With a new 7,500-square-foot showroom in Ardmore, Govberg Jewelers’ legacy lives on in The 1916 Company

Standing behind a case of glittering engagement rings, Jackie Tripoli shared her favorite thing about working in high-end jewelry: “People let you into their life.”

From engagements and weddings to baby showers and retirements, Tripoli has been there with customers — crying, laughing, sharing photos and, of course, guiding them through big purchases.

Tripoli is a 35-year employee of Govberg Jewelers, a Philadelphia institution that, in 2023, merged with three other watch and jewelry outfitters to form The 1916 Company. Earlier this month, The 1916 Company took a major step toward its future, opening a 7,500-square-foot showroom in Ardmore.

 Located at 102 E. Montgomery Ave., the showroom more than doubles Govberg’s old space in Suburban Square and is The 1916 Company’s first official storefront.

On Tuesday morning, employees, including Tripoli, buzzed around the newly opened showroom, which is outfitted with dedicated consultation alcoves, jewelry cases, and displays for prominent watch brands like Rolex, Tudor, Breitling, and IWC.

The store was designed to be “upscale, but approachable,” said John Shmerler, CEO of The 1916 Company.

Govberg is an institution in the world of Philadelphia jewelry. Albert and Sam Govberg founded Govberg Jewelers in 1916. The company opened its first storefront on Philadelphia’s Jewelers Row in 1922.

In 2017, Danny Govberg, Albert’s grandson and cofounder of The 1916 Company, founded WatchBox — a global retailer and platform for collectible pre-owned watches.

Sitting in a tucked-away lounge in the new showroom, Shmerler and Govberg explained that luxury watches are made to last forever, but there was historically no easy way for consumers to buy and sell their watches on the pre-owned market. Though pre-owned watches could be purchased at some third-party retailers, it could be difficult to verify their authenticity.

Enter WatchBox.

Unlike traditional jewelers, WatchBox is tailored specifically to the secondhand market, providing a place for people to buy, sell, and trade pre-owned watches that are authenticated by experts.

Over the past 30 years, Govberg said, the demand for discontinued Rolex watches has been steadily rising. That market exploded in 2023 when Rolex introduced its certified pre-owned program. In an interview with the New York Times at the time, Govberg called it “a revolutionary move.”

While Govberg Jewelers had been authenticating pre-owned watches for years, Govberg explained that there was no official, global standard for certification. With Rolex’s announcement, he said, the Geneva-based watch giant introduced “a whole new standard that we can look upon to say, ‘It’s now finally the best.’”

With the opening up of the secondhand Rolex market, “a whole new customer got created,” Shmerler said.

In 2023, Govberg Jewelers merged with WatchBox, as well as the Baltimore-based Radcliffe Jewelers and Denver-based Hyde Park Jewelers, to form The 1916 Company, a partnership the company said would consolidate expertise, resources, and markets under one banner.

Govberg said he had his eyes on the Montgomery Avenue showroom location for years. At a time when many retailers are heading online and into malls, The 1916 Company wanted a standalone store, one that was an investment in “neighborhood retail,” Govberg said.

“We’re really in the business of trying to help people celebrate meaningful moments in their life,” Shmerler said. “We just felt like, let’s create something in each of our markets, but especially here, that makes that easy for people.”

Change is hard, Shmerler and Govberg acknowledged. They’ve received questions about why the Philadelphia legacy brand dropped its iconic name. But merging into The 1916 Company allows them to “move forward into the future as a next-gen company,” Govberg said.

Local ties remain.

The 1916 Company “connects the dots between us and this idea of time,” Shmerler said. “This idea that special things happen over time, and you’re marking these moments in time.”

The Ardmore showroom is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays.