Thebusiness

benefit of having a store you can make sure that service is foremost. We would always want to have a shop so we can treat them with the highest amount of respect.”

And while their loyal customers are important to them, foreign buyers have been helping the company ride through the oil and gas downturn following the Leave vote.

Matthew said: “Because of the rate of exchange, today we had three Chinese people in first thing this morning who had recently flown into Edinburgh to go on a tour of Scotland. They were buying an IWC watch which was £4,000 and we are doing this promotion of a 15% reduction. And of course for them it’s duty free and with their rate of exchange it was so worth while for them. There is also 40% luxury goods tax in China at the moment so you couple that with everything. Brexit is the best thing that has ever happened for luxury retailers.”

But according to the firm you don’t need oil or Brexit to sell nice things.

Declan said: “Our top end is still performing extremely well. The people who have money will always have money. People will always want nice things, regardless.

“What we hope we have done is build up a relationship with our clients over the years so that they will keep coming back to us, and I think we have. People often say to us ‘I’ve got my dentist, I’ve got my doctor and I’ve got my jeweller, and that’s you.”

And one thing they hope sets them apart from the high street chains is their ability to be creative and design bespoke pieces for their clients, as well as providing them with the big names in watches and jewellery.

Matthew said: “We have invested over the years, quite heavily in something that makes us quite unique, we have our own workshop. We have jewellers who would look after watches that need repaired or earnings that need soldered or rings adjusted then we take it to the next stage with a watch technician and then we have a stone setter. Diamond setter sounds better but diamond suggests that you can only set diamonds into it.”

And another thing that appears to be important to the firm is the loyalty of their staff. Out of the 40 who work there a number of people have celebrated milestones with the business including 20, 30 and 40 years in service.

Matthew said one jeweller retired and returned to work four times before eventually calling it a day. He said they also found their current stone setter and relocated him to Aberdeen 15 years ago. He still works at the business.

So a mix of the old and new keeps this business ticking over. Prospective brides might have to go elsewhere for something borrowed, something blue though.