TALKING SHOP: Judith Hart’s local Derby

Established in 1980 and located in Derby’s Derbion Shopping Centre, Judith Hart Jewellers is one of Derbyshire’s premier independent, family-owned jewellers. Founder and owner Judith Hart is still pulling the strings and calling the shots almost half a century on. Speaking to Watch Insider’s Daniel Malins, Hart pulls no punches when discussing the trials and tribulations involved with running a small business in the year 2026.

Daniel Malins: Give me a brief history of where it all started for your store.

Judith Hart: I started out as a Saturday girl. I liked the trade, didn’t want to go to university, so went to work for a local jewellery store, and spent three years moving around with two other local jewellers. Then I ended up with HL Browns in Sheffield and it was a case of: “Do I settle there or do I set up on my own?”

Back then I felt that the jewellery trade was a little bit intimidating to customers and I wanted to bring a more approachable face to jewellery. I found that when you’re on the shop floor, if you’re chatting, if you’re friendly, people are much more appreciative. So, I felt there was a space there and I was very fortunate — I had backing from my family, so I was able to take a small loan out.

The first shop was in 1980, which was at the other end of what was the Old Eagle Centre. Then, around 2017, the centre expanded. They built a whole new area and my business needed to expand as well, so I took one of the units in the new part and we’re still here today. That’s the brief history of 46 years!

DM: You must have seen a few shops and brands come and go in that time.

JH: Absolutely. The trade has changed immensely. I joined the NAJ [National Association of Jewellers] —  or NAG [National Association of Goldsmiths] as it was back then —  and subsequently joined the CMJ [Company of Master Jewellers]. They were quite progressive in their own way, and I was invited to join the board. I was the first lady director and I was the youngest that they’ve ever had. By the time they got rid of me, I was also the longest serving director. It gave me the opportunity to network with a lot of people and make a lot of contacts through the trade. I think my business benefited as much as, hopefully, the CMJ did.

DM: And where did the passion come from? You obviously were working on the shop floor, but have you got a passion for the products that you sell? And, if so, is that mainly in the direction of jewellery?

JH: Yes, predominantly, but I think my passion is actually more for the business. I enjoy the business side of it, both on the selling side and buying the right products and presenting them in the right way.

DM: People talk about taking a customer on a collecting journey, and I’m sure that applies in jewellery as well. Someone might come in and get a £20 Sekonda before upgrading to a Rotary and, before you know it, they’ve bought a fifth watch and they’re up at the £500 or £800 mark. You have affordable luxury brands like HERBELIN and Frederique Constant, but do you worry that you’re then losing that customer for the next step on their journey?

JH: Absolutely, yes. I would like to have some of the higher-priced, more prestige brands, but because of adjacencies and the relationship the brands have with the multiples, for someone like myself it’s virtually impossible. At one stage, we were fortunate and we managed to have Longines, and we did extremely well. There were four stockists in Derby and we were certainly, if not number one, the number two stockist. But for them when it came to: “Who do we close?” it was the independent that was closed, and they kept the relationship with the multiples. That’s a continuous battle that we have had. We can sell jewellery at £5,000, £10,000, up to probably £20,000, but we don’t have the watch equivalent. It’s a great shame.

DM: There are a number of brands just outside the mainstream dying to get into retail. Are they on your radar? How proactive are you on this front?

JH: I think I’m quite proactive. I do like to have a look at the brands and see what’s available all the time. We monitor it, and I work with a much younger man who loves the brands, so we chat about them all the time. “What’s emerging? What do we think may be interesting?” At the end of the day, I’m also wearing a commercial hat and it’s quite difficult to bring in something that’s not terribly well-known.

I think the watch market at the moment is changing a little bit. I won’t say it’s a vast change, but I think it’s really interesting the way we’ve got some of the more independent brands coming along. One of my favourites, I’ve got to say, is Studio Underdog; I think they’re great. But there are lots of other brands as well, including Christopher Ward. These independents are very much steering their own boat. They probably know where they want to go and I’m not so sure that a traditional jeweller or someone like myself is where they want to be. 

You could argue against that because you’ve got the great business up in Scotland, James Porter & Son, and they’re doing incredibly well with every brand you can possibly imagine. They’re just known for innovation in the watch world. So you could argue against what I’ve just said, but I think it would be quite difficult to convince some of these independents that we would be the right outlet for them.

DM: On that issue with the battle of small independent shops against the big chains, does that concern you in terms of losing more brands that you already have? Or am I being too negative?

