Krementz
In 1866 five men formed a company to manufacture jewelry, but it was in 1922 that George Krementz and Julius Lebkeucher joined into the firm to form Krementz & Co. By 1900 they had become the largest manufacturer of collar buttons in the US out of their factory which was located in Newark, NJ. Business continued to grow and by 1936 George and Julius ended their partnership leaving Krementz & Co name intact. Krementz started with jewelry for men as its first step into jewelry in the 1930's when the collar button went out. By 1950 their business grew from collar buttons being 99.9% of their business to jewelry, particularly men's jewelry, beings 50% of their business. In doing so they developed techniques for welding which replaced the old hand-soldering methods. This made it possible to manufacture a very high quality bangle bracelets without annealing the frames. In 1950 Krementz purchased a company which made colored stone jewelry and this became important to Krementz production also grew their business greatly. With this they expanded greatly into ladies jewelry. The business continued to grow and manufacture on a larger scale both in gold and gold filled. Eventually when Richard Krementz Jr passed away the company was sold to Colibri which closed in 2009 but sold the name to an online retailer.
