TALKING SHOP: Dipples’ Chris Ellis plays the generation game

Dipples is one of Norwich’s oldest independent businesses, with its 150 birthday coming up in just a couple of years. It is now run by the fifth generation of the family, with current managing director Chris Ellis at the helm. With three locations — two in Norwich and one in Bury Saint Edmunds — now under its belt, and a fourth one in Jarrolds department store opening this month, this jeweller is defying the effects of old age, with bold plans for further growth and expansion. Chris spoke with Watch Insider’s Daniel Malins to explain why he can’t allow the business to rest on its laurels.

Watch Insider: What do you think has been Dipple’s superpower in order to survive, and presumably at times thrive, for almost 150 years and counting, where others have maybe struggled?

Chris Ellis: The thing that always strikes me is when you look at the stats for a family business, when it goes from the first or second generation to the third generation, by the time you get to the fifth generation, there are virtually none — it’s such a small percentage that survive that long. I think sometimes that’s because people want to just cash out. Because they’ve made a very successful business after one or two generations, and it’s like: “Right, let’s take the £50 million and have fun and support the family.”

My family didn’t want to do that, obviously. We’re still here after 148 years and I think the thing that sets us apart is the ability to pivot quickly when needed. Sometimes everything’s going really well and then all of a sudden something crops up and you have to deal with it. I think that’s where a small family business can succeed over a lot of other places — especially some of the bigger chains where they don’t have that ability to switch direction at the drop of a hat.

WI: Can you give an example of the specific bits of strategy you have changed direction on?

CE: In the early 2010s, after the financial crash, things were challenging on the high street. We split ways with one of our key brands because they were rationalising the account based in the UK, but that then freed up a significant amount of money for us to invest in expanding our gem range, going slightly higher end with pieces, and do a refurbishment of the shop. We always try and invest in whatever we can. We don’t take money out of the business needlessly. It’s all about trying to build the business to make it better tomorrow than it was today. 

Fundamentally, we don’t really add in new areas to the business. So, we aren’t selling cameras or anything like that, but it’s about trying to find the trends before people get there and expand into them. 

I think over the last 10 or 15 years, by going slightly higher end, that’s allowed us to tap into a market that we weren’t really part of before. But now we get people coming in that will spend £1,000 on a lovely engagement ring or £20,000 on a lovely engagement ring, and we can satisfy everything from our stock, rather than having to get things in for people to have a look at first. So, it’s just expanded the breadth that we do in our jewellery business.

WI: Do you feel like there’s room for you to elevate your offering further so that customers don’t reach a glass ceiling on their ‘watch journey’ after their seventh or eighth purchase, for instance?

CE: Absolutely. There are plenty of watch ranges out there that I would love to stock that would go from £8,000 to £50,000 or £100,000. I have no qualms about selling them — we certainly have jewellery that would rival price-point wise, and also in terms of quality and manufacturing. The main problem is that it’s almost a closed club. It’s chicken and egg, but I don’t have a chicken and I don’t have an egg. It’s very difficult to break that ceiling yourself as a retailer, even if you’ve been around longer than most of the watch brands you want to get on board.

I think on the high street there is a certain perception by our customers that if they want to come to me and buy a watch from a brand I don’t sell, I just phone them up and I get that watch. It just doesn’t work like that. 

It’s the nature of how the watch industry has got to where it is today by working with those key partners. If you went back 15–20 years ago on the continent, and I’m not sure if it’s the same today but it probably still is, they are much more open to having just one key brand in a shop rather than having two or three.

The UK market is much tighter. There are fewer brands to go to at that kind of level that have any kind of market share. It’s a challenge to get into, but it’s one that I’ll crack eventually.

WI: Do you feel like either implicitly or explicitly there’s an ongoing sales pitch to some brands in how you conduct yourselves as a business, in how you refurb the store etc? Are you more proactive or are you waiting to react to interest from a potential supplier?

CE: We’re very much more down the proactive route, so we’re trying to keep the stores looking smart, keep the stock looking good, and investing in what we have at the moment. If we want to get a brand in and they want to discuss something, because all the brands all know each other and all the heads know each other, you want them to talk to each other and paint us in a good light. We’re trying to be proactive in stocking key ranges, we’re planning stock quickly, and having a bigger collection than maybe the official range should be.

We try and work with all the brands and firms as partners. If they’re having a good spell, that’s great, it means we can sell lots. But, equally, if they’re not having a good spell, we’re not going to throw them out because they need us as much as we need them — it’s a two-way thing. I think all the brands that we work with recognise that. I think if that ever changed then that’s when we’d have conversations with them.

There are a certain amount of stores, if they’ve got the space, that are trying to put a brand into a separate shop so that they can still have their own identity, but also satisfy that brand with its own identity. It will be interesting to see how that pans out because I suspect a lot of the standalone stores actually don’t make any money because the turnover is just not sufficient. If you’re in a shopping centre and open seven days a week with 10 members of staff, plus your stock and everything, it must be very difficult to make any money.

