Thomas Sabo Brand Guidelines: Silver Charms and Skulls From Lauf

A precision mechanic, a market stall and an ear cuff.

Thomas Sabo is a German jewellery company founded in 1984 in Lauf an der Pegnitz, a small town east of Nuremberg, by the man whose name it carries. The 1984 date and the town appear in English and German Wikipedia, in Textilwirtschaft in 2018 and in FashionUnited in 2019.

Its founder did not come from the trade. German Wikipedia says he trained as a precision mechanic at Diehl Metall, then began travelling through Asia and Sri Lanka in the early 1980s, developing designs with goldsmiths there and importing silver jewellery to Germany, at first selling it himself at markets. He told the Swiss magazine FACES in October 2022 that he once traded his Canon camera for jewellery in Thailand when his travel money ran low, then sold it from a stall on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse. The company followed in 1984, selling through trade fairs, wholesalers and specialist retailers.

German Wikipedia dates the breakthrough to two years later, with an “ear cuff” inspired by London punks. In November 2021 Vogue Germany described the early business in similar terms: silver jewellery that was high in quality but affordable, drawing on journeys to Thailand and the style of punks, and sold as a lifestyle product rather than as the work of a traditional house or a small jeweller.

The move into its own shops came later. International stockists followed from the early 1990s, German Wikipedia says, and the first Thomas Sabo shop opened in Frankfurt am Main in 1998. In the 1990s Sabo also began working with the graphic designer and decorator Susanne Kölbli, whom nordbayern.de called the long-serving creative director in 2016, and Die Presse still named in that role in 2019. A design office stayed in Frankfurt until the company brought everything together in Lauf.

Charms, skulls and a fleur-de-lis.

German Wikipedia singles out two collections. The Charm Club arrived in 2006, built on the charm bracelet, with new pendants added each year, and aimed mainly at younger buyers, German Wikipedia says. Rebel at Heart followed in 2007, in blackened 925 sterling silver, using motifs such as snakes, crocodiles, wolves, crosses, dragons, swords and skulls, and meant for men and women alike.

That vocabulary of symbols reaches beyond jewellery. FashionUnited noted in 2019 that skulls, crosses and the Bourbon lily recur as trademarks of the brand. Creative director Aurore Melot told WatchTime Germany in August 2024 that the company’s 40th-anniversary automatic watches took symbols from its early history, with the lily set into the seconds hand, crown and rotor and swords forming the hands. Sharp magazine summed up the mix in 2018 as punk rock and Asian mysticism.

The brand has spread by category. Watches came in 2009; the first eyewear collection was reported by FashionUnited in March 2019, with sunglasses and glasses chains on sale from May that year. In 2016, the local news site N-Land reported, FC Bayern Munich commissioned its exclusive jewellery partner to make 64 championship rings, the first in the club’s history, which a company press release said were made in Lauf. In 2019 the singer Rita Ora became global brand ambassador for two years, a company release said.

In 2021 the family added a second label. Saboteur, launched by Thomas Sabo with Santiago Sabo and Rita Sabo, was described by Vogue Germany that November as a project from the house of Thomas Sabo, with a Sacra line, a minimalist Elemental line and Body Jewelry. German Wikipedia says it is made mainly in 18ct gold, with some 925 silver. Melot became creative director of Thomas Sabo that year, German Wikipedia says.

Design and documentation.

A jewellery retailer sells something most customers cannot judge by eye. Much of its visual identity works on that gap, using bright counters, close-up photography and printed assurances to make purity, weight and origin feel visible. The store counter is the oldest of these devices: pieces sit under strong light, on neutral trays, with a member of staff between the customer and the case.

Festive selling changes the display. Gold sets shown for weddings and holidays tend to be arranged as full ensembles, with necklace, earrings and bangles together, and campaigns are often planned around the calendar. The store itself can carry the message. JCK reported in 2023 that Tanishq’s New Jersey store used Dhokra metal-casting in its signage, and Khaleej Times reported in 2013 that Kalyan Jewellers’ UAE showrooms each had a dedicated diamond floor.

Online sellers have had to replace the counter with a screen. Their pages lean on magnified diamond viewers, grading details and rotating product images, so the shopper can inspect a stone without holding it. The certificate, the cut chart and the zoomed photograph do the work a salesperson once did, and they tend to be set in plain, spec-sheet type.

Younger demi-fine brands use a looser language. Their pictures favour stacked rings and layered chains shown on hands and necks rather than on trays, and the gift box often becomes part of the identity, since many pieces are sold as presents. Charm bars, where a customer builds a piece in the shop, turn the counter into something closer to a workshop. Each of these settings asks something different of a logo, a typeface and a palette, which is why this guide looks at what can be documented about each brand.

Designed in Lauf, made in Asia.

The company describes itself as a medium-sized, owner-run business, and says its jewellery and watches are designed by an international team at its headquarters in Lauf. Manufacture is another matter. German Wikipedia says it has worked mainly with Asian suppliers and manufacturers since its founding. When the new headquarters opened in April 2016, the regional newspaper site nordbayern.de reported, citing the finance chief, that the pieces were all made in Thailand and flown to Nuremberg, then picked and packed in Lauf.

The headquarters was built between 2012 and 2016 on a 33,000-square-metre site, German Wikipedia says, and brought together four sites in Lauf and the Frankfurt creative office. nordbayern.de counted 490 staff in Lauf and a further 1,300 across 20 country companies, and described a three-storey atrium with an oversized silver globe bearing the logo. Figures have since varied: a 2019 company release gave about 1,800 staff and around 300 shops, while German Wikipedia now gives over 1,200 staff and about 150 of its own shops.

The founder has stepped back from daily management. Textilwirtschaft reported on 29 January 2018 that Sabo was stepping down as managing director but remained majority shareholder, and he told the trade title BlickpunktJuwelier, in an interview carried by DerJuwelier.at that March, that he would not sell his shares. BlickpunktJuwelier reported in November 2023 that Bernd Stadlwieser, chief executive from 2003 to 2012, would return as group CEO on 1 January 2024, with Hanno Chevalier as chief operating officer and Sabo staying on as chairman.

The name also became familiar in German sport. An investor group around Sabo took over the Nuremberg ice hockey club in April 2009, averting its insolvency, and it played as the Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers, German Wikipedia says. The sponsorship ended in 2020 after eleven years, and Sport1 reported on 4 May that year that the club had returned to the name Nürnberg Ice Tigers.

German Wikipedia records a silver award at the Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards in 2011 for a watch film and a regional retail association’s company-of-the-year title in 2012. A company release of October 2021 says it became a certified member of the Responsible Jewellery Council after an external audit.

For a design guide, Thomas Sabo shows how a set of recurring symbols can hold a brand together across jewellery, watches and eyewear. Compare Swarovski, another European name in jewellery, and Missoma, a younger London brand. For this guide we use a blackened silver, a polished silver and an oxblood with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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