Often, the mark of a good jeweler is its longevity. Companies such as Tiffany & Co., Chopard, and Asprey have all been around for a long time. This is because the jewelry they offer transcends time. Notably, this year another jeweler rises toward the ranks of timelessness. Nathan Alan jewelers is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary of offering some of the finest gems in Southern California. This success doesn’t come as very surprising given the store’s owner, Alan Lemmerman: a well-rounded businessman and connoisseur of the finest in jewelry.
  Lemmerman grew up in Lakewood, Calif., and eventually attended UCLA on a football scholarship. After graduating college, he and his future wife, Barbara, traveled to Thailand where they served in the United Service Organization, which provides recreational and other services to the United States military around the world. During his stay there, Lemmerman traveled all around East Asia and started to develop an appreciation for the beauty and value of gemstones. Though at this time, jewelry was merely a hobby for him, it wasn’t long before this admiration turned into a career.
  Back in the United States, while Lemmerman worked as a substitute teacher, he bumped into an old friend who was selling jewelry. Realizing there was money to be made in an industry he had already come to love, he began selling gold jewelry wholesale. During the 1970s, gold was the “in thing.” Everybody had a gold chain necklace. Needless to say, Lemmerman did very well—enough so that he opened his first jewelry store called Chain Reaction. The store offered gold for men and women of all ages, and was hugely successful. This success prompted him to open a second store—one that would uphold the high standards of Chain Reaction, but with diamonds.
  Combine Lemmerman’s first name with that of his son and you get “Nathan Alan.” The name not only has a pleasant ring to it, but has also becomes a prominent place to buy one—and bracelets, necklaces, and other fine jewelry for that matter. Any store in business 25 years at South Coast Plaza must be exceptional. Succeeding with the likes of Tiffany & Co. as a neighbor always deserves approbation. Yet, rather than finding Tiffany & Co. as a competitor, Nathan Alan’s reputation for quality has earned numerous custom-work referrals from them.
  Custom work, in particular, is what has made Nathan Alan so distinguished. Lemmerman tells the story of a woman who brought in a picture from a magazine clipping depicting Catherine Zeta-Jones wearing a 10-ct. diamond ring. She wanted the ring she brought in modified to look like the one on Catherine’s finger. The dilemma, however, was the lady’s ring wasn’t proportionate in size to the one in the magazine. Even so, the store was able to scale and alter her 1.5-ct. ring to perfectly match the design in the magazine.
  “Quality and innovation are what sets us apart,” Lemmerman says. “And I realize you can walk into any jewelry store and they will sell you on the ‘quality’ of their product. However, there are different levels of quality.” He continues, “Our master jeweler, who comes from a background of making everything by hand, has been in jewelry for over 25 years,  and our setter perfectly complements him with his microscopic precision.” Remarkably, finding these two craftsmen was not easy and required a search extending as far as South Africa and Vietnam, respectively.
  These experts, combined with their sales staff, of which three have been with Lemmerman for over 20 years, give Nathan Alan the professional and friendly reputation they are so well known for. The jewels, however, speak for themselves.
  As Lemmerman explains, the reason his store consistently holds the finest jewelry is the result of his customers’ influence. “Our customer is educated and knows what they want.” Also, because of their heavy volume of custom work, Nathan Alan has a better understanding of what its clients will like when they buy for the store.
  With 25 years under its belt and an ever-expanding presence in Southern California, Nathan Alan has a lot to celebrate. It has withstood the test of time and has a future as solid as its stones—a very exciting prospect for Lemmerman, but likely even more so for Nathan.
—David Krissman