WI: Do you feel that by embracing modern techniques, whether that be store presentation, CRM systems, or AI technology, you’re undermining tradition in any way?

CE: Not really, no. To give an example, my great-grandfather started an optician’s business. I think they’d always been connected to optometry in some way or other, both him and my great-great-grandfather. And one of the things that they did when they started this was free eye care for children. There was no government help with that, and I think they were one of the first opticians in the country to do that. I think that’s why I don’t feel that I have to pay particular homage to what’s gone past, because it is about trying to find a way to innovate and do what is required at that precise moment in time, which for them was giving free eye care to children. 

I like to think I’m a nice guy and friendly and cheery and people want to work for me because of that.”

Now, that could be having AI in the company, or bringing in a new range of gemstones, or trying to find that key watch brand that is going to elevate what we do on the watch side of the business. The name Dipples has been around for nearly 150 years, and I do feel that there is a lot of history, but we’re a family shop and we treat our staff as family and our suppliers are part of the family as well. I think it would be considered an outdated way of working nowadays, but I get to sleep at night. Every day we’re doing something slightly different and just pushing our boundaries a little bit. Hopefully that means that when I come to retire with my wife, when we both leave the business, our little girl or my son would then come into the store and will be taking it forward in their own way.

WI: As part of your answer to my previous question about paying homage to previous generations, you said that your focus is on looking forward, not back. What’s the next big ‘thing’ in your eyes?

CE: For us, we’re opening a concession in an independent department store. That’s our next big thing — it should open 12 May. I think that’s going to be a bit of a game-changer for us. It’s going to massively open up Norwich to us. The department store has won independent department store for the last two years. There’s a lot of synergy in the way we work, the way we think, and the way we treat our staff and our suppliers. 

WI: How did this come about? How did the conversation start and what will it look like? Is it an extension of what you already offer in your three locations or is it going to be a different lineup?

CE: We’ve been working with Jarrolds for the last couple of years because they do a Christmas magazine and a few bits and pieces throughout the year that we’d advertised with. Last May, they did an in-store wedding event, which they haven’t done before. They gave us first refusal on being the jeweller that goes there because we’ve done a bit of work with them. So, I rocked up with some jewellery and a few watch brands, just to show them what we were doing. I just casually asked them why they didn’t do watches and jewellery anymore, because Watch Station used to operate a concession there and then they disappeared.

A few months later, the director gave me a call back because they were expanding. And he was like: “We’d like you to run our watch and jewellery department.” And we said: “Yeah, okay, let’s give it a go.” It’s going to be a mini Dipples. It’s going to start with just a selection of items that we already sell, brands we already stock, with a view to see what works in a department store setting, and then evolving the range over the next six to 12 months to target whatever price points are working or not working. We have an idea on what we think is going to sell price-point wise, but neither us nor Jarrolds would have any current data to back up any of it.

They’re going to work with us to support it through marketing, and their marketing database is vast compared to ours. It’s a five-storey department store that rivals anything you’ve got almost anywhere in the country, with the exception of Harrods and Selfridges. It’s up there with the best of them.

It’s a key thing for us this year that we’re working on, and then hopefully it will lead into us having a refit in our store for our 150th anniversary.

WI: With the expansion that you’re talking about — including the opening of the Bury Saint Edmunds Store in 2022 and the upcoming launch with Jarrolds — how difficult is it to maintain the standards that you have set, or your previous generations have set, over a period of time? Can you talk me through the friction that comes with scaling up?

CE: I’m lucky that Rebecca, my wife, works in the business as well. She is primarily based in the Norwich shop. Our concession is going to be just around the corner from the shop, literally a minute’s walk away. I think the main thing though is not only having trusted tenants everywhere, that keep an eye and make sure things are going okay, but having guys that spend a while in the store. We’re not looking for staff every six months or a year. Most of the guys that work here have been here minimum three years up to 25 years. So, I think that’s actually where it becomes a little bit easier because they know what we’re expecting of them. I think that makes it easier when you want to scale up if you have that foundation to build on. 

WI: Whether you’re talking to people in hospitality or retail, the difficulty of staff retention tends to crop up. What do you put the fact that a lot of your staff have been with you for a very long time down to?

CE: Treat them like family. People have good times and bad times and we’re there to support them throughout whatever is going on, not just in their business life, but in their personal life. Everybody knows everybody; it’s a friendly, welcoming team. We try not to put too much pressure on them; the main thing is that the job gets done.

I don’t have the luxury of changing jobs. If I don’t like this there’s not really much else I can do other than close up and find something else. It means a lot to me that I enjoy my working day. I think if you can keep that in the back of your mind that I actually enjoy what I do, then everything can filter through into your team.

WI: I guess a lot of your success is based on human relationships, otherwise we’d all go online and buy our next watch there. You’ve got to give people a reason to come into the store.

