About Us

Zundel’s was founded on January 27th, 1935 by Ferdinand C. Zundel and was originally located at 8 South Conception Street in downtown Mobile.

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Our story

Over the last 75+ years Zundel’s has grown into one of the finest jewelry stores in the Southeast. The tradition of outstanding service coupled with high quality merchandise has continued through the years under the leadership of Ferd Zundel’s sons, Ferd Zundel Jr. and Bill Zundel, and grandsons Bill Zundel Jr. and Jeff Zundel. Over the years Zundel’s has progressed from its original Conception Street location to Springdale Plaza and then to its current location at 3670 Dauphin Street in Mobile.

From the very beginning Zundel’s has been a family owned business that prides itself on taking care of each customer as if they are family. As a full service jeweler, Zundel’s offers a full line of merchandise and services specializing in loose diamonds, engagement rings, gold and platinum jewelry, estate jewelry, pearls, fine watches, sterling silver jewelry, appraisal services as well as a full manufacturing and repair facility. Zundel’s also offers a full bridal department including wedding gifts, china, crystal, stainless and sterling flatware, groomsmen gifts, and bridal registry.

At Zundel’s we are honored to have the opportunity to help celebrate your special occasions. We understand that birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, child births and many other special occasions, as well as the gifts that commemorate those events, are what will be remembered for generations to come. We look forward to serving our customers as our family for many more generations.

FAQs

Most frequent questions and answers

We get a lot of questions in regards to pricing in the jewelry industry. It is fairly common in the jewelry industry to price an item with an artificially high price and then “discount” the item either at the point of sale or through some kind of “sales event”. The problem with this practice is that it implies that the item was actually worth the original higher price when in fact the item is, at best, worth the actual sales price; it begs the question of honesty and integrity. If the jeweler is using a pricing structure that is gimmicky and dishonest to begin with, what else are they not telling you about the actual item you are buying? We have always priced our pieces at the lowest possible price from the beginning and refuse to play the is/was pricing game. We believe that, if you compare apples to apples, our beginning price will beat any “sale” price. We take pride in educating our customers about jewelry and are confident that when armed with this knowledge, they will see through our competitions smoke screens.

There are two main differences, beyond cost, between platinum and white gold. From a wearability standpoint, the difference is that platinum is a naturally white metal that will not turn yellow with wear as opposed to white gold which is a naturally yellow metal that will turn slightly yellow with wear. From a structural standpoint, the metals are very similar with platinum being slightly more durable and white gold being slightly harder.

Diamonds are one of the hardest substances known and because of this hardness it is very difficult to scratch a diamond. Toughness is the property that determines if a substance can be chipped or cracked and diamonds are very tough but they can be chipped or cracked if hit hard enough. Generally speaking, a diamond is most vulnerable to chipping or cracking on the girdle of the stone or on the tips if it is a fancy cut stone. The impacts that cause a chip or a crack are not always severe or noticed by the jewelry wearer and can be as simple as hitting a granite counter at the right angle.

A ring that is snagging on clothing usually has either a raised or worn prong that is grabbing individual fibers in the clothing. A raised prong typically occurs when the ring has some kind of impact that lifts the prong slightly off of the stone which provides a gap that will snag fibers. A worn prong is a prong that through wear is either misshapen or partially (or completely) broken off which will leave a rough edge that can grab clothing. In either case, a ring that is grabbing clothing is giving you a warning that something is not right and should be inspected by a jeweler. If a raised or worn prong is not repaired it can lead to a lost stone.

Pearl necklaces and bracelets are traditionally strung on silk cords and usually have a knot between each pearl to keep all of the pearls from coming off of the cord if it is broken. With wear the cord will slowly begin to stretch out and will eventually get to a point where it is too worn resulting in the strand breaking. Pearls should be restrung before they get to the breaking point to prevent loss. As a general rule, if you can move the pearls from side to side at all between the knots, it is time for restringing.

White gold is yellow gold that is alloyed with various metals that “turn” the yellow gold white. White gold is then Rhodium plated to finish the process and make the jewelry perfectly white. With age and wear, the Rhodium wears off and the piece will usually have a slightly yellow appearance (it will not turn completely yellow because of the white alloys in the gold). In order to return the piece to a perfectly white appearance it must be Rhodium plated. Rhodium plating is an inexpensive and routine repair that we do in our in-house repair shop.

Generally speaking most platinum, yellow gold, white gold and silver rings can be sized up or down a few sizes. Rings that have multiple side stones as well as eternity bands are sometimes unable to be sized do to the fact that sizing the piece up or down will cause the setting of the side stones to change (causing the stones to either get loose and fall out or possibly break).

They are the gems that uniquely correspond to those people, who were born at a certain time in a certain month. Each birthstone has its own history, meaning, mystical and healing properties according to the information from ancient sources and legends.

Click here for the full list of birthstones

What is more joyous and heartfelt than giving your loved one a special gift each year to commemorate a wedding anniversary? Traditionally, every anniversary is celebrated by giving a gift made from a different material. It isn’t clear when this traditional list came into existence. It probably originated in the Middle Ages when very few people could afford rare stones and jewelry and it evolved over time. But these days, giving paper, cotton or glass somehow don’t seem to capture the significance of the happiest day of your life.

There is a new tradition gaining popularity, however. And it will please your loved one a whole lot more than paper or glass. It’s the growing trend of giving a lasting gift of beautiful gemstone jewelry for your anniversary. Here is a list of gemstones that are quickly becoming the accepted norms to commemorate each anniversary year.

Click here for a full list of the anniversary gifts by year.

Silver
The words silver or sterling silver describe a product that contains 92.5% silver. Silver products sometimes may be marked 925 which means that 925 parts per thousand are pure silver. Some jewelry may be described as silverplate: a layer of silver is bonded to a base metal. The mark coin silver is used for compounds that contain 90% silver. According to the law, quality-marked silver also must bear the name or a U.S. registered trademark of the company or person that will stand behind the mark.


Gold
The word gold, used by itself, means all gold or 24 karat (24K) gold. Because 24K gold is soft, it’s usually mixed with other metals to increase its hardness and durability. If a piece of jewelry is not 24 karat gold, the karat quality should accompany any claim that the item is gold.

The karat quality marking tells you what proportion of gold is mixed with the other metals. Fourteen-karat (14K) jewelry contains 14 parts of gold, mixed in throughout with 10 parts of an alloy metal. The higher the karat rating, the higher the proportion of gold in the piece of jewelry.

Most jewelry is marked with its karat quality, although marking is not required by law. Near the karat quality mark, you should see the name or the U.S. registered trademark of the company that will stand behind the mark. The trademark may be in the form of a name, symbol or initials. If you don’t see a trademark accompanying a quality mark on a piece of jewelry, look for another piece.


Platinum
Platinum is a precious metal that costs more than gold. It usually is mixed with other similar metals, known as the platinum group metals: iridium, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium and osmium.

Different markings are used on platinum jewelry as compared with gold jewelry, based on the amount of pure platinum in the piece. The quality markings for platinum are based on parts per thousand. For example, the marking 900 Platinum means that 900 parts out of 1000 are pure platinum, or in other words, the item is 90% platinum and 10% other metals. The abbreviations for platinum – Plat. or Pt. – also can be used in marking jewelry.

The 4C’s of diamonds are color, cut, clarity, carat weight.

Click here for a full explanation on the 4C’s of diamonds.