Retailer Hall of Fame 2025: Tom Dixon

Editor’s Note: This story first appeared in the print edition of the 2025 Retailer Hall of Fame. Click here to see the full issue.

As the leader of a 126-year-old business, Tom Dixon is tasked with honoring and preserving the work of the family members who came before him while continuing to build it better.

“I’m like the keeper of the flame here,” Tom says.

Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers has been serving the people of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for generations, moving down through the Schwanke and Dixon family lines since 1899.

Tom, whose official title is chairman of Schwanke-Kasten, has known he wanted to be part of this legacy since childhood.

It all started at an American Gem Society Conclave in San Francisco. Tom was in seventh grade, and at the time, the event had a gem identification program for any young children who attended with their parents.

“They sat you down with a microscope and all these cool little gems. You had to figure out what they were, and I was really into it,” Tom says.

“That is when I realized, this is really cool, this is something I want to do.”

In the summer, he would spend time in the store, and as a teenager, he would take care of the scrap metal.

As he grew up, he learned how to be a merchant, selling shoes in a sporting goods store while his family ran the jewelry store.

He went on to major in business administration with a focus on retailing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked as a buyer for Marshall Field’s in Chicago until he got a call from his mother asking for his help with the family business.

Under Tom’s leadership, Schwanke-Kasten has thrived.

Since he was named president in 1989, he has sharpened the store’s focus on jewelry and watch brands, remodeled the showroom, and added a second floor to emphasize his commitment to community.

When a customer steps foot into Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers in Milwaukee’s Whitefish Bay neighborhood, they are not treated like just any customer; they are treated like family.

A Long History
The retailer that became Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers opened its doors in 1899.

That makes it one of the oldest independent jewelers in the United States. It also was among the first 10 authorized Breitling dealers in the U.S. (though it no longer carries the brand) and was one of the first independent jewelers to offer Rolex-certified pre-owned watches.

Three men, who all worked for the Christian Preusser Jewelry Company in Wisconsin before severing ties with that business, formed the Alsted-Kasten Company in November 1899.

At first, the store sold more than just finished jewelry, diamonds, and watches, with novelties, silverware, cut glass, fine stationery, eyeglasses, and even sporting tickets for sale.

Tom’s great-uncle, William Schwanke, was a watchmaker who opened his business in 1918. He had “the biggest little store,” according to a history of the store on the retailer’s website, selling diamonds, watches, and jewelry.

William moved his store across the street from Alsted-Kasten in 1923, and a rivalry formed between the two.

During the Great Depression, the rivals decided a merger would be “more economical,” a local newspaper reported in 1936.

They formed Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers, located on East Wisconsin Avenue, now known as East Silver Spring Drive, just a few doors down from where the store is today.

In 1957, William died after a battle with cancer and left the store to his wife, Mercedes Schwanke, who ran it alongside her sister Lola Dixon and her nephew Malcom Dixon (Tom’s father).

“It really was a family business,” says Tom, who noted that the store was left to Malcom since the Schwankes had no children of their own.

Malcom worked at the store for almost 30 years before buying out Mercedes in the ‘80s and then passing away suddenly after being in a car accident.

That left Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers in the hands of Patricia Dixon, Tom’s mother, who worked at the store with Tom’s siblings before calling Tom to come home.

In 1989, he returned to Milwaukee with the promise that he would be named president of the family business.

Serving “Small-Waukee”
During his time as president, Tom eliminated the store’s silverware offerings and the gift shop section, focusing instead on becoming a leader in fine jewelry and watches in the upper Midwest.

“At one point in our history, we had six full-time hand engravers, and we were making our own sterling silver and tea services. We were a manufacturer of that stuff too. We did the battleship USS Wisconsin tea service way before I was born and that was a big deal,” says Tom.

In the late ‘90s, Patricia retired and Tom began transitioning away from giftware and focusing more on watches.

Today, the store sells Rolex and Tudor watches, along with jewelry from brands including Roberto Coin, Marco Bicego, Platinum Born, and Rahaminov Diamonds.

It also has two Level 60 Rolex watchmakers, a master goldsmith, a gemologist, an appraiser, and a designer.

“We’ve got it all here under one roof,” Tom says. “We’re still old school. We don’t really send anything out for service. We do it all right here.”

He adds, “We have been serving the upper end of Milwaukee for generations, and I think we have never abused that. We’ve always provided outstanding service and some of the top brands in the world are here.

