Cut From the Same Stone: Two Family Diamond Houses Unite as Solomon Brothers Jewelers Acquires Mervis Diamond Importers

The Mervis name, showrooms, and team remain in place as the Atlanta-based family jeweler expands into the Washington, DC market with a stewardship model built for independent jewelers facing succession.

WASHINGTON, DC and ATLANTA, GA (October 26, 2026) Solomon Brothers Jewelers today announced it has completed the acquisition of Mervis Diamond Importers, one of the Washington, DC region's best-known independent diamond retailers. Mervis will continue to operate under its own name, from its own showrooms, with its existing team. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The two families are, in many ways, cut from the same stone. Both trace their roots to South Africa. Both founders, Zed Mervis and Ivan Solomon (father of current President Jaron Solomon), came to the United States as immigrants building new lives from the ground up. Zed arrived in 1976. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the two worked for the same New York diamond company without ever meeting. Each eventually left to start his own business. In 1981 Zed and his brother Ronnie settled in Washington, importing South African diamonds wholesale before customers began asking to buy single stones and the brothers opened their first retail store in Rockville, Maryland. In 1982 Ivan Solomon opened his first store in Atlanta. Together the two companies now operate six showrooms: three in Georgia and three across the DC, Maryland, and Virginia market.

“Mervis is one of the great American diamond stories, and it belongs to Washington,” said Jaron Solomon, President of Solomon Brothers Jewelers. “Ronnie and Zed spent more than four decades earning the trust of that market, one customer at a time. Putting our name on it was never the point. Our job is to make sure Mervis is still here in another forty years, with the same name over the door and the same people behind the counter.”

Mervis traces its origins to Johannesburg, South Africa, where Morris Mervis opened his first store in the 1930s and trained his sons in diamonds from an early age. The company has since grown into three Washington-area showrooms: its Tysons, Virginia flagship and headquarters; downtown Washington at 1700 K Street NW; and Rockville, Maryland. Mervis says it has helped send roughly 80,000 couples down the aisle.

“My father taught my brother and me this business before either of us was old enough to work in it,” said Ronnie Mervis, co-founder and CEO of Mervis Diamond Importers. “Zed and I came to Washington in 1981 to import and distribute diamonds, and what we ultimately built was a business grounded in relationships. Many of our longtime customers are more than customers today. They are friends.”

Unlike acquisitions that fold a local jeweler into a national identity, Solomon Brothers intends to keep Mervis intact. Ronnie and Zed Mervis will both remain active in the company, working alongside the existing Mervis team and continuing to serve the longtime customers who have become personal friends. Zed will continue to lead the company’s diamond buying, and Ronnie will remain the voice of Mervis on Washington radio. The Mervis name, its three showrooms, staff, warranties, lifetime care services, and upgrade programs will continue. Ronnie and Zed Mervis will also remain involved in an advisory capacity, working with the Solomon Brothers team on brand continuity and customer relationships.

“Succession is the quiet crisis in our industry,” Solomon said. “A family spends forty or fifty years earning a community's trust, and then the options narrow to two: sell to a consolidator that strips the name off the building, or close the doors. We believe there is a third path. These brands matter. Their histories matter. Their customer relationships matter. Those legacies deserve stewardship, not replacement.”

What changes is what sits behind the counter rather than in front of it. Solomon Brothers will invest in the areas where scale genuinely helps an independent jeweler compete: inventory access and diamond sourcing, e-commerce and website capability, marketing measurement and reporting, and the operational and technology support that is increasingly difficult for a single-market retailer to fund alone. The company said its first priority is a disciplined transition rather than rapid change, with the customer experience in the showrooms left deliberately untouched.

“I have been buying diamonds for this company for more than forty years,” said Zed Mervis, co-founder of Mervis Diamond Importers, who leads the company’s diamond buying. “Working alongside Solomon Brothers gives us access to a much broader selection of diamonds, bridal jewelry, fine jewelry designers, and inventory than we could support on our own. Ronnie and I will remain actively involved, serving the loyal customers and friends who have supported Mervis for decades. They will continue to see us in the stores, with the added benefit of more choices in the cases.”

“Same stores, same people, same name on the door,” Ronnie Mervis said. “Zed and I will still be here, serving the customers and friends who helped us build Mervis. The difference is that we will have more resources behind us and more to offer.”

The acquisition is the first outside its home market for Solomon Brothers and is intended as the template for a broader model: acquiring exceptional independent jewelers, preserving their local brand equity and reputation, and supplying the operational, marketing, and data capabilities needed to compete with national chains and online retailers.

“The test of this is not what we say today, it is what Mervis looks like in five years,” Solomon added. “If the name is still on the building, the staff is still there, and the business is stronger than we found it, then we have built something worth repeating.”

Jaron Solomon and Nick Constantino, Chief Marketing Officer of Solomon Brothers Jewelers and Mervis Diamond Importers, discuss the acquisition on the latest episode of the Legacy of Luxury podcast, available now on YouTube and Spotify. Watch the episode or listen on Spotify.

About Solomon Brothers Jewelers

Founded in Atlanta in 1982 and led today by second-generation President Jaron Solomon, Solomon Brothers Jewelers is a family-owned luxury jewelry retailer specializing in engagement rings, diamonds, fine jewelry, luxury timepieces, and custom design. The company operates showrooms in Buckhead, Alpharetta, and Sharpsburg, Georgia, and serves customers across the Southeast and throughout the United States. Solomon Brothers is a longtime supporter of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Piedmont Healthcare, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and Big Brothers Big Sisters. Learn more at solomonbrothers.com.

About Mervis Diamond Importers

Mervis Diamond Importers traces its roots to Johannesburg, South Africa, where Morris Mervis opened his first store in the 1930s. His sons Ronnie and Zed Mervis relocated to the Washington, DC area in 1981 to import South African diamonds, later opening the company's first US retail location in Rockville, Maryland. Mervis operates three showrooms, in Tysons, Virginia; Washington, DC; and Rockville, Maryland, and is known throughout the DMV for the diamond expertise of co-founders Ronnie and Zed Mervis, its direct importing model, and its long-running radio advertising voiced by Ronnie. Learn more at mervisdiamond.com.

Media inquiries

Nick Constantino, Chief Marketing Officer, Solomon Brothers Jewelers and Mervis Diamond Importers
404-924-6962 · nick@redberylusa.com

Business inquiries

Jaron Solomon, President, Solomon Brothers Jewelers
jsolomon@solomonbrothers.com