Fellow Jewels (Zürich branch)

Fellow Jewels is an independent goldsmith brand out of Basel that is, as of this writing, in the middle of opening its first Zürich location. The company's own site carries a banner announcing a new shop in Zürich in August 2026, and job boards show it has been actively hiring a Zürich store manager for months, so this is a real, funded expansion rather than a rumour. The workshop behind it sits on Spalenvorstadt 3 in Basel's old town, registered in the commercial register of Basel-Stadt as Fellow Jewels GmbH under managing director Raphael Gsponer, who a Basel business directory credits with 20 years as a working goldsmith. We are listing it now, ahead of the Zürich doors opening, because the maker itself is established even though its presence in this city is brand new.

Worth saying plainly up front, since this site's whole reason for existing is to serve people who did not grow up here: Fellow Jewels operates entirely in German. There is no English version of the site, no /en path (it simply returns a 404), and the contact page offers nothing beyond a web form, no phone or email listed there directly. If your German is not yet fluent, budget for a translated browser tab or a friend who can call the Basel number on your behalf. This is the caveat we would want flagged for us in the same position.

What you get

The catalogue is built around 18-karat gold, made by hand rather than cast from a generic template. Rings dominate: the "Ringe" collection alone lists 21 pieces, spanning from a plain gold band at CHF 700 up to statement pieces well into five figures. Alongside rings sit bracelets, earrings, necklaces and stacking pieces, organised into eleven separate collections on the site (diamonds, rainbow-coloured stones, one-of-a-kind, basics, stackings, symbols, earrings, coloured stones, rings, bracelets, and a "wabi-sabi" line built around irregular, hand-finished settings). Several pieces are listed "from" a price rather than a fixed one, meaning stone or metal choice changes the final figure, which is normal for a workshop that sets real stones rather than printing a catalogue of fixed SKUs.

The standout piece we found is a ring called "Serious": a natural, GIA-certified diamond of 4.14 carats, Asscher cut, in a warm brown tone that the workshop frames as a feature rather than a flaw, flanked by tapered baguette side stones totalling roughly 0.70 carats, set in 18-karat rose gold, priced at CHF 24,000. Every size from 46 to 65 is currently sold out, which tells you two things: the design sells, and this level of stone sourcing is genuinely happening in-house rather than being an aspirational photo on a homepage. It is a fair example of what a serious diamond commission looks like here even though this particular piece is not currently buyable.

Where it does not confirm itself

Here is the part our brief flagged and we went and checked directly rather than assume. Nowhere on the Fellow Jewels site, not on the homepage, not on the one standalone content page in its sitemap, not on any of its eleven collection pages, not on the highest-value product page, does the word Verlobungsring (engagement ring) or Trauring (wedding ring) appear. We also ran an independent search connecting the brand to those terms and found nothing: every actual Verlobungsring result belonged to a competitor. Job postings for the new Zürich store describe a "quiet luxury" positioning and duties around customer consultation, sales and local events, again with no mention of bridal work.

What the site does confirm is a general bespoke path: its terms of service state that one-of-a-kind and custom-made pieces ("Sonderanfertigungen") can take longer to deliver than stock items, and that custom orders require a deposit before work begins and cannot be cancelled once production has started. No specific lead time is published, so we are not going to invent one. In practice this reads as a workshop that is comfortable building a one-off ring to a client's specification in general, without ever framing that specifically as an engagement-ring service. If a proposal ring is what you are after, treat this listing as "ask them directly whether an engagement commission fits their process" rather than "this is a bridal specialist," because the second claim is not something either the business or an outside source will currently back up for us.

How it is organised, in practice

Everything currently routes through the same online shop and the Basel workshop, since the Zürich space has not opened yet and no Zürich street address is public. Shipping is worldwide: free within Switzerland, calculated at checkout for the EU and further afield, with Switzerland-bound orders quoted at 2 to 5 business days, EU orders at 4 to 10, and other international orders at 5 to 14. If you are ordering from outside Switzerland, or shipping a finished piece home when your Zürich posting ends, the shipping policy is explicit that customs duties, taxes and import fees on international deliveries are not included in the purchase price and sit with the buyer, so factor that into your budget rather than assuming it is covered.

Returns run on a 14-day window, but only for in-stock, unworn items in original condition with prior notice by email; anything individually made, engraved, resized or otherwise built to order carries no statutory right of return under Swiss law once it has been produced, which is standard for bespoke jewellery everywhere but worth knowing before you commission rather than after. Ring resizing itself is explicitly excluded from the return and exchange process too, so ask about a resizing policy up front if your ring size might change. Standard Swiss statutory warranty applies against genuine defects, though it excludes normal wear, impact damage to stones, and any alteration done by someone else, and the company caps its own liability at intentional or grossly negligent damage. Until the Zürich shop is open, the Basel atelier keeps regular retail hours Tuesday to Saturday, so if you want to see the work in person before committing, a day trip to Basel is currently the only option; Fellow Jewels also offers complimentary in-studio pickup there, and every shipment is insured in transit.

How it compares

This category groups the inner-ring neighbourhood jewellers, Enge, Wiedikon, Aussersihl, the Industriequartier, Unterstrass, precisely because they tend to be smaller, personal operations rather than old-town flagship stores, and we generally rank them on how long they have held their address and how much work happens genuinely in-house. Fellow Jewels is an odd but honest fit here: it has no years on a Zürich address at all yet, since it has none, but the person and workshop behind it have two decades of hands-on goldsmithing in Basel, and the sold-out sizing on a 4.14-carat commission piece is real evidence of in-house stone work rather than a dropship operation with a nice website. Compared with the bigger Bahnhofstrasse houses, this is a smaller, design-led maker moving into the neighbourhood scene rather than a heritage retailer with a shop window full of finished bridal sets.

Who it suits, and the verdict

This listing suits a newcomer to Zürich who wants a distinctive, handmade piece from a small maker with a genuine track record, is comfortable working in German or arranging translation, and is not in a hurry, since the Zürich shop itself is still opening. It is a weaker fit if you specifically want a jeweller who has publicly built its business around engagement and wedding rings, or one with English-language service already running locally: neither is confirmed here. The net picture is favourable. A real goldsmith with two decades of experience, honest pricing shown openly on the site rather than hidden behind "enquire," worldwide shipping with clearly stated (if buyer-borne) customs terms, and a bespoke order path that a determined couple can ask about directly. Just go in asking the engagement-ring question yourself rather than assuming the answer, and expect to do at least your first exchange with them in German.