Behind Closed Doors Hamilton & Inches

A century and a half of painstaking crasmanship is being celebrated by Edinburgh’s illustrious jewellers.

- Catherine Coyle

Did you know that the clock that towers over the east end of Princes Street at the Balmoral Hotel runs three minutes fast to help travellers catch their trains at Waverley Station? It is only set to the right time at Hogmanay, to synchronise with the countdown to the bells. The Balmoral clock was made by Hamilton & Inches, the Edinburgh firm of luxury jewellers and silversmiths, which this year celebrates its 150th anniversary. The attention to detail that its craftsmen demonstrated when they were commissioned to build that Balmoral clock in 1902 is still in evidence today, just as it has been throughout the company’s long history.

Today, Hamilton & Inches is one of the last remaining jewellery and silversmithing houses of its kind, with its Edinburgh headquarters (encompassing a showroom, administrative offices and six workshops) in a suitably grand townhouse in George Street. There, in the heart of the New Town, set over five floors, you’ll find all departments under one roof. So, while you are idly perusing the diamond solitaires, Rolex watches and silver accessories on the shop floor, there are some 40 employees in the workshops above and below, busy designing and creating using techniques that have been honed over centuries.

“The Hamilton & Inches workshops are unique to Scotland,” says chief executive Stephen Paterson. “We are one of the last remaining jewellery houses in Britain designing, making and repairing jewellery, silver and watches.”