Rietz AG Uhren & Juwelen

Rietz AG sits right at the entrance to Baden's old town on the traffic-calmed Weite Gasse, a family business now in its third generation and run today by Carmen and Martin Buner. The shop doesn't hide its age: its own site says plainly that it has taken time for customers since 1942, and its history page backs that up with a level of detail you don't often get from a small jeweller. Arthur Rietz-Wullimann moved from Grenchen to Baden that year and opened a watchmaker's shop in the Moneta Haus on Cordula Platz. The business moved to Weite Gasse 16 in 1951, then to its current address at Weite Gasse 7 in 1956, a space it originally shared with a hat shop and a tobacconist. Arthur died suddenly in 1965, and his wife Alice ran the business for the next five years until Roland Buner-Rietz took over in 1970 and added Omega and Tissot to the range in 1971. By 1981 the storefront had been consolidated from three separate businesses into the single shop that exists today. It was incorporated as a public limited company, an AG, in 2012 with Martin Buner as managing director, a fact the Swiss commercial register site Moneyhouse confirms independently, and Moneyhouse also lists the company as currently active. The sales floor was renovated in 2001 and again more gently in 2013, the facade was redone and Longines added to the watch range in 2019, and the interior went through a complete modernisation in 2025, which a company post on LinkedIn from the same year corroborates. For a reader trying to judge whether a small jeweller is a going concern or just an old website still online, that's a paper trail that's hard to fake: eight decades of dated, specific changes rather than one vague founding claim.

For someone new to Zürich weighing up where to buy an engagement ring, the practical parts of the process matter more than the history. Rietz's own engagement ring page is refreshingly upfront: you take the ring home the same day, and your partner's ring size is only needed after a successful proposal, at which point Rietz resizes it for free or exchanges it if you'd rather choose differently together. The site says it has something for nearly every budget without publishing actual figures, so treat that as a starting point for a conversation rather than a price list. One detail that's easy to miss and genuinely useful: Rietz refers proposal planning to a named partner, Jessica Thomann of deinhochzeitsantrag.ch, who works with couples from the idea for a proposal through to carrying it out. That's not something every jeweller in this category offers, and it's a concrete sign the business thinks about the whole occasion, not just the sale.

Once the ring itself is the focus rather than the proposal, Rietz's wedding ring range is the strongest single fact in its favour: it carries the complete MEISTER Trauringe collection, the German manufacturer's full wedding ring line, and says it will individualise a pair of rings to a couple's own preferences rather than selling only what sits in the display case. The jewellery side of the shop is smaller but specific rather than generic: gemstones, coloured stones, pearls, gold and platinum, plus MEISTER's own award-winning men's collection and a line of christening bracelets and guardian angel pendants for younger customers, so this isn't a bridal specialist with nothing else on the shelves.

Watches and repairs

Watches are the other half of the business, and the range runs wider than the wedding side: a large selection of Swiss watch brands at multiple price points kept in stock, alongside a smaller but real selection of pocket watches and clocks, not just wristwatches. Rietz describes itself as a certified service centre with long experience maintaining nearly every Swiss watch brand, and says most work, from a strap and battery change to a full service, is done on site in the Weite Gasse shop while you carry on shopping in the old town around it. A water-resistance check is included with every service, and the site specifically says it will find a solution for older pieces whose statutory warranty period has long since expired, a small but honest acknowledgment that not every repair is covered by right.

Beyond watches, the services page lists jewellery commissioning and alteration for a piece you can't find ready-made or one you've inherited that no longer fits, insurance valuations built from a photo inventory for estate or insurance purposes, engraving on anything bought in store, and pearl restringing. None of this is unusual for a jeweller of this kind, but it is stated specifically rather than gestured at, which is more than some sites in this category manage.

Team and who runs it

The team is small and named rather than anonymous: owner Martin Buner, Carmen Buner, Edith Buner, Carolina Hirt and Melanie Hämmerli, plus Lea Jezercic, who is currently training as a retail specialist. Founder Arthur Rietz and former owner Roland Buner are both remembered on the same page, a small touch but consistent with a business that treats its own continuity as part of the pitch. The stated approach is quality, competent advice and uncomplicated service, and training an apprentice in-house suggests the business expects to still be there to service what it sells years from now.

What an expat buyer should check first

The site itself is German only, with no English version and no mention of English-language service, so a buyer who doesn't speak German should call or email ahead rather than assume. Opening hours are also worth double-checking directly before a special trip: the page header states Tuesday to Friday, 10 to 18, and Saturday, 8 to 16, while the footer repeated on every page states a different, more detailed schedule with a midday closure on weekdays. That's a small inconsistency rather than a red flag, but it's the kind of thing worth a quick phone call to confirm. Appointments for a proper consultation are arranged by phone or email rather than through an online calendar, which fits a shop that clearly prioritises unhurried, in-person advice over a self-service booking widget. Nothing on the site addresses shipping abroad, customs duty, or VAT refunds for buyers who won't stay in Switzerland long term, so anyone planning to leave the country with a ring or watch bought here should raise that directly with the shop rather than assume standard tourist rules apply automatically.

The verdict

Rietz AG earns its place in this category on continuity and range rather than flash. It's a family business that can document eight decades of specific, checkable changes rather than just claiming an old founding year, it carries the complete MEISTER Trauringe collection, it has a genuine referral partner for proposal planning, and it runs a certified repair service that will still be there long after the sale. The lack of English on the site and the mismatched opening hours are worth knowing before you go, but neither is a reason to skip a shop that clearly takes engagement and wedding rings, not just watches, seriously enough to name a specific collection and a specific process rather than vague promises about quality.