Knox Jewelers

Knox has the most gorgeous vintage settings you’ll find in the area. However, their customer service just didn’t stack up against other jewelers, so I didn’t end up purchasing anything from them.
At other jewelers, someone has immediately swooped in to help us one-​on-​one. Right when we got there, they asked us what we’re looking for, told us about the jeweler, told us about the services we would get for free if we purchased a ring from them, offered to let me try rings on, etc. One guy actually spent about 40 minutes explaining the history of the company, tons of details about the 4 Cs, and lots of other info about the whole ring shopping process.
When we got to Knox, it was actually a little awkward. We were the only customers there, but the two girls working just kind of smiled and said hello. Eventually they did start asking what I was looking for and offering to take rings out of the case, but they weren’t really selling, if that makes any sense. At other types of stores, I’d actually appreciate being left alone. But most couples looking for engagement rings are pretty clueless and can use lots of help. When I asked questions about the diamonds Knox sells, they didn’t seem knowledgeable at all and referred me to their diamond buyer. They had never heard of Lazare, which was a big surprise to me.
Anyway, it’s not like I had a horrendous experience or anything. Other jewelers were just more attentive. The one that won me over was just the most knowledgeable with the best customer service. Very personable and willing to bend over backwards to help us. I didn’t get that feeling from Knox.

Overall I had a great experience working with Brent Knox over the course of two months to get my fiancé a beautiful oval diamond on a custom antique style platinum ring. Let me just say that she is absolutely in love with the ring and gets tons of unsolicited compliments on it (I’m sure all girls do, though).
I will say that their diamond pricing was too high at first (by 10−15%). BUT, I simply said that I would not be willing to pay the premium for the custom ring (about $ 5K without the diamond — not cheap!) if they weren’t competitive on the diamond. I gave him some GIA certs and pricing from Blue Nile and told him what I wanted and after about three weeks he found a beautiful oval diamond that met my needs and was competitively priced. He also worked with me on making a change on one of their current ring designs that really accentuated the diamond.
Brent was very pleasant, always understanding of my needs and always patient as he presented options until I made up my mind. All of this was done by phone as I am in California. The experience was great and the outcome was even better than I had hoped for. I would highly recommend Knox Jewelers to anyone with a preference for antique style rings.

At the time I purchased my engagement ring I was living in Uptown just a half a block away from Knox Jewelers. The first time I went into the store I met with both Ryan and Brent Knox and reviewed what I was looking for and my budget. I had already consulted a few other companies and had free handed a sketch of what I wanted. Ryan had recommended a slightly larger diamond in exchange for a clarity that was near flawless, and had upsold me on the idea of platinum vs white gold.
The process: Once we had agreed on a budget and I had given them a hand sketch of what I wanted, they told me to check my email in a few days for a graphic rendering. They were able to produce a video and graphic of what the ring would look like. The graphic looked as if it were a real photo of a ring, which was really cool.
Over the next couple weeks I popped over a couple times to check out the progress and provide feedback. The last time I was in I had changed the amount of mill graining on the ring (literally had them add a few more dots around the outside). Every one of my request was accepted without hesitation and the customer service was nothing but fantastic.
Fast forward a few months, I am married, loving our products and stopped back in to get both our rings polished up. I no longer live in Uptown so I had to drive and park. In addition to general street parking there was also some construction, so I had to park a few blocks away and walk through the snow.
Overall my experience was nothing short of awesome. The quality was great, the customer service was flawless, and I have recommended them several times to friends.

I purchased a ring here ($ 4600+) and dealt with Ryan Knox directly. He stated that if I wanted to return the ring within 30 days I could and that they would purchase the diamonds back at any time for the purchase price. I attempted to return the ring at 33 days past the purchase date. He would not take the ring back. I accepted that and accepted the offer to sell back the diamond. They irreparably DESTROYED the ring taking out the center diamond by cutting off the gold posts. Not only that they kept the gold from the posts and didn’t return it. Ryan refused to buy back the ring or compensate me. Take your money somewhere else. Their customer service is horrible, their jewelry is overpriced, and they are thieves!

