It’s been 30 years since the Udell family opened their first Hamptons store — a grand old white-columned building that once held East Hampton’s chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. In 2002, a second iteration of London Jewelers opened in a spiffy white-painted brick building with navy trim at 47 Main Street in Southampton. It’s a drop in the bucket of their 100-year-old existence, but sometimes it feels like London Jewelers has always been there at 2 Main Street, part of daily lives and, certainly, many of our own very special occasions, marked by a watch or precious stone dancing from a silver or gold chain or a ring that starts a lifetime connection.
In a world where businesses have gone from curated brick-and-mortar shopping to online everything, where you can’t see, touch or feel the products let alone have an interaction with a knowledgeable staffer (not a reactive AI program), the 100th anniversary of London Jewelers is particularly poignant.
Out east, it was celebrated with a proclamation from Southampton Mayor Bill Manger last May in honor of their Southampton location, and this week on June 16 with a special breakfast held by the East Hampton Chamber of Commerce to fête the first Hamptons iteration of the family-owned business.
Mark and Candy Udell were on hand to accept the honors in front of a supportive crowd of around two dozen or so fellow business owners who came out to congratulate the family.
With names like Prada and Chanel taking up storefronts on the South Fork, the impeccable London Jewelers Hamptons-based stores might make someone new to the fine jewelry and watch icon assume that the business is a shiny, large corporate entity with no story or soul. But four generations of the Udells stand behind the business started by Charles London — Mark’s grandfather — on School Street in Nassau County’s Glen Cove in 1926. London’s first small, humble shop sold, made and repaired high-quality men’s watches and clocks, many of which graced the tony homes of Glen Cove.
“Some of these mansions had 50 rooms and 50 clocks,” remembers Mark in the book London Jewelers: 100 Years. “My grandfather went every week to wind every single one of their eight-day clocks. It was a literal race against time.”
That kind of inclination toward hard work and high standards, as well as a proclivity to generously help out and donate to the communities where the stores reside, became the foundation of the family and has solidly carried through four generations, starting with London’s daughter, Fran, and son in law, Mayer Udell, a fellow Polish immigrant with a fire in the belly to build a business beyond his wildest American dreams.
In addition to Glen Cove and their three Hamptons locations, which now include a Rolex devoted spot on Newtown Lane that opened last summer, London Jewelers has a bevy of bejeweled locales, including several in Manhasset and Short Hills, New Jersey.
With Mayer and Fran’s work ethic and well-honed hospitable customer service, the framework that has lasted for generations was created and instilled in their son, Mark, as well as the family he and Candy would build, including daughter Randi and son Scott, both chips off the old gemstone. The sister and brother were raised in the business just like their dad, and they are as well versed in Van Cleef & Arpels, Montblanc, David Yurman, Cartier, Patek Philippe and Rolex as they are in making everyone who walks through the door feel they belong.
Like a family heirloom passed down through the generations, another hundred years may very well be on the docket, and the fine watch and jewelry designers with whom they work have faith in that notion, too.
“I have never met a family so hardworking and dedicated to the success of their company,” says Nicholas Luchsinger, the CEO of the renowned Italian jewelry and watch company Buccellati in London Jewelers: 100 Years. “I have witnessed their development with a lot of admiration. One hundred years is only a step in the long journey which is waiting for them.”
