The Jewelry District, Episode 141: Guest John Green

By Kathy Passero | February 26, 2025

JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates chat with John A. Green, president and CEO of Lux Bond & Green, a fifth-generation family-owned jewelry store chain based in West Hartford, Conn. John, winner of the 2025 Gem Award for Lifetime Achievement, speaks about the 127-year retailing tradition in his family. He also offers insights into noteworthy trends he’s seeing on the sales floor. (Hint: Don’t sleep on solitaire engagement rings or men’s jewelry). Finally, he gives listeners a few expert tips on how to keep your selection innovative and exciting for customers.

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Sponsored by IGI: igi.org

Episode Credits
Hosts: Rob Bates and Victoria Gomelsky
Producer and engineer: Natalie Chomet
Editor: Riley McCaskill
Plugs: @jckmagazine; igi.org

Show Notes
03:30 Honor of a Lifetime
07:40 Family tradition
12:35 Take the floor
16:55 Trends to watch
18:39 Gold rush
20:29 Welcome to Mystic
23:12 In the people business

Show Recap
Honor of a lifetime
Victoria and Rob welcome guest John Green, president and CEO of Lux Bond & Green, a 127-year-old fine jewelry retailer with seven locations in Connecticut and Massachusetts. On March 14, John will receive the Gem Award for Lifetime Achievement, an honor he calls “very humbling.”

Winning is something of a full-circle moment for John. “The Gem Awards are very important to me because I helped found [them] with Steven Kaiser and Ralph Destino” in 2002, he explains. “It’s a great event, and being recognized by your peers is nothing I’ve ever sought after, but I’ve been blessed over the years.”

Family tradition
John takes listeners back to the 19th century when his great-grandfather founded the company. A Lithuanian immigrant, Morris Green arrived in Waterbury, Conn., in the 1870s, when the city was a center of brass manufacturing. He started his business with a horse and cart, repairing and selling gold jewelry, eyeglasses, and pocket watches, before opening his first storefront in 1898.

“There was no traditional jewelry industry as we know it today,” says John. “He was very passionate about his community.” That dedication is baked into the Green family DNA and evident today in John’s son Charlie, who recently stepped in as the fifth generation of Greens to run Lux Bond & Green.

Rob asks if John always planned to join the family business. “Absolutely not,” he says. He grew up helping out in the store, pitching in wherever he was needed—from the repair department to gift wrapping—but his original plan was to be an environmental lawyer and “save the world.”

John’s brother asked him to join the family business, and John agreed to attend a GIA conference in Southern California in 1978, after graduating from college. The experience helped him realize how much he enjoyed the jewelry world. “I’m passionate about jewelry and gems…this is the family business, and I’m going to give it a try,” he remembers thinking. So John’s future changed course, and he’s never looked back.

At that first GIA conference, John met his future wife, who was also born into the jewelry business. Three of the couple’s four children have followed their parents into careers in jewelry. Their oldest son, Dan, ran manufacturing for Hearts on Fire for more than a decade. Their daughter Deborah served as head designer at Temple St. Clair, and son Charlie worked in the colored stone industry for Jack Abraham before stepping in at Lux Bond & Green.

Like the rest of his family, John has always been very active in industry organizations, which he says provide a unique educational opportunity. “You’re learning and you’re giving back,” he says. “I think I’ve learned more than I’ve given back…. It’s a two-way street.”

Take the floor
Not many retail businesses last for 100-plus years and boast loyal multigenerational customers. It’s a point of pride for John, a grandfather of eight, when the grandkids of shoppers he once helped continue to patronize Lux Bond & Green. One recently called him to make a purchase from North Carolina. “That means so much to me,” says John, who helped two previous generations of the man’s family purchase jewelry. “That is just a wonderful feeling.”

John also makes sure to spend time on the sales floor regularly. Not only does this set a good example for a store’s sales professionals, it also helps John understand what trends and styles customers are asking for. Retailers need that information to make smart purchases at trade shows and to stay relevant, he says. “That was a book from Stanley Marcus a long time ago…’Get out from behind your computers and get in front of your customers.'”

Rob asks about recent sales and the holiday season. “Business in 2024 was terrific,” John reports. Though Lux Bond & Green does more buy-online, pick-up-in-store than in the past and John considers the company’s website its eighth location, some aspects of in-person shopping surprised him last year. All but one of the chain’s stores are closed on Sundays as a rule, but they opened the Sunday before Thanksgiving in 2024 “because there were so few Sundays” in the holiday sales season. To his surprise, “that was the busiest Sunday of the year. Normally it’s the slowest.

“We feel good about 2025,” John adds. “We think it’s going to be a strong year. We know that the world is upside down, and we just have to continue to be consistent with making sure we’re a safe place for people to come in and celebrate.”

Victoria notes that 2024 was a challenging year for high-end watch brands like those carried by Lux Bond & Green. Did this affect business? On the contrary, “we saw growth both in units and in dollars in 2024,” says John. Prices dropped for pre-owned watches, but he sees that simply as a shift back to reality.

Trends to watch
What is poised to be strong in jewelry in 2025 based on John’s observations? “We’re back to the solitaire when it comes to engagement rings,” he says. And “we’re seeing a huge upsurge in pear shapes and marquise,” a cut that hasn’t trended in 20 years, he notes.

There’s also “tremendous growth [in] men’s jewelry and brooches,” John says. “It’s a fun category.” He doesn’t believe in lab-grown diamonds, because he thinks they “send the wrong message” to consumers.

Gold rush
Victoria and Rob wonder what impact rising gold prices are having on business. Lux Bond & Green’s engagement business has always focused on platinum, explains John, whose company works closely with the Platinum Guild on education for its stores’ staff.

However, John acknowledges that the high gold prices are “a little nerve-racking” and have prompted Lux Bond & Green to take a careful look at their gold jewelry selection to ensure that the pieces and the price points align with customers’ desires and wallets.

Welcome to Mystic
Lux Bond & Green recently purchased several buildings in downtown Mystic, with plans to open a store in the whaling-town-turned-tourist-destination next year. “It’s truly one of the most charming towns on the Connecticut shoreline,” says John, who adds that he’s been delighted with the enthusiastic outreach he’s gotten from the community.

Mystic will be the company’s seventh store. Five of the others are Lux Bond & Green locations, and one is a boutique next to the flagship in West Hartford called Store 52, where the company can showcase emerging designers and find out what resonates with their customer base.

In the people business
Rob asks John for his thoughts on why jewelry clients still favor brick-and-mortar stores over online shopping. “We’re in the relationship business,” says John. “Truly, we’re creating memories. Our customers tell us that.” Even for self-purchases, most people want to work with a knowledgeable consultant they can trust, he says.

At Lux Bond & Green, no one works on commission, and that makes the experience pure for shoppers. “Customers know it’s not about making a sale,” says John. “It’s about making sure they’re getting the piece that’s right for them.”

“The biggest challenge today is attracting people to work in our industry, finding the next generation of goldsmiths, of watchmakers, of sales professionals,” says John. “It’s not easy to find the next jewelry designer. There are so many talented folks out there. Finding the right ones for our market is challenging.”

That’s where Store 52 comes in for Lux Bond & Green. “We get to play, and we get to experiment,” says John. “Innovation is so important to retail jewelry and to our future. We can’t forget it. We have to keep changing to make it exciting for our customers.”

Any views expressed in this podcast do not reflect the opinion of JCK, its management, or its advertisers.