Mbf
MB&F and Time Products Luxury have ended their partnership.

EXCLUSIVE: Marcus Margulies sells back Urwerk and MB&F stock ahead of Mayfair townhouse opening

Marcus Margulies is close to opening a luxurious townhouse in Mayfair, where VIP clients will be invited to experience some of the finest timepieces in the world.

Mr Margulies is one of the most influential watch executives in Britain as the man behind Sekonda and Accurist at Time Products as well as a host of prestige watch brands in the Time Products Luxury portfolio.

Since closing his Marcus showroom on Bond Street last year, Mr Margulies has been preparing for the opening of his five-storey townhouse on Berkeley Square.

Along with extensive renovation to the property, the entrepreneur has also been refining the line up of watches he will offer to his clients.

WatchPro has been told that Urwerk and MB&F have both ended their association with Mr Margulies and bought back a number of high value timepieces from the business.

Greubel Forsey, which makes around 100 watches per year with prices in the region of £500,000, is expected to continue its partnership. Sylvain Van Muylders, client director for the watchmaker, told WatchPro today that there had been no official request for Greubel Forsey to buy back any of the 25 watches owned either personally by Mr Margulies or by his company.

“We have been told that Marcus strongly wants to continue working with Greubel Forsey. He wants to have exclusive stock to show,” Mr Van Muylders says.

Urwerk, which also makes small quantities of high value timepieces, confirmed that it has bought back stock. “When Marcus finally closed his shop in London we bought back some of the unique pieces he had ordered. They are brand new as they were kept in his safe and they will join our “museum” collection,” said Yacine Sar, head of communications at Urwerk.

MB&F was also represented at the Marcus boutique on Bond Street until its closure brought the partnership to an end. “With the closing of their boutique on Bond Street, we decided to put an end to our relationship with Marcus earlier this year — and as always in such cases, we buy back any unsold stock, rather than seeing it potentially liquidated on the market,” says Charris Yadigaroglou, head of communication with MB&F.

MB&F recently announced it will start trading in its own pre-owned watches, but the watches from Marcus will not be sold in that way.

“Our Certified Pre-Owned initiative has other origins. We’ve been noticing increasing demand from collectors for MB&F products that are no longer available – and we simply feel that it is essential to maintain a healthy second-hand market in order to build a strong brand. However, those watches [from Marcus] are of course brand-new watches, in perfect condition – they do not qualify as pre-owned,” Mr Yadigaroglou asserts.

Join the Conversation

1 Comment

  1. Called them a few months back asking about watches and they said they can’t confirm the new Town House will even be selling watches!

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *