This jeweler dishes out bling — with Cuban coffee

While jewelry customers shop for their next set of diamonds, they mingle in a concierge-style lounge that offers Cuban coffee from Little Havana’s venerable Cafe Versailles.

This welcoming scene at the Mayors Jewelers at Coral Gables at Merrick Park is a sign of improvements to come for the decades-old South Florida jewelry chain. It’s now appealing to clients with remodeled stores that offer customers upscale hospitality areas as they shop for rings, fancy stones and high-end watches.

Under new ownership by the Watches of Switzerland Group, Mayors Jewelers recently overhauled its store in Coral Gables and is looking to do more of the same at Aventura Mall and at retail outlets in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

“We love the business here,” said Brian Duffy, CEO of Watches of Switzerland, who was visiting

Fort Lauderdale this week at Mayors’ headquarters. “Our whole plan in Florida is to invest in the stores and modernize them.”

Mayors currently has 12 outlets in Florida. The revamped Coral Gables store opened in June. Two opened in Atlanta last July.

“Merrick Park was a complete redesign of the store,” Duffy said. “Traffic has doubled and it’s a perfect example of what we do.”

Duffy said Mayors’ next remodeling project will be at Aventura Mall in northeast Miami-Dade County before the chain starts renovating its stores at Fort Lauderdale’s Galleria Mall and at the Town Center in Boca Raton. He said he needs to negotiate changes with local landlords and take care not to start disruptive construction projects during busy holiday seasons.

“We’re going to renovate all of the stores as soon as we practically can,” Duffy said.

Melissa Milroy, senior marketing manager at the Galleria, said the mall owners have yet to hear from Mayors about refurbishing the store there.

Outside of Florida, Watches of Switzerland outlets have opened in New York’s Hudson Yards and Soho enclaves, as well as in the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. In the U.K., Duffy said, sales have increased substantially as a result of upgraded merchandise and designs.

Founded in 1910, Mayors was acquired in 2017 by Watches of Switzerland. Duffy said the U.S. headquarters, which employs 50 people, will remain in Fort Lauderdale.