Juergen Schuetz

Juergen Schuetz was born in Idar-Oberstein in Germany. The town Idar-Oberstein is famous for gemstone cutting and the roots of the gemstone industry can be traced back as far as the 15th century. At the beginning of the 19th century more than 90 % of the world’s opal production was cut in the area of Idar-Oberstein.

When Juergen Schuetz started working at Emil Weis Opals in 1985 he found his way directly to the Australian opal fields in the same year. Besides his own mining activities, he has been travelling thousands of miles to visit all opal producing areas in Australia and Mexico on a very regular basis ever since. In addition, Mr. Schuetz has traveled to opal fields in many other countries to expand his knowledge of other opal types.

In Germany, Juergen Schuetz is the only certified appraiser for opals, officially appointed by the German government.

Nowadays, being the oldest opal cutting factory in the world, Emil Weis Opals cuts and sells more than 40 varieties of opals from all over the word. One of the world’s largest opal collections can be found at Emil Weis Opals, including very rare one-of-a-kind opals from Australia and Mexico, rare opal specimens (like pineapples from White Cliffs), opal beads, opal carvings and very fine one-of-a-kind opal jewelry.