Atelier Miah

Atelier Miah sits on the 2nd floor of a building on Marktgasse in Winterthur's old town, a short walk from the main station. The atelier's main business is memorial jewellery: pieces made from ashes, hair, breast milk or a loved one's fingerprint, which is what most of the site's navigation and customer testimonials are about. Tucked into the main menu, though, with its own dedicated section, sits a full wedding and engagement ring line, complete with its own consultation route. For a couple settling in Zurich who might also want a goldsmith able to make a memorial piece for a parent one day, that combination is worth knowing about even if bridal work isn't the atelier's headline offer.

The business was founded in 2017 by Mirjam Glättli and Rahel Kappes, who still run it together. The team now includes two goldsmiths, Nadine Tanner (who also heads the workshop) and Leonie Kramer, plus a goldsmith apprentice, a sales adviser and three staff handling customer service, order processing and marketing between them. The company is registered in the Swiss commercial register as Atelier Miah GmbH, seated in Winterthur, and its listed status there is active.

Every piece in the wedding and engagement collection is cast in 18 karat (750) gold, which the site describes as sourced from suppliers that are ethically and ecologically certified. Wedding rings come in eight standard designs, offered narrow or wide, in finishes running from a finely hammered texture to an organic irregular shape to a plain classic band. Prices start at CHF 1140 for the simplest narrow band and run up to CHF 3050 for the Trinity ring, a design that also appears in the engagement collection. Engagement rings follow the same gold standard and come by default with either a green or a natural brown diamond cut as a brilliant, with a white brilliant offered on several named models too. The named designs I could check price from CHF 1580 for the Nola in brown diamond to CHF 3425 for the Cleo in green diamond, and the site says other stones such as sapphire or spinel can be sourced on request, subject to availability. Custom wedding and engagement designs outside the standing collection are also offered on request, though no separate price list for a bespoke commission is published.

Two things separate this from a standard bridal jeweller. First, the consultation is pitched as unhurried rather than transactional: appointments usually run 30 to 60 minutes, there's a children's play corner in the atelier, and the space is described as wheelchair and pram accessible thanks to a lift up to the 2nd floor. Second, because it's one small workshop running both product lines rather than two separate operations, a couple could in principle come back years later for an anniversary piece, or a keepsake to mark a loss, without switching ateliers. The homepage's published customer quotes include buyers writing in from Cologne and Vienna as well as several Swiss towns, which suggests the atelier already has clients outside Switzerland, even though the site itself makes no explicit claim about serving an international customer base.

How it's organised

Booking runs through an online calendar linked from the site, and walk-ins during opening hours are accepted too, though the atelier is upfront that a booking is recommended and a walk-in visit can mean waiting. Opening hours are Tuesday to Friday from 11am to 5pm and Saturday from 10am to 4pm. Worth flagging for anyone checking the site right now: the atelier is closed entirely for its annual summer break from 25 July to 8 August 2026, so a visit this week will find the door shut, with normal hours resuming afterward. In the atelier itself, payment runs on debit or credit card or Twint; there's no cash till. If you're driving rather than walking from the station, parking near Marktgasse is available at the Stadtgarten or Technikum car parks.

On lead times, the site is specific rather than vague, which matters when you're planning around a date. Wedding and engagement rings take about 5 to 8 weeks to make, engraved pieces around 1 to 2 weeks, and the ash, hair or breast-milk memorial pieces 10 to 12 weeks, counted from when the material itself reaches the atelier rather than from the order date. Because every ring is treated as a one-off piece, the site states plainly that exchanges and returns aren't possible once something has been made, which puts some weight on getting the size right before you order. Atelier Miah publishes a sizing table running from size 48 to 62 with millimetre measurements attached to each, and will also send out a free plastic ring sizer on request for anyone unsure of their size.

For buyers coming from abroad

This is where a newcomer to Zurich needs to read carefully rather than assume. The site is published in German only. I found no English-language version and no claim anywhere about English-speaking staff, so if that matters to you, it's worth asking directly before booking rather than assuming it's covered. Shipping is broken down by destination: CHF 9 within Switzerland and Liechtenstein, EUR 30 to Germany, Austria or Luxembourg, and EUR 35 to the rest of the EU, with the site stating plainly that deliveries to Germany or Austria carry no extra customs charges. Nothing is published about shipping or duty for destinations outside the EU, so anyone planning to leave Switzerland for somewhere further afield should put that question to the atelier directly rather than rely on a term the site doesn't state. The same caution applies to resizing an existing ring after a few years in the country: the sizing guide is built for getting an order right the first time, and I found no separate resizing or after-sales policy published beyond the general no-returns rule on finished pieces.

One more service worth knowing about if you're relocating and clearing out old jewellery along the way: Atelier Miah buys old gold at the current gold price, on request, paid out either as store credit toward its own collection or as a cash payout, though it doesn't take silver jewellery or loose gemstones. The valuation takes about 5 to 10 days after the piece arrives at the atelier, and a valid identity document is required to sell.

How it compares

Within Winterthur's old-town jewellery scene, Atelier Miah is unusual for not being a walk-in-first shop in the way some of its neighbours are. Its main line of work runs on appointments, and the bridal collection is a secondary, fully realised offer rather than the headline business. That's a different shape from a family jeweller that has been cutting wedding rings for three generations on the same street. What it offers instead is price clarity in CHF for every listed design, a genuinely fixed material standard across the whole collection, and stated lead times rather than a vague "contact us for details." It's also listed as a member business of Winterthur's old-town business association, which fits the address on Marktgasse. On Facebook, where the atelier has built up 75 reviews, it holds a 100% recommended rating, a reasonable proxy for service quality at that volume.

Who it suits and the verdict

Atelier Miah suits a couple who wants a wedding or engagement ring made by hand in Switzerland, doesn't need to browse a huge stone catalogue, and would rather see clear prices and book a real appointment than wander a showroom. It's also a strong option if you already expect you'll want memorial jewellery at some point and like the idea of using one atelier for both rather than starting again elsewhere. The one genuine catch for an international buyer is language: get German-language service confirmed before you book if that's a concern, since the site itself gives no indication either way. Everything else, from pricing to lead times to how accessible the atelier is physically, is documented more clearly than most sites this size manage, and none of it reads as an afterthought bolted onto a memorial-jewellery business.