Construction boom for watch stores

It is amazing what you can learn walking the length of London’s Old and New Bond Street in the height of summer, as I did this morning.

You may already have seen a couple of brief news stories I wrote about damage to the Rolex boutique run by Watches of Switzerland, where somebody has managed to puncture the store front window and crack the glass from floor to ceiling.

And the fact that work has begun on a large expansion of Patek Philippe’s directly run boutique, with branded scaffolding appearing this week as work begins to knock through to a neighbouring unit.

Watch retailers across the world appear to be in hard hat mode with construction of bigger and more spectacular showrooms the order of the day.

The west coast of the United States is going real estate crazy with Brent Polacheck of Calabasas, California, getting started on a brand new showroom just months after completing a significant refurbishment of his existing Patek Philippe and ROLEX store.

Gearys in Beverley Hills has the same idea, and is building sice-by-side Rolex and Patek boutiques on the legendary #Rodeodrive.

Read my Big Interview with Gearys CEO here.

I will be in New York in September for the inaugural WatchPro USA Awards, and voting is just about to close to decide the winners.

Next week we reveal the finalists for the event, which takes place at Cipriani's incredible venue at 25 Broadway in lower Manhattan.

Voting is only allowed by retailers and watch brand executives. If you qualify, you can still vote here.

On the product launch front, my favourite watch this week comes from Timex, which is joining a growing list of manufacturers making incredible mechanical watches at amazing prices including Seiko and Citizen.

This Giorgio Galli S2, designed by Timex's chief creative officer, is a Swiss-made automatic with a minimalist monochrome dial in a gender-neutral-sized brush-finished 38mm steel case with titanium insert.

It is yours for a mere £750.