Downtown LA Jewelry Repair Shop With Laser Welding: Sams

On the corner of 6th Street and Hill in downtown Los Angeles, in a district packed with diamond dealers and wholesale counters, Sams Jewelry & Watch Repairs is the shop people send their friends to when something breaks. The owner, master goldsmith Sam Boktor, does the work in house, and reviewers on the shop's own site describe walking in with an engagement ring and leaving with it resized about fifteen minutes later. The shop has been part of this neighborhood for two decades.

In a 2020 interview posted on the shop's blog, Boktor tells the story. His grandfather opened the family jewelry business in Cairo, Egypt, around 1930. Boktor moved to the United States in 2000 and opened his own shop in Los Angeles in 2002 or 2003. He started in a space at 637 just around the corner, then moved to the current location. For a while he also ran a second shop at the Glendale Galleria, called Galleria Jewelry and Watch Repair, which he kept until 2012.

The business got a boost in May 2010, when the Los Angeles Times reviewed it. The About page says the shop has been a cornerstone of the Los Angeles diamond district for more than a decade, and that Boktor has designed pieces for musicians and public figures including Jason Mraz, Ricky Martin and LP. Most of the people who walk in, though, are here for more ordinary jobs: a ring that no longer fits, a necklace that snapped, a watch that needs a battery.

The repair page lists the in-house services: ring resizing, polishing, customization, restoration, laser welding, plating, stone replacement, prong retipping, prong replacement, engraving, costume jewelry repair and eyeglass repair. The shop says all of this work is done on site and backed by its workmanship guarantee. Watch repair and service are handled too, on a separate page of the site.

Restoration and customization are the other side of the bench. Old family pieces often come in with worn shanks, missing stones and settings that no longer hold. A goldsmith can rebuild the shank, reset the stones and bring the finish back, or rework an inherited ring into something you will actually wear. If you have a design in mind, bring a photo or a sketch and talk it through before any work starts.

Two smaller services on the list are easy to overlook. Eyeglass repair is one of them, and a goldsmith with a laser welder can often fix a snapped metal frame at the bridge or the hinge, a job many optical shops will not take on. Costume jewelry repair is the other. Plenty of counters turn away plated or base metal pieces because they are hard to solder, but those are often the pieces with the most sentimental value, like a grandmother's brooch or a bracelet bought on a trip.

The shop does not post prices. Its repair page asks you to get in touch about wait times, pricing and other services, which makes sense in a trade where the same request, a ring sizing, can mean a thin silver band or a platinum ring with channel-set diamonds. Many services can be done while you wait, according to the site, so a simple sizing or chain repair may be finished before you have walked around the block.

The Jewelry District has a lot of counters, and it can feel overwhelming on a first visit. A few habits help. Know what metal your piece is, if you can, since gold karat and platinum change both the method and the price. Ask whether the work is done at that bench or sent out. Here it is done in house, which is the main reason to choose this shop over the counters on the next block.

The shop is a short walk from Pershing Square station, where the Metro B and D Lines stop at 5th and Hill. Come out of the station, walk one block south on Hill Street and the shop is at the corner. Parking downtown is mostly in paid lots and garages, and on busy weekdays the street meters fill up quickly, so the train is often the easier choice.

A repair errand here is a good excuse to see some of the city's oldest blocks. Pershing Square, the city's oldest public park, is just across 5th Street. A few blocks north on Broadway, the Bradbury Building has one of the most famous interiors in Los Angeles. It was built in 1893 and is a National Historic Landmark, with an iron-railed atrium and open cage elevators under a glass roof. The lobby is open to visitors during business hours.

Broadway itself is lined with old movie palaces from the 1910s and 1920s, and Grand Central Market, the food hall that has fed downtown since 1917, is a short walk away for lunch or coffee while you wait.

Address: Sams Jewelry & Watch Repairs, at 406 B W 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90014, at the corner of Hill Street in the Jewelry District. Hours: Monday to Friday 9 am to 5 pm, Saturday 9:30 am to 5 pm, closed Sunday. Repairs, laser welding and stone setting are done in house, and many jobs are finished while you wait. Prices are quoted in the shop.

Bring the stone if one has fallen out, and keep your ticket. If you have time to spare while a repair is done, the Karpo APP can point you to a lunch counter at Grand Central Market.