Jewels by Kurt

If 0 stars was an option that’s what I would give this place. Brought my engagement ring here to have a ring adjuster added for a temporary fix because it was too big. He was so rough with my ring he left deep scratches in the band trying to get the adjuster to properly fit. I was appalled at the work he did and immediately took my ring to a shop on Montana where they had to buff down my band in order to get the deep scratches out. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS STORE.

I have been doing business with this company for 24 years. I have trusted them all that time. Over the years my parents have purchased things from there at my recommendation.
Several years ago I took my ring that I’ve had since I was 18 given to me by my parents as a birthday gift. I am now in my 60s. I wanted the ring cleaned. Michael told me that the ring was glass even though my father purchased it from a jeweler.
Michael told me that he had an aquamarine stone and he would switch it out and showed me the stone. Today I took jewelry to sell at a pawn shop. I was told there that my earrings purchased from Macys a while ago did not have semi precious stones in 14 carat gold setting but fake stones. The earrings were priced at $ 800 when I bought them on sale. I then showed the gentleman at the pawn shop the aquamarine ring from Kurts, not intending to sell it but to prove to him that my Kurts stone was real and I was proud of the fact that my ring had a true aquamarine stone to be told that it was not. Kurts had put as aquamarine a quartz rock in my ring and never told me. I was beyond upset. It is true I no longer have a glass aquamarine but it still does not have a true aquamarine stone which is what I asked for and paid for. The quartz stone is a slight step above a glass aquamarine.

born and raised in santa monica and have used these guys in the past. something charming about their old school ways or so i thought. Brought in 5 pieces to simply be cleaned, with one necklace chain that needed to be untangled and shortened. 3 weeks… and still not ready. I would call ahead, they say it’ll be ready tomorrow, I go in… NOT READY. 3 wasted trips battling promenade traffic & parking craziness. When I expressed my frustration, the response was «Oh we are so busy». I explained that I own a biz in SM too and I would never treat my customers this way… His response: «well we’ve been here a long time so it doesnt matter». WOW!!! Finally i just gave up. Asked for my stuff back. Went up the street to Yale Jewelers and they did all the work within the same day, and at half the price Kurt wanted! I was so impressed with them, I am not having them custom design a ring for me. GOODBYE KURT.

Felt like I was being ripped off the second time around. I tried to get something engraved and they tried charging me double. Still not sure why??? It was just a few words. Although they did a good job on the engraving, I felt communication lacked. I would never go back.

I like this shop because he does so much custom work. I have unique jewelry repaired and redone there. If you have outdated pieces that need some love this is the place to take them. He’s also great with silver jewelry.

Don’t go here. If you are thinking about going here, turn around and walk away. I am still waiting on the piece of jewelry I ordered from this store after 5 return trips to pick up the ring I hired Michael to make for me.
I brought in a stone to make a ring. The very sweet lady told me to pick it up in one week. When I arrived, it was not ready. When I returned to pick it up, it looks totally different than the design that I had discussed with Michael and it was so big it could fit over my thumb with room to spare. I was re-​sized and asked to return and changed the ring design to the simplest ring style possible, fearing this was all that the store could handle.
I returned when the lady asked me to return… BUT, she then said the ring actually was not there. I return again the next day and the new ring is so small it can only fit on my pinky. I’m still waiting to go back over there, but at this point I am so frustrated a part of me just wants to chalk up the 50% to a learning experience so I don’t have to go back and be disappointed yet again.

I had a terrible experience at this jewelry store. I needed a stone reset in a bracelet and I was told to come back the next day. After this store having my bracelet for one month, and the store giving me different stories each time I called. I decided to go there and ask for my bracelet back. Micheal told me that the large turquoise stone was lost a few days earlier and they didn’t bother to look for it. I told them I wasn’t leaving until they look for it. Needless to say… I waited a few hours and the stone was lost. It had very sentimental value to me. They have changed location to 4^th st. In Santa Monica. I would warn everyone to stay away. I asked him for some compensation in return. I was given a ring and I later had it appraised and I was told it wasn’t a new ring.

