Grand Seiko and Seiko have a new berth on Bond Street after opening a two-storey showroom.
Grand Seiko is at street level and occupies all the windows on a corner unit that sits on a passageway running directly to the recently opened Bond Street Station on London’s Elizabeth Line.
Up a marble-lined staircase and customers will find Seiko in a slightly larger space with a floor to ceiling glass front looking out almost level with Bond Street’s suspended Christmas lights.
The Seiko space has a glossy, modern monochrome aesthetic with tiled black floors, polished cabinetry and pops of yellow used in lighting and a seating area.
Prospex, 5 Sports and Presage collections are displayed in their own cabinets, and there is also an interesting exhibition of historic Seiko and Grand Seiko watches along with a private consultation room.
Grand Seiko’s floor has fewer watches — less is more in the luxury world — and a more hushed tone thanks to a carpeted floor.
The colour scheme is a sharp grey and the royal blue of Grand Seiko’s branding.
The space benefits from windows down two sides, which are fitted with display cases and a digital screen scrolling through Grand Seiko stories.
Seiko and Grand Seiko will be vacating their current space in Knightsbridge in the new year, but will have two central London locations throughout the holiday season.
The New Bond Street location is larger at almost 800 square feet for Grand Seiko and 1000 square feet for Seiko, and benefits from its position on London’s most iconic luxury shopping thoroughfare.
The north end of the street has been going through a regeneration since reopening after covid, and is benefiting from the new Elizabeth Line Station and its direct path through a new passageway and courtyard right behind the Grand Seiko and Seiko showroom.
In the five years since Grand Seiko was properly introduced in the UK, its network of boutiques and authorised dealers has grown to 31 doors, including 13 shop in shops, covering the length and breadth of the country and working with the likes of Watches of Switzerland Group, Chisholm Hunter, Frances & Gaye in Coventry, James Porter in Glasgow, Berry’s in Newcastle, Nottingham and York and Deacons in Swindon.
That network of authorised dealers has grown fastest since Grand Seiko and Seiko opened in Knightsbridge, proving the often made assertion that directly owned and operated boutiques are a catalyst for growth with retail partners, not a competitive impediment.
“With the Bond Street flagship we’re not trying to make it the most profitable watch retail store in London,” he says. “We’re doing it because we want to tell our story and explain the different brands that we have and the stories that we have behind them,” says David Edwards, managing director of Seiko UK Ltd.
“Brands and retailers, by and large, are different. Brands make watches and retailers sell them, and both do a good job. So if the two come together in a partnership that works for both, what’s the problem? It would be good to have more shop in shops and definitely that’s a conversation we want to have with independents,” he adds.
