Legal information
Three texts: who runs this shop, what it does with your data, and on what terms it sells.
Legal notice
Who publishes this site
Matthieu Z.
Valais, Switzerland
info@alpenknot.ch
AlpenKnot by Matt is a craft workshop run as a sole proprietorship. The site alpenknot.ch is published and maintained by the person above, who is also legally responsible for it.
Value added tax
The workshop is not registered for VAT (art. 10 para. 2 VAT Act). Prices shown are therefore net: no VAT is added, and none is stated.
Hosting
FireStorm ISP GmbH
What is on the site
The photographs, the texts, the braid drawings and the AlpenKnot name belong to the workshop. Share them with attribution, gladly; take them to sell with, no.
The stones are natural stones: colour, veining and shade differ from bead to bead, so a photograph does not promise an identical piece. The material decides, not the screen.
The workshop does what it can to keep the site accurate and available, without guaranteeing either. A wrong price or a wrong availability is not a commitment: an order is only firm once it has been confirmed by email.
Data protection
This section says exactly what the site collects, what for, and what it will never have. It is written under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP).
Who is responsible
Matthieu Z. For any question or request about your data: info@alpenknot.ch.
What you give when you order
First name, last name, email address and — if you fill them in — telephone, street address, postal code, town, and the free note you may attach. With that: what you ordered, the amount, the handover you chose and any promotional code.
All of it serves one purpose: making your order, writing to you about it and getting it to you. The legal basis is performance of the contract, and keeping the accounting records is a legal obligation.
What you give when you ask for a bespoke piece
First name, email address, your story as you write it, the intention you chose, a word if you give one, the stones that speak to you, your wrist size and any deadline.
The legal basis is your consent: the box you tick says that this message is kept in order to reply to you. Nothing is published, nothing is passed on, and your story is read by the workshop alone.
What the site does not collect
- No account, no password: nothing to create, nothing to remember.
- No payment data. Payment is by bank transfer, from your own bank: no card number passes through this site, because there is nowhere here to type one.
- No social media pixel, no advertising, no profiling.
- No cookies without your consent. The site sets none of its own. Your basket, the draft of your order and a copy of the prices valid for one minute are held in the tab's own memory (sessionStorage): that data stays in your browser, is never sent anywhere, and disappears when you close the tab. Audience measurement, if you accept it, sets its own — that is the next section.
Audience measurement
The site counts its visits with Google Analytics 4, to know which pages are read and which are not. Nothing is loaded until you accept: without your consent, not one request goes to Google and not one cookie is set. That is not a banner saying so, it is what the script does.
If you accept: Google Analytics sets its own cookies (_ga and _ga_…) to tell one visit from another, your IP address is anonymised, and the Consent Mode advertising signals stay denied — this shop does no advertising and will do none. Google acts here as a processor, and the data may be processed outside Switzerland.
Your choice is held in your browser's own memory (localStorage), is never sent anywhere, and can be changed from "Audience measurement" at the foot of every page. Refusing after having accepted stops the measurement and clears the cookies already set.
Bracelet counters
When you open a bracelet's page or the configurator, and when you put a piece in your basket, the site tells its server, which adds one to that bracelet's counter for the day. The request names the bracelet and nothing else: no cookie, no identifier, and your IP address is not recorded. What is kept is two numbers per bracelet and per day, which say nothing about you.
So that a reloaded page does not count twice, the list of bracelets already counted is held in the tab's own memory (sessionStorage): it is never sent and disappears when you close the tab. These counters do not depend on your choice about audience measurement, because they measure bracelets, not people.
Who else sees it
Nobody, except where the shop cannot work without it: the host named above, which runs the site and the database; the mail provider, which delivers the confirmations; and Swiss Post, if you chose delivery — it then receives your name and address, and nothing else. No data is sold, rented or passed on for advertising.
And Google, if you accepted the audience measurement above.
For how long
- Orders and their accounting records: ten years, because the law requires it (art. 958f of the Swiss Code of Obligations).
- Bespoke enquiries: for as long as the exchange lasts, then one year — about as long as a bracelet has a story worth coming back to. Write to me if you want it sooner.
The tracking link
The confirmation email contains a link that reopens your order. Its address carries a token: that is what recognises you, without a password. The page is not indexed and is not cached by your browser — but keep the link to yourself, the way you would keep a key.
Your rights
You may ask what data concerns you, have it corrected, have it erased, or object to its processing. One place for all of that: info@alpenknot.ch. The answer comes within thirty days. If it does not satisfy you, you may refer the matter to the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.
Security
The site is served over HTTPS end to end, and access to the database is the workshop's alone. No system is perfect; this one at least has the merit of holding very little.
Terms of sale
What they apply to
Every order placed on alpenknot.ch, through the basket or following a bespoke enquiry. They are accepted at the moment the order is sent.
What you are buying
A bracelet knotted by hand, in Valais, one piece at a time. Every bracelet is one of a kind: natural stones vary in colour and veining, and two examples of the same model are never quite identical. That is not a flaw, it is the material.
Prices
In Swiss francs, VAT not applicable (art. 10 para. 2 VAT Act). The price that counts is the one shown when you send your order, and it is repeated in the confirmation. Postage, where it applies, is added and is shown before the order is sent.
Order and confirmation
The order is recorded as soon as you send it, and confirmed by an email carrying a reference. That email is what forms the contract: until it has gone out, neither side is committed.
Payment
By bank transfer. The account details arrive with the confirmation. Nothing is paid online, and no means of payment is stored.
The bracelet is braided once the transfer arrives. That is what made to order means: nothing is braided in advance, and payment is what starts the work. Without a transfer within thirty days the order is cancelled, at no cost and with no consequence.
Lead time
Allow one to two weeks between the transfer and the finished piece, and more for a bespoke one. These are honest orders of magnitude rather than promises: a workshop of one also depends on what it has in stock. You will hear from me if it is going to run well over.
Handover
Your choice: delivery by Swiss Post, postage extra, or handed over in person, arranged by email. Risk passes to the buyer when the parcel is handed to the post; if a piece is lost or damaged on the way, we sort it out together — write to me.
If the bracelet is not right
In Switzerland distance selling carries no statutory right of return, and a one-of-a-kind piece made to order carries even less of one. So there is no automatic rule here — but there is an address: info@alpenknot.ch. A size that does not sit right, a stone that does not speak, any trouble at all: write, and we will find a way. Each case is looked at on its own, which is the only thing a workshop of one can honestly promise.
Defects
If a knot gives way or a stone comes loose, report it within seven days of receipt: the piece is taken back and remade, at no cost. Beyond that, the normal wear of something worn every day is not a defect — but a bracelet can be repaired, and a quote takes a moment.
Governing law
Swiss law. In case of dispute the forum is the seller's domicile, subject to any mandatory forum provided by law.
Last updated: 16 September 2026.