COMISH

COMISH is a small goldsmith studio in Rapperswil-Jona, on the far side of the lake from central Zürich, run by Shanti Sandmeyer since a trio of friends put the name together in 1999. The label survived the original group breaking up (COMISH combines the first letters of Corinne, Michela and Shanti's names); today Shanti is the only one of the three still working under it, alongside a small circle who have stayed for years: her father Marcel handles the stone setting, Ragna Sauter comes in as a second goldsmith for the workshop, and Simone Fischer has long been described as the "right hand" on the exhibition side. For anyone weighing up options around the lake, that continuity matters more than a shopfront would: this is a studio built on one goldsmith's name and reputation, not a retail chain with rotating staff.

What you get here is bespoke work rather than a case of pre-made rings. The site is organised into rings with stones, rings without stones, wedding rings (Eheringe), earrings, necklaces, men's jewellery and a separate section for reworking old pieces into new ones. Wedding rings sit as their own category, not an afterthought bolted onto engagement rings, and the English pages spell out the philosophy plainly: a pair does not need to match. Sandmeyer writes that "we don't necessarily need to create two exact same rings" and that "the personality of those who will wear them should be reflected in the rings," with a shared element carrying the pair rather than identical bands. Material choice depends on budget, running from silver or palladium at one end up to gold or platinum at the other, so a couple can start modest and still walk away with something made specifically for them. Same-sex couples get an explicit, plain-language welcome on the site rather than just an implied one.

The redesign side is worth knowing about if you or a partner have inherited jewellery. Rather than treating an old ring as scrap value, Sandmeyer's stated approach is to work heirloom pieces into something wearable today: an old, narrow band can be set into a new ring, often keeping the original engraving intact. It reads as an emotional exercise as much as a technical one, more about what the metal carries than what it is worth. That instinct carries through to sourcing too: COMISH carries the Oekogold label, which the studio says guarantees it works exclusively with recycled precious metal rather than newly mined material, a detail that will matter to a buyer who cares where the gold in a ring actually comes from.

Booking as someone new to Zürich

This is not a shop you can walk into off the street. There is no public retail address on the site: contact goes through a PO box in Rapperswil-Jona, and the contact page says outright that the address and appointment details are given on request. In practice that means booking through the online scheduler, which links directly to a Calendly page reserving a 90-minute meeting slot, plenty of time to talk through materials, budget and design before anything gets made. For someone who has just landed in Switzerland and doesn't yet have a feel for how local businesses operate, that upfront structure is reassuring: you know exactly what you're booking and for how long, rather than guessing whether a drop-in visit is welcome.

English speakers are well served. The site runs a full parallel English version, and it reads as genuinely translated prose rather than a machine pass bolted onto German pages, down to Sandmeyer explaining the COMISH name's origin in her own voice in English. The one small wrinkle is that the booking button itself still reads "Termin online buchen" in German even on the English pages, and the page addresses keep their German wording too. Neither gets in the way of actually using the site, but it is a reminder that this is a small studio's website, not a polished international retail platform, and a click or two may land you back on German text.

What the site does not do is publish prices, minimum budgets or turnaround times for a commission, so anyone comparing options purely on cost transparency will need to raise it directly in the consultation rather than expect a price list. The same goes for anything cross-border: there is nothing on the site addressing export, duty or shipping a finished ring abroad, which is worth asking about upfront if you expect to leave Switzerland before the piece is finished or would rather have it shipped than collect it in person. Neither gap is unusual for a studio this size, but it's worth going into the first meeting with those questions ready rather than assuming an answer either way.

How it compares and who it suits

Against the bigger Bahnhofstrasse names, COMISH is the opposite kind of experience: no showroom to browse, no walk-in service, and a single goldsmith's name behind the work rather than a house brand. Against the other small ateliers clustered around Rapperswil's old town, what sets COMISH apart is how explicit the wedding-ring offer is: it's a named category with its own philosophy laid out on the site, not something you have to infer from a general custom-jewellery page. Sandmeyer's own framing, that rings for a couple don't need to be identical to belong together, is a genuinely useful thing to read before a first meeting, since it sets expectations for what "matching" rings from this studio might actually look like.

This suits a couple who already know they want something made rather than bought off a shelf, who are comfortable booking a fixed appointment slot rather than browsing, and who don't mind that the first real word on price and timeline comes from a conversation rather than the website. It's a good fit too for anyone bringing a family piece into the process, given how directly the alterations page speaks to reworking old jewellery rather than treating it as a separate, lesser service. It suits less well anyone who wants to compare prices online before committing to a visit, or who needs a very quick turnaround; nothing on the site suggests either is on offer, and it would be guesswork to assume so.

The overall picture is a small, established studio, Sandmeyer has been working under this name since 1999, with a genuine English offering and a clear, appointment-first way of working, two things that matter more to a newcomer than heritage framing ever will. Book the 90 minutes, bring your questions on price and, if it applies, on taking the ring abroad, and you're dealing directly with the person who will actually make it.