Pragnell has opened a two-storey showroom in the heart of Leicester’s city centre, directly opposite from its previous store on Market Street, which closed earlier this year.
The boutique is home to just two watch brands, Patek Philippe and Rolex, and an extensive range of Pragnell jewellery including one-of-a-kind pieces and fine jewellery collections handcrafted in Great Britain.
On a visit to Leicester this week, WatchPro experienced the bright and inviting showroom, which has its sense of space enhanced by natural light flooding in from a central atrium skylight above a dramatic bespoke staircase that is designed to look like one of Pragnell’s gold bracelets.
It uses bespoke hand-painted silk de Gournay wallpaper to bring a sense of craftsmanship and luxury to the experience; the same supplier Pragnell used for its Mayfair boutique, which brings continuity to the network of showrooms in Stratford-Upon-Avon, London and Leicester.
The ground floor is devoted to showcases and areas for fine jewellery along with branded spaces for Rolex and Patek Philippe.
Upstairs, customers can relax in a private drawing room that would not look out of place in a stately home and see jewellers hard at work in their workshop, which has a window out onto the first floor landing.
There is also a watchmaker’s workshop with four permanent staff on an upper floor.
The jewellery and watchmaking workshops are central to Pragnell’s project to highlight the craftsmanship of traditional jewellers that feeds into its business.
The watch workshop has six watchmaking benches and, in partnership with The Prince’s Trust, Pragnell supports the development of watch workshop technicians as part of its apprenticeship scheme.
Pragnell currently has two Rolex certified watch technicians, with two more due to qualify in October.
“This family-owned jeweller, formerly and beautifully run by the Tarratt family, has served the local community from Market Street in Leicester since 1913 and begins this new chapter 110 years later,” says Charlie Pragnell, managing director of Pragnell.
“With a great heritage of craftsmanship in the locality and wider area, it is here we decided to invest in our state-of-the-art expanded watch and jewellery workshops. This supports the resurgence of appreciation for human craftmanship and nature’s wonders that we are now witnessing in this country and around the world – long may it continue,” he adds.
