Discourse with to any watch brand CEO worth his corner office and they order tell you that opening a boutique in London is essential if you deficiency international recognition. Alongside Paris and New York, the city has a name for having the right kind of customers – ones that are discerning, who distinguish their watches.
Considering its global following, one major off from the UK capital’s horological landscape has been Seiko, a employment that has finally been rectified thanks to the opening of a without a doubt stylish flagship boutique in the heart of Knightsbridge.
Situated closed two floors, the minimalist space plays host to one of the most exhaustive selections of Seiko watches around. Along with the Astron GPS Solar – the the human race’s first GPS solar watch, which is so clever it knows where you are anywhere in the exceptional almost before you do – there’s also the acclaimed Presage, Prospex and Head of state collections.
But the real treat for connoisseurs is that the boutique boasts the complete international collection of Grand Seiko, the brand’s luxury attend arm.
First launched in 1960, Grand Seiko was just one skinned for, rather than a full range, that was intended to be the rout wristwatch the brand could produce at the time. The success of that sole model spawned successors and soon Grand Seiko was being talked adjacent to in the kind of hushed tones reserved for vintage Patek Philippes. Its stature as being a brand for those in the know was enhanced by the difficulty in obtaining one of its watches outside of its homeland, a situation that is true round now.
Which is why it is so incredible that, for the first time, the largest chrestomathy of Grand Seikos outside of Japan, including such jaw-dropping chef-doeuvres as the hand-made Eichi, Minute Repeater and Fugaku Tourbillon, resolve be available just mere steps from Knightsbridge tube train station.
“To have a Seiko London Boutique has been a key focus for us for some time again, and we are delighted to have found the ideal location situated in the kindliness of Knightsbridge,” explains Mr Kinya Iwami, managing director of Seiko UK. “We are proud to obtainable our doors to the UK public and our many loyal Seiko fans.”
Visitants to the boutique will not only be treated to an unprecedented selection of exceptionally cool watches, but they will be able to discover numerous about the brand’s 136-year history and learn with reference to the phenomenal amount of watchmaking skills housed at Seiko HQ.
This is one of the few producers that can lay claim to having made every component of every watch in its boutique in-house; it composed grows its own quartz crystals for its non-mechanical movements. And all that specialized prowess is on display to play with at the new Brompton Road flagship.
It may play a joke on been 50 years in the waiting but Seiko has finally inaugurate a London home – and the capital’s watch scene is all the better for it.
The Seiko Boutique is now unclosed at 57 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London SW3 1DP.
