Seymour Holtzman
Seymour Holtzman, a long-standing industry veteran in the watch, jewelry and retail world passed away on May 28, 2024, at the age of 88. Holtzman, owner of C.D. Peacock in Chicago, has a great legacy to leave behind not just in the watch and jewelry industry, but also as a businessman instrumental in key economic and political developments.
I personally dealt with Mr. Holtzman in the 1980’s and 1990’s when he headed up Jewelcor Inc. – the first company he listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1967 at the age of 32. Jewelcor operated a chain of retail stores, including then-popular Catalog Showrooms, all across America. He was instrumental in creating one of the most successful marketing campaigns for the CSM network and worked closely with Betty White on a marketing campaign that lasted years.
Additionally, Holtzman was Chairman of the Board and CEO during those decades of Gruen Watch and Marketing Corporation, which was an American Stock Exchange listed company. I remember meeting with him time and again at the Baselworld Fairs where we would talk product, American distribution and more.
Holtzman was a shrewd businessman, incredibly adept at acquiring companies, turning them around to become profitable and more. Over the years I knew him, he had his business outreach in the realms of publishing, jewelry making, retail. distribution and more.
Born in 1935 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he married his wife Evelyn (Evie) in 1957 and they had three children, Marc, Steven, and Allison. His children are involved in the industry today, heading up C. D. Peacock, which Holtzman bought in 1993 following the bankruptcy of former owner, Birks. Steven Holtzman has been CEO of the retailer – which recently opened it newly renovated 20,000-square-foot space in Chicago — since 2022. With homes in both Chicago and Palm Beach, Florida, Holtzman also owns and operates a Rolex Boutique in the Miami Design District.
Recently, he worked with Jewelers of America to form the Seymour & Evelyn Holtzman Bench Scholarship, offered by the Holtzman’s of Chicago’s C.D. Peacock in partnership with JA, in an aim to bring new talent into the bench jeweler profession. The scholarships are designed to provide tuition assistance to low-income students enrolled in an accredited bench jeweler or metalsmith education program between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 of this year.
Holtzman had been the chairman of Destination XL Group (retailer of Big and Tall apparel for men) and its 450+ locations until 2020. Throughout the last quarter of the 20th century, Holtzman pioneered in the opening of markets in Eastern Europe, including the purchase of what would become the first bank in Eastern Europe to be privatized since World War II — in his service under President Reagan that had begun in 1980. In fact, he served as the National Finance Co-Chairman for the Reagan-Bush campaign. He was appointed by President Reagan to the United States Department of Commerce’s Industry Policy Advisory Committee for trade policy matters.
His accomplishments go on and on, and throughout his approximately 50 years in business, he had been featured in Forbes, Business Week and other national publications. He has been honored as “Humanitarian of the Year” by the Cardinal Cushing School and Training Center in Boston, Massachusetts, and “Man of the Year” by the B’nai B’rith Youth Services.
