Schruub & Schmied Coray

Schruub & Schmied Coray is a one-person goldsmith workshop on the lake's southwest shore in Horgen, a stop on the S-Bahn line into central Zürich rather than a Bahnhofstrasse address. The site sums up its whole approach in one line on the homepage: forging dreams takes two, you dream, the workshop forges. The goldsmith behind that line is Curdin Coray, who says in his own words that he's proud to carry on his father's business in the second generation, a family trade the site dates to 1973. There's no catalogue of ready-made rings here, just a short introduction to the person who will actually make the piece and a contact form to start the conversation.

What a commission looks like

Coray frames every job the same way: bring your own idea, or bring jewelry you've inherited and want reworked into something you would actually wear, and he will turn it into a piece in the atelier. That's the entire pitch, stated plainly rather than dressed up with a product list. His own background is laid out on the site too: a 4-year apprenticeship that taught him the trade from the ground up, several years working at other goldsmiths' workshops afterward, and then, from 1990, supporting his father directly in the family business he now runs alone. That's a real craft biography rather than a marketing line, and it matches the kind of one-to-one, made-to-measure process a couple designing a ring from scratch would want. One thing to flag plainly, though: the site itself talks about jewelry commissions in general, reworked heirlooms included, and never once names engagement or wedding rings specifically. Anyone picturing a specialist bridal boutique should adjust that expectation. This is a general-purpose goldsmith's bench willing to take on a ring commission, not a storefront built around bridal jewelry.

A city workshop that moved to the lake

The business has a paper trail that's unusually easy to check against an independent source. Switzerland's commercial register, via Moneyhouse, shows that a sole proprietorship called Goldschmitte Coray already existed in Zürich before September 2001, when it was folded into a newly formed general partnership, Goldschmitte Coray + Coray, registered on 1 September 2001 at Fortunagasse 26, 8001 Zürich, a lane in the old town a short walk from Bahnhofstrasse. The registered partners were Curdin Coray and Louis Andrea Coray. In 2008, Louis Andrea Coray left the partnership, which dissolved as a direct result; Curdin Coray continued the workshop alone as a sole proprietor under Swiss law from that point. In 2019 the business was renamed Schruub & Schmied, Inhaber Coray, its registered seat moved from Zürich out to Horgen at Eisenhofstrasse 6, 8810 Horgen, and its official business purpose was widened at the same time to add motor-scooter repair alongside jewelry and watchmaking. The register still lists the firm as active today, run by Curdin Coray. None of this contradicts the 1973 founding date the site itself claims for the family trade; the commercial register simply doesn't reach back that far, since a small Swiss sole proprietorship isn't always entered into the register from its first day of trading.

The other half of the business

The Schruub half of the name isn't a marketing flourish, it's a real second trade Coray runs from the same address. His site describes a specialty in old scooters, Vespa, Lambretta, Heinkel or similar, covering custom projects, restorations and servicing that includes the Swiss roadworthiness inspection, the MFK. He states he is the Swiss service partner for the Heinkelclub Deutschland. It's an unusual pairing to find on a jewelry listing, and worth flagging rather than glossing over, but it doesn't count against the goldsmith side. If anything, a hands-on mechanical trade running alongside a hands-on craft trade, both out of the same small workshop, fits the picture of a genuinely independent maker rather than a rebranded retail counter.

What's missing for an international buyer

Judged against what an expat or international buyer in Zürich actually needs to know before making contact, the site comes up short in ways worth stating plainly. It's entirely in German, with no English version or language toggle anywhere on the pages checked. No price list or price range is published for a ring commission. No lead time is stated for how long a custom piece takes to make. There's nothing published about resizing or after-sales care, which matters if you expect to live in Switzerland for only a few years, and nothing about shipping a finished piece abroad or how Swiss VAT and export paperwork would work for someone leaving the country with, or without, the ring in hand. None of that means the workshop can't handle any of it, only that it isn't written down anywhere for a visitor to check in advance. Anyone who doesn't read German, or who needs price and timeline certainty before committing, should raise all of it directly with Curdin Coray by phone, email or the site's own contact form, rather than assume it matches what a bigger Zürich jeweler publishes.

Who it suits, and the verdict

This listing suits a couple who already know they want a genuinely one-off piece built around their own idea, or a piece remade from a ring or pendant already in the family, and who are comfortable communicating in German, or arranging translation, to get there. It suits someone happy to travel out to Horgen rather than book an appointment on Bahnhofstrasse, and who values a documented, decades-old family workshop over a shopfront with a wider product range on display. It's a harder fit for an international buyer who needs an English-language process, a published price bracket, or firm delivery dates locked in before the first conversation, since none of that is on offer here in writing.

The net case for including it is straightforward. This is a real, currently active, single-proprietor goldsmith's workshop with a family history that checks out against Switzerland's own commercial register as well as its own site, run today by the same goldsmith who has worked in it since 1990 and who describes himself, plainly and without embellishment, as carrying on his father's trade. The caveat is real but minor and entirely fixable with one phone call or email: nothing about language, price or timeline is published, so it has to be asked for directly rather than found on the page. For a couple willing to make that call, this is a genuine family atelier rather than a rebranded storefront, and that is worth the extra step.