I had Ryan make a custom engagement ring for my fiancée. The idea was a palladium diamond ring with 8 sapphires built into the filigree. Beautiful ring.
I proposed in Vienna and my fiancée LOVED the ring. But less than 24 hours later, one of the sapphires fell out. I called Ryan from Europe and he assured me that he would replace the sapphire right when we got back.
Well, he did replace it and a few weeks later another sapphire fell out. He replaced it. Then another one fell out. At this point, my fiancée is freaking out because her engagement ring is literally falling apart.
Ryan says he’ll remake the ring from platinum — a stronger metal — and this will NOT happen again. So he remakes it… and it happens again. Another sapphire falls out.
So now Ryan tells me he’ll take the ring back and return my money. No «hey let’s try something else» or «we know this ring is really important to your fiancée so we’ll do anything we can.» Just «we’d like to give you your money back.» It was a very cold offer via email.
I go into Knox and talk to the Dad/​Owner. He tells me «Well, we offered you a solution.» A solution??? Yikes.
Eventually, my fiancée and I end up trading in that ring for one of their standards and having the sapphires put into a necklace. Not the way we hoped it would end up.
Overall, I was really not happy with my experience. While the ring was beautiful in the box, the design was so flawed that it fell apart on my fiancée’s finger. That’s not acceptable when you’re spending several thousands of dollars.
So if you’re looking for a place for an engagement ring that will be beautiful and stay in one piece, I have a SOLUTION for you: anywhere but Knox.

Words fail, leaving only superlatives.
Absolutely top-​notch customer service. We picked a base design on their site and asked to have it customized to a 3-​stone design. Brent sent mocks of the proposed ring quickly. When it seemed like we were a go on our end, Brent did an excellent job sleuthing out some very unique center stones and send them our way for review. We chose a beautiful polychromic sapphire and Brent found matching side stones. (Express shipping each way was complimentary and effortless.) The entire time, Brent sent us photos, drawings, mockups, and videos, keeping us in the loop on the entire process. The rings themselves are beautiful, truly beautiful. (I uploaded the engagement ring, see the photos attached to this review.)
Buying an engagement ring is a big commitment. Perhaps I could have saved ~25% by shopping somewhere else and securing the center stone and setting independently. I’ll never know. All I have to say is that the peace of mind, transparency, beautiful design, and top-​notch service was well, well worth the price of admission. Knox has secured a customer for life and I will recommend them to all of my friends and family.

What a fantastic experience. The customer service, designs, and local feel of this shop are top notch. Classy as shiz. Here are some details:
The Story: I was living in New York City when I first started my search. I went to the infamous Diamond District one day… hell. no. Zero percent chance I was buying a ring there. I felt dirty just walking on the street. So, I knew wanted local and someone I could trust. I moved to San Francisco shortly after I started this search and there are some nice shops here. However, I went to school in Minneapolis and used to live around the corner from Knox Jewelers. So, I went back to Minneapolis for a couple of trips and worked with them over the course of 6 months.
1) The store: very nice location in Uptown. One of my favorite neighborhoods in Mpls. Good ambiance, nice selection. Bonus — it’s close to the Herkimer. Which rules.
2) Customer Service: I worked with Ryan and he was a treat. Just a lovely gent. As I mentioned, we worked together for around 6 months. I never felt pressure. I never felt rushed. To give you an idea of the care he invested into the process:
— He sent me a 9 paragraph email with full descriptions of 3 stones that he picked as finalists for me.
— I saved around 40 emails between the two of us over the time period.
— He put up with my idiot friends when they came into the store to look at settings in person.
— He helped me make decisions and did a great job of «guiding» with his expertise vs. «pushing» me towards something.
— The speed in which they turned things around was awesome. Living in SF, he sent me a temporary setting with our stone to propose. Then, over the holidays (busy time), they were able to start work on the final setting and turned around the shipping on it in about 24 hours or so. I sent the temporary back on Wednesday and got the final ring on Saturday.
— Anyone who can make you feel comfortable when buying this level of jewelry from out of state has to be great, right?
3) Quality: I was able to custom create a setting from a combination of 2 settings that I saw in the store. The final stone could not be more perfect. My fiancé is absolutely stoked and said the following two things:
— I don’t think I could have picked out a better ring for myself (quick props to me, haha)
— I cannot believe how beautiful this is! (said while randomly looking at her hand daily)
Overall: This is a small, local shop that I could not recommend more.
Thanks to Ryan and Knox Jewelers for making our experience of such a great life moment so amazing!
And, for those of you who are visual, you can see the temporary setting and stone here:

