50 boutiques within the next two or three yearsBreitling boutiques enjoy swift and steady development
In just a few years, Breitling has inaugurated nearly 30 boutiques around the world, the goal being to consolidate its presence and raise its profile on individual markets, by offering consumers venues that perfectly reflect the brand universe.
Designed in a modern and original style highlighting the firm’s aeronautical heritage, these distinctive showcases enable customers to benefit from a highly professional approach facilitating the discovery of a broad range of Breitling and Breitling for Bentley models – notably including chronographs equipped with Manufacture Breitling movements, along with “special boutique editions”.
At the end of 2010, the brand opened a spectacularly sized flagship store – the world’s largest Breitling boutique – at the very heart of Manhattan, between the iconic Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue shopping miles. As Breitling vice-president Jean-Paul Girardin points out: “The United States have been our top market for over 20 years, and we wanted a place worthy of this stellar role and of New York itself.” Since then, the firm has also opened boutiques in Miami and Las Vegas, as well as on the Isle of Guam, with Orlando soon to be joining the list of locations. Moreover, four boutiques in the Caribbean and another in Buenos Aires help to ensure that the rest of the American continent is not neglected.
Breitling is firmly established in the Middle East with exclusive stores in the United Arab Emirates, Saudia Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Jordan.
Following on from Tokyo, Osaka and Seoul, the brand has strengthened its presence on the Asian continent in 2012 by opening two new boutiques on the Chinese market in rapid succession: one in Beijing, and the other in Hong Kong. Shanghai is soon to follow, along with Singapore, scheduled for early 2013.
Breitling’s expansion plans are not confined to South-East Asia. “Despite the economic slowdown, Europe remains a highly promising market and we are seriously counting on its development”, confirms Jean-Paul Girardin. Already present in St. Tropez, the brand opened a boutique in June 2012 in Paris, on the Rue de la Paix just a stone’s throw from the Place Vendôme, within the district hosting all the great names in luxury watchmaking.
In Austria, a particularly dynamic market where it is ranked first among high-end brands, Breitling inaugurated a boutique at the heart of Vienna this fall. The United Kingdom will follow in the spring of 2013 with the opening of a second boutique on London’s famous New Bond Street.
This boom is set to continue at the same brisk pace, as Jean-Paul Girardin confirms: “We have a number of other projects in the pipeline on five continents, and we are aiming for a network of around 50 boutiques within the next two or three years.”