It has been three months since the first TimeVallée multi-brand luxury showroom opened in America.
The luxury wing of the American Dream Mall in New Jersey was the chosen as the location for the store, which is operated by retail partner, The Kodak Group.
The concept has been rolling out across Asia, the Middle East and Europe in recent years as a network of high end destination showrooms housing Richemont brands Vacheron Constantin, Roger Dubuis, IWC, Panerai, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Piaget and Baume & Mercier, a Café’ and more.
The opening of an American store, followed by a Canadian store within the same month, was a long time coming.
Roberta Naas discusses the new TimeVallée store with Emmanuel Perrin, CEO ad interim of TimeVallée, Bradley Kodak and Creighton Kodak of The Kodak Group.
WATCHPRO: Before we talk about this beautiful new location, the first in America, can you share some background on TimeVallée?
Emmanuel Perrin: “I have been head of Specialist Watchmakers Distribution at Richemont for seven years now and so am very involved. The origin, the genesis of the TimeVallée was initially for the Chinese market in 2010 and 2011 when the business was developing quite strongly in China and the quality of the distribution, the service and the experience was not on par with the luxury and the quality and price of the products that were sold in those stores.
So, we at Richemont thought that we should design a concept where, in terms of modernity, openness and image, the look was more in line, or on par with the luxury of the product. At the time we also integrated a digital component, solid trainings and communications campaigns that were designed between the brand, the retailer, and the TimeVallée team.
We started to open stores around 2014, 2015 and then from 2019, just before Covid, the visibility of TimeVallée started to generate interest outside of the Chinese market for what it is: an aggregation of products offered and an aggregation of services. We saw demand for the concept in other countries.
WATCHRPO: How would you describe this brand new TimeVallée showroom to customers? What makes it an outstanding place to shop for fine timepieces?
Emmanuel Perrin: It is warm and welcoming with a modern contemporary aspect and a strong focus on the client experience and service. It also allows us to concentrate and aggregate multiple watches maisons in one place as opposed to having 20 or 25 boutiques, each separately sending their own brand message, training people and allocating watches. So, compared to a single-brand store, it’s the offer, the aggregation of offer and different Maisons that you have — no question — that is the big difference.
Creighton Kodak: I think also is the concept is so beautiful, and the amount of research and development it would take us as a family-run business to implement this would not only cost a lot of money, but a lot of time.
And when we saw the concept it was just absolutely stunning. Beautiful. So we liked that part, and also it gives us all the access that a chain store would offer, like training, marketing and more. What TimeVallée can offer us and our team is a big advantage. So that drew us in.
Emmanuel Perrin: Yes. And, actually, from the retailer side, you become part of a chain without the need for investing and developing the full chain. It’s not a chain type of approach, but it’s quite similar and the retailer can benefit from whatever is developed in another market in terms of communication, campaigns, customer events, that can be shared and replicated in other markets.
For any brand or business to make it in America is a milestone. It’s the biggest economy of the world. So, it’s a great achievement. It’s a great first and we need to make it a success for the Maisons, for the retail partner and for the clients. This location offers a great opportunity for that.
Brad Kodak: We are super thrilled to open the first global brand like TimeVallée in the United States. The design is really next level. I’ve never seen a store like this and the clients love it as well. They walk in and they’re just as surprised as I think Creighton and I were when we first saw pictures of it.
Creighton Kodak: might be the first time that the finished product looks even nicer than the renderings. And to have all these wonderful brands maisons under one roof, it feels so good walking into this store. So, we’re proud of that.
WATCHPRO: The American Dream Mall is one of the most upscale malls in America, especially with The Avenue, where TimeVallée is located alongside some of the worlds’ most luxurious brands. Is that what brought you here?
Brad Kodak: The mall is one of the best in terms of luxury boutiques, but it is also about acquiring a new clientele from our store in Hoboken, NJ. We’re getting a huge amount of clients from Bergen County, which is one of the wealthiest counties in the United States. And the traffic that we’re seeing here is very qualitative. So, we’re very excited as Kodak Group to attract these new customers for us and TimeVallée.
Creighton Kodak: So far, we’ve seen a completely different clientele. Even though the location may be only 10 miles away from Hoboken or New York City, it could be 45 minutes to get here if you’re lucky.
So, tapping into the Bergen County client, which we think has been underserved by luxury watch retailers, brings a whole new client that deserves this level of quality. Some of the other malls that used to be upscale around here have maybe lost a little of their cache. This mall is a real draw thanks to its concept.
Emmanuel Perrin: And it’s a new model that needs to build its customer base. TimeVallée needs to finish, as well, the offer of the product and the merchandising.
Every newborn has to walk before it can run and run fast. But we were pleasantly surprised by the start of the business, by the interest of the customers and by the turnover generated after only a couple of months since the July opening.
WATCHPRO: Did you consider building mono-brand boutiques here before deciding on TimeVallée?
Emmanuel Perrin: Some brands did think about it individually, and you do have Cartier and Montblanc here on their own. But, ultimately when we discussed the ideal distribution for the mall, we realised that the maisons would each benefit from bigger traffic if we had a wider offer in the store.