Do yourself a favor, use Knox Jewelers! I live out-​of-​state in California, I never set foot inside the store and I never met any staff face-​to-​face… but the quality of service I got and the custom engagement ring I bought couldn’t have been any better. I spent months researching different companies, and Knox Jewelers had the most unique designs I could find by far. Their website is one of best I’ve seen. When I contacted them, they were incredibly knowledgeable in helping guide me through the entire process — design, cost, diamond selection, shipping, everything. They sent me sketches and pictures as they created the ring. Even though I had done a lot of research, I was so happy that they thought of things I never would have. It truly felt as though I was working with a craftsman jeweler rather than «a store». In some reviews, people say that their diamonds are «over-​priced». While it’s true that I could find cheaper diamonds elsewhere, my goal wasn’t to find a «cheap» diamond, it was to get an awesome ring and «the right» diamond — but it didn’t matter, because the selection of diamonds was huge and I didn’t have any problem finding many in my price range. What was perhaps more surprising, was that the rings themselves, even custom designs, are very affordable! When my custom ring arrived (early actually!), it was just a hair too big (my fault for not measuring better) — we sent the ring back to the store to be resized and got it back within 2 days, and it fit perfect! Overall — they were very quick and responsive, answered every question I had, never made me feel like they were «selling» to me, and the bottom line is that the custom engagement ring we got was stunning — better than we had hoped. Call them!

I can’t say enough good things about Knox. My fiancé and I purchased my engagement ring and our wedding bands from Knox. We went in multiple times and they were patient with us each time no matter how long we were there or how many rings we asked to look at. The first time we went in, they told us to go other places to shop around (I’m sure they feel comfortable doing this because they know you’ll be back in no time when you look elsewhere — no where else compares). They don’t pressure you and they don’t make you feel like a lesser person if you don’t have an unlimited budget. Yes, their rings are more expensive than your average mall jewelry store, but you’re paying for a unique design that few others have, incomparable quality, and friendly, knowledgeable service. One other huge perk is that you don’t have to wait weeks when you have work done on your ring — usually it’s only a day or two before you get it back. We worked with Lindsey who was absolutely great! I would recommend Knox to anyone and I can say for certain that we will be customers for life.

While most of my review won’t be the best, I do want to say that they have nice designs and … that’s about it.
My first experience with them– I went in and asked about getting my e-​ring set into one of their designs. They told me that they don’t normally work with outsides stones (Oh, because then people wouldn’t buy your overpriced diamonds?) and that even IF they could make me a custom setting I would have to bring it elsewhere to have it set. for another $ 250. WHAT? Seriously? I’ve had better luck with working with jewelers in New York than I did trying to go local.
The tipping point was when a guy that was in the store was trying to buy a diamond for his future fiancé (And I heard this all while my sales girl was running around trying to find answers for me) and asked if he could see stone A, B, and C in person. HIS sales person gave him the run around and said «Here I will show you a picture on the computer.» Well, that’s all fine and dandy, but why couldn’t he just see the stones? If I had the chance to see a stone in person, I would request that as well!!! At that point, the sales girl came back and gave me the ridiculous story of the setting and bringing it somewhere else to be set, so my fiancé and I got our butts out of there!
I do want to note that they severely over charge for their diamonds. If anyone is looking for more information on diamonds past the 4 c’s — look up «diamond forum» and you will get a ton more education.
I do NOT NOT NOT recommend them. My fiancé told me he will NEVER purchase from them– and we are about a mile from them, which would’ve made custom work easy.

My Fiancé and I bought our engagement setting from Knox online from Chicago. The setting we chose had very detailed hand engravings and was ordered during their busiest season, and the setting was still finished in just over a month from ordering it (which was very fast!). They made the setting to perfectly fit the diamond we had selected and sent us a complementary ring sizer so that we could make sure the size made was correct. The owner of Knox was extremely easy to get a hold of and was always helpful when contacted with questions regarding the making of the setting. Even though we were ordering from so far away it felt like Knox was only a few miles from us, and when it came time for the setting to be shipped, it was insured and sent next day delivery, arriving in pristine condition. We would definitely use Knox again for our important jewelry needs. I wish they would open a store in Chicago!