In 1926, E.O. Wick left New York, where he had worked with Tiffany & Co., and moved to Asheville to open a small jewelry repair shop on Wall Street. A century later, that shop has evolved into Spicer Greene Jewelers, a fourth-generation family business with locations in downtown Asheville and Hendersonville and plans for continued growth.

For Eva-Michelle Spicer, who owns the business with her husband, Elliott Spicer, reaching the 100-year mark is as much about looking forward as reflecting on the past.  

“My husband and I bought the business from my grandmother and have continued to evolve the icon,” said Eva-Michelle. “That’s really what we’re focusing on for the centennial: it’s the evolution of an icon, and we’re not defined by the time, but we’re defining the time that we’re in.”

Wick took on Paul Greene, Eva-Michelle’s grandfather, as an apprentice in 1942, teaching him the jewelry business and the craft of custom jewelry. Greene became a full partner in 1953, creating Wick and Greene. His son, Michael Greene, joined the business in 1975, and during the following decade the family moved the store from Asheville’s Wall Street into a renovated 1920s Art Deco building on Patton Avenue, its current Asheville home. The restored Seth Thomas street clock outside the store would become a familiar downtown landmark.

“We’ve always been at the heart of the city and we’ve always had a heart for the city,” Eva-Michelle said.

For Eva-Michelle, the business was part of her everyday childhood. She was just four years old when her grandmother mentioned over dinner that only two people would be working at the store the following day. Eva-Michelle asked what she could do to help.

“It was my first day on the job at four years old,” she said. “I started answering the phones and then I had my first sale at seven—a pretty significant sale, an emerald ring. Every Saturday at that point, I went to work and earned an income.”

Those Saturdays taught her responsibility and customer service at an unusually young age, but she did not initially envision a career in jewelry. That changed after she graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her grandfather died. At his funeral, Eva-Michelle watched as generations of customers approached the family and showed her pieces her grandfather had made to mark engagements, births, promotions and other milestones.

“People came up to me with a ring on every finger and praised him and the impact that he had on their lives through jewelry and through these precious objects that made memories tangible for them,” she said. “I’ve got chills just thinking about that. That’s when I decided this is what I want to do.”

Her grandfather had encouraged her to get the best education possible if she planned to enter the industry, so Eva-Michelle attended the Gemological Institute of America in Carlsbad, California, studying gemology, jewelry design and manufacturing. There, she met Elliott, who had grown up in his own family jewelry business in Atlantic Canada. Both earned Graduate Gemologist diplomas from GIA and married in 2013. They became partners in Wick and Greene the following year and, in 2016, Spicer Greene Jewelers was born.

The pair have since worked to combine the traditions of a century-old jeweler with new technology and a contemporary retail experience. Spicer Greene now offers what it calls its “Jewelry Ecosystem,” allowing clients to buy, sell and upgrade jewelry, diamonds and watches. Its Asheville workshop continues to handle custom design, manufacturing and repair, while concepts such as its Diamond Bar and Watch Bar incorporate live pricing and market data into the buying and selling process.

Yet some of the most fundamental parts of the business have barely changed.

“We manufacture jewelry right there in the heart of downtown Asheville as we have for 100 years,” Eva-Michelle said. “And I think that if Ernie [EO] Wick were to walk into the business, he would be kind of surprised at how much technology has changed, but also how much has stayed the same.”

That balance extends beyond craftsmanship to the way the Spicers think about running a family business. Integrity, client focus and having fun are among the company’s stated values, and Eva-Michelle said many of those business principles mirror the values they emphasize within their own family.

“A lot of our family values carry into our business,” she said. “Integrity, first and foremost, is paramount.”

In 2025, Spicer Greene opened its second storefront on Main Street in downtown Hendersonville, bringing its Diamond Bar, Watch Bar, estate jewelry and other services to the city. Eva-Michelle said the company plans to open a third store next year. Growth, however, comes with a challenge familiar to many multigenerational businesses: figuring out how to get bigger without losing the personal relationships that helped the company survive for generations.

“We want to grow but we want to grow with that care and that client focus and that integrity and all of our values still intact,” Eva-Michelle said.

Eva-Michelle said these days she has developed an increasing appreciation for estate jewelry and the history contained in objects that pass between generations.

“It might be a tie to our 100th anniversary,” she said. “I’m looking at things thinking, ‘Wow, the stories that this piece of jewelry could tell to me,’ or, ‘What story is my jewelry going to tell to my grandchildren?’ I have so much more appreciation for the things that last and span generations.”

Learn more at SpicerGreene.com.