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WatchWarehouse marries online and offline retail

WatchWarehouse celebrated the opening of its first bricks-and-mortar store with a party in London last night.

The store has already been open for some weeks now, a period that it has described as a soft launch, but as of last night the store design is fully complete.

The store is on Edgeware Road in west London on the site of a former Peter Burrowes shop, which was owned by the same family that owns WatchWarehouse. The shop sells a variety of watch brands including Marc by Marc Jacobs, Burberry, Chanel, Michael Kors, Juicy Couture and Citizen and integrates the online and offline experience with in-store technology such as iPads.

WatchWarehouse started out as an eBay store in 2007 but has since grown to become e-tail site watchwarehouse.co.uk and now has a bricks-and-mortar store.

The shop has a clean but quirky design with slick modern watch cabinets and iPad docks mixed with blown-up prints of Peter Burrowes stores from the 1930s, stacks of vintage suitcases and curiosity cabinets. The store has a private viewing area.

WatchWarehouse managing director Craig Rebuck said: “Our aim is to grow our business both online and in store. Previously we had two fragmented and different business models and decided that encompassing our business under one cohesive and simple-to-remember name was an obvious choice.

“As the relationship between consumers’ needs and the digital world expands, we think it’s important that a customer has the reassurance of an in-store experience as well as the ease and simple use of the internet when buying a quality product.”

WatchWarehouse has also said that it will be revamping watchwarehouse.co.uk in the near future.

To see pictures from last night’s opening party click here.

 

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