Trabert Goldsmiths

I cannot say enough good things about my experience with Eric Trabert and his team. My fiancé and I went to almost every jeweler in the Bay Area and found Eric Trabert’s pieces to be by far the best. The quality and craftsmanship that goes into his original pieces are truly exquisite. Not only were we thrilled with the engagement ring he made, we felt so comfortable and welcomed by everyone there and had a great experience designing the ring along with Eric. I highly recommend Trabert Goldsmiths and would give them 10 stars if I could :)

This jewelry store is a gem unto itself. Such beautiful jewelry and really nice people. Both Eric and Chloe were incredibly helpful as I searched for the perfect diamond. I was looking for an ‘old european’ cut diamond — they are rare, unique diamonds cut about 100 years ago. Not easy to find these days. I was so happy to find Trabert’s Jewelry bc they have a passion for these older stones too — and they have an excellent inventory to choose from. On top of that they make gorgeous new rings based on older designs. So you get the antique look with the durability of a new ring. Truly heavenly.

We showed up about 40 min before closing to buy a wedding band, there were 2 staff and only one other customer (who seems to be here for cleaning but was definitely a regular). Nobody even paid attention to us. We left after 7 minutes. I guess we didn’t look rich enough.

Eric and his staff did a miracle job on my grandmothers cocktail ring. I brought them a stone that was cracked and covered in glue. Eric took the job and went above and beyond my expectations! He created a more stable, elegant ring which I can enjoy forever and think of my grandma everytime it sparkles! Thanks guys!

This unique, intimate jewelry atelier is a «bijou» unto itself. The
staff and owner, Eric, are knowledgeable and helpful; the aesthetics of the jewelry displayed and sold in this Upper Fillmore shoppe is stunning: both elegant and sophisticated, yet accessible and minimalist. I like everything in there! They also have repaired my vintage necklaces for years, and, for this I am grateful.
Kim Frohsin
Artist

I came across Eric Trabert’s website while searching for a jeweler for my engagement ring, and knew instantly I would find my ring from him. A lot of the engagement rings out there look similar and his selection have more classic and unique designs. Many thanks also for Eric and his team for getting us our wedding bands on time as we ordered them a week before our wedding (we definitely procrastinated on that one.). I’ve gotten many compliments on the uniqueness of my ring and we’re very happy with our rings.

Eric and his team are awesome! I happened to walk in here off the street one day just to browse and they were so great and attentive, and had such great stuff and were so willing to share their knowledge, I ended up working with them to build an incredible engagement ring for my (now) fiancée.
I was looking for something fairly specific and actually spoke with several jewelers and diamond wholesalers around the country trying to find it, but no one could, aside from Eric.
The team at Eric Trabert were so accommodating and helpful… I was doing most of my work with them remotely and sometimes at odd hours. They also were super fast when I finally decided on everything I wanted — they got it done very quickly.
I would absolutely recommend Eric to anyone, especially if you want something more custom, or unique. Their prices were totally comparable, to everywhere I shopped, but the service and style was head and shoulders above.
I also loved the fact that Eric dealt in both modern cut stones, but also seemed to have relatively good access to Old European cut stones (both vintage and new). These stones are very hard to find and really unique, so, the fact that he had a couple in stock when I was looking, and could also locate more, was very exciting! We ended up going with a very high quality 2.11 stone that was a vintage Old European cut and put it in a beautiful platinum solitaire setting… needless to say, there is some serious ring envy from our friends.
We are going to go back here for our wedding bands too!

Dented my watch bezel, took it in and Melanie expertly buffed away the problem. Top notch job, recommend her & the store for similar work.

My fiancé and I were visiting San Fran and noticed that the diamond on her ring was a little loose. Concerned that it might fall out of the setting during our travels, we stopped by and Eric and his staff were amazing! They immediately looked at the mounting, offered to clean the ring, and gave us details on what was going on with the setting and how it should be addressed by our jeweler. Unfortunately, we were only in town for a few more hours or we would have had Eric do the work himself!

I got the setting for our engagement ring here and the our wedding bands. I would highly recommend this place to any and everyone. The staff was fantastically helpful. I live in the area, and we come back frequently for a free polishing. The staff remembers us and is always so nice and helpful. Going through the ring buying process there could not have been easier. I had advice and information when I needed it and never felt pressured. Their designs are all available online. The hardest part was choosing which one!

