Pocket Watches, Power, and Black Business: Arthur Chapman on 100 Years of Jewels

“We really have exactly 100 years in Detroit,” Arthur Chapman says, and that one line sets the whole episode on fire—because this isn’t just jewelry, it’s Legacy Black Detroit economics. Arthur walks us from Yazoo City, Mississippi to Black Bottom, where family relationships became the real infrastructure, and where his grandfather “Daddy E” (Eli Chapman) stayed in motion as a serial entrepreneur—record store, bowling alley, whatever it took—before a bus driver’s tool of the trade opened the door: pocket watches. When the DSR/DDOT watch vendor retired, Eli didn’t hesitate: “I’ll give you X amount of dollars for your inventory and for your contract with DDoT,” and a work relationship turned into a supply chain, then into rings, diamonds, and Detroit success. Arthur also names the barriers—“There were no jewelers willing to sell to him”—and the breakthrough moment when a supplier finally said, “As long as your money is green, I’ll do business with you.” We hear how safety, community, and partnership mattered—“you are your security”—and why returning home for Arthur was the future: Detroit is the culture that raises the next generation, because the goal isn’t just survival, it’s to “go a thousand years.