This is what the multibrand distribution is bringing. I guess there has been a strong push on mono-brand stores in the past five or six years, but the multibrand retail and distribution system is still serving best for most of the watch Maisons the majority of their customers.
This is what the Kodak brothers are providing here. Once you’ve sold one watch to one customer from one brand, then you can still bring them back for novelties from that brand, and even for an event with another brand. There are just many more opportunities for the customer to come back.
That’s why we got the alignment from the seven maisons that you see here.
Creighton Kodak: Yes, it didn’t make sense for each brand financially to have shop in shops all along in this beautiful mall. So, to be able to house it all under one roof and represent all the brands in such a nice way, it makes sense for us and for the maisons, as well.
WATCHPRO: How did your partnership with Kokak Group come about for this first American TimeVallée?
Creighton Kodak: This area was a white spot for many of the maisons, where they didn’t have representation, and we’re local guys. We’re from Hoboken and we know the area and the clientele. I think that’s probably how we came together, Richemont and Kodak for this project.
We heard rumblings that this was a possibility — the first TimeVallée in America — and we started talking. We had already been carrying a couple of the maisons in our own store.
Emmanuel Perrin: I think the fact that we started working with the Kodak brothers with the Hoboken stores first helped a lot. They worked together with a few brands for maybe eight years and it built the trust. It’s like a couple, you get to see the good side and the bad side. On both sides. We know how each other operates, and we liked it.
Once we started talking, we discussed doing a multibrand store and it was a white spot for all of us — a place we weren’t covered in before. From there to getting the store open was two years in the making.
Brad Kodak: Selecting which brands to carry in the store was also a joint effort. Being in a mall, we wanted to have a variety of price points, we wanted a variety of looks, like classic versus sport, and you’re dealing with a certain amount of space that is finite. These are all things we needed to consider.
We figured seven brands could fit the space perfectly and then I think we decided what the best ones would be for this project that weren’t already represented in this mall. And I believe for some of these brands, we are the only representation they have in New Jersey, whether it’s Vacheron Constantin or maybe Roger Dubuis or Panerai. If they are represented in the state, it is with maybe one dealer. It’s very, very limited.
Creighton Kodak: And dealing with different maisons is not difficult or challenging for us. We’re used to a big multi-brand store concept already with our W. Kodak stores.
That’s where our expertise comes in, as well. We’re also jewelers, and while TimeVallée is mostly watch-focused, we have Piaget here, which has a wonderful jewelry offering, and for which we’ve seen great demand.
WATCHPRO: Is it your plan to always open TimeVallée stores with retail partners?
Emmanuel Perrin: The idea, as it has been since we first developed the concept, is for it to benefit the Swiss high watchmaking industry in general and the retail partners.
That’s why all TimeVallée stores are only operated by retailers or third parties. If it’s on the cruise ship, it’s the company operating the cruise ship. If it’s in a department store, it’s the department store, if it’s in travel retail, it’s the duty free operator or the travel retail operator.
In the United States, we have three TimeVallée projects in the pipe. What I can tell you is that they are west of New Jersey, and there’s a higher chance that it’ll be south of New Jersey rather than north, but you never know.
Emmanuel Perrin
We keep that neutrality and independence for all brands to be comfortable to join the retail environment, even non-Richemont brands in some of the other countries.
So, it’s a mix where we need to find a white spot where we extend the reach for several maisons or as many maisons as possible. For that, we need a retail partner who can make it work.
Especially because if we come in and open stores on our own, we operate as a competitor to our retail partners and that could create some reluctance on the part of brands outside of Richemont to be present in the store, too. So, this is why the TimeVallée concept only works if it’s operated by a third party that is independent and neutral.
WATCHPRO: You have just over 50 TimeVallée showrooms in 14 countries already. What are your plans to roll out additional locations?
Emmanuel Perrin: Currently, we have 51 stores with 27 different partners and operators. In a way, for each of them, I think it’s a big draw being part of a chain and being able to benefit from the visibility from the marketing, and from the awareness of the development of TimeVallée.
We can see the momentum gathering, but with that there has to be constraint. A new store has to be completing the existing distribution network of the brands.
And we need to be able to gather a sufficient number of brands and maisons so that, economically, there is scale for the partner to make money.
In the United States, we have three projects in the pipe. What I can tell you is that they are west of New Jersey, and there’s a higher chance that it’ll be south of New Jersey rather than north, but you never know.
And again, this is where the concept and the structure of the TimeVallée chain is peculiar because it needs to fulfill an extension in customer reach for the brands for a sound development of the business and it needs to fulfill the same objectives for the partner that will operate the store.
So, it’s complicated to make sure that we find an area of business that allows us to align all those things. But we hope to announce three new locations within the next 12 months.
Around the world, I think our biggest store is in Switzerland. It has 11 Richemont brands and 11 others. We also have good locations in Spain, one in Madrid and one in Barcelona. So, the network in Europe is nicely developed.
But I am quite optimistic that TimeVallée could find its place in other department stores or with other retailers that want to be part of a chain and leverage our training and practices.
And we opened Montreal in Canada in the summer, so expanding to that market is important, as is Mexico.