Yuma's Best 2012: 24 Karat Jewelry

If you want to present someone with a trophy that fits conveniently in a bookcase or on a desk top, 24 Karat Jewelers wants to make it for you.

If the trophy you want to award stands several feet high, 24 Karat Jewelry wants to create it for you.

Maybe you're looking for a plaque that the honoree can hang on the wall. Maybe you need a grandfather clock serviced. Maybe you want a cherished ring — one handed down through the generations of your family — restored to its original condition.

Or maybe all you need is a clasp on a gold watch band fixed or replaced.

Whatever you want done, 24 Karat Jewelers wants to do it for you.

“There is no small order,” said Kathy Ahuactzin, who opened the business with her late husband Jorge more than three decades ago. “Everything is important to us.”

It's important to 24 Karat Jewelers, she said, because it's important to the customer.

“The customer always comes first,” she said.

Voters in the Yuma's Best poll picked 24 Karat Jewelers as the best place in the Yuma area to have a trophy, plaque or other award made. And the business finished in second-place in voting in the category of Best Jeweler.

24 Karat Jewelers has always created trophies for the public, but that part of its business has taken a significant jump in recent years, Ahuactzin said.

The business can make awards in any design, shape or size customers request, and for any occasion, she said.

“We make trophies for everything, from clubs and organizations to mom and pop (occasions) to a desk wedge with someone's name on it. We do it all as far as that's concerned.”

Her son, Jeff Ahuactzin, creates the trophies to customers' specifications, she said, but he is also highly skilled at refurbishing and repairing any kind of jewelry. “If you can bring it in, Jeff can refurbish it.”

24 Karat Jewelers also employs a watchmaker for cleaning and repairs of clocks and other timepieces.

“We do everything from battery repairs to new crystals to fixing grandfather clocks,” Kathy Ahuactzin said.

In March 1979, Jorge and Kathy Ahuactzin opened 24 Karat Jewelers as a jewelry and engraving shop in a small store at 24th Street and Avenue A. Over the years, it expanded, acquiring more showroom space where it could exhibit a growing line of jewelry for sale.

During the same period, Kathy said, her son, who had started out creating trophies and engraving, acquired and honed skills that he uses today to repair or refurbish jewelry for customers.

The city purchased the site of 24 Karat Jewelers as well as neighboring businesses to make room for the widening of Avenue A, and the Ahuactzins moved their business in 2009 to 2390 S. Avenue B, where it currently operates.

Apart from making trophies and other awards and jewelry repair, the business offers rings, earrings, bracelets, charms, pendants and gift items for sale.

Store hours are 9:30 to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. The phone number is (928) 782-3306, and the business has a website, www.24karatjewelers.com.

Kathy said 24 Karat Jewelers has a long-term commitment to serving the community, given that her son wants to continue running the business in the years ahead.

“Tomorrow if you need something, if next week you need something, we're always going to be here.”