Eye for Racy Detail Drives Jeweler

Model businessman

Good with his hands, Rob Gwynne started making model cars at the age of 8 and spent his school lunch periods in New Zealand poring over American newspapers and magazines for inspiration, marveling at the craftsmanship of 1950s American cars.

Today, in San Ramon, he still sometimes uses books and magazines for ideas as the owner of Rob Gwynne Jewelers, when making custom jewelry, and Gwynne Auto Art, when making custom model cars.

“We can make anything. People can come in with pictures out of books and I'll go over the different options as to how a piece would look,” he said.

Gwynne has been a jewelry maker since the age of 16, when he walked into the jewelry shop where his brother worked and asked for a job. “I just walked into the boss' office cold turkey, told him I was Rodney Gwynne's brother and asked for a job. I told him I wanted to learn the industry,” he said. “He looked up from what he was doing and said, 'Be here at 8 on Monday morning and you've got a job.'”

From cold call to master jeweler

After his first visit to the United States in 1973, he and his wife had similar dreams on the plane back to New Zealand about returning to America to live. And that's what they eventually did, in 1979. He started his San Ramon jewelry business three years later.

Contract work makes up a majority of his business, one of his first clients being Mervyn's, the Hayward-based department store chain which he has worked with for more than 20 years. He works with 16 stores up and down the state to size, upgrade, or fix jewelry the department store has sold to its customers.

Other customers come to him through word of mouth, oftentimes after seeing his pieces on one of his loyal customers. “As soon as people see something you've done, say a diamond ring, they say, 'He made that?' Next thing I know they're knocking on the door. People who've had custom work done by me and have moved out of state send their jewelry back to me to fix. I still have customers from when I first started in business,” he said.

He's often invited to clients' weddings and Christmas parties. “I'm always known as the jeweler guy,” he said. His jewelry clients have included former Oakland A's players Jose Canseco and Dave Stewart.

Cars as works of art

He started adding his intricate model car displays to his jewelry shop in 1991. “When I started showing my cars in showcases, some associates thought it was a little strange. But once they start looking at the cars they usually say, 'If he can make jewelry as well as he can make models we won't have any problems,'” he said.

Gwynne builds most cars from kits, although he has done some from scratch. Cars can take anywhere from eight hours to 220 hours and come with such elaborate detailing as gold script initials on the driver's door, small radar detectors, built-in rear lights that activate when the brake pedals are depressed, or phones that actually ring.

He looks at detailed pictures of cars and closeups of engines and wheels in fashioning his handiwork. “There are tiny little things that go in there that make the car look totally different,” he said. “When people look at my work, some people have said it's no different than looking at something in an art gallery. You have taken a model and created something not in existence and turned it into reality. It becomes a piece of art.”

For Scott Dungan, an engineer in Napa, the Lotus 78 he asked Gwynne to put together for him a few years ago is a piece of art, and something he displays with pride. “Even at 1/20th the size, he was able to put spark plug wires in, brake rotors, a painted fire extinguisher. Just high, high quality with a lot of detail. I'm very happy with the product and I'd use him again in a minute,” he said.

Gwynne's cars generally range in price from $1,500 to $7,000, although he says he can put together a model for as little as $250.

“When I see the looks on people's faces, that is one of the most satisfying things about my work. There is something really neat when I finish a model and someone might come in with a family member to pick up his car. All the person wants to do is point things out. It's neat to see people looking at something and cherishing it,” he said.