A common misconception is that custom designing and crafting a ring will cost more. This is often not the case, especially if you are modifying an existing design. As we are designing and manufacturing jewellers, we can custom design and craft most of our rings to suit your specifications. You get exactly the ring you want, crafted individually for you and built to last by our local team of jewellers and setters. We provide 3D CAD renders for you to view before we manufacture your ring.
We can also work with you to create a completely new design within your budget. You can read more about the custom engagement ring process from sketch to finished product here.
Wherever you are based in the world, you still get the same personalised service as if you had walked into our store. We work with clients from all over New Zealand and around the globe so if you are based in Christchurch, New Plymouth, Hamilton, Tauranga, Palmerston North, or anywhere else in New Zealand or the world for that matter, please get in touch. We would be happy to help you through email, video call and over the phone.
To paint a picture for you... Our talented team come from a range of creative backgrounds whether it be graphic design, industrial design, architecture, photography, gemmology, jewellery consultancy and of course our master jewellers and setters who all combine their skills to create a beautiful piece of jewellery. Our jewellers have on average 30 years’ experience in crafting fine jewellery and have won many national and international design awards. Our team are constantly upskilling through internationally recognised industry training from the Gemological Institute of America.
Our own manufacturing process is transparent – literally! You can see our jewellers at work behind the glass of our workshop. We’re simply passionate about creating beautiful and high-quality pieces of jewellery through a combination of traditional craft and the latest state of the art technology such as 3D printers, laser engravers, high-spec tools and microscopes.
At The Village Goldsmith, we work hard to ensure our jewellery is beautifully designed and crafted, as well as being of exceptional quality and value. People often assume that bespoke jewellery is more expensive than off-the-shelf but when you understand how we operate, you will find that is not the case.
Our custom-made engagement rings and fine jewellery are priced comparably to global fine quality mass produced pieces. However, we make your ring individually for you, so you get exactly what you want, a better-quality piece of jewellery and at a great price. As we are manufacturing jewellers, all our engagement rings, including the ones on our shop floor, are designed and crafted in our local studio and workshop.
Large fine jewellery retailers may have access to cheaper manufacturing by having their rings mass-produced offshore, however they must buy those items at a markup and then apply more markup to cover their own costs and the overhead costs of a large corporate.
We, on the other hand, manufacture our jewellery in-house and sell directly to you with no extra markup. We have our own costs to factor in, but our operations are very efficient given we have our workshop and retail store all in one place.
Large offshore factories generally don’t create the high quality jewellery that we do. As a specialist team of designers and craftspeople, we aren’t a small one-man local jeweller and we aren’t a chain retail store. We have made the deliberate decision to only have one retail store, but we work with clients all over the world.
We work locally but think globally. We deal directly with a selected range of top global diamond suppliers, who are the cutters of the diamonds themselves, not second tier diamond wholesalers. These are suppliers whom we have built relationships with over many years. Our team have visited the factories of these diamond manufacturers and seen their state of the art, extremely modern facilities and processes up close and how they support and value their employees. We have even designed personal pieces of jewellery for the CEOs and their families.
By removing the wholesaler’s margins within our diamond supply chain, we can offer you better prices on our diamonds. Our supplier relationships also ensure that the diamonds we purchase have guaranteed provenance, are Kimberley Process compliant and ethically sourced and conflict-free.
You can easily browse our collection of diamond engagement rings online to understand our pricing. The drop-down diamond options allow you to compare like-for-like with other fine jewellery retailers and you will often find our prices to be very competitive or better. It also helps to understand what style of ring and grade of diamond you are looking at within your budget, so you’re armed with this information as you are shopping around. If you would like other options not listed, you can come in store or email us and we will prepare a quote for you.