If not giving any stars was an option, I’d do so. I came into this store because I needed a ring re-​sized and I was willing to pay whatever price for it, I just needed it for a specific time. When I brought it in I was told that thing ring wasn’t from the time period was initially told when I purchased it from elsewhere which was fine and I appreciated the honesty, but I still liked it regardless and it was going to be a gift for my finance. The owner of the shop was great at first and told me I could pick the ring up in a few days, that he would figure out what time period the ring was from and what the material was which I thought was great but I was going out of town for a week, he reassured me I could pick it up when I got back. I went in a week and a half later for it, he looked at me like he was distressed and told me that «he was very sorry but he hasn’t even gotten a chance to look at the ring or re-​size it yet. He still needs to do a few small acid tests on it to figure out the exact material so he can re-​size it properly» and assured me it would be done by Monday. I come in Monday and he gives me the same look and acts as if he’s surprised to see me or something… ring still isn’t re-​sized. Almost exactly two weeks later and it’s not re-​sized which is absolutely absurd because not only did he have my number for contact the entire time and failed to get a hold of me, but he made up some huge elaborate lie about the situation. He told me that he had been «carrying the ring around him everywhere he went for the past two weeks trying to find a material that matched up with the ring and he couldn’t» when two days prior he hadn’t even tested the ring to know what it was made from. If you don’t have time to work on something then try communicating with the customer about it, and when it comes down to it the worst thing you could do is take them for an idiot and LIE to their face. Waste of my time. I ended up going down the street and having it re-​sized in 2 hours no questions asked. Reading the reviews. I have no idea how this guy even runs a business because he clearly can’t get anything right.
Something that made my experience even worse was that when I was waiting for my ring the second time I went to pick it up this old woman (had to have been over 80) was in to have two watches fixed of hers. The jeweler told her that the watches weren’t worth much money and they were not what she thought they were, and that she would be better off saving her money and not getting them fixed. Honesty is great and all. but this was AFTER she told him that one of the watches was one her husband bought her in Europe before they were engaged. She sounded devastated when he told her that, with good reason. It doesn’t matter if the watch was $ 10 at a flee market or a piece of junk… when an item means the world to you and it’s from someone you love, you can’t put a price on it. The poor woman was in disbelief about it all and I felt terrible for her.

Absolutely awful jeweler. Rude, overpriced and homophobic. Went in to have a spacer put onto my partners engagement ring and he snatched the ring clamped a cheap nickel spacer into it and charged me $ 15. He also insulted the ring, which is a family heirloom valued at $ 6000 and is absolutely gorgeous. He said when I want to invest in a real piece of jewelry that he has plenty of them. He doesn’t btw. Selection is cheap and very ugly! Avoid this crook at all costs. Or go in and pledge support for gay rights. He’s a douche. ZERO STARS NEEDS TO BE IMPLEMENTED!

This guy has to be the WORST jeweler on the planet. I happened to walk in off the street as I was in the neighborhood and had a repair. BIG mistake! He said my repair would be ready in one week. To make a long and ugly story shorter, I finally got it back about 6 weeks later and it wasn’t done properly. I eventually just took it back as I thought he might never return it to me, and will have to take it somewhere else. During all that time he lied about when he claimed he would have it ready, he was incredibly rude and nasty, and he seemed almost delusional. DO NOT go to his place. He is horrible and his work is even worse.

I have to agree with the other Unilocalers on this one! The service is awful Kurt is not a nice or friendly guy! Also there always late on delivery! Point being shit service!

The guy is a jerk. He’s rude, not only to customers, but when I was there, he was incredibly rude to the young woman working for him. The place seems disorganized. Walk a few extra blocks to Jack’s Jewelers on Santa Monica Blvd.

