Since April of this year, visitors to the new IWC Schaffhausen boutique in Hamburg have been able to immerse themselves in the world of the Swiss watchmaker. Now the store, operated by jeweller Wempe, has officially opened – and it turns out that Swiss and Hanseatic virtues are a perfect match.
‘With the timeless design of our watches and the interior of this boutique, we fit in very well in Hamburg,’ said Christian Knoop, CDO Chief Design Officer at IWC Schaffhausen, at the event in mid-June. ‘We are discreet, timeless and understated, which I think is very Hanseatic.’
‘Hamburg and IWC – especially the Portugieser collection – are naturally also connected by their maritime flair,’ added Matthieu Payet Gaspard, Managing Director Northern & Eastern Europe at IWC Schaffhausen. For several weeks now, visitors have been able to discover the Portugieser collection in the stylish ambience of the new IWC boutique, alongside the Ingenieur, Pilot’s Watches, Portofino and Aquatimer collections. The boutique is located in the exclusive Neuer Wall shopping district, close to Jungfernstieg and the Binnenalster lake.
In addition to the classic models, special editions such as the Big Pilot’s Watch Perpetual Calendar Tourbillon Le Petit Prince (Ref. IW504901) and the Portuguese Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day & Night (Ref. IW545901) are also on display. “In the boutique, we create experiences that go far beyond the product – a space for inspiration, encounters and individual values,” explained Kim-Eva Wempe, managing partner of Gerhard D. Wempe GmbH & Co. KG.
The boutique offers a welcoming atmosphere and presents itself in a modern, open and bright ambience with a colour scheme in black, sand and white. Scott Wempe, Co-Head of Business Development, emphasised the good and trusting cooperation between the two companies when welcoming guests to the opening event: ‘A good partnership is like a marriage. You engage with each other in a completely different way. You have to build different structures and different levels of trust. And we have achieved that in the process and in the creation of this boutique. We have come a long way together.’
Speaking of good partnerships and marriage, the Wempe family has a very personal history with IWC Schaffhausen. Kim-Eva Wempe wore a Pilot’s Watch engraved with her wedding date on the case back to the event, and her son Scott wore an IWC that once belonged to his father, Hellmut Wempe. The boutique offers a bar and a cosy lounge at the rear, where customers can enjoy coffee or drinks while receiving personalised advice from the qualified staff led by Holm Munck, allowing them to relax and discover IWC specialities such as functional complications, material innovations and new products.
The IWC Schaffhausen boutique in Hamburg (Neuer Wall 10) is the fifth monobrand boutique in Germany, alongside Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf. It is open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
