Luxury watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre has reopened its flagship store in Makati City in the Philippines, enhancing the experience for local timepiece gurus.
Located in Ayala Center’s Greenbelt 5 in Makati, the 40-square-metre boutique was reopened last week with an official relaunch party attended by company executives including Jaeger-LeCoultre’s managing director for Southeast Asia and Oceania, Maxence Kinget.
“It’s not a store, it’s a boutique with an experience,” Kinget told the Philstar, when describing the new store at the party.
“For us it’s very important that there is emotion and discovery, the two key mindsets when we designed the boutique.”
The newly reopened Philippine boutique will carry the watchmaker’s complete range of watches and accessories, as well as the famous Geophysic Tourbillon Universal Time, of which just one will be stocked.
Jaeger-LeCoultre has also launched a new Geophysic collection for men with a steel metal bracelet, said to be “very good for South Asia because with the humidity and warm weather sometimes you want a stainless-steel bracelet instead of the alligator strap,” according to Kinget.
There’s also a women’s range, with a new take on the iconic ‘Rendez-Vous’, a round watch with diamonds around the bezel.
Finally, the new store will stock boutique-exclusive pieces, made in collaboration with Jaeger-LeCoultre and Lucerne – the distributor of Jaeger-LeCoultre in the Philippines — that aren’t available anywhere else in the world.
Moreover, timepiece aficionados can create their own one-of-a-kind watch with Jaeger-LeCoultre’s new bespoke service on offer.
“There is in the Philippines a very high level of watchmaking knowledge, a very strong appetite for watches and a very strong Maison in the Philippines,” said Kinglet. “Jaeger-LeCoultre is considered a reference in fine watchmaking, as well as having a very high level of craftsmanship. Within our manufacture we have developed the biggest collection of movements — 1,200 calibers developed in our history, which is absolutely crazy — and we still produce more than 50 calibers in the collection today. We spend a lot of time trying to make sure there is a very strong connection between respect for our tradition, our heritage, as well as being oriented towards the future.
The Swiss watch group entered The Philippines in 2000, after striking a deal with Lucerne. But it only opened its first store in 2008, which is the newly fitted Greenbelt 5 store.
Jaeger-LeCoutlre is also sold at Lucerne Jewellers in Taguig City and at the recently opened L’Atelier Lucerne at Shangri-La at the Fort.
