Stuart Laing is a man who likes the finer things in life.

That much is clear from the magazine picture he's just pointed out to me. In it Laing stands beaming with pride in front of his much-loved Maserati sportscar, dressed in sharp-looking clothes with an expensive timepiece visible on his wrist. "I've always liked nice cars," he quips. "I'm one of the few guys who actually likes shopping."

He should do – shopping is his business. Laing, who heads up one of Scotland's most famous jewellery businesses, Laings of Glasgow, owns three shops in the city, each of which sell an array of glittering diamonds and an elite collection of expensive watches, including Patek Philippe and Rolex. He's also chairman of the Houlden Group, which is the third largest purchaser of watches and jewellery in the UK, buying on behalf of smaller jewellers.

It all sounds, on paper at least, like 61-year-old Laing lives the high life: travelling around the world to buy diamonds, driving about his home town of Troon in his fancy sports car and selling to wealthy and often famous clients (though he won't name names, "client confidentiality would prevent me from doing so," he replies). But to typecast him as a jet-setter would be unfair. There's more to Laing than just diamonds and glitz – family, to be exact.

"At the end of the day it's a family story," he says of his business and career, in his posh though distinctly Glaswegian accent. The company was established in 1840 as James Robert & William Laing, and has been under the same family ownership since then.

Laing wasn't the only member of his family to join the business either. His brother Michael also joined the company in the early 1970s, although a few years ago the brothers decided to split the business, with Michael taking the Frederick Street, Edinburgh, store, among a few others, and Laing getting the Glasgow shop as well as the Houlden Group. Laing insists the split was, and still is, amicable. "People are always looking for the fight; what happened, why did the two of you split. That was not the case at all, My brother and I are great chums."

More recently Laing welcomed his daughter Wendy and her husband Joe into the business – the sixth generation of Laings to join the company. "In 2010 I thought I was having no family join the business," he admits. "I spoke to my three children. My eldest, Simon, is a successful fund manager in London. My middle daughter, Wendy, was a working mum in Manchester, although she had nine years' experience at LVMH [Louis Vuitton, Moet, Hennessy] handling luxury brands, and Joe, her husband, was an accountant doing well in Manchester looking after mergers and acquisitions. Susannah, my youngest, is at Guildhall – she's learning to be an actress having also been a professional golfer in the States."

Last year Wendy and Joe changed their minds and decided to enter the family business. "To cut a long story short I got a phone call from Wendy to say she and Joe had been considering their lives and now they would like to look at joining the family business. I was delighted as I'd brought the subject up two or three years ago."

It's obvious Laing is a family man at heart. Even though his new office, which is atop the recently refurbished 3000sq ft store in the Argyll Arcade in Glasgow, has yet to be fully furnished and decorated, three pictures – one of each of his children – adorn the walls. There's also one of him and Tiger Woods. "I've been lucky enough to meet a lot of famous people," he says with a chuckle. "Though perhaps we shouldn't mention him [Woods], as he's not number one in the popularity stakes."

In any case, celebrities don't really do it for Laing, at least not in the same way as sparkling gemstones. He describes himself as "a diamond man" and was, in his own words, "a bit of a pioneer" when it came to sourcing diamonds in the worldwide market. In 1971, not long after joining his father Robert in the family business, Laing suggested going to the Belgian city of Antwerp to purchase diamonds, instead of Hatton Garden in London where the rest of the trade were buying precious stones in the UK at the time.

"In 1971 we were trying to buy our diamonds much more competitively and I suggested we should try Antwerp," says Laing. "So we went to Antwerp and set up a buying office there. At that time we were expanding Laings and making up our own diamond rings and I really loved buying diamonds. I would say I was a bit of a pioneer going to Antwerp – now most of the trade do – but then it was a case of "who is this Scotsman? We don't see many people ...", because most people went to Hatton Garden."

That instinct about Antwerp has gone on to define Laing as one of the most important names in the UK jewellery industry. Indeed last year he was named as one of the industry's hot 100 jewellers, while the Houlden Group continues to go from strength to strength.

Away from business there's a lighter side to Laing. "I'm very much a joie de vivre person – we do have a lot of fun in our lives," he says. He illustrates his point by discussing his interests in rapid succession, covering everything from golf on a links course to The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing. "I was absolutely saddened that Holly Valance was evicted from Strictly Come Dancing," he laments. "I love Holly. I thought she was a brilliant dancer."

One of Laing's favourite stories involves a high-stakes golf game and a very famous actor. "I'll tell you my claim to fame – I took £60 off Hugh Grant in a bet. I don't normally play for that sort of money, I stress that, but I was playing in the Dunhill Links championship. I got very friendly over the years to one of the chaps – he knows all these famous people – and he phoned me up and said, 'We've got a game, do you want to play? It's with Hugh Grant.' Anyway we got on the tee and the bet was £20 for the first nine, £20 for the second nine and £20 for the game. Now, trust me, I'm used to playing for pence and I nearly died when I found out I was in such exalted company. I don't know if it was the fear factor but I played the best game of golf I'd played in years."

Aside from golf, fashion and trends are also a big passion for Laing. He leafs through the company's magazine, which includes a fashion shoot, photographed in Marbella and directed by Laing. "That's Stella McCartney there," he says gesturing to one of the outfits. "I know all the brands. I'm about the only guy in here who reads Vogue and Tatler and looks at all the fashions because I want to be up to date. We opened a new shop recently [Robert Stewart, also in the Argyll Arcade, but which sells less expensive jewellery than the two main Laings of Glasgow stores] and because it's quite a fashionable shop I said, 'Why do we not have Shamballa bracelets in? JLS and the members of One Direction are all wearing them.'"

Laing, on the other hand, is wearing a rather impressive-looking timepiece – one of six he owns. "I've got a Patek Philippe, I have three Rolexes, I have a Cartier and I have an IWC. I'm due another one soon. I'm waiting to get a Jaeger-LeCoultre and I've already chosen in my mind which one I want."

The watches Laing likes don't come cheap. Patek Philippe, which sells its Swiss watches through Laings of Glasgow, regularly have a price-tag of more than £10,000. Despite the eye-watering price, Laing suggests the market for expensive designer watches is growing. "We have just built our Rolex shop in store, our Patek Philippe in store, our IWC in store and we're very shortly going to be appointed for Jaeger-LeCoultre and we'll be the sole agents for them in the Central Belt."

Laing switches conversation again to tell me an anecdote about a cruise he took with his wife Lynda last year. "I met the most fascinating man and we were sitting having dinner – he was about 85 years-old – and he said to me: 'What do you do for a living?'

"I told him I'm in the jewellery industry and I created a little group called Houlden. And he said: 'Oh right, I created a group too.'

"I asked, what industry? And he said: 'Hotels.'

"Then I asked what was the name of the hotels? He said: 'Four Seasons.'"

Laing pauses to laugh before adding: "So I said, 'Well, right; mine's just a wee bit smaller than that."