Designer Quiz

I Turned Down Faster Production Because Only Four People on Earth Could Execute My Technique

My rigato engraving required 10 tools just to create one “fabric” effect.

Published

21 seconds ago

January 24, 2026

INSTORE Staff Instore February 2026 Issue

I Turned Down Faster Production Because Only Four People on Earth Could Execute My Technique

“Ten engraving tools. One cuff. Don’t ask how long.”

WHEN I OPENED my first shop on Largo Santa Margherita in Milan in 1919, jewelers were racing toward Art Deco geometry and machine-age sleekness. I went the opposite direction — backward, about 400 years. My workshop looked medieval: craftsmen hunched over benches with the same bulino engraving tools Benvenuto Cellini would have recognized, creating surfaces so intricate that clients swore my gold cuffs must be made of fabric.

My signature rigato technique — parallel lines engraved so fine they created a silk-like shimmer — took my craftsmen months to learn and years to perfect. Each jewel required at least ten different engraving tools, some no thicker than a hair. When Pope Pius XII commissioned ceremonial pieces, I warned him about my timeline. He waited. So did everyone else: poet Gabriele D’Annunzio, the House of Savoy, even the Aga Khan. They understood: you can’t rush the Renaissance.

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Honoring a Legacy: How Smith & Son Jewelers Exceeded Every Goal With Wilkerson

When Andrew Smith decided to close the Springfield, Massachusetts location of Smith & Son Jewelers, the decision came down to family. His father was retiring after 72 years in the business, and Andrew wanted to spend more time with his children and soon-to-arrive grandchildren. For this fourth-generation jeweler whose great-grandfather founded the company in 1918, closing the 107-year-old Springfield location required the right partner. Smith chose Wilkerson, and the experience exceeded expectations from start to finish. "Everything they told me was 100% true," Smith says. "The ease and use of all their tools was wonderful." The consultants' knowledge and expertise proved invaluable. Smith and his father set their own financial goal, but Wilkerson proposed three more ambitious targets. "We thought we would never make it," Smith explains. "We were dead wrong. We hit our first goal, second goal and third goal. It was amazing." Smith's recommendation is emphatic: "I would never be able to do what they did by myself."