Longtime Albuquerque jeweler closing ‘on a high note’ after nearly 100 years

For nearly 20 years, Albuquerque native Nichole Garcia came to Butterfield Jewelers to commemorate life’s important milestones; on Tuesday, she came for a farewell ring and a tight hug with the owner amid a closing sale.

“It’s so surreal,” Garcia said. “I never buy any other jewelry other than from here.”

Garcia was one of several Albuquerque residents who filled the store last week to say goodbye and take advantage of the store’s closing discounts, which began on Feb. 3 and will continue until everything is gone. The family-run store, which sells fine jewelry, is closing after nearly 100 years in business.

“Everybody is at retirement age, and there’s no fourth generation to carry it forward,” said Mike Butterfield, grandson of the store’s founder, Ernest Butterfield Sr. “We didn’t really want to sell the store, and we just felt like — let’s just go out on a high note and celebrate.”

Since 1928, Butterfield Jewelers has established itself as a widely known full-service jewelry store, selling a variety of fine and bridal pieces featuring precious metals and diamonds. The store also sold watches and offered services including custom design, heirloom restoration, and jewelry and watch repairs.

Ernest Butterfield Sr., a tradesman and jeweler, started the business while living in Illinois. He wanted to launch his own venture after years of working in and managing other stores, his grandson said. It was Albuquerque’s dry climate that eventually brought him and his wife, Anne, to the area in 1945; though originally, they were on their way to Tucson.

“They got to Albuquerque, looked around and said, ‘It’s pretty dry here, I like this place, let’s go no further,’” Mike Butterfield said. “That was it. It had the right climate, the right feel and they set down roots here.”

That same year, Ernest Butterfield Sr. opened the Albuquerque store, first at a location on Central Avenue near Yale Park and the University of New Mexico. He ran the store at that location until his death in 1954.

“He serviced a lot of the college crowd,” Mike Butterfield said. His grandfather developed a reputation for giving people items and saying, “‘Pay me when you can,’” he added.

Bernie Butterfield Jr., a trained gemologist and watchmaker, took over the business after his father’s death. In 1975, he moved the store to its current location, near Coronado Center at 2411 San Pedro NE, after early-1970s riots began impacting the business. Mike Butterfield doesn’t recall what the riots were about, though he guessed they could’ve been about the Vietnam War or land grant conflicts.

“Yale Park was a major stopping way for (the) counterculture movement,” Mike Butterfield said. “Twice, the store got burned. First time was a small fire bomb; second was a bit more intense, and so my grandma — his mom — said, ‘You know, Bernie, you need to get out of there; you’re going to get hurt.’”

Journal archives dating back to 1971 said that Bernie Butterfield Jr. received “a three-inch gash along the side of his face as looters threw rocks at his store front window.” Looters took several thousand dollars in jewelry, he told the Journal.

Moving the store from its 30-year home was a “gutsy move,” Mike Butterfield said, but it paid off. At the San Pedro location, the store grew a large community of followers in Albuquerque, across the state and as far as Boston.

The community and friendships have been the most meaningful part of the business for Mike Butterfield, who ran the store for two decades after his father before retiring in 2020.

Seeing the store he knew all his life — from the moment he gained human consciousness to scrubbing the store’s toilets as a teenager to retirement — coming to an end is bittersweet.

“The biggest reward is the satisfaction that you found out what the people needed and wanted — not what I want you to have,” Mike Butterfield said. “Once you do that, you’re lifelong customers and friends.”

The retired owner said he believes his family’s approach to balancing profit with community service contributed to the store’s longevity. The store has supported several charity golf tournaments and animal rescue efforts over the years, in addition to setting up a scholarship for UNM music students in honor of Bernie Butterfield Jr., who died three years before his wife in 2021.

Over the last six years, Mike Butterfield’s sister, Theresa Butterfield — a certified gemologist appraiser — has run the store with her husband, Bill.

The store’s family history, legacy, knowledge and catchy jingle is what kept Garcia coming back, she said.

“I’m trying not to get emotional about it,” Garcia said, saying her time as a customer spans the length of her 18-year marriage. “But it’s good to see it get a lot of traffic. On Saturday, I’m not kidding, it was line-out-the-door busy. It is special.”

Garcia isn’t the only repeat customer feeling sentimental, Mike Butterfield said.

“This has been a really mixed-emotion experience, because so many people (who) come through the door say, ‘I remember you. You sold me my rings,’” Mike Butterfield said. “It's just relationships. That's what we did. We treated everybody right, and they respond.”

While Mike Butterfield’s brother, Ernie Butterfield Jr., never got involved with the business in an official capacity, he gladly worked door duty for Tuesday’s bustling late morning crowd.

Wearing a vibrant resort-style shirt adorned with colorful birds, he set the emotional but lighthearted tone of the business’ last days with this message: While Butterfield Jewelers’ nearly 100-year journey is coming to an end, the store will “always be here … in the form of your diamond wedding rings, pearl necklaces, emeralds, watches and more.”

“Thank you, everyone,” Ernie Butterfield Jr. said, “for making Butterfield a part of your life — or however the jingle goes.”

Kylie Garcia covers retail and real estate for the Journal. You can reach her at kgarcia@abqjournal.com.