CE: We do a Christmas event every November. I’ve got customers that came to the first one we did around 2010 and have been back every single year and see the same representatives every single time because they’ve built that relationship with them. I think it’s all about trying to put that human element back into the business in a friendly, nice way. I’ve got watch collectors that come back and they like to see the Seiko rep every time because they’ve got 15 Seikos and want to buy this year’s PADI or whatever it is that’s just come out.

We’re a family shop and we treat our staff as family and our suppliers are part of the family as well.”

I like to think I’m a nice guy and friendly and cheery and people want to work for me because of that. I think if you have that kind of relationship with your staff, then they’re more likely to go the extra mile for me and for the business. When you get to a certain size, it’s nigh on impossible to avoid staff becoming just a number. 

WI: There are a few headwinds that must occupy your mind — lack of market confidence, increased employer NICs, gold prices, geo-political events around the world. What’s your view on the market and the economy generally, and how does that affect your business?

CE: It’s really difficult to see how it’s going to play out. I’d like to hope that the rises in national insurance and tax burdens are going to stop. It’s hard to see how that is going to stop with what’s trying to be pushed through on us and everything that keeps changing.

In terms of the market at the moment, I think it is quite challenging. You have to work hard to almost stay still, so I can see why people are really struggling with it. The nice thing that we have is we’ve been going for 150 years — people know us in the city, they trust us. We’re the oldest family-owned jewellers in Norwich now: that helps when you have that level of trust and knowledge in the local area. We deal with good brands, they support us too. That’s key for people getting through this.

The other side of the coin is that when things get a bit tough, there are some people that will naturally fall away, whether it’s because they’ve just got fed up with it, or they’ve run out of money. That then clears the way for either new entrants to come in, or for the existing players to grow market share themselves. It’s kind of a natural course and that hasn’t happened too much recently. A certain element of cleansing does help everybody to push everything forwards.

WI: Would you say there’s one single issue that affects your customers or yourself the most, or is it just a combination of everything?

CE: I think it’s a combination of everything at the moment. I think people are getting squeezed left, right, and centre, no matter where you are in life — whether you’re a pensioner or a student. Things are getting more expensive every day, so it’s tough for everybody. I don’t think there are any particular sectors of the UK that are going to avoid that. There’s nothing I can do to change any of it. I’m just going to keep doing what I think we do well at, try and do better at it, and then hopefully we’ll be on the other side when things start to improve in the economy.

WI: You mentioned that your wife, Rebecca, is involved in the business. Is that a wonderful thing or does it come with challenges?

CE: We work together phenomenally well, and we get on together phenomenally well. So, it’s just a dream scenario. I think it’s nice my daughter gets a little bit immersed in it as well, because we talk about it when she’s around. We don’t hide anything from her in that regard. So, I think that it’s quite nice that she feels a little bit involved. She doesn’t know much about watches yet, so I need to sort that out. But she can tell you pretty much every colour that a sapphire comes in, and she’s only five!

WI: Fast-forwarding 30 years, how do you think things will look at Dipples? Do you think there’s another retail revolution that we can’t possibly know about now that’s on its way?

CE: I think there’s going to be a certain element of urbanisation in retail. So bigger towns, bigger cities, will be retail hubs — somewhere like Norwich because there’s nowhere else really in Norfolk — Cambridge, Manchester, Birmingham, London, and other key towns and cities across the country. I think they will almost hoover up all the retail trade, and you’ll get market towns where they may be struggling a little bit. I just don’t think there’s the money to invest in a market town to bring it up to the level that the brands want.

The problem is if you’ve lost all your brands, how do you get them back in again? Because you’re never going to get a big enough number of shops unless you put up another retail centre, but who’s going to want to put that in a small market town with a population of 25,000? I see that in a lot of towns at the moment. All the department stores are closed and they’re still empty. 

When you have a high street, you’ve got to have a certain amount of shops on it to make it viable for everybody, not just a jeweller. We’re probably the most tactile type of shopping you get when people look at rings or watches and try them on. You know, it’s really emotional and incredibly personal when you’re buying something like a watch. There’s no point for us if we’re the only shop left on the high street because no one’s going to come to us, because they’re not going to come to the high street full stop. 

A similar thing has happened in the watch trade as well, where brands have gone from 150 stockists in the UK, to then deciding that they actually only need 100. And then they’re saying they need 70, and now they’re saying 50. The same thing is happening with a lot of chain shops. It’s like they don’t need to be in every town, because if we’re not in that town, they’re going to go to the next one alone.

A city like Norwich is going to do well at retail because we’ve got hundreds of shops and we’ve got that critical mass and impetus behind us to succeed. I’m not saying that Norwich’s retail scene is perfect — we could do with some higher-end stores. We don’t have some of the high-end fashion stores, but I think there’s always the possibility of that coming. Whereas you go to a town like Great Yarmouth or Ipswich — I think they’re the places that are going to find it really difficult in years to come to attract new names.

This article was first published in the May 2026 edition of Watch Insider.