Sawyers Jewelry prepares to close doors after 74 years downtown

LACONIA — Robert Sawyer and three of his jewelry store colleagues have their faces superimposed over those of Desi, Lucy, Fred and Ethel in a sale poster.

The characters from “I Love Lucy” were riding in a convertible with the top down on a road trip to California.

Sawyer and the long-time staff at Sawyers Jewelry are riding off to retirement, marking the end of a 74-year-old business with a high profile location at the southern entrance to downtown.

In fact, Sawyer has a convertible, spends part of the year in Florida and will soon have plenty of time to take a long road trip.

“I will miss it,” he said. “The fact is it's been so much of my life the last 50 years, but I will also look forward to having time for myself, and not having to look at the alarm clock.”

A lifelong boater, he’ll be able to spend more time on the water. He also enjoys the simple pleasures of landscaping and yard work, and will have time for that as well.

Sawyer, who is in his mid-70s, has been working in the family business since he was a boy.

His father, Jack Sawyer, opened in 1946 at 628 Main St., after apprenticing under his father, Alexander Sawyer, a Boston watchmaker. The business expanded to a larger shop at 633 Main St., in 1952.

Robert Sawyer moved the store to its present location, 520 Main St., when he took the helm in 1979. He opened a second jewelry store in 1984 in Mill Falls Marketplace and ran that for 25 years.

Now, after all that time working in the family tradition, Sawyer, who is in his mid-70s, is counting the days until his store closes on Dec. 24.

After that there will be final bookkeeping, cleaning up and getting his building ready for whoever may want to lease it.

Sawyer, who also runs RASCO Leasing & Management, isn’t sure who will end up in the space, but sees good things in store for downtown.

Improvements at the Belknap Mill and the revitalization of the Colonial Theatre bode well for the area, he said.

“We are seeing reinvestment, which is good,” he said. “These things move in cycles and circles.”

There’s also been movement and change in the jewelry business. An ounce of gold that sold for as little as $35 in 1971 now costs more than $1,800. Large corporations and online sales have come to predominate.

“The business has changed, and we have tried to keep the good from the past, the personal relationships, doing business with people over time,” Sawyer said.

“We always kept our business people to people. The majority of those who come into the store know us by name and we know them.”

He will miss the personal experience of working with longtime customers and friends.

“We've tried to keep the romance in the business,” Sawyer said. “My staff has all been here for decades. They are going to retire at the same time I do.

Customers come in to buy an engagement ring, then return for a wedding band, then come back for anniversaries and holidays.

Some styles are classics, like the engagement solitaire or the gold wedding band.

“Oftentimes there’s a situation where a mother gives her or the grandmother's engagement ring to a daughter. We redesign it and things stay in the family to be used and enjoyed.”

Emotions may come out when a piece of family jewelry is refurbished, or when people say goodbye.

Over the years, Sawyer, Susan Quadrozzi, Jim Rogato, Lisa Ford and Cheryl Glejzer have helped people make important decisions about fine jewelry, watches and family heirlooms. Some of those people have been making final visits to the store to make sale purchases or pick up Christmas gifts.

“There have been a lot of smiling faces,” Sawyer said. “People have been so kind, wishing us well and saying we will be missed.

"We had a place in people’s lives.”

On the Web:

Sawyers Jewelry: www.sawyersjewelry.com