Would not recommend this place if all you need is a link taken out of your watch. I had to follow up with them three seperate times in order to check the status of my watch. They never got back to me when I left a message. It took them over a month to adjust my watch, and they were still going to charge me $ 30 for the service. Ridiculous… Would have expected more from a place like this.

I brought in a diamond for Eric to mount in a Sholdt setting. It was done a week earlier than Eric promised and looks perfectly like I expected. His price was exactly the same as other Sholdt dealers in the Bay Area. My only minor complaint is that the box is bland black velvet, but that’s getting tossed anyway.

Quick and efficient. I went here to have my watch sized and I was in and out within 10 minutes for a cheap price!

My husband and I purchased our wedding bands and a diamond engagement band at Eric Trabert. I am SUPER happy with the designs– after looking at many, many jewelry stores we found rings we truly love here. Plus I think the price, while high, was reasonable and fair.
We did have a little trouble with the rings– they came in late (but we did get the bands by the time of our wedding– in fact, we got them the DAY before) and somehow the store accidentally ordered the wrong engagement band for us (crazy, right?).
BUT, they did fix the engagement ring and everything is beautiful now.
The only things holding me back from giving this store 4 stars are:
1. They are super slow. They had to mail the wedding bands to our destination wedding because they weren’t done in time and I JUST got my new engagement ring yesterday, over a month after we «re-​ordered» it (Emphasis here: I did not have my engagement ring for our wedding because ET ordered the WRONG ONE and didn’t get the right one to us until a month AFTER the wedding). Not a big deal, just make sure you plan accordingly when shopping here (actually, it was kinda a big deal).
2. There were some tiny scratches in my husband’s wedding band that I found annoying (although they did fix them!) and my diamond ring (which I love!) has one tiny, tiny flaw. Eric Trabert IS good about fixing stuff, so that is a plus!!! I guess I’m a bit picky, but I just figure– for the price we paid it should be perfect, right?
4. When everything was so messed up with our order, it would have been nice to get a small — nominal!- discount. Or a free something. :P
My advice to others shopping here: be VERY clear about what you want (this color stone, design should be this, fit should be this, etc) and give them at least 2 months lead time. :)

As good as it gets is an understatement! If there were 10 starts, Eric Trabert Goldsmiths would get 11.
Blue Nile and Tiffany make me gag. Why are wedding rings, bands & sets so boring? Why does everything look the same?! We have to wear these things forever, who wants to look like everyone else? Why is it so hard to find original wedding jewelry… !!!
My fiancé and I had been pounding pavement looking at rings for months all over the Bay Area, Napa, Carmel, Monterey, estate sales. you name it. I finally found something unique online, but the rings were in LA, so the jeweler referred us to Eric as a dealer.
We went in on a busy Saturday afternoon without an appointment. The place is tiny and they are BUSY, but we were greeted in a few minutes and told they would be with us shortly. They were friendly and unpretentious in a sea of snobbery amongst the diamond industry. I wish I could remember the name of the cute brunette who initially helped us. Not only was she just the sweetest thing with the most fab vintage wardrobe, she also GETS IT.
I am super specific in my taste and she knew what I wanted and understood how to translate my vision to Eric. After a brief consultation with her, Eric then joined us. He showed me the rings I had seen from the LA brand and made suggestions based on other designs I liked as well.
We decided to go custom all the way. I showed him pictures of a ring that I liked elements of, but wanted to make it more elegant and custom. He knew exactly what to do. Not only did he show us how we could do it, he also educated us on the right metal, stones, settings, finishes, tools he would use, etc. For the first time I finally felt like we had found our jeweler… FOR LIFE.
We left feeling confident that Eric and his team were ON IT!
We gave a deposit a few days later and the design was in motion.
A week later he emailed a CAD sketch of the ring, then went back another time to pick out the diamonds. He specially brought in a few different options for me to choose from. I was speechless when I saw them, they were so much better than the original cut I was confident I wanted before meeting him.
It was not an up sell, it was just the right thing for my ring and overall aesthetic.
I think it was about a 6 week process in total, but Eric communicated with us every step of the way. No question was annoying to him, he always answered them and calmed our nerves. It is VERY scary spending so much $$ on something we couldn’t actually see until the finished product. Custom rings are always scary, but having something that is uniquely yours is worth the anxiety. I guarantee you will have a lot less hesitation going custom if you work with Eric.
When my fiancé slipped the almost 3 carats of eternity sparkle on my finger for my birthday, I almost passed out. I’ve never seen anything so spectacular in my life. I wanted something different, that nobody would have and was specific to my taste and he NAILED it.
Every detail in that ring was perfect, including all of the handwork he did. There is NO way we would have found a ring like this in a case somewhere by chance… (although there are some pretty insane styles in HIS case).
We can’t wait to go back and pair up this beauty with some wedding bands and work with Eric again.
If you are looking for something unique go see Eric. If you have an eye for vintage an contemporary blended styles, he is your guy. Looking for a rare color/​cut stone, metal or setting, but can’t seem to find it?
Ask Eric.

