What I thought would be a minor repair to my 30 year-old Tag Heuer watch – an engagement present from my then fiancée, now wife – turned out to be anything but simple.
The jeweler in Port Chester shook his head. “It needs to go back to Tag Heuer,” he said. Tag Heuer USA – after a monthlong “assessment” – reported that after so long it no longer made that particular watch movement. A friend suggested Ideal Fine Jewelers @idealfinejewelers in White Plains. “They can fix anything,” he said, and he was right.
Mohammad Rafiq’s jewelry store started life in 1998 as Intrigue Fine Jewelers, a small kiosk in the now defunct Galleria mall in White Plains. His son, Bilal “B” Rafiq, recalls helping out as a kid on weekends. “He told me that when he first started, he didn’t have enough money to completely fill up the showcases, so out of the five in the kiosk he only (had) merchandise in two,” B recalled. “(My father) reinvested everything back into more and more merchandise, and that got us to a point in 2016 where we had so much merchandise we opened our second company, Ideal Fine Jewelers.”
With leases due to expire at the end of 2023, the Galleria hit the Rafiqs with a notice to vacate in 60 days that January. Father and son had 25 years of clients’ goodwill to maintain and merchandise and furniture displays to move, but the immediate challenge was finding suitable and safe new premises without affecting the day-to-day operations.
The answer came with new stores on Church Street in White Plains and at The Westchester to hold the Rafiqs’ vast amount of inventory. “We could have taken a third site, too,” B, who runs the Church Street store, said with a laugh.
Necklaces for all ages and in all sizes, from small fine initial sets to heavy investment-grade chains, are Ideal’s single best-selling items, but the store also sells watches and specializes in custom-designed jewelry, including engagement rings, wedding bands, pendants, necklaces and much more besides.
Watch services include new batteries, links adjustments, crystal replacement, repolishing and overhauls, while jewelry services encompass refinishing, resizing and resetting gemstones, pearl restringing and repairs.
“I like to think we’re a one-stop shop for anybody with any jewelry needs,” said B. “We do it all.”
With the introduction of lab grown diamonds in the last five years, B added he’s seen more and more people opting for items such as lab-grown diamond tennis bracelets and eternity bands, which can now be had for half the price of traditionally mined diamonds, with the same – if not better – specifications. The difference in price has made lab diamonds a hot item on the market, he said. And younger buyers, meanwhile, are becoming more educated and come in knowing exactly what they want, understanding styles, trends and market values, he added.
But while business is strong, online shopping and inflation remain challenges, he said. Still, he thinks regular items like necklaces, bracelets and earrings will never go out of fashion:
“Everybody needs a good pair of everyday earrings, and every guy likes to wear a nice chain.”
