Legacy jewelry and luxury watch retailer Mayors has opened the first flagship store boasting its new store design in the Shops at Merrick Park, a shopping center in Miami-adjacent Coral Gables, Fla. The shop’s design will be reproduced in Mayors flagships moving forward.
The new store is part of the second stage of the retailer’s 2017 relaunch courtesy of Watches of Switzerland Group (then known as Aurum Group Ltd.), which acquired Mayors in 2017 from Birks for $104.6 million.
“When acquired by the Watches of Switzerland Group, Mayors had a great team and a strong reputation for customer service, but had been under-invested in for a number of years,” David Hurley, executive vice president of Watches of Switzerland Group U.S., tells JCK.
And Watches of Switzerland CEO Brian Duffy told JCK news director Rob Bates last month that the company plans to “redo all the Mayors stores,” adding, “We have a new look for the logo, a new look for the stores, a new in-store presentation. It has a great heritage, but you have to deliver it in a more relevant way. The big trend in today’s jewelry is toward brands. It is very important that Mayors is seen as a brand, not a big private label, but as a brand that you want to want to emotionally get associated with, which has style, character, and personality.”
The 4,700-square-foot open-layout shop was designed by Michael Neumann Associates, who designed the Watches of Switzerland stores in New York City’s SoHo and Hudson Yards. It’s divided into three main spaces by wood and brass screens. The main areas feature the shop’s two anchor brands, Rolex and Cartier, and there’s a display space featuring Mayors’ bridal and high jewelry collections.
Walls are plain white and drop down to Calacatta marble flooring and pale gray carpeting. There’s a concierge-style lounge area that serves Cuban coffee by Miami restaurant Versailles and a trendy vertical botanical garden.
Debuting with the store is a capsule collection from Miami-born and New York–based jewelry designer Pamela Love, created in collaboration with Mayors (the Merrick Park flagship will be the only Mayors to carry the collection of one-of-a-kind pieces).
The store also bowed with an exclusive-to-store capsule collection from Roberto Coin and a display of the high-end Regalia pearl collection by Mikimoto—which was flown in from Japan specifically for the flagship opening and will be on display for a short time before making the return journey.
The store’s watch selection is stellar, as expected, and features the latest timepieces from Breitling, Cartier, Franck Muller, IWC Schaffhausen, Mont Blanc, Omega, Rolex, TAG Heuer, and Tudor, among others.
Watches of Switzerland owns 120 stores in its native United Kingdom, including Watches of Switzerland shops and units for legacy jewelers Goldsmiths and Mappin & Webb. In the United States it runs 14 Mayors stores and one Rolex boutique in Orlando, Fla.
Top: Inside Mayors’ new flagship in Florida (all photos courtesy of Watches of Switzerland Group)
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