june | Business…

Walker Christopher Ltd.

Walker Christopher Ltd. had its start in 1984 when it was tucked away on the top floor of the Walker Arcade with only two employees. Since then the business has grown to about 10-people strong with two Front Street locations. Walker Christopher Ltd., however, is still very much a small boutique jewellery gallery. The creativity of the company is due to the talents of jewellery designer, Bill Wyvell. Bill’s interest in art, history and design has created a diverse blend of merchandise that incorporates ancient Egyptian artifacts, bronze sculpture, nautical items as well as precious gemstone and gold jewellery. If Bill ever retires from jewellery making it will probably be to take up treasure diving. It is his interest in numismatics that inspired Walker Christopher’s extensive collection of shipwreck and ancient coin jewellery. The rarest coin in the collection is a 34BC silver coin featuring a portrait of Cleopatra and Antony. The oldest coin is a Greek tetradrachm depicting the goddess Athena and her symbol, the owl, which dates to 490BC. There are Egyptian scarabs and Akkadian cylinder seals that are even older (2000BC). But the most valuable items are gold shipwreck doubloons which have become more difficult to find and salvage from ocean wrecks. In addition to the more unusual items, Walker Christopher Ltd. carries traditional jewellery by some of the industry’s best designers. The store does not promote specific brands, as the bigger the brand the less control a store will have over the merchandise it carries. The buyers at Walker Christopher Ltd. prefer to hand-select items according to style and quality creating a more eclectic feel to the display cases. This makes the business of buying more fun, and a lot of Walker Christopher’s clientele appreciates the more individualistic approach. Over the years, Walker Christopher has catered predominantly to local customers and regular visitors who have come to call Bermuda their second home. In the workshop there is a team of two master jewelers with over 60 years combined experience and two apprentice jewelers, who focus on wax carving and making the custom frames for the coin jewelery as well as Bermuda-inspired items. While the main store at 9 Front Street concentrates on custom work and fine jewellery, the branch store at 69 Front Street, carries more fashion items such as silver and leather jewellery, copper belts, amber and pearls. The branch store is also home to the Bermuda Department of Tourism’s Visitor Information Center for the 2008-2009 season. www.walkerchristopher.com.