“Our attitude is to listen to what the customers want and give it to them. We don’t bully them into something they don’t want … We just take care of everybody like they’re our family.”

Tom’s focus has not only been having the right merchandise, but also employing outstanding tradespeople who are friendly, kind, and understanding.

“Honest to God, I don’t have to be here most days,” Tom says about his staff.

“We don’t really care so much about experience [when we hire]. We care about personality, and that’s really the difference maker. The best retail salespeople generally are outgoing and upbeat and positive.”

He says there is little turnover among staff at his store, unless an employee is retiring or moving out of state. It boils down to treating everyone like family. There is camaraderie amongst his team; they are knowledgeable and empowered to make decisions.

“It’s good to have had the opportunity to observe how he interacts with both his clients and his staff,” says Heidi Cook, senior business development manager of Suna, the North American distributor of Platinum Born and a vendor to Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers.

“He makes everybody feel as if they belong, as if they are important. His attention to detail and his memory of details of those clients, not only purchases but their families and their legacies, I think is one of the things that really has made a difference in the business at Schwanke-Kasten for decades.”

Cook adds, “He is very pragmatic. The great thing about dealing with him is there’s no gray area. He is quintessential Midwest.”

With a knowledgeable staff comes a solid roster of returning customers.

Cook says Schwanke-Kasten is a “well-oiled machine,” with a staff whose rapport is apparent, from the bench jewelers and watchmakers to the marketing and salespeople.

“We know 80 percent of our customers very well. We have relationships with them. We don’t come in here and stand behind a counter. We’re not clerks anymore. That’s where retailing has really changed,” Tom says.

“We get to know our clients. We know their kids. We know their wives. We know their birthdays. We know what they’re celebrating, when their kid had a baby. We know all that, and it’s not in a database. We actually know it. We live with them. We’re in the same community.”

Charlie Dixon, Tom’s son and now the president of Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers adds, “We call Milwaukee ‘Small-Waukee’ because everyone seems to only be three degrees of separation here and not six.

“Everyone seems to know everyone somehow.”

More Than a Jewelry Store
In addition to selling jewelry and watches to Milwaukeeans, Tom is active in the community.

He has given lectures on geology at local high schools, coordinated events with watch brands, and given back through philanthropic initiatives like Beyond the Blues, which aims to improve the lives of people who suffer from depression, and Pearls for Teen Girls, which works to empower young women in Greater Milwaukee.

In 2021, Tom continued his commitment to community with the addition of a second floor on what was once the roof of Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers.

Constructed with financial assistance from the Whitefish Bay Business Improvement District, the second floor has a lounge, full kitchen, bar, dining room, office, and patio, providing space for a more personal shopping experience, community events like concerts and dinners, and even proposals by VIP clients.

Tom worked on the design with Sommerville, Massachusetts-based architecture firm La Dallman, which was co-founded by Tom’s longtime friend James Dallman, a design critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and his wife Grace La, a professor of architecture and chair of the school’s architecture department.

Dallman designed the exterior while La designed the interior to be contemporary yet approachable, complete with skylights to add natural light.

The space won an award from the Boston Society of Architects in 2022 and another from the Wisconsin chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 2023.

The second floor was created to host a variety of events, including trunk shows, private client dinners, and to deliver items for special occasions like engagements.

“Space is very tight here on our street. We’re in a very nice community in Wisconsin, [it’s a] lovely shopping district here. No big-box stores, just a really nice neighborhood, so I wanted to put an event space or a place we could [assist] VIP clients where the rest of the world wasn’t watching,” Tom says.

Tom uses the space to hold small dinner parties, serving meals from top chefs in the area.

“They’re really just wonderful nights out that are very special. The best restaurant in town is my event space above my store,” he says.

“We’ve got about three really top chefs we work with here and we do dinners regularly. People love coming here. When we send out an invitation for dinner here, everybody who’s invited comes.”

If a sale is made up on what used to be the roof, that’s just a plus.

Tom explains, “It’s a nice way to do business. It’s not really that you’re selling strangers things. You’re hanging out with friends and having conversations and if we’re in that conversation, maybe it leads to a sale.”

“That goes back to us being connected with our customers on a different level than them just being customers … We know what’s going on with them … somebody’s getting married or somebody had a grandkid. We’re part of a lot of those celebrations.”