JH: I think that’s a touch negative. We’ve always had a good relationship with the brands, like Seiko and Citizen. They were very happy to deal with us and we’ve built on that over the years. Seiko particularly, I think, are having a bit of a redirection and we’re working very closely with them. They tell me it’s paying off for them as well as it is for us, because we’re able to have access to some of the pieces at higher price points, some of the limited editions, which has enabled us to establish ourselves as a bit of a centre for Seiko. It’s very much a collaboration. I’ve been down to Maidenhead [Seiko’s UK headquarters] several times, they’ve been up here, and it’s really nice to have the opportunity to work so closely and be given the chance to do that. 

DM: On the subject of Seiko, would it be a step too far for them to take a punt on giving you two or three entry-level Grand Seiko models? 

JH: That’s certainly what we are working towards, on both sides, because I think they appreciate the amount of time that we put in with the brand and the promotions that we do with them and so on. So yes, I wouldn’t say it was an impossibility.

DM: That would be a great next step. To go back to my question about taking that customer on a purchasing journey, I guess it shows that you actually do have options with your current brands, in terms of a broad range of price points. It’s just not Tudor or Rolex or TAG etc.

JH: Yeah, and what we’ve done with Seiko we are now trying to replicate with Citizen, for example. We’re seeing a really nice growth in our turnover with Citizen, just as we’ve seen a very significant change with Seiko. I’ve got my commercial hat on again, and that’s how I see it. If we can work more closely with fewer brands, then I’m very happy with that.

DM: That seems to be the trend — more floor space for fewer brands. It’s great to hear that the Japanese brands are really working for you —  it feels like they’re really having a moment.

JH: The technology that’s coming along from some of the Japanese brands and the styles, they’re really innovating. I think there’s a lot more to come on that side of it, which will be interesting to see as a younger generation comes along. You only have to look at the growth of Apple watches, which is a typical example.

Certainly technology plays a part, and also different metals as well. We quite like titanium as a metal. Being in Derby, we have Rolls-Royce here and they use a lot of that and there are quite a few of our customers who understand titanium. We find we sell above average if you look at it just from that one metal.

DM: Do you have a rough percentage in your head of your sales of watches versus jewellery?

JH: I would think it would be somewhere probably around 30% watches, 70% jewellery, something like that.

DM: Has that been constant over a number of years?

JH: No, it’s increased over the last 18 months because of the collaborations that we’ve been doing. We’re also trying to work on our website and improve that. It’s an expensive exercise for a single store, but I’ve got some great people I work with and we are trying to improve on that side, which is increasing our turnover as well.

DM: Do you feel you were maybe late to the party on the e-commerce side of things in terms of polishing it and getting it looking exactly as you want?

JH: Possibly, yes. We did try initially, but it’s very hard. My generation isn’t so good with technology, they’re still trying to teach me how to do a spreadsheet! But the people I work with have an enthusiasm and a much better knowledge than I do.

DM: How far do you take that approach towards appealing to youth? As a business, once you go down that rabbit hole, there’s almost no end to it. Do you then invest heavily in TikTok and Instagram, for instance, and at what point do you start or stop tracking the ROI on that? 

JH: Yeah, it’s a bit frightening. I see almost two sides to the business now. I’ve got the manager who’s on the shop floor dealing with all that side of it, and then I see myself a little bit in the middle, trying to innovate, keep the website up to date, and work with the people who deal with that side of it, but also trying to deal with the shop floor. 

We also do a bit of sponsorship. We sponsor a local dance group that has children from a few years old up to teenagers, so we really try to be involved in the local community as well.

DM: A lot of the store owners I speak to run standalone stores on the high street or in exclusive communities. You’re different because you’re in a shopping centre. Does this change how you go about ‘clienteling?’ You must rely on a lot of passing footfall and first-time customers.

JH: It’s a very similar proposition. Over the years, we’ve helped people get engaged, married, have children, and now those children are getting engaged and married, which shows you how old we are. My manager has been with me the whole time, she came to me three months after the business was set up, so we’ve grown together.

We have a lot of very loyal, local customers, but being in a shopping centre gives you access to younger customers and general shoppers, whether they’re visiting Derby or visiting from local companies like Rolls-Royce and Toyota. It gives us access to those as well.

DM: On the subject of staff, how difficult do you find recruitment, and what is the secret to retaining staff for decades like you have? 

JH: It’s very difficult, it’s very demanding. If you find someone who fits in with your business, I will go out of my way to make sure that they are happy. We are very flexible and I think they realise they are not just a number. They can come talk to me or to Carol, the manager, and it seems to work quite well.

I was also involved with Pandora as a franchisee, and I had four stores which gave me just under 100 staff. I interviewed and spoke to every single member of that staff, and they could ring me up and many of them still visit. I think that feeling that you are a person and having a sense of belonging is what we try to make sure is here in the business.

