Patrick graf bucherer
Patrick Graf.

EXCLUSIVE: Tourneau rebranding to Bucherer will start in 2020

Toureau’s Time Machine in New York will be the first with a spectacular refurb

It is almost a year since Europe’s biggest jeweller Bucherer bought Tourneau in the United States, but it will take two years more before customers will see any stores rebranded.

In January this year, as the acquisition of Tourneau’s 28 store business was announced, Guido Zumbühl, CEO of the Bucherer Group, suggested that bringing the Bucherer name to America would be fast tracked.

“With this acquisition, we will immediately introduce the Bucherer brand to millions of potential customers in one of the most important global watch and jewellery markets,” Mr Zumbühl said at the time.

Progress has been made, including the introduction of Bucherer’s own watch brand Carl F. Bucherer in the States. But refurbishment and rebranding of stores is taking longer.

Speaking to WatchPro last week at a Bucherer event in Zurich, Switzerland, Patrick Graf (pictured top), chief commercial officer for the group, said the aim is to have Tourneau’s flagship Time Machine showroom on Manhattan’s 57th Street ready for a grand reveal “ahead of the holiday season in 2020”.

Tourneau’s showroom within Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, should also be refurbished as a Bucherer store by the same date, Mr Graf added.

Bucherer now owns 32 stores in the United States: 28 Tourneau and four Baron & Leeds, which were bought in August. The group bought Watch Gallery in the UK last year, which has two multibrand stores in London, a Rolex boutique and runs the Wonder Room fine watch department in Selfridges. Rebranding of Watch Gallery to Bucherer took only six months in the UK.

American customers will also have to wait until 2020 to see Bucherer Blue Edition watches, which are only sold around the world in Bucherer-branded stores.

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