alloys mixed with the gold can cause this to occur. The most common is nickel and it is often used in white gold, however, every company has their own secret recipes for their combination of alloys. The purer the gold, the less chance there will be of this occurring.

Rhodium is a metal used in the platinum group. It is white in nature and often used to plate white gold. Since gold is yellow in nature, mixing it with white alloys will not make it perfectly white. Therefore, manufacturers will almost always plate their white gold products with rhodium. If you are wearing white gold, there is a very strong chance that it has been rhodium plate it. Re-plating is not an issue, just bring it to Independent Jewellers and we will happily provide you a free estimate to re-plate your jewellery.

With the high cost of gold over the last few years, a number of different metals have come into fashion. Platinum is still the premier metal for jewellery because of durability, purity, colour and density. Still the price of platinum can be as much as double that of gold so for someone looking for a more inexpensive option palladium, tungsten carbide, titanium, silver, and stainless steel might be worth considering. Of these metals, tungsten carbide and palladium show the most promise due to their durability.

We do stock a large selection of Canadian diamonds. The diamonds are mined from the Snap Lake, Victor and Diavek Mines in the North West Territories and Ontario.

There are three ways to find a matching band. First, the person or company that made the engagement ring might have a matching ring. Second, look through a jewellers existing inventory. There are many different options for matching wedding bands and often you will see things that you may not have thought about before. Third, if a match is not available or suitable, then looking for a designer to create a ring for you would be an option. Our staff will help you create the ring and in most cases our goldsmith will be able to cast the ring on premise.

The cost of doing this will in most cases increase the cost of a sizing. The reason is the cost to melt down the gold to a point where it is usable would take too much time and the loss of gold in the process would end up costing more than cost to size most rings.

Diamonds have to be certified that it has passed through the Kimberly process, a method developed in December of 2000. This process tracks the diamond rough from when it is pulled out of the ground to when it gets into the jewellery store, thus ensuring that the diamond has not been used to finance terrorist activities.

The second way would be to buy a certified Canadian Diamond; these diamonds are tracked from the ground to the ring, usually serialized and certified. All our diamonds have been either certified as Canadian or approved through the Kimberly Process. For more information on the Kimberly Process, click here.

Unfortunately, 30 metres does not mean 30 metres of depth. Whatever the number, they are referring to how much pressure the watch can withstand. Put your watch in a foot of water and move your wrist and there will be more than 30 metres of pressure. If you are looking for a watch that is capable of being submersed, make sure that is says at least 100 metres water-resistant.

We are able to fix almost all watches on site. We have 3 full time watchmakers who have received extensive training and have more than 75 years experience combined. Should your watch need to be returned to a supplier, you will be informed in advance as to the exact costs and approximate time for return.

An automatic movement requires no battery and when fully wound will last for approximately 48-72 hours; the movement of the wrist keeps the timepiece ticking. There are many different types of automatic movements with a wide range of complications. A complication is an addition to a movement such as a date or chronograph; in some finer timepieces features such as a tourbillion or grand complications may be found.

A quartz movement is a battery operated movement. They are usually quite accurate (a few seconds off per year) and typically less expensive than automatic or mechanical movements. It is reasonable to expect that a battery for one of these watches will last about 1 year.

We offer financing in 3, 6, or 12 month increments. There is no charge when this is applied to regular priced merchandise.

Your personal information stays private and secure and we ensure that it will not be sold to any outside third party. We require this information for warranty purposes and will occasionally use it to let you know when we have special events or sales on.

Generally, we do not buy estate Swarovski.

We have a clock repair technician on staff that is able to repair most clocks and is available to do house calls to repair and set-up clocks.