Hing Wa Lee and its owner David Lee like to think big, whether that is designing a new $15 million showroom anchored by Rolex or adding to one of the largest collections of classic Ferrari cars in North America.
Hing Wa Lee, along with CH Premier Jewelers are specialists in serving visiting or expatriate Chinese customers in the Greater Los Angeles area.
Hing Wa Lee has Rolex as its anchor brand at its vast free-standing showrooms in Walnut (22,000 square feet) and San Gabriel (15,000 square feet), while CH Premier has Patek Philippe in Santa Clara.
David Lee claims he invented the concept of targeting non-mainstream customers, like expatriate Chinese, and in the early 1990s persuaded Rolex to share his vision and sign Hing Wa Lee as an authorized dealer.
That decision, Mr Lee says, led to the creation of the highest-grossing Rolex store in the country at that time.
“I was only the second store to open with Rolex in San Gabriel and one of the first Asian dealers in the whole of the United States in 1995,” he says.
“That changed a lot of perceptions about Hing Wa Lee and suddenly a lot of other brands wanted to talk to me.”
Maintaining the best possible relationship with Rolex has been crucial, and the success of this partnership has allowed Hing Wa Lee to open a third showroom with Switzerland’s biggest brand as its anchor.
The showroom will open next year in Larchmont, a small up-and-coming neighborhood midway between Downtown Los Angeles and Beverley Hills.
Architectural renderings of the project, shared exclusively with WatchPro, show Rolex with the largest area in the showroom, but with ample space for brands including Tudor, Hublot and Breguet (a final brand line-up is yet to be confirmed).
The store’s design puts as much emphasis on hospitality as it does on retailing, with a number of private consultation areas along with an event space with a fully-stocked bar, dining table and lounge area.
“The amazing thing about this Larchmont Village store is that it’s designed and dedicated as a client experience store, not a regular sales floor style. The design of the store enforces the client experience so clients want to hang out,” Mr Lee says.
It is the third major project underway in the Greater Los Angeles area right now.
Gearys is building huge boutiques for Rolex and Patek Philippe on Rodeo Drive and Polacheck is undertaking a second major expansion of its showroom in Calabasas, which also offers Rolex and Patek Philippe.
Take a tour of Hing Wa Lee’s Larchmant showroom
