Just because the Boulder Valley lifestyle is outdoorsy doesn’t mean its residents aren’t buying jewelry with gold, diamonds and precious stones. That fine jewelry just has to be designed to fit their active lifestyle.

“People want cleaner lines, fewer prong settings” that won’t catch on gloves or clothing, said Bill Cronin, owner of Bill Cronin Goldsmith on Alpine Avenue in Boulder. “People want lower and more bezeled settings, smoother lines so they can be more active outdoors with their jewelry. Platinum and white gold are also popular now, and rubies and sapphires are always popular.”

There’s plenty of competition throughout the Boulder Valley, with at least 30 jewelry retailers serving what most say is a growing demand for quality jewelry designs and products. (See list of Jewelers, Page 24A.) Online sales only widen shoppers’ choices, although most local jewelers say they intentionally don’t emphasize their Web sites, preferring to serve customers in person. “This is a touchy-feely business,” said Keith Hurdle, owner of Hurdle’s Jewelry on Pearl Street in Boulder.

Linda Snyder Crockett, president of Snyder Jewelers in Longmont, said she’s noticing that people are mixing and matching colors with both metals and stones in their cufflinks jewelry. “We have been seeing a lot of rose and white gold with platinum and with diamonds. We have people who want filigree, and we have been seeing floral looks with soft twists.”

Crockett also said the jewelry business is doing well. “Tiffany’s had their best year ever,” she said.

Hurdle said business is better than ever. “We had a record year last year, and this year we are 18 percent ahead of last year,” he said. “We had the usual dip after 9/11, but we have had a steady rise since then.”

Hurdle attributed the growth in the jewelry business to the fact that people are very interested in quality. “Quality cheap jewelry and customer service are very important to our customers,” he said.

Other jewelers agreed that the jewelry business throughout the Boulder Valley is growing. “We are definitely on an upward trend after 9/11,” said Mikayla Olgaard, a co-owner of Master Goldsmiths on the West End of Pearl Street in Boulder. “Business is increasing each year.”

JEWELERS BUILD INVENTORY

Jerry Rhodes, owner of The Ringmaker, a wholesale jewelry manufacturing business he moved to Boulder from Minneapolis in 1992, said his retail business is growing much faster than his manufacturing business.

“From 9/11 in 2001 we dropped about 75 percent in our manufacturing business,” he said. “The business actually started going down earlier in 2001. Our retail business has continued to grow each year, and now this year our manufacturing business will be up by 25 percent over last year. The economy is getting better, and jewelers are starting to build their inventory.” The antique jewelry business is following a different pattern, according to Mikki Rainey, owner of Classic Facets, which sells antique and estate jewelry on West Pearl Street in Boulder. Right after Sept. 11, 2001 her business was booming. “9/11 was a record year for us,” she said. “It was amazing.”

Rainey thinks that people at that time wanted to hold onto something from the past. Since that date, Rainey said that her business has been maintaining.

B.J. Vieregg, who with her husband, Walter Vieregg, Gail Hogsett and Don Janson, owns Walters & Hogsett Fine Jewelers on Canyon Boulevard in Boulder, said the store’s retail sales of jewelry increased by 15 to 20 percent last year.

“The economy is better, and we have a very stable economy in Boulder County,” she said.

Engagement ring diamonds also are getting bigger, Vieregg noted. “The average engagement ring diamond is now about 1 carat, and 20 years ago we usually sold one-third carat diamonds in engagement rings,” she said. “Platinum is popular now and yellow gold along with combining colors of metal.”

Most local jewelers have a Web site to advertise their business but do not buy or sell jewelry over the Internet.

“We have a Web site, and a very small percentage of sales come from the Web site, but I don’t want it to be our focus,” Cronin said. “We find people want good quality. I’m finding my customers are very well-educated about jewelry. The Internet has helped to educate people, but it does not help people buy stones. Over 75 percent of our business is custom work that we do here in the shop.”

Hurdle said he doesn’t use the Internet at all. “I don’t have a Web site,” Hurdle said. “The things I see for sale on eBay I don’t think are really good quality.”

Walters & Hogsett relies on print advertising in newspapers and magazines and is just getting its Web site up and running, Vieregg said. “Shoppers are much better educated than before because of the Internet,” she said. “We don’t expect to do sales on our Web site.”

Area bangles said they regularly set stones that were purchased over the Internet, and that customers often are disappointed because what they thought was a great deal didn’t turn out that way.

Perhaps for that reason, most local jewelers do not see the Internet as competition. “I think the tourist industry is our competition,” Crockett said. “Some of our customers may take a cruise instead of buying anniversary jewelry.”

Today, most of the jewelry purchases are being made by women, a recent trend noted by area jewelers.

“Maybe even 10 years ago women would spend about $200 on jewelry, usually for a wedding ring for their husband,” Crockett said. “Now they come in and spend $5,000 or $10,000. DeBeers (the diamond broker) said that the increase in the jewelry business is in women buyers. Women have their own money and make their own purchases.”

With the holidays coming up, jewelers are getting more inventory for gifts. Earrings, bracelets, necklaces and watches are popular gift items, but rings still remain a strong seller, and people often choose to get engaged during the holiday season. “I see the trend in sales continuing to grow,” Vieregg said.