Let’s just say that I truly and finally know how it feels to be a princess at last. .. finally:) And I owe it all to Michael at Kurt’s Jewelry, an amazingly talented jeweler and sweetheart, and my mensch of a generous boyfriend, Lewis Flinkman. Smooches to you both:)
The realization of my fairy tale dream came true in the form of the most beautiful necklace and earrings I had ever laid eyes upon, either in person, films, photos or in any fairy tale no one thinks will ever actually come true.
But alas, it finally did for me, and I am not even a material girl in the least.
Even though I am a model, media personality, and award-​winning journalist, I had resigned myself to only wearing and owning costume jewelry for the rest of my life.
As I was simply unfortunate until now to have a sweet man in my life who may think of me as his princess, I thought I would forever wear plastic and glass jewelry that would always eventually break or lose its luster and shine.
People always assumed my baubles were real, although my other baubles certainly are:) As a comic by nature, I learned to boast how cheap I had found one rhinestone necklace or ring, as I couldn’t lie as women fawned over me. Most of my so-​called jewelry had come from thrift stores, consignment shops, and yes, even The Good Will, still one of my favorite stores for Designer bags and shoes.
I went to so many Salvation Army’s with my little girl, that when someone asked her where she got her beautiful eyes from, she answered, «Well, the Salvation Army of course.»
Now, enough of the past, and now back to my Princess experience I am now currently enjoying through a necklace and set of earrings.
Just picture the most sparkling and iridescent color of Blue Topaz you can imagine, and you still can’t truly picture it. I’m telling you girls, and boys if you want to make your girl fawn all over you, check out Kurt’s.
To attempt to describe the set would not do it justice, but I will say that it is a rectangular-​shaped Topaz stone surrounded by white diamonds and subtle chocolate diamonds in the four corners. It is a pendant style and hangs at just the right place near my décolletage, if you get my points. If you don’t, sorry I can’t help you out there, i’m finally taken now by a good boy:)
Michael managed to make the color of earrings match the necklace to perfection, and they are just absolutely simple and elegant.
Although it is extremely sparkly and nearly decadent, it is elegant and simple enough to wear during the day with a blazer, skinny jeans and boots. Although I also plan to wear it to a Charity Event for STAND where guests will watch the Academy Awards and show up as their favorite movie star.
I now feel like I am an old fashioned movie star like Audrey Hepburn in ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’, like Marilyn Monroe in ‘Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend’ or Angelina Jolie at the red carpet at the Oscars.
And did I mention that this beautiful gift that made yours truly weep with joy was more than affordable?
Well, I suppose now with the help of Michael and my dear Lewis, I can finally consider myself a real Jewish Japanese princess, at last.
From one newly-​reaized princess to all of the other gals out there, just know that your lucky day may come sometime soon as well.
And if it does, make it happen at Kurt’s.

Let’s just say there was a delay that got delayed before it was delayed. All’s well that ends very, very well, but still.

I was a fan of Jewels By Kurt. Even when they didn’t have my husband’s wedding ring re-​size done until the DAY of our wedding, even though they promised it to me a week before.
I was a fan even when they made me wait for my orders for weeks, time and time again.
But now, It has been a month and a week since they lost my ring. No one ever calls me back, or appears to even be apologetic over there. My husband bought me that ring on our honeymoon. How am I ever going to re create that moment?
How can any jewelry business, one I have patronized many times, be so unorganized and so heartless… to not even call me back after they lost my ring!
I am considering a lawsuit in civil court for the cost of the ring. Just thought I should warn people.

WORST PLACE TO FIX YOUR JEWELRY EVER. I gave them a very important antique necklace to fix in January and JUST PICKED IT UP NOW, 6 MONTHS LATER, IN JULY!
Not only that, it was FIXED INCORRECTLY. HORRIBLY INCORRECTLY. I had gone in several times to get it, called and called and called– was told it would be ready week after week after week and found myself explaining again and again what needed to be fixed. I was reassured it would happen and the last time I had called about it they «couldn’t locate my necklace» -!!!
I fixed it two days ago with a pair of jewelry plyers after a friend told me how. I will NEVER EVER GO BACK to this place nor would I recommend it to even my worst enemy.
To top things off, I walked in with smiles the four/​five times I went in there and Michael was nothing less than a snob to me. I attempted to make conversation and he was very short with me. Perhaps I didn’t look like I had money enough to be in there as that was how I felt I was treated.
Fyi there is a great bead store on main st. that is good about helping fix things though they don’t specialize in that.

I walked into Jewels by Kurt on a complete whim — I was actually on my way to Readers a block away based on the great reviews that it has gotten on Unilocal.I talked to Michael for a while about the type of bracelet I was looking for. My girlfriend and I had been searching for a bracelet for her for about 2 months, looking in literally every part of the greater Los Angeles area. He showed me some beautiful pieces he had already made but as they didn’t fit within my price range, he started talking about pieces he could custom make.
I loved the idea, but I still felt like I had to trust the Unilocal reviews and go to Readers. What a waste of time! Don’t get me wrong, the owners of Readers are nice people, but what’s so special about their jewelry? It’s the same generic, boring jewelry that you can find in the Jewelry District, but at twice the price.
I brought my girlfriend back to Michael a week later and she immediately fell in love with the idea, and within 10 minutes I had given a down payment to get the piece made (what a relief after looking for so long). Now here’s where I will admit Michael could possibly lose a star. I will agree with some previous reviews that he does not necessarily meet the schedule you agree upon, and he’s not the best at answering the phone (and will not return calls if you leave a message). That can be frustrating and extremely worrisome if you’re on a strict schedule — luckily I wasn’t, so I’ll stick with 5 stars. Of course if you actually tell him it’s an important deadline, I can’t imagine him not meeting it.
However, when I finally got a hold of him and was told that the bracelet was ready, we rushed to his shop and my girlfriend was blown away by his work. It’s an absolutely gorgeous bracelet. I can’t imagine ending up with a better piece of jewelry for the price, so Michael, thank you so much.

