Laings is putting talent at the heart of its operation, particularly in service and support, as it aims to set a new standard that matches the company’s ambition to be one of the best retailers of fine watches and jewellery in the UK.
The Glasgow-based business recently opened a new state-of-the-art service centre in Rowan House, the headquarters building it owns on Buchanan Street that will soon have its flagship store occupying the first two floors.
Around £1.1 million has been invested in the service centre as part of a larger £5 million project to restore Rowan House to its former glory, upgrade its head office and open what it says will be Glasgow’s most prestigious showroom, anchored by Rolex and Patek Philippe.
After sales service is so often an afterthought, but Laings has brought it into the heart of its future growth plan. Last year the company promoted its service centre manager Serena Gough to its board of directors.
She won WatchPro’s Watchmaker of the Year in 2023.
Ms Gough joined in 2019 and heads up Laings Services and Laings Bespoke departments that support six showrooms across the UK for both jewellery and watches.
“Serena has been a tremendous asset to Laings for over four years, working as an integral part of the expansion of our Services and Bespoke departments and the development of our workshops. We’re thrilled to welcome Serena to our UK board of directors and we’re looking forward to her focusing on her roots in watchmaking and bringing her extensive knowledge and skills to her new role,” Stuart McDowell, managing director at Laings, said at the time of her elevation to the board.
WatchPro visited the Glasgow service centre for watches earlier this year to meet the people and get a sense of what can be achieved. Although there has been considerable investment in creating clean rooms and buying the latest equipment, Ms Gough is keen to stress that the greatest focus is on the team.
The tour introduced us to a refugee from Ukraine who learned the art of watch polishing in Poland before heading to the UK when the war broke out.
Everybody in the team is young, and most of them began their careers at Laings in administrative and office roles before being introduced to life at a watchmaker’s bench, a watch cleaning bath or some high tech equipment such as a laser infilling machine that replaces lost metal from a scratched case.
The aim is to create a highly efficient operation that provides the equivalent of a car’s MOT and full valet for each watch before returning it to the customer.
Throughout the process, clients can keep track of where their valuables are in the process. “We see service as a vital extension of what we do as a retailer. It is all about delighting the customer,” Ms Gough explains.
Glasgow is its greatest expression of this goal, but the aim is for customers at its Edinburgh, Southampton and Cardiff stores to feel the same love from their own service centres.
“The main thing we want to achieve from our workshops is our clients’ trust. We can talk about the pieces as much as we like and be as technical as we can be, but everything ties into trust. We have to take care of each item as if it were our own,” Ms Gough says.
The UK watch service centre can service up to 10 timepieces at any one time, and expects to carry out more than 2,000 services in its first year of operation.
During WatchPro’s visit, we were helped to strip and reassemble an ETA movement under the expert tuition of Ms Gough, who graduated from the British School of Watchmaking, and one of her trusted watchmakers, Annika Leppala, an alumni of the Finnish School of Watchmaking.
With their help, we managed to get movement beating in time again after two hours of inexpert twiddling.
This was not just a jolly, it was an important demonstration of what training (and extreme patience) can achieve.
At a time when there is an acute shortage of watchmakers in the UK, Laings has taken the decision to develop its own team from the bottom up.
Yes, there are experts with respected watchmaking qualifications, but Ms Gough’s passion is developing the skills on the job.
“It’s about the people, the vision and one common goal: the love for skill, the love of learning, the love for this continued quest for perfection,” she insists.
Laings is not yet enrolled in the Rolex Certified Pre-Owned programme, but its workshops will be ready to service watches to the required standard when the time comes.
The operation, which has a full-time team of six, is geared up to work with watches from Rolex, Patek Philippe, Omega, Longines and TAG Heuer.
