Milestone: Pace Jewelers still ticking after 75 years

Leaning over his workbench, Joshua Scott focuses on the tiny, intricate workings of an Illinois Watch Co. pocket watch from 1914, much like the ones Scott’s great-grandfather Edgar Pace worked on 75 years ago when he opened his eponymous jewelry store in Greenville in 1948.

And Scott could very well be sitting in the very same place Pace once occupied after he moved his store from its original location just across Pendleton Street, and only about a block away. That was in 1960, and Pace Jewelers has been tickin’ along ever since.

“Being able to represent my family is an amazing feeling, upholding the morals and beliefs that my great-grandfather and my grandfather have,” says Scott, 24, a 2020 Clemson grad and now an apprentice horologist (a maker of clocks and watches) who began working full-time there two years ago.

His grandfather, Steve Pace, 73, the company’s president, says his father’s interest in timepieces began when Edgar was stationed in Alaska during World War II.

“I remember Mom saying that she had sent him some tools to work on watches while he was in the Navy,” Steve says, referring to his mother, Polly. “Just a fascination with watches. Wristwatches were a little bit newer then: Most people had pocket watches.”

After the war, Edgar, a Pickens native, attended the Bulova School of Watchmaking in Greenville, then went into business for himself in the Village of West Greenville.

Edgar retired in 1990, though he continued repairing watches at a bench at home. He died in 1992 after a 14-year battle with cancer. Polly worked alongside him for decades. Later, Steve’s wife, Teresa, kept the business’s books. Nowadays, their daughter, Rita Scott — Joshua’s mother — does the bookkeeping.

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Steve started working at the store more than a half-century ago. While at Parker High School, where he played basketball and baseball, he would work summers at the store, mostly sharpening ear-piercing posts for Edgar to use on young ladies’ lobes.

After high school, Steve briefly attended Clemson, served for about 2½ years in the Air Force, then joined the family business.

“I felt like there was an opportunity here that I shouldn’t just neglect. I felt like I wanted to do something with the family,” he says. “It was established, and I felt like it would certainly be worth giving it a shot to see if I liked it.”

He chuckles. “After a few weeks, I found that I liked it a lot.”

He especially appreciates the store’s location — a small building along a charming retail strip in an area that a dozen or so years ago was considered more a diamond in the rough than any Greenville gem.

In the 1960s and ’70s, though, when the area’s mills were still spinning gold, the Village of West Greenville was a “vibrant community. When I came to work in the early ’70s, it was wide open,” Steve says. “West Greenville was real strong.”

He credits artists moving in and the city’s help with the neighborhood’s resurgence.

“The last 10 years, things have just really improved so much in this area. I’m just tickled to death that we stayed,” he says, adding that running a family business — and in a neighborhood that also shares such a rich legacy — is a bit like helping a watch keep time.

“When you take something that doesn’t work, and you’re able to get it working again, and really working well, I think that’s an accomplishment. That’s pretty cool. Especially something that has a lot of sentimental value — an old gold pocket watch or something like that,” he says.

And then, he adds, “It’s just like anything else. We have to tweak things every now and then.”

1948 – Started as Vaughan and Pace Jewelers with partner, Porter Vaughan

1958 – Dissolved partnership with Porter Vaughan

1960 – Moved to current location. Also purchased Welborn Jewelers in Pickens

1972 – Steve Pace joined the family business

1986 – Edgar Pace retired

1994 – Edgar passed away

2002 – Son-in-law Jason Durham joined the company

2018 – Daughter Rita Scott joined

2020 – Grandson Joshua Scott joined

Edgar Pace attended the Bulova School of Watchmaking in 1948 after serving in the Navy during World War II. Bulova, a timepiece-manufacturing company that began in New York in 1875, started the schools in 1945 to offer tuition-free programs for returning veterans. The school closed after “several decades,” the company’s website says.

In Pace Jewelers’ early days, watch repair was a big part of the business. Three watchmakers worked full time, working only on repairing timepieces; that’s what Edgar did, too.

The original store opened at 1265 Pendleton St. The “new” location is 1250 Pendleton St.

General jewelry repairs now account for about 25% of the company’s business, with watch repairs at about 5%. The rest comes from sales.

The store’s most unusual sale: a 7-carat diamond for $100,000, sold to a local purchaser, several years ago.

Edgar Pace’s wife, Polly, began working at the store in the mid-1950s. She expanded the inventory from watches and jewelry to china, crystal, silverware and more.

The Paces’ son, Steve, joined the family business in 1972. Steve’s wife, Teresa, began working at the store in 1976 as a bookkeeper, store decorator and sales associate.

Steve and Teresa’s son-in-law, Jason Durham, began working there in 2001. Now the store manager, he is also chief jewelry repairman and a certified laser welder.

Sources: Pace Jewelers, Bulova

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