“This room you’re in, that will be the music room. We’ve got a dining area next door; there will be a bar downstairs, and on the second floor you’ll find the terrace.” I’m halfway through a sneak preview tour of Audemars Piguet’s latest retail space, but there’s little mention of watches, or selling.
Instead, as UK general manager Daniel Compton and architect Nick Johnson explain their vision for AP House Manchester, as it will be known upon opening in May, it feels more like the pitch for a boutique hotel, or the kind of uber-lux penthouse that’ll please the #PropertyPorn crowd on Instagram. Rather than talking about stock allocations or showcases, Compton and Johnson are more interested in discussing the craft beer they’ve commissioned from a local brewery and whether they can get beehives installed on the roof — a nod to Manchester’s ‘worker bee’ motif, in reference to its industrial underpinnings.
This is the new face of watch retail: hospitality-heavy spaces that have more in common with private members’ clubs than a traditional store. At the top end of the market, it’s about deepening relationships with valuable customers at a time when the watch industry is focused on selling fewer, more expensive pieces. Increasingly, startup disruptors and pre-owned sellers are also seeing the benefit of putting their clientele at ease. However, it’s not one to rush into: getting the location right is a challenge, especially in markets where a brand is less visible, and execs may have to find creative ways to drive revenue away from direct sales (for example, via events).
Experience is everything
Audemars Piguet was an early mover, first introducing the AP House concept in 2019 to cater to its most developed markets. Manchester will be its 23rd. “We wanted a way to get closer to our customers,” says Compton. “We wanted something where our clients really feel at home and we can entertain them in a space that doesn’t feel transactional, even though there are transactions.”
There clearly have been; coupled with gentle increases in production, the strategy has seen the brand more than double its turnover since 2018, with an estimated revenue of CHF 2.3 billion ($2.5 billion) in 2023, according to Morgan Stanley.
In addition to the new Manchester House — making the UK one of the only markets with multiple AP Houses (the UK’s position as the fifth largest export market for Swiss watches, combined with its historic culture of members’ clubs and luxury hospitality, has made such developments a natural fit) — Audemars Piguet is relocating its Bond Street House in London to nearby Clifford Street, taking over an entire five-storey townhouse. Compton says the brand’s investment in such spacious and well-appointed venues is worthwhile. “We see the value… [but] not in products per square metre, because we make a relatively small amount of watches at a relatively high average selling price. For us, the experience is everything.”
As well as being able to cater to clients’ other passions, he says this kind of approach encourages people to spend more in the long run. “By encouraging people to come along with their families or their friends, you find that pays dividends later on because they feel relaxed,” Compton says, “and they’re more likely to want to share that experience.”
The model is being employed by a growing number of AP’s rivals. In 2024, Vacheron Constantin opened Club 1755, a penthouse described by the brand as a “bespoke multifunctional space and sanctuary of culture” on Old Bond Street. Dotted with contemporary art and housing a watch servicing workshop opposite the cocktail bar, it’s where anyone lucky enough to be on the list for in-demand watches like the 222 in stainless steel would be very much welcomed.
Vacheron Constantin’s Richemont stablemate A Lange Söhne has pursued a similar split-level strategy to Audemars Piguet, establishing outposts it calls “salons” in key cities. Alongside Geneva, Zurich and San Francisco, it has opened a salon in London (its Bond Street boutique closed in June 2024).
“You can distinguish between a customer that wants to see a lot of watches, and be quickly in and out, and those who want to sit down with somebody dedicated to them and talk about watches or their other interests,” says A Lange Söhne CEO Wilhelm Schmid.
However, Schmid warns that the salon model, which is by appointment, will only work in markets where a brand already has an established customer base. “If you need to recruit [customers] I’d be very careful with it, because the power of something with no street visibility and usually not in an A-plus or perfect location… it’s just not there.”
Startups and resellers lean in
In late 2024, watch-publication-turned-retailer Time+Tide opened a ‘discovery studio’ behind London’s Oxford Circus. Its stock-in-trade is a world away from the likes of Audemars Piguet or A Lange Söhne, but in bringing together carefully assembled collections of small, young, relatively affordable watch brands like Studio Underd0g and Baltic — some taking their very first steps into physical retail — the company has struck gold with an audience of watch fans desperate for something different.
Time+Tide Founder Andrew McUtchen, who relies on the media outlet’s loyal audience and word of mouth to draw customers, says it’s all about the right attitude. “I want you to be met at your level when you come in here,” he says. “You’re never going to meet a salesperson in a luxury watch boutique on your level. Their level is ‘I must get sales’. And your level is ‘I’m not ready for that’. Here, what is normal is to get a tray and put watches on it and just sit in a corner with one of our team. You can’t have a discovery studio with an approach of ‘get them in and get them out’.”
The concept began with a studio in Time+Tide’s hometown of Melbourne in 2023. Shortly after, McUtchen moved to London to focus on opening the next outpost, and barely three months after launching in London, he announced a £3 million funding round to take the format to New York. The numbers so far paint a good picture: McUtchen told The Financial Times that revenue rose from AU $1.2 million ($753,000) in 2020 to AU $4.6 million ($2.9 million) in 2023 and again to AU $7.1 million ($4.5 million) in 2024; three-quarters of the last year’s growth stemmed from retail sales.
Despite the relaxed environment and unhurried sales manner, McUtchen always has one eye on the figures. “This is still an expensive bit of real estate,” he says. “Our monthly target is a real thing, it’s a number that everyone has printed in their brain, but there are lots of ways to get to a destination.”
Chiefly, Time+Tide is getting there by hosting events, offering brands a “full takeover” of the space and leaning on his team’s editorial expertise to sell them a more creative concept. It has already held a ‘British Watchmaking Weekender’, sold out a limited-edition collaboration with TAG Heuer and has a client event for Piaget in the works. As a result, McUtchen says, the London studio exceeded its December target by more than 10 per cent.
“Tonight, we’re going to make [our] budget for a month and a half,” he says, referring to an evening event in January given over to cult favourite micro-brand Toledano Chan. “We are using this multi-use space to take that single-minded sales focus away from the team.”
Taking a leaf out of Time+Tide’s book is pre-owned e-commerce retail platform Subdial, which has seen its own collector meet-ups become increasingly popular. With recent investment from Watchfinder founder Stuart Hennell, a desire to move from its Hoxton headquarters to a larger, more accessible and more customer-friendly space is becoming a reality, with a 4,200-square-foot “clubhouse” set to open in Farringdon in May.
True to the trend, Subdial founder Christy Davis says that “firstly, it should feel welcoming and approachable. You’ll come in and there will be a long ‘watch bar’ that you can sit at with all sorts to play around with, and then we’ll also have a larger clubhouse area in the back, which we’ll use a lot for events.” Its success will still ultimately be measured in sales: Davis expects the new space to cover its running costs within approximately three months.
He says the store will help to build trust, credibility and awareness among his customers, some of whom will always prefer a bricks-and-mortar approach to a no-strings return shipping policy. But he also says that it speaks to an evolution of the way Subdial, which was founded in 2018 and saw rapid growth during the pandemic, is engaging with its customers.
“Often, it’s not really about viewing a [specific] watch. It’s less transactional — maybe somebody wants to come for you to suggest some pieces to look at, or to bring in a friend who might buy their first watch,” he says. “It’s about building longer-term relationships.”
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