Such a mixed bag of reviews here!!! I guess that means, if you go here expect the unexpected.
My experience was minimally harmful but quite irksome none the less. My husband had had my engagement ring made by Michael, so being loyal types, when it came time for the wedding we decided to get our bands engraved, his sized and mine plated and my engagement ring cleaned at this shop.
I had personally made our bands at another Santa Monica jeweler (see my glowing review of THEIR shop) so I was torn, but the quote I got from Jewels By Kurt was very reasonable so we went for it.
First off, they said the work would take 1 week. After the week was over they had a simple explanation, they had been taking inventory that very week and hadn’t gotten to it. «Next week» they said. 5 days later, I called ahead to tell them I will be coming in that weekend and expect my rings ready. Our wedding was a 2 weeks away at this point.
The day I finally picked the rings up, the one had been engraved (incorrectly I might add) but NOT plated. The other, CUT but NOT soldered shut. And the engagement ring hadn’t even been touched. Seriously folks it takes about a minute and a half to clean a ring. WTF.
Luckily I was able to get our money back (after yet another hassle) and my rings were saved by the original shop where I made them. Thanks Precious Metal Arts!!!
So all’s well that ends well. But I will NEVER do business here again!!!

If I could give zero Stars, I would have done so.
Jewels by Kurt is the worst business, whether restaurant, photography studio, streetside hotdog vendor: you name it, this one is worse.
It is located in Santa Monica, just off 3^rd street Promenade, so I thought it was a fancy jewelry shop. I walked in with my fiancé, and asked he would remake my promisory ring into a wedding band. I drew him a picture, labeling it exactly to how I wanted, and gave my ring size. I went home and emailed him a picture of the ring so that they can be no mistake. He told me the ring will be done in two weeks.
Two weeks later, I returned to pick up the ring and it was nothing like what I asked. It was 2 sizes too small, and could not even fit on my finger. I believe he did this to siphon out some gold from the ring I gave him. The original was 14K gold. the ring that he delivered is 10K gold.
We compared it to the picture and he said he will redo it. He gave me a new receipt and another 2 weeks-​pickup date of Feb1. I came in again (on Feb 6), and the ring was not ready. He simply shrugged and said, «I don’t have it.» I asked, «When?» and he responded next week. I called in and askd if the ring was ready. He replied YES. I said,“take a picture and send it to me.” He said NO. It’s ready, just come in… I made it abundantly clear that I live in San Jose, and that each trip to pick up the ring costs me $ 100 in gas, and an entire weekend. He said, I understand, it will be ready when you pick it up this weekend.
I came in Saturday and he was not there. The man behind the counter called him and said, «the ring was not ready. Mike was not expecting you today.» WTF!!! I called and he told me to come!
At this point, the wedding is a month away, and I did not want to deal with this, nor did I have the patience to wait any longer for my ring. I simply asked for my money and ring back so I can go someplace else as this Mike simple cannot deliver what he promised he could do, on a deadline he set. He told me to wait in the store a couple hours, as he will be in later in the day. This shows that he really does not care for his customers as he asked me to come, and then not plan to show up until 4 hours later.
I returned later to pick up the ring, which had not been modified since the first forging. His excuse was that I called him the previous day and told him that I did not want the changes made, so he held off on working it. The problem with that is that he should have reworked it a month ago. Having the same ring in his hands now meant that he never intended to rework it.
This also meant that his promise to finish it probably was another hollow promise to keep me on a string until he finally came around to doing it.
Six weeks, and I walk away with $ 300 in gas bills, three lost weekends, and a mangled ring that only fits my pinky. I told my fiancé that I could wear it on a chain or something. It was my promisory ring, and supposed to be a special wedding band full of memories. Too bad those memories now are of 2 months of dealing with an incompetent jeweler.
I went into a Kay Jewelry store and bought a normal wedding band.

My favorite ring was deformed when it was stepped on accidentally. Kurt fixed it to perfect condition, right away as I waited, for FREE! In those minutes, I browsed at the hodgepodge of antique, contemporary (but rarely modern) gold, silver, bejeweled pieces. I could imagine that one might be very pleased with themselves for finding a unique piece, but you have to be the type that enjoys rifling through the racks at Buffalo Exchange or Ross.
I don’t know how they can stay open by giving away services for FREE, but they definitely made my day. If I was more of a jewelry person, I might stop by here to see what new treasures were on display