Vacheron Constantin’s New Pop-Up Lounge in West Hollywood Has Watches, a Bar, and a Foosball Table
For the next two months, while the Vacheron Constantin flagship boutique in Beverly Hills is under renovation, the watchmaker is welcoming its Los Angeles-based clients to Suite 1755, a by-appointment-only hotel suite at the West Hollywood Edition on Sunset Boulevard that has been custom designed to pay homage to both the icons of the maison and its links to Hollywood history.
The multi-room space incorporates custom artwork by the painter Gregory Siff, black-and-white photographs by the legendary Hollywood photographer Sid Avery (featuring past clients of the brand, including Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando), California casual details such as a foosball table, as well as design elements incorporating the brand’s Maltese cross emblem. A wraparound terrace affords a view of downtown Los Angeles framed by palm trees.
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“The angle here is to celebrate the glamour of L.A. and Hollywood and the style of Vacheron Constantin,” Alexander Schmiedt, president of the brand in the Americas, told Robb Report on Friday of last week, the day after the brand marked the official opening of the suite with a private cocktail party at the nearby Sunset at Edition nightclub.
The lounge-like immersive retail concept, which the brand introduced in 2021 when it opened a temporary suite at the Mandarin Oriental in Dubai for three months, is intended “to give watch lovers a different way to experience Vacheron Constantin,” said Schmiedt.
“Even today in our stores the main purpose is not to sell watches,” he added. “It’s so people can experience the maison, touch and feel the watches and, if they fall in love, we’re happy. We don’t have many watches on display in the suite. If we have them available and you like one, of course you will be able to purchase them.”
But, Schmiedt emphasized, the emphasis of the suite—and the brand’s retail strategy in general—is less on transactions than on creating memorable experiences that help build lasting relationships with clients. “Direct personal connections are very important to us,” he said. “That’s why our boutiques are evolving from more transactional stores to more experiential spaces.”
The details that distinguish the West Hollywood suite from the other immersive spaces Vacheron has created—after Dubai, the brand opened in a seaside villa in Singapore, a French colonial mansion in Shanghai, and a desert location in Saudi Arabia—make clear the brand’s longstanding relationship with cinematic legends.
For example, on display in the suite is a gold Vacheron Constantin dress watch from the early 1950s that Zsa Zsa Gabor gifted to Marlon Brando to commemorate his 1954 Oscar win for On the Waterfront. “To Marlon Love Zsa Zsa June 24, 1954,” reads the inscription.
“It’s got quite a funky dial with guilloché,” Schmiedt said. “People know us for watchmaking, but here we wanted to highlight our style.”
The original 222 from 1977—the predecessor of the brand’s popular Overseas sport collection—is also on display. But Suite 1755’s watch selection isn’t limited to archival pieces. The full set of novelties introduced at Watches and Wonders Geneva in March—including a trio of retrograde models—will be available for clients and watch lovers to peruse for the duration of the brand’s stay at the West Hollywood Edition.
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