mojo design

mojo design is a small goldsmith atelier in Winterthur, about 20 kilometres northeast of Zurich and on the Zurich S-Bahn network, so it's a day trip rather than a walk from Bahnhofstrasse. Caroline and Bruno Mojonnier opened the studio in April 2005: she's a federally certified master goldsmith, he holds a gemology diploma from the FGA plus an engineering degree from ETH. Most Trauringe specialists on this list sell rings that someone finishes off-site. mojo design does something different: it will teach a couple to forge their own bands themselves, at the bench, under supervision.

What you get

The core offer is a made-to-order Trauring, worked by hand in the Winterthur atelier in yellow, white, rose or red gold. There's also a 3D wedding-ring configurator on the site, where you choose the alloy, ring shape, surface finish and style, then submit the design through a free-consultation request; mojo design says it gets in touch afterward to confirm details before anything is made. That's a reasonable starting point for a partner planning from abroad who wants to see options before booking a visit, though the site is explicit that prices shown inside the configurator are only indicative and can still change, so treat any figure it generates as a draft rather than a quote. A handful of sample wedding rings are shown on the homepage rather than a price list: a pair of Eheringe in fairtrade red gold set with brilliants at CHF 9'280, an Alliance-style band in the same red gold at CHF 6'500, and a plainer fairtrade red gold band at CHF 2'780. Those are single showcase pieces, not a menu, so they illustrate the spread rather than what a specific commission would cost.

Beyond that spread, mojo design doesn't publish fixed pricing, and it says why: after a no-obligation consultation to work out the design together, it issues what it calls a binding quote (Offerte). It also says a customer can simply name a budget up front and it will try to realise the idea within that ceiling, which is a more useful starting point for someone planning a CHF figure ahead of a wedding than a rigid tier system would be, even if it means the actual number only arrives after that first conversation. The services page also lists jewellery reworking (Umarbeitung), repairs, engraving, appraisals for jewellery and gemstones, and old-gold buyback, so a ring that needs resizing after the wedding, or years later, goes back to the atelier that made it rather than to a stranger. Nowhere on the site does mojo design mention international shipping or customs duty, which fits the shape of the business: this reads as an in-person atelier built around a visit and a fitting, not a mail-order jeweller, so anyone based outside Switzerland should plan on a trip rather than a parcel.

What stands out

The genuinely unusual option is the "Eheringe selber schmieden" workshop: instead of buying a finished pair of rings, a couple comes into the atelier and forges the bands themselves, under a goldsmith's direct supervision, from start to finish. mojo design runs it Tuesday to Saturday, with sessions available Tuesday to Friday between 8.30 and 18.00 and Saturday between 8.30 and 16.00, and it says a typical pair of wedding or partner rings takes 4 to 8 working hours, in other words half a day to a full day at the bench. The atelier caps each session at 4 participants and puts one goldsmith on each couple or individual, and it states plainly that no prior experience is needed, since the harder steps, setting stones or engraving, are finished by staff once the session ends. It suggests booking the workshop 2 to 3 months ahead of the date the rings need to be ready (a wedding, typically), though it notes shorter turnarounds can be arranged. It isn't free on top of the ring itself: mojo design's own example puts it plainly, two rings that would cost CHF 3'400 made entirely by the atelier come to CHF 3'800 when the couple forges them together, a surcharge of up to CHF 400 per ring built into that total. One thing worth flagging before booking: mojo design states that insurance during the session is the participant's own responsibility, not something the atelier covers.

Sitting alongside the workshop is a sustainability claim with more documentation behind it than most. mojo design has been licensed since 1 June 2015 as the first goldsmith in Switzerland allowed to buy and sell Fairtrade gold, under independent oversight from FLOCERT (its FLO-ID is 32762, checkable directly on FLOCERT's own site), with gold traced back to small-scale mines in Peru and an optional Fairtrade Max Havelaar label available on finished pieces. The homepage separately describes the atelier as fairtrade and fairmined gold certified; the specific FLOCERT licence documented on its own site covers the fairtrade half of that claim; treat the fairmined half as the atelier's own statement rather than one backed by a separate certificate number posted anywhere we could check. Either way, it's unusual in this category to find an ethical-sourcing claim spelled out with a licence number and an auditor's name rather than left as a marketing line.

The rest of the atelier's history reads like a business that keeps investing rather than coasting: first customer workshops in 2006, a move to the current Neugutstrasse 5 address with more space in 2009, an atelier extension in 2013, fair-origin diamonds from Australia and Canada added to the range in 2016, an enamel atelier acquired from Lucerne in 2017, fair-origin sapphires and rubies from Sri Lanka in 2019, and in 2020 mojo design says it became the first CO2-neutral goldsmith workshop in the country. The equipment has kept pace too, with an X-ray-fluorescence gold tester added in 2022 and a Raman gemstone tester in 2024, and in 2025 the studio marked 20 years in business.

How it's organised

Day to day, the atelier is a team of seven: Caroline and Bruno Mojonnier, three certified goldsmiths (Melanie Ambros, Andrea Jäger, Jessica Schaub), and two apprentices still training (Laura Galfo, Jennifer Keller). It's open Tuesday to Friday from 10.00 to 18.00 and Saturday from 9.00 to 16.00, closed Monday, and reachable by phone (+41 52 202 32 52), email, or a WhatsApp-only number that explicitly doesn't take calls. Worth flagging for an international buyer specifically: the site itself is German only, with no English version or language switcher anywhere on it, so expect a first inquiry from someone who doesn't read German to happen over the phone or by WhatsApp rather than through the site. Third-party listings support that this is an established, active local business rather than a shell: local.ch's own listing shows it rated 4.1 out of 5 from 7 reviews, a small sample but a consistent one against what mojo design says about itself.

Expansion into Schaffhausen

mojo design isn't standing still. Its own news page announced in April 2026 that the Mojonnier family had taken over a historic Schaffhausen goldsmith, previously Goldschmiede André Heimgartner, on 30 March 2026, continuing it as a branch under the new name Mojonnier Goldschmiede. The Winterthur atelier says the Schaffhausen location opens to the public at regular hours from 5 May 2026, under the same family ownership. For a Winterthur-based Trauringe specialist, that's a second physical address in German-speaking Switzerland rather than a marketing claim, and it reads as a business growing rather than treading water.

Who it suits, and the verdict

mojo design suits a couple who wants a wedding-band story rather than just a wedding band: forging your own rings together, under supervision, is a genuinely different way to spend an afternoon than picking a size off a tray. It also suits anyone who wants the ethical-sourcing claim on the gold to come with a licence number rather than a slogan. It's a weaker fit for a buyer who wants a same-day purchase, a large in-stock selection to browse, or a purely English-language process, since the workshop takes half a day at minimum and the site itself doesn't offer English browsing. Budget for the CHF 200 to CHF 400 per ring workshop surcharge on top of the rings themselves if you choose to forge your own, and expect the first real conversation, and the real price, to happen after a consultation rather than on the page. None of that outweighs what's on offer: a small, independently owned, expanding atelier with 20 years behind it, a specific and checkable ethical-sourcing claim, and an experience that most Zurich-area Trauringe retailers simply don't offer.