A three floor Rolex flagship, first expected to open last year on London’s Old Bond Street, has been delayed for a second time and the ribbon-cutting is not now expected until 2025.
Watches of Switzerland Group will own and operate the three-storey Rolex showroom, which is taking over a historic corner property previously used by Gucci.
The fashion house has moved to a larger building on New Bond Street to the north.
Gucci’s move took longer than hoped, which delayed the start of work for Watches of Switzerland on the Rolex store, but building has now begun behind golden construction hoardings designed to look like the pie dish edge of a classic DayDate.
In a conference call that made global headlines because of a downgrade to Watches of Switzerland’s 2024 financial projections, the group’s chief executive, Brian Duffy, said that issues relating to the basement of the Old Street building would push the project’s completion date back to next year.
When WatchPro was first told about the Rolex megastore, it was being planned with 7,200 sq ft of retail space over three floors.
Back in 2022, Mr Duffy said he was delighted to be opening such a significant Rolex Boutique in partnership with Rolex, in the city that was the birth place of the Rolex brand.
Bond Street has been cleared of every Rolex point of sale in anticipation of the flagship opening except WoSG‘s 900 sq ft boutique, leaving the world’s biggest luxury watch brand under-represented on the UK’s most prestigious shopping thoroughfare.
Wempe closed in 2022 after losing both Rolex and Patek Philippe as anchor brands. Mappin & Webb, on the corner of Old Bond Street and Piccadilly, which also previously stocked Rolex, is being converted into a Tudor monobrand.
London is the birth place of the Rolex brand. Currently there will not be a Rolex watch sold on Bond Street until 2025 (maybe)! So let’s think about what the store opening is going to look like. Imagine the excitement of opening day. Customers lined up to go into the new store and shop for Rolex for blocks! Then reality hits. Three floors of empty showcases. Maybe a few Exhibition Only watches in the window and sprinkled throughout the showcases. Sales staff looking customers up & down as if they do not belong in the store or are worthy of buying a “Rolex”. Welcome to the World of Rolex in the decade of the 2020’s. But don’t worry, get on the fictitious waiting list and maybe before you are too old to enjoy the watch, you may get the call from the Bond Street store! Can you imagine what Hans Wilsdorf would say to the current crop of executives running his Foundation!
I’m from Malaysia. I might have lose hope owning one after having to put down my name on the so called fictitious (being sarcastic here), waiting list back in July 2022. But may, just maybe, this year or the next, being my 60th birthday year, I might be lucky to own one. Fingers crossed.
How bizarre watches of Switzerland are opening a shop dedicated to rolex. A flagship store you say.what are they going to stock it with? . Rolex can’t supply any shop as it is at the moment ,with ridiculous waiting times.ive been on a so called waiting list for two watches since 2020.As a result of rolex playing the market I sold both my existing rolex in protest and will never buy another.There are far better brands out there to buy.