Conger’s Jewellers is one of the most trusted independent jewellers in Ottawa. The business is owned and managed by David Conger, a Graduate Gemologist. Specialties are jewellery design, jewellery appraisal and repairs. We are more of a jewellery design studio than a jewellery store. Jewellery is not premade or on display.
Conger’s Jewellers purchases gemstones from the best suppliers in Canada and worldwide. David searches for the best value from ethical sources when shopping for gems. He makes most of his jewellery by hand. You will find examples of previous work in the Gallery and Custom Engagement Rings pages.
The business is open on weekdays by appointment.
David Conger is a Graduate Gemologist with the distinction of Earned in Residence at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). This distinction is above and beyond the norm of many gemologists who study by correspondence.
Residence students are required to complete more gem identification tests and diamond grading. Before an exam is taken, residence students are required to identify 1050 gems correctly. No correspondence student is asked to do this. His education was at GIA, at the Santa Monica, California campus. With more than 40 years in the jewellery business, David is recognized as an expert in his field and has appraised several thousand jewellery items.
David Conger started working in the jewellery business while a student in 1976. Eager to become a goldsmith, he picked up the skills to repair jewellery. He started doing jewellery repairs for the store he worked at – Mappins Jewellers, Bayshore Mall. His love for jewellery continued to grow, and by 1980, he had graduated as a Gemologist from the best-known school in the world: GIA.
After graduating, David moved to Toronto and worked for a local chain of jewellery stores as the head diamond and gemstone buyer. By the end of that year, David was hired to manage the jewellery repair and appraisal services for Simpson’s and The Bay across Canada. This was the first time that jewellery appraisals were offered While-You-Wait in Canada. On opening day, customer enthusiasm was so high that customers were lined up outside the store, down Queen Street (in Toronto) and around the block.
Obviously, people were very receptive to the new service. David set his sights on starting his own business in his hometown of Ottawa and returned there to establish Conger’s Gemmological Services Ltd, a local independent jewellery appraisal service. He provided jewellery appraisals in the privacy and security of customers’ homes and offices.
This was at a time when there were just one or two Gemologists in Ottawa. Most stores were shipping jewellery out of town for appraisal, and no one offered to do the work in front of customers. With a little advertising, David attracted the interest of local jewellery stores. By 1988, his business provided the jewellery appraisal service for 30 fine retail jewellery stores in the Ottawa area, as well as several trust companies and the Canada Revenue Agency – Customs & Excise.
In 1992, David Conger opened a retail jewellery store in Ottawa, along with his father Gerald who had recently retired from a senior position in the public service of the Canadian federal government. This was a move into the world of jewellery sales and design. The store was located on the second floor of Hampton Park Plaza.
In 1995, Conger’s Gemmological Services Ltd. invested in one of Ottawa’s first GemVision Design Workstations – a heavy investment into computerized design technology. Jewellery design software was new to the industry at that time. David Conger has remains committed to state-of-the-art technologies in jewellery design, including Panther 3D Design, RhinoGold, MatrixGold and 3D printing. His love for designing jewellery is obvious to people who meet him.
Today, David Conger works independently from his home-based gem lab and jewellery design studio. He’s busy with loads of appraisal and jewellery design work. He loves to design wedding rings and redesign old jewellery into something new. Customers are welcome to contact him by email and meet with him by appointment.
Quality service, personalized attention and creative design distinguish David Conger’s jewellery business from many other jewellers in Ottawa.