Lilly Clou

If you searched for Steinlin and landed here instead, you have the right shop. Lilly Clou, at Kuttelgasse 15 in Zurich's old town, is the same family business that traded for years as Steinlin. The old domain, steinlin-zuerich.ch, now redirects straight to lillyclou.ch, and the site itself carries a page titled "Steinlins wird zu Lilly Clou" that says exactly that: we renamed ourselves, the people and the craft behind the counter did not change. For an expat who bookmarked the old name, or was handed a card years ago, that redirect matters more than it sounds: it is the difference between assuming a goldsmith closed and knowing it simply changed its sign.

The rename dates to 2019, when Beatrice Sponagel-Steinlin and her daughter Fabienne Sponagel launched Lilly Clou to carry the family's jewelry forward under a new name. Beatrice is the goldsmith of the two, with over 50 years in the craft by the shop's own account; Fabienne runs design alongside customer contact, the website, marketing and admin. The name is a small piece of family history worth knowing if you ever wonder about it: Lilly is a name passed down the female line of the Sponagel family, and Clou, French for nail, plays on Sponagel meaning nail in German. Corporate filings back the timeline up. Atelier Lilly Clou GmbH was registered in 2019 and is listed as active; Steinlin Design AG, registered back in 2010, is also still listed as active at the same address, which explains why the site's own shipping policy still gives Steinlin Design AG as the return address for parcels. Nothing here points to a business in trouble. It looks, from the paperwork and from the shop floor, like a family brand that renamed itself and kept both entities on the books.

Who is actually at the bench

Here is the detail that will matter most if you are hoping for hands-on goldsmith work rather than a boutique that outsources it: since 2025, the physical bench sits under a separate but co-located company, LOMA Goldschmied GmbH, run by two goldsmiths, Marco Mauchle and Florian Bissig. Marco has over 7 years as a goldsmith at Steinlin, according to his own bio on the Lilly Clou team page. Florian's bio dates his training to 2010. Neither is a stranger brought in for the rebrand; both trained and worked under the Steinlin name before LOMA existed as its own company. There is also Bigna Neuenschwander, a project consultant who has been with Lilly Clou for over 2 years and runs the shop's Instagram, Facebook and newsletter.

One small inconsistency worth flagging, because it shows the kind of thing you find when you read more than the homepage: the Lilly Clou homepage says a visit gets you consultation from two talented goldsmiths, while the appointment booking page says three experienced and talented goldsmiths advise you. The likely explanation is that the homepage counts only the LOMA pair, Marco and Florian, while the booking page adds Beatrice, who trained as a goldsmith herself. Either way, you are dealing with people who have actually made things at that address for years, not a name plate over a workshop nobody staffs.

What you can actually buy toward an engagement ring

This is not a bridal specialist with a wall of diamonds to browse. The catalog leans toward silver and gold fashion jewelry, personalized pieces and children's jewelry, and most of it sits well under engagement ring territory in both price and intent. But there is one ring on the site built and marketed specifically to double as an engagement ring: the Diamantring Alliance, sold in white gold at CHF 2,250 and yellow gold at CHF 1,990. Both are 18K gold set with 43 individually set brilliant-cut diamonds totaling 0.40ct, described on the product page as suitable as a classic wedding band, an engagement ring or an everyday statement piece. Each comes in one fixed size (12/13 for the white gold version, 11/12 for yellow gold) and in two purchase modes: buy the one sitting in the atelier now, or order it made fresh, which the product page quotes at roughly 3 to 5 weeks. The price is identical either way, so paying more for speed is not a thing here. What is not published is whether that made-to-order route lets you request a different finger size. If you need a size the site does not list, that is a question for the consultation, not something to assume.

Beyond that single design, the door to a fully custom commission is there but undocumented in detail. The shipping policy has a line asking customers to get in touch directly for special orders and engravings, and the appointment page invites anyone with, in its own words, a jewelry idea they would like to bring to life. No fee for that consultation is published anywhere I found, and no separate price list exists for custom pieces or reworked heirlooms. If you are bringing your own stone or a ring to redesign, expect a conversation, not a quote on the website.

Booking a conversation and what happens after

The appointment page is a simple contact form, name, email, phone and a comment field, and it works in German, English and French, which matters if you are new to Zurich and not confident booking a jewelry consultation in German. The shop sits inside LOMA's space at Kuttelgasse 15, open Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 6pm and Saturday 10am to 4pm.

Shipping, payment and what an expat needs to know before ordering

Within Switzerland, shipping is free by registered B-Post and takes 2 to 4 business days, with a faster A-Post option available. For six neighboring countries, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and France, the site quotes tracked priority shipping between CHF 19 and CHF 24 for orders up to CHF 300, rising to CHF 38 above that. Anywhere else, you email the shop directly for a rate rather than checking out online. The policy is upfront about the part most sites bury: customs duties on anything shipped abroad are set by the destination country, not by Lilly Clou, and the shop says plainly it cannot predict what you will be charged on arrival. If you are the kind of buyer who might relocate again in a few years and want to ship a piece home, budget for that uncertainty rather than assume it will be minor. Payment runs through credit card, PayPal or advance bank transfer online, and the storefront also lists Twint, the Swiss mobile payment app that is nearly universal here but takes a Swiss bank account to set up, worth knowing if you have only just arrived and do not have one yet.

How it compares and who it suits

Against the other independent goldsmiths in this category, Lilly Clou is less a dedicated bridal atelier and more a small design house that happens to have two goldsmiths on site and one ring genuinely built for engagements. That is a real, if narrow, offer: a finished, gem-set 18K gold ring you can see and buy in the atelier the same day, at a published price, next to a slower made-to-order route at no extra cost. It suits a newcomer who wants something concrete to look at quickly, in a language they speak, without needing to design a ring from a blank page. It suits less well someone who wants to compare several diamond ring styles side by side or needs a guaranteed custom resize before committing.

The verdict

The redirect from the old Steinlin domain, the still-active Steinlin Design AG filing, and goldsmiths who trained under the old name all point the same way: this is continuity, not a shop that closed and got replaced. The one purpose-built engagement ring on offer is specific and well documented down to the diamond count and the metal purity, which is more than most of the fashion-jewelry catalog gets. The gaps are honest ones rather than warning signs: no published consultation fee, no confirmed resizing on the made-to-order ring, and a homepage that cannot quite agree with its own booking page on how many goldsmiths are in the room. None of that should stop a Zurich newcomer from booking a look, especially given the multilingual service and a ready answer, however cautious, on shipping a piece abroad later.