Non-Tiffany's engagement ring shopping in SF?

May 22, 2014 10:58 AM

The BF and I are going "engagement ring window shopping" tomorrow! I'm excited!! I haven't lived in San Francisco very long, so I have no idea where to go relative to my taste as I've only ever looked at rings online.

My tastes lean toward vintage or vintage-inspired. Here's an example or two or three of the kind of rings I gravitate towards.

We are in San Francisco. I've already got Lang on the list but I'd like to go to more than one store and not only look at estate jewelry. Ideally, I would love to go to store like Catbird, in Brooklyn. Any suggestions? We don't have a car, so keep suggestions close to SF or Oakland.

Thanks!

posted by vivzan to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (9 answers total)

Here's a place in the Richmond nighborhood in San Francisco, Torgsyn. They have the rings on line, so you can scope it out and see if there's anything you like.

You can take the 38 Geary out there. (the 38 L will have fewer stops.)
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:06 AM on May 22, 2014

Best answer: Gallery of Jewels carries interesting rings. They have a couple of locations so I'd call if there's a specific ring you want to see.

The San Francisco Provident Loan Association sells estate jewelry via their site66mint. It looks like you have to make an appointment to see things in person.

I've been to Edmund Weber jewellers to have jewelry repaired but they also sell rings. There's a bit of a jewelry district downtown but many places are like Weber and have showrooms in the upper floors of office buildings. Maybe check Yelp for more reviews of small jewellers?
posted by oneear at 11:32 AM on May 22, 2014

Best answer: Hey, if you have extra time or don't find what you want, I recommend Pavé in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland (thus, BARTable). We bought our wedding rings there and they also custom-made my engagement ring.
posted by wintersweet at 11:39 AM on May 22, 2014

The 14 Karats in Berkeley is an East Bay institution. They do all their own work and are really good people.
posted by gyusan at 11:44 AM on May 22, 2014

Best answer: Lang Antiques. I've purchased from them several times over the course of a couple of decades. They're great.
posted by janey47 at 11:51 AM on May 22, 2014

Well, damn, sorry I saw your examples and rushed to post Lang before I realized you mentioned them.
posted by janey47 at 11:53 AM on May 22, 2014

Best answer: You should stop by Dianne's in Cow Hollow. It's also estate jewelry, but has an entirely different vibe than Lang so it would probably not feel redundant to try both.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 1:29 PM on May 22, 2014

Response by poster: These are good suggestions! I'll narrow done where I go to and visit before marking as best answer, for any future readers. Thanks.
posted by vivzan at 3:00 PM on May 22, 2014

It's not San Francisco, but if you want to go a little north we had our wedding rings made by John and Ira who run Mar-Chet jewelers in San Anselmo, up in Marin. Looked at the samples they had in the shop, said "kind of like this one, but...", did some drawings, a little back and forth and they did excellent work.
posted by straw at 4:32 PM on May 22, 2014