PARIS – Vacheron Constantin has planted his flag in the heart of Manhattan, choosing New York, and the American market, as his largest store.
The move comes as high-end watchmakers are betting on a strong return to luxury demand in the US, fueled by a surge in post-pandemic consumption.
“The new flagship in New York will give us a unique opportunity,” Alexander Schmiedt, incoming president of Vacheron Constantin, told WWD via a Zoom call.
The executive described the brand’s ambition to offer watch lovers, not just the brand’s customers, a complete experience.
“Watch lovers will be able to go all day without getting bored,” Schmiedt added, he said, ticking off the store’s list of features.
“It will be almost like an extension of manufacturing,” he said, referring to the production site in Switzerland, noting that the label has brought in machines and tools and even a watchmaker from Geneva to offer “deep-dive masterclasses,” while a tool dedicated online offers a look at the tag archives. Period pieces and high-end single-edition watches, called ‘Les Cabinotiers’, are also on display, and space has been created for events and private receptions.
The store is spread over two floors, with 4,500 square feet of space, on 57th Street between Park and Madison avenues. The house is also celebrating the centenary of its 1921 American watch by offering a reproduction of the original watch.
A salon in the Vacheron Constantin NY store Courtesy of Vacheron Constantin
“We have always been a niche brand,” he said, noting that he prefers not to use the term “exclusive” because it implies excluding others. Describing fans of the label as “a happy bunch of watch fans and connoisseurs” around the world, there are plenty of such people in the United States, he said.
“I always see the US not as a big market, but as really important submarkets,” he explained, pointing to big cities on the East Coast like New York and Boston, as well as the West Coast, Los Angeles and San Francisco. . while Miami, Chicago and Las Vegas each have a specific universe.
The plans are to bring people to the New York store from other parts of the country, and even the world.
“We clearly want to leverage it as an extension of manufacturing,” he said.
Anchoring the store with local ties, artwork inspired by the kinetic cityscape sculpture “Metropolis II” by artist Chris Burden will be on display in collaboration with his property.
Schmiedt, who will take over management of the North American market next month after serving as the label’s Middle East brand director, said the store was developed with teams in Geneva, involving top management as well as departments. marketing and architecture.
“It’s a new dimension for Vacheron, in terms of size but also in terms of experiences, that it will be on that flagship,” he said.
The new store symbolizes the brand’s interest in investing in the United States, where it hopes to attract more watch connoisseurs, he said. When asked about the challenge of courting younger generations, Schmiedt cited wealthy tech entrepreneurs as the kind of people who might be drawn to the label.
“When I meet people who come up in high-tech, most of the time they wear mechanical watches,” he said, signaling his interest in products as the pace of life accelerates, with a flood of communications on social media and products with a shorter shelf life.
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