Charles Greig Jewellers

Charles Greig arrived in South Africa from Scotland aboard the RMS Scot in 1894, stepping ashore in Cape Town. In 1899 he founded his watchmaking and jewellery business in Johannesburg at the height of the gold boom. The firm became the first in South Africa to import and sell Rolex watches, a relationship the family dates to the early 1900s. In the 1950s his son David completed a year's watchmaking course in Switzerland and joined the business. The grandsons Christopher, Donald and Richard Greig took the firm forward. A fifth generation now shares the custodianship with Tammy Greig. Christopher and Richard remain involved in the jewellery side, while Donald pursued sculpture. In 2026 the family opened a Rolex boutique at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, linking the city where the founder landed with the one where he built the business. Among the pieces shown there is a cushion-shaped Rolex dated by the watchmaker's historical department to between 1916 and 1918. Beyond retail the firm supports conservation projects and sports academies, with young artists alongside.