“Diamond Dave” Schurman has been in the jewelry business since he was 12 years old, and his Lake Orion store of the same name will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year.
Schurman opened the first Diamond Dave’s location in the former Keatington Village, now Canterbury Village, on Joslyn Road in 1978 when he was just 22 years old.
“I had already been doing jewelry since I was 12,” said Schurman, whose mother worked for Lake Jewelers in Schurman’s hometown of Rochester. “I did repair and diamond settings…that’s where we started getting our first customers.”
Schurman opened the store in Keatington because he was living above the then-empty shop, and didn’t want to move.
“I had 10 years of experience, and I felt confident I could do it,” he said.
Diamond Dave’s prospered and eventually Schurman moved to a new location on Lapeer Road, in what is today the Express Plaza. He was there for three years before moving down the road to his landmark building on Lapeer near Heights Road.
“We grew out of the old building, and I had a chance to buy this building,” Schurman said of his present location. “I was 32 years old at the time, and it was very scary, signing our life away.”
Schurman and his wife Cynthia, long-time Lake Orion residents, have worked together at Diamond Dave’s for 15 years, and said they consider their staff to be “family.”
“We have 12 employees with 196 years of combined experience in the jewelry business,” said Schurman. “To me, that is huge.”
“We really have talented employees, who take great pride in their work and servicing the customers,” Cynthia said.
Schurman said many of his customers have been coming to him for unique, made-from-scratch jewelry since he first opened.
“We’re dealing with our second generation of customers now,” he said. “Children of former customers who are now coming in for engagement rings.”
Diamond Dave’s creates a majority of their pieces right at the store in their own shop, employing designer Mike Siewert, diamond setter Christopher Wastag, jewelers Sara Munro and Brett Niemi, polisher Justin Pugh, sales manager and appraiser Teanne Reich, Bunny Ernst and Jacqui Paramo in sales, and Sharon Olsen in bookkeeping.
“We’ve always tried to maintain a very quality product from inexpensive stuff to very expensive stuff,” Schurman said. “There’s no way I would buy a piece of jewelry or diamond online. You should talk to someone you trust.”
Schurman said jewelry sales at mall stores for “up to 70 percent off” show how high their markup is.
“For someone to have a 70 percent off sale, something’s wrong. The markup is too high,” he said.
Diamond Dave’s customers will find reasonable prices every day, and can now find inexpensive “fashion jewelry” pieces there that makes great gifts as well.
“People assume because of our reputation that we only have fine custom jewelry, but we saw the need to incorporate some fun, fashion jewelry, priced from even $6,” Cynthia said. “It’s really been a lot of fun for us to introduce this in our store.”
The Schurman’s have always tried to stay involved in the Lake Orion community and support other local businesses.
“Cynthia and I and most of our employees live in Lake Orion, we’ve always loved the area,” Schurman said. “We support a lot of local charities, and I think it’s very important for people who live in a small community to do business with businesses in that community first. We support our community.”
Customers of Diamond Dave’s will also find experience in jewelry repair. Schurman said the store is also equipped to repair most eyeglasses.
“Our store is set up so a customer can come in and see what we do,” he said. “We can set a diamond in front of them…We make jewelry from scratch. We handmake a large portion of our inventory.”
In celebration of their 25th anniversary, Diamond Dave’s will offer a drawing for a half carat diamond, as well as drawings for color-coded discounts on other jewelry in the store, through the month of December.
Diamond Dave’s is located at 416 S. Broadway (Lapeer). The phone number is 693-2482. Holiday hours (beginning Dec. 1 through Christmas) are: Mondays-Fridays, 9:30 a.m.-7 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Sundays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.