Jewelry store in the family for 70 years

The best stories are the ones gleaned during 70 years of running a family business in Billings.

And Montague's Jewelers of Montana, which hit that rare anniversary mark this year, has a doozy.

Chris Montague, the third-generation family jeweler, said most men plan for their live-altering decisions. However, some don't.

A couple of years ago, a man walked in at 10 a.m., and ordered a rush job on an engagement ring. The man told Montague he had decided to propose to his love at Flathead Lake and had to catch the 3 p.m. Big Sky Airlines flight.

After placing the diamond in the ring, Montague jumped in his car for the fast zip from the downtown store up to the airport. Worried he would miss the flight, he called Big Sky on his cell phone and asked if they would hold the plane. "I ran out on the tarmac to the fence and the pilot met me, grabbed the ring and ran back to the plane. The kid came out, gave me a thumbs up, " he said. "They closed the doors and the plane flew off."

When asked why his customer didn't plan ahead, Jay said, "This guy just had a big XY chromosome."

When a family business has lasted into the third generation, the relatives still get along and sales are good, its time to party.

Montague's recently held a 70th-anniversary party at the old Montana National Bank building that now is home to Buchanan Capital. The party featured a trunk show with some of the world's best jewelry by Oscar Heyman & Bros., S.A. Gems/Naledi Jewelry, Masriera and the Palladium Alliance.

"Oscar Heyman & Bros. of New York City is one of the top three jewelry makers in the world," Chris said, adding that these companies, like his family's, are third- and fourth-generation jewelry people.

An expert from Heyman & Bros. brought in several million dollars worth of jewelry, some of them one-of-a-kind designs.

Madagascar Imports of Laurel, a wholesale company owned by Bill and Margit Thorndal, also displayed colored gemstones, sapphire and aquamarine.

Times were tough during the start of this family business.

Wally Montague, Jay's father and Chris' grandfather, and his wife, Lois, started the Jewel Box in 1937 in the Fratt Building along Second Avenue North.

"Two months later, the 1937 flood hit, soaking downtown and destroying their apartment below the store," Jay said. "They just lost all their personal belongings, but not the jewelry upstairs."

For six months, a local couple fed and lodged the Montagues, who had just moved up from Idaho with their newborn girl.

"I don't think Grandpa ever forgot the kind nature of this city. He always loved Billings for that reason and wanted to give back," said Chris Montague.

That philanthropic tradition continues. A display case at the back of the downtown store features some 50 thank-you cards from a rainbow of local businesses and charities.

"Last year, our family contributed cash or jewelry to help run 34 different programs," Chris Montague said. "Our jewelry helped these organizations raise $120,000 last year, and that can make a real difference."

One 2006 philanthropic effort helped Billings Family Services raise $6,000, enough to pay a year's worth of utility bills for six or seven families.

Jay Montague started working in his father's business in 1963. In 2002, his son, Chris Montague, who had worked on the 1996 re-election campaign for Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and for the Montana Land Reliance, came home to help run the family business.

The family opened a West End store at West Park Plaza when that mall opened and then moved to Rimrock Mall in 1997 after the Hart-Albin department store closed in downtown Billings.

Three years ago, the family returned to its original downtown street, opening a second store on Second Avenue North.

Quick-witted and fast to smile, the father-son team said their business is a happy one. "We do enjoy helping people at the happiest moments of their lives: engagements, birthdays, anniversaries and weddings," Jay said. Watching third and fourth generations return for wedding rings is especially satisfying, he said.

Sales have been up every month in recent years, Chris said.

"A local business may be a skosh more expensive, but we'll take care of you," Chris said, adding that some catalog or big retail store jewelry is so inexpensively made, usually in China, that rings are too thin to size when customers come in asking for help.

Recently, the family started selling palladium jewelry, because it is increasingly popular and is made from a metal mined at Stillwater Mining Co.'s two Montana sites.

"We bought into palladium two years ago and it's been fantastic," Chris said.

Both platinum and palladium are shiny and silver-colored. Platinum is the longest lasting, the heaviest and most expensive of the two. Palladium is much more affordable. White gold is third in strength, but it needs to be replated with rhodium after heavy use.

The toughest challenge is managing time, Chris said.

"Customer care comes first and it's hard to get to everything else," he said.

Peering up from the gem scope where he was analyzing a ring, Jay told a customer the diamond and stones weren't real. A jeweler needs many diverse skills, he said, from buying, sizing and grading stones to designing, pricing and selling jewelry.

When asked to recall all the business advice they heard through the years from Wally, both Jay and Chris Montague started laughing again.

"Wally liked to say, 'There are a few relationships as important as your jeweler, your attorney, your accountant, your doctor and your mechanic,' " Jay said. "We want to be important to people."
Source: missoulian