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I invite Christopher Greig to meet me for lunch at Cafe Sofi in Gardens. It is Tasha Sideris’s (of Tashas fame) beautiful homage to her mother, whose bright spirit runs through the glorious cafe like a nostalgic paean.
It seems apt because Christopher is the fourth generation of Greigs, celebrating the culmination of 120 years of partnership with Rolex in the opening of the first standalone store in Cape Town.
His great grandfather, a young and intrepid Scottish watchmaker, arrived on a steam ship in Table Bay all those years ago and headed up to the Transvaal goldfields like so many others to seek his fortune. It’s a heady tale that unfolds across time and is recorded in the beautiful heritage timepieces proudly displayed in the new Rolex store — bearing the Greig name along with the Rolex brand — proof that Greigs may have been one of the first distributors of Rolex in the world.
But before we discuss legacy, we speak about India. He has recently returned from his third journey there. We also talk about vegetarianism (he is truly committed), Cape Town (he spends half his time here) and about walking barefoot up Table Mountain.
Christopher is one of those rare people whose curiosity spills into every subject. Gardening — his beautiful Beechwood gardens in Hyde Park are a local treasure — architecture, fashion, hospitality, cities, people. He approaches the world with open-hearted curiosity and genuine delight.
“You have to go to India,” he insists. “It’s mad, crazy, fabulous, wonderful. I love it because I’m vegetarian and it’s very good for vegetarians.”
Though Johannesburg remains home, Cape Town has become increasingly central to the Greig story. The Cape Town store opened roughly 30 years ago, before the city became the global luxury destination it is today.
“It wasn’t the tourist attraction then that it is now. The foreign business here is tremendous. Joburg hardly gets that anymore.”
Christopher grew up in Johannesburg. “I can honestly remember as a young boy, aged 10 or 12, my best thing was to get up on a Saturday morning, put on my jacket and tie and go to work with my dad.”
The original Charles Greig store opened in 1899 on Market Street. Later the business moved to Commissioner Street, near the Rand Club and the mining houses of Marshalltown.
“That’s where it started for me,” he says. “Helping my father. Designing. Doing window displays. I loved working with the jewellery.”
I was always the artistic one, I never did goldsmithing formally. I just did it differently
There was never really another path. Christopher skipped university and went directly into the business. His brothers pursued gemmology in the US while he remained the self-taught designer.
“I was always the artistic one, I never did goldsmithing formally. I just did it differently.”
That instinctive creative energy would later help shape the identity of the brand. So too would the opening of the Charles Greig boutique at Sun City during the great Sol Kerzner era.
Christopher speaks about that period almost wistfully. “That store changed everything for us. Sun City was attracting the world.” With the world came celebrities. “Tina Turner was my favourite. Fabulous. Generous beyond belief. She would say, ‘We’re having such a great tour, let’s buy the whole band Rolexes.’ Elton John was fabulous. Celine Dion. Michael Jackson.” What was Michael Jackson like? “He was extremely awkward,” Christopher recalled. “Couldn’t look at you. Always playing with his sleeves. Hair falling in front of his face. And then you’d watch him on stage and he became this phenomenal force.”
Yet for all the glamour, what interests Christopher most is not fame but intimacy. The deeply personal role jewellery plays in people’s lives. “We are all about celebration,” he smiles. ”People come into the store for engagements, birthdays, babies, anniversaries. It’s joyous. And people come with their stories.”
This, perhaps, is what has made the business endure for more than a century. The understanding that jewellery is never simply an object. It is memory made tangible.
“We redesign heirloom jewellery all the time,” he explains. “People bring in a ruby that belonged to their grandmother and with it comes this wonderful provenance. Stories of where it came from, a maharaja — who gave it to whom. People treasure that history. Sometimes a young couple come in and say both our great grandparents got engaged at Charles Greig. I love that.”
Throughout lunch people drift over to greet him. Friends. Clients. Admirers. Christopher greets each one with genuine delight. There is no performance to it. He simply loves people. “I think that’s why this business suits me,” he admits. “I love the interaction. I love becoming part of people’s special moments.”
He also still loves the work itself. At nearly 70, Christopher continues to work seven days a week. “We all do,” he said of the family. “That’s unusual today.”
So he rejects the idea that the family business has survived through inheritance alone. “People think you are simply born into something. They don’t see what it takes to maintain it and grow it.”
And he is still wildly enthusiastic, opening new stores in Hermanus and Plett. He speaks about retail the way artists speak about paint.
“I’m a storekeeper,” he laughs. “I’m a hawker. I love selling. I love opening new shops.”
I don’t know many people like Christopher, who love work as much as I do.
This article was first published in Sunday Times Lifestyle.