DM: Unfortunately, there’s the other side where you hire someone in good faith, and it doesn’t work out. No one likes letting people go, but sometimes you have to be ruthless for the sake of the business. Did you have to learn that part of the job on the go?

JH: Yes, if someone doesn’t fit, I may be a little ruthless because it’s the ‘one bad apple’ syndrome, isn’t it? If you have someone that doesn’t fit and you’ve gone through all the processes and training to try and change it, sometimes it’s just down to personality. If they don’t have the right personality to fit in with the team, you have to be quite ruthless. It’s difficult because I find the level of applicants isn’t always what you would like. We’re looking for someone part-time at the moment to cover certain hours, but the standard of applicants does not seem to be getting better.

DM: Do you think there’s a point to be made more generally about Gen Z? It’s easy to fall into the trap of stereotypes, but do you think there’s anything in the claim that Gen Z don’t have the same ‘get up and go’ attitude as older generations?

JH: I’m afraid I do, yes, and it’s very sad. I’m not sure whether it’s the education system, without generalising too much, but the work ethic doesn’t seem to be there in the same way. There doesn’t seem to be as much enthusiasm out there at the moment. But there must be good people!

DM: Moving back to watches, what role do pre-owned watches play in your business, if at all, and do you see that side of things getting bigger in the future?

JH: We don’t do pre-owned watches at the moment. In the very early days, we dipped our toe into that with brands like Rolex, but it seemed to bring more problems than rewards. The margins were quite slim for the investment, we had security issues, and at the end of the day I just felt it wasn’t my personal area of expertise. I was relying strongly on other people and wasn’t comfortable with it.

So, stick with what you know and the strengths that you have. Whether we’ll go into it again in the future, I can’t see it right now, but who knows? The beauty of being independent is that you can be flexible and change your mind tomorrow.

DM: What are the biggest issues you’ve faced or continue to face as a business that really make you pull your hair out?

JH: Regulation and red tape are among my least favourite topics. There is so much regulation, particularly around health and safety. I want all my staff to be safe, but I have to laugh when I have to put a sign over the hot water tap saying that the water is very hot. Regulation has become very onerous.

Costs are another major issue, particularly salary costs. I don’t think the government has any clue what small businesses are facing and I class myself as a small business. There is no one in government who has ever run a business, so how can they be telling us what we need to do? They’re just making it more onerous.

DM: Do you feel completely disconnected from that government process?? Is there a way, through organisations like the NAJ, to voice concerns? 

JH: I’m not very aware of just how much negotiation the NAJ does on our behalf, though I’m sure they do a lot. I’m not sure the government actually listens very much anyway. I think there’s a total disconnect, to be perfectly honest. The government doesn’t know what we’re going through or how to fix it. Sweepingly, they say: “We will look at getting rid of business rates for high streets.” Great — that doesn’t actually help me and it probably doesn’t help a lot of other small businesses as well but they don’t look at the consequences of the policies that they create.

DM: Making it more expensive to hire people seems like one of the least growth-stimulating policies in recent times.

JH: Should they be surprised? It’s common sense — if you put up the cost of hiring people, fewer people will be hired. It’s not groundbreaking. I’m very pragmatic and I have been called outspoken, but it’s just plain common sense.

DM: If we were to catch up in three years time, how would you define success for the business from where you are now, and how would you get there? 

JH: I can’t see a lot of expansion; I’m not planning another store. We’re always thinking of improvements on this one. The store is designed so customers can relax and enjoy the experience. I think we’ll be working very much on our technology, social media, and so on. I already have two people, which isn’t a lot, who are preparing that and doing some work on that . So I think growth will come primarily from online and we’ve got to improve on that side of it while continuing our work on the shop floor.

DM: On the online side, will you have quite punchy sales targets in the coming years?

JH: We’ve always got targets; everyone has targets. So yes, there will be some targets there but I don’t normally set targets that we don’t achieve!

DM: The store has been running since 1980. Do you reach a stage where you think about succession planning or taking a step back from the daily admin? Or is that a long way off?

JH: I think it’s a long way off yet. I still enjoy what I do and while I enjoy what I do, I will carry on. The step back is not looking for other stores. I probably wish I had done more in the past on that side but, as I mentioned earlier, the Pandoras were great and I was very fortunate because we took Pandora very early and were able to join on that journey. As for succession planning, I’m not sure yet and am still thinking about it.

DM: Do you want the legacy to continue?

JH: It would be nice to think so, but I’ve seen a lot of good jewellers close over the last two years — very good businesses. I think it’s very hard for someone coming in. I have a son, but he’s not interested in the business at all so I know that, whatever happens, either the business will eventually close or I’ll be fortunate to be able to pass it on or sell it on. That day will come whenever it comes.

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