My fiancé and I went ring shopping at Eric Trabert this past weekend. We were helped by Devin – she was wonderful! She was full of great suggestions for our wedding bands and even gave my two rings a nice cleaning.
They have a GREAT selection of unique rings and do beautiful custom work. I left there totally in love with a wedding band, that I’ll probably have to do a little «customization» on to get the price into our range. Apparently I have expensive taste.
Another plus is that they’re open on Saturday. We had a hard time finding jewelers with weekend hours. I don’t get it — are people supposed to do all their shopping during lunch?

My requirements were simple. I wanted to get a set of rings that my fiancée would love wear with pride. I can say with all confidence that the folks at Eric Trabert were helped me achieve this goal.
We went with a stack-​able set and decided against the solitaire approach. We visited several times and I even went a few times alone. I never felt pressure to make a decision. In particular there was one woman that works there that was AMAZING. She gave us her honest opinion and then actually listened to my fiancée needs and wants. We needed a little coaching and this woman gave it all while not pushing us into anything.
I love nice things! Part of buying nice things is the process of buying them. This was a great experience and would recommend this place to others.

It’s taken me a while to get the nerve to write this review — not out of fear but sadness that the process of creating my engagement ring was not a happy one. We met Eric, liked him, and were excited about designing a ring based on concepts that were important to us. At one meeting with him we discussed ideas and saw some rough sketches he had made. He was going to incorporate our ideas and email us. The next time we heard from him he informed us that the wax mold of the ring was ready. My reaction was — ‘wax mold of what ring?’
We expressed our concern that we had no idea what design he had sent off for the mold, and Eric became very defensive. He told us that making another wax mold would cost about an extra $ 700. We could not afford that. From then on the experience was just bad. I couldn’t even tell if I liked the ring because I was shocked that I hadn’t given the final OK on my own engagement ring. It was not what I envisioned. I wanted to like it and I wanted Eric to like us, but his attitude revealed that he didn’t. Now he was going to make the ring I was going to wear for the rest of my life. And we were spending a lot of money relative to our income. I felt awful.
The ring is lovely– this isn’t so much about his technical skills but customer service. We were totally open to the fact that there may have been a miscommunication in the process, after all we had never done anything like this before. We had no problem working through it, but he was not having it. Somehow we were wrong and he was offended. Ice cold.
Prior to the wedding we naively stopped in again to discuss bands that might go well with the ring he created. Super chilly reception. We wised up and went to another jeweler where we were treated with warmth, respect and patience.
I guess I learned that I should ask to approve a final ring design before I have to pay for a wax mold of it. And that the next time I hire someone to perform an important service and they treat me poorly I can walk away.

