Boston goes 50% bigger than Vegas with largest Rolex showroom in America to open next month
Zach BlassWatchPro published an article today announcing the largest Rolex showroom in America is set to open in Boston in December. Originally meant to open earlier but delayed due to the COVID-19 crisis, the 4600 square foot showroom will be located within Long’s Jewelers – beating out current record holder Watches of Switzerland and their 3000 square foot showroom at Wynn Las Vegas.
Located at 8 Newbury Street, the building was built in the 1920s and formerly housed a showroom for Rolls-Royce on its street level floor – clearly housing luxury product is in the building’s heritage. The store has quite high-calibre neighbours as well, with Bulgari and Chanel next door and Cartier, Tiffany & Co, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Richard Mille also nearby.
Ultimately though, it begs the question: does a large space translate to a greater level of inventory? WatchPro reader John Lee commented on their site, “Bit of a waste of space, surely a cupboard would of [sic] been more suitable for the current stock levels?” The question remains as to whether there will be a commensurate volume of product to fill the space.
WatchPro does, however, make it clear that Boston will not necessarily hold the record for long: “There will be a new Rolex showroom run by Wempe on the ground floor of a new Rolex USA headquarters building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street in New York. The whole building has 165,000 square feet of space over 25 floors.”
It is not exactly clear whether or not the move and redesign includes plans for a storefront, nor is it clear how much of that floorspace will be utilised by Rolex. WatchPro notes in their article, “Architectural drawings show Rolex occupying the first two storeys, potentially totalling over 13,000 square feet, although no details have been revealed about how much of the space will be devoted to retail for Rolex.”
One thing is clear: for the meantime, Boston will soon be home to the largest Rolex sales space in the USA and it will be interesting to see just how well the space is utilised and optimised.
For the full story on WatchPro, click here.