Watches of Switzerland’s flagship store on London’s Regents Street will open in June with the retailer describing the concept as ‘one door, three stores’.
The 17,000sq ft store will be split over three floors, each with its own distinct environment for specific groups of customers.
The store will offer 6,000 watch models, including a vintage collection curated by the company’s pre-owned expert Owen Sheridan, for sale and represents a £15million investment on the part of Watches of Switzerland. It will also feature an in-house Service Lounge for servicing and repairs.
The lower ground floor will be known as The Calibre Room and geared towards an ‘efficient shopping experience’ for international visitors with a wide range of distinct brands on offer and will include a single in-store Montblanc boutique.
The Ground Floor is aimed at ‘aspirational’ customers with a suite of six brand boutiques for Rolex, IWC, Panerai, TAG Heuer, Cartier and Vacheron Constantin with the First Floor reserved for ‘connoisseur and enthusiast’ clients with brand boutiques for Patek Philippe, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Piaget, Chopard and A. Lange and Söhne as well as a VIP lounge.
The flagship store will also see Watches of Switzerland sell watches from Roger Dubuis, Nomos, Girard-Perregaux, H Moser & Cie and Parmigiani for the first time as well as a full lifestyle concierge service offered to customers.
Watches of Switzerland is also keen to use the store’s flexible space as a destination for watch industry parties, product launches and promotional events.
Damian Otwinowski was appointed showroom director of the flagship Regents Street store in September and has interviewed 600 people since October to narrow down his final team selection.
He told WatchPro that in his new role he ‘talks two languages, English and digital’ referring to the heavy presence of digital merchandising that will greet visitors to the store. An interactive TimeWheel, presented in English, French, Arabic, Mandarin and Russian will educate customers on the horological happenings during Watches of Switzerland’s 90 year. A 12-foot touchscreen video wall and the latest Translook Vitrine, transparent video displays, will also be employed.
Brian Duffy, Watches of Switzerland chief executive officer, also mentioned the company would seek to better serve east London with ‘one or two’ store openings planned and the potential was there for an international location.
