Glashütte Original’s first South-East Asian boutique was officially opened in May 2016 and is located at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. It was soft-launched at end December 2015. This Glashütte Original Boutique is the brand’s flagship store in South-East Asia. Photo: © Glashütte Original.
German watch brand Glashütte Original has strengthened its brand presence in Asia with the opening of three boutiques between November 2015 and February 2016.
In Asia, Glashütte Original has existing boutiques in Japan, Hong Kong, Macau and China.
In November 2015, Glashütte Original opened a boutique located at Shing Kong Place in Chaoyang District in Beijing, China (Glashütte Original Boutique Peking SKP).
What followed at end-December 2015 was the soft-launch of its first South-East Asian boutique (Glashütte Original Boutique Singapore) in Singapore with the store located at The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands.
The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands is one of the largest retail shopping malls in Singapore and it was opened in 2010.
In February 2016, Glashütte Original officiated the opening of another boutique (Glashütte Original Boutique Peking AMP) in Beijing, located at the popular and busy Wang Fu Jing Street in Dongcheng District.
The Glashütte Original boutique at Wang Fu Jing is the fifth store in China. Moreover, with a floor area of 147 square metres (around 1,582 square feet), it is the largest for the brand in China.
While Beijing and Peking are both names used for China’s capital, Beijing is the modern pinyin transliteration.
The Glashütte Original boutique in Singapore is the brand’s flagship store in South-East Asia and has a floor area of 34 square metres (around 366 square feet), a fraction of the size of its Wang Fu Jing boutique in Beijing.
The size is actually appropriate for Glashütte Original’s Singapore boutique where the brand’s huge wall clock is the main focal point.
The minimum average size for retail shops at commercial shopping malls in Singapore is 50 square metres (538 square feet), reportedly comparable to a typical Housing and Development Board (HDB) shop unit. The HDB is Singapore’s public housing authority.
The ruling for the minimum average size of a retail store took effect in 2013 because there were proposals for far too many micro shop units that were as small as nine square metres (92 square feet) for new malls being developed.
A nine-metre square shop will be even smaller than the parking space for a car, as noted by Khaw Boon Wan, who was then Singapore’s Minister for National Development. He is currently Singapore’s Minister for Transport.
The Glashütte Original Singapore Boutique covers a floor area of 34 square metres (366 square feet). The main focal point of the store is the Glashütte Original wall clock. Photo: © Glashütte Original.
The Glashütte Original Boutique at The Shoppes in Marina Bay Sands was officially opened in May 2016 by Glashütte Original President Yann Gamard and Wolfgang Lackner, regional sales manager, Glashütte Original.
Timepieces highlighted included the Senator Cosmopolite which had arrived in Singapore in early 2016. The Glashütte Original Senator Cosmopolite was introduced in 2015 at the BaselWorld watch fair.
Related articles on timewerke.com that may be of interest include:
i. Glashütte Original Senator Cosmopolite: More than just the two-time zone display; and
ii.Singapore and the watch markets of South-East Asia.