In 2023, Tom continued the newness at Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers with a complete remodel of the main showroom, gutting it to create an open-concept floorplan, update the vendor areas, and put in a new Rolex salon.

In 2024, the retailer had another big year.

Schwanke-Kasten celebrated 125 years in business, recreating pieces from its archives and hosting a party in the upstairs event space.

“We’re sort of low key. We didn’t need to toot our horn that much about it. That’s just not us,” Tom says.

“We did a couple things with some of our key clients to celebrate. One night was a blowout. We had way too many people here, but it was fun.”

One of the archival recreations was a spray pin that won a Diamonds International Award for Best Brooch Design in 1957. The original handmade one-of-a-kind brooch featured diamonds set in platinum and was valued at $4,200 at the time. Gem Platinum remade it in 2024.

Throughout Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers’ now 126-year history, the retailer has merged businesses, moved locations, opened additional specialty boutiques with the brands it carries, and remodeled its now one main storefront.

“We survived two world wars, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, the Spanish flu, and we’re going to continue to be here and thrive,” Tom says.

The Next Generation’s Turn
In 2017, Tom’s eldest son Charlie joined the family business.

The third generation of the Dixon family to run the store, Charlie has expertise in digital marketing.

He was the store’s vice president of operations and, in 2023, Tom promoted him to president.

“I think it’s brought us a lot closer together,” Tom says on working with his son.

“I have really taken the approach of, I don’t know how to do this because my dad died on me, and I didn’t have that opportunity to work with my dad.”

Charlie recounts growing up and spending time in the store playing Minesweeper on the computers and messing around with packing peanuts in the back office.

Like Tom, he has a core memory of knowing he wanted to join the family business from a young age.

From the age of 12, Tom would take Charlie to the Experimental Aviation Association Airshow to sell Breitling watches. It was the airshow experience that cemented it for him.

“He’s just been a great mentor. I think the way he’s approached it, letting me call a lot of the shots, has been great,” Charlie says.

He adds that while he is experienced in marketing, watching his father work at shows like Centurion and JCK helped him understand the jewelry side of the business.

“It’s crazy sometimes to watch him do it because he’s done it [for] so many years. Just being able to wrap orders from Roberto Coin, to show me the ropes in that regard, he’s really been inspiring,” Charlie says.

While the two have new titles now—Charlie is president and Tom is now chairman—their everyday duties haven’t changed much.

“It’s a small business, so the titles, at the end of the day, are kind of arbitrary. Tom is the one who owns the store and was running it. Now he and I kind of split the authority with president, but he’s still very much the driving force,” explains Charlie.

As for the future generation to run Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers, next in line are Charlie's daughters, who are 4 and 1.

“You never know,” Tom says. “That’s going to be his problem, not mine.”

“I just hand off all this stuff [saying], ‘Hey, I built this. I made it way better than it was, and now it’s your turn.’”

Tom isn’t done with Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers just yet, though.

In late June, he purchased the building next door to his jewelry store.

“It’s a beautiful building. It’s kind of a landmark in our community here and we will make it a very, very special place,” Tom says.

Once the current leases expire for the building, he plans to move his business into the more than 8,000-square-foot space.

“We’re just in the beginning stages of that where we will be able to have more room to add other luxury brands,” Tom says. “I’m hanging out until I get that done for Charlie and then bon voyage for me. That’s my game plan.”

Charlie adds, “How that plays out is still very much up in the air, but that is for sure our plan—to increase the footprint of the store and grow it into more of a destination store where people’s plan is to come to Silver Spring and shop at Schwanke.”

Cook, who is with Suna, says in the 25 years she’s been in business with Schwanke-Kasten Jewelers, she has never seen them stagnate, an important part of being a successful retailer.

“I can’t wait to see the evolution of Schwanke-Kasten in the near future. It’s a dynamic business and I’m happy that it’s my hometown jeweler,” she says.

Tom says he doesn’t plan to retire for a couple of years, but he already has ideas for when that time comes, including spending time hunting, fishing, and playing golf.

“I will always be there for Charlie and some of my really great clients who still call me up and drag me downstairs to help them pick out something pretty for their significant others. But it’s been a really great run,” he says. 

“We’ve really grown a small family shop into something special. I don’t consider us a mom-and-pop store anymore, whereas I did for a long time. That’s changed and I’m pleased with where we’re heading.”