Overall summary: Working with Eric was great on my engagement ring purchase. He had a great stone and a unique setting that was customized with some tasteful additions. 5 stars for standing out in a crowded space.
I went into the diamond engagement purchase process in what seems to be the typical way — learned as much about what the woman wants (stone shape and setting style) and about diamonds in general as well as gauge price using the online websites. My engineering background and education often forces me to look at all options, details and compromises. To quench my thirst for information I ended up going to almost every local shop in SF and, since I am from NY, connected to some diamond distributers in the NYC diamond district.
The experience was everything from heartless to embarrassing (see Simayof review) to out right shady except with Eric who was easy to deal with and down to earth. He worked with me a bit on price and ended up being competitive so we then quickly decided on a setting and stone. It took some time to fabricate the ring but the 4 week wait was worth it. My girl is overwhelming happy and constantly gets sincere comments such as: «wow, that’s just the most beautiful ring I have ever seen.» Most importantly her Grandmother is happy and provided a defining quote as she remarked: «I feel a lot better about him now that he gave you that ring… now he won’t just run away.» :o)
The only note I would like to give is to judge Eric’s shop only after sitting with Eric since some of his shop girls are not very knowledgeable and may give you the wrong impression.
The diamond ring industry is wacky, shady and weird — it can ruin the fun and special time in your life engagement represents. This is all a rite of passage, I imagine, but working with Eric was a refreshing final stop.

I was recommended by a friend to come here since she said Eric did great work on her setting. I saw her ring and it looked nice. She didn’t buy her diamond from him though.
First off, my initial conversations with Eric were very informative although somewhat aggressive on the sales-​side. He educated me on basic diamond info and told me he would find one and give me a call back. He did call back in a short-​time frame and emailed quickly after our initial meeting
So here’s where shady-​ness comes. After finding a diamond that I wanted he quoted me a price that was 6k higher than a very similar diamond on Blue Nile. So similar their GIA reports were 1 digit off and the carat, color, table & depth %s were essentially the same. I brought this to his attention over the phone and he claims his computer wasnt working and would call be back later (which he didnt do)
The next day he calls me and says I dont see the diamond. In case you dont know, on Blue Nile anyone can reserve a diamond and the diamond is unlisted on Blue Nile for 48hrs.
This other jeweler I was working with calls me and informs me that Eric told the vendor I promised to buy the diamond but backed out. The same vendor who owns both diamonds, delists the cheaper one from Blue Nile since he’s upset that I backed out of Eric’s diamond. I never promised payment since we were still negotiating price.
Moral of the story is do your research before walking into a jewelery store. There’s a wealth of information on the internet although one has to search for quality content. I’m sure the diamond that Eric has will sell even though it’s 6k overpriced given the location of his store, but I wanted more value out of what I was going to pay for. His diamond isn’t exactly or even close to the diamond I wanted that Tiffany uses for one of their design. Another piece of information I had to find out through research.
Just fyi, we were looking for cushion cut diamonds and
by far has the best cuts and most variety of any type.
From modern, chunky and H&A. They even cut their own chunky facet cushion called the August vintage cut. Check out their videos on their website.
Great sites to visit to learn more about diamonds:

Ooh, gold! And diamonds!
There are quite a few very impressive pieces in this store. The channel-​set diamond rings in the window caught my eye, especially the ones that framed the large center diamonds. Inside, there was quite a variety of jewelry.
They have several sources, and it’s a very nice store. It looks like the classic styles are coming back.

I have a similar frustration with the diamond industry as Matt F. The industry, as well as the sick overly-​competitive look girls get when they compare each others’ monetary commitment trinket simply sickens me. That said, a girl deserves an engagement ring.
My fiancé and I actually did the ring search together, and put quite a bit of time into the process, visiting several local places, online options, and even places in other cities. Unilocal reviews actually sent us to Eric’s shop, although we found out later a friend had purchased their rings here as well.
His small place is like a boutique — small, beautiful, and very clean. Naturally, I expected to find stuffy people with overpriced goods. Instead, we found the people in the office friendly and down-​to-​earth. And when we got around to pricing, I was surprised to find prices competitive with any place we had seen. But it is Eric’s confident and knowledgeable help that truly sets the place apart and made us comfortable making the purchase. The ring design we (me, my fiancé, and Eric) designed together was actually different from anything he had done before, but ended up being exactly what we wanted.
My fiancé and I tend to take forever to make large decisions, are very picky, and therefore tough customers to please (and likely a pain to deal with). Eric came up with a design that addressed each of the qualities we wanted (alternating cuts all around), and minimized all our worries (too high, too thick). In all, we couldn’t be happier, and know we have a unique custom ring that is truly a perfect fit in every way. I’m pleased enough with what we came up with that I’m adding a photo of the ring. Good luck with your own ring search.