On 29-JUN, swatch has opened a very special swatch store at 16, place
Vendôme, in Paris, France. At place Vendôme, only very
expensive jewelry and watches such as Rolex, Patek Philippe etc. can be
bought. So a swatch store in this location is very challenging.
Swatch has come up with a very interesting idea to face that challenge:
They are selling a new product line, the
Vendôme swatches
at the Vendôme swatch store. These watches can not be ordered
via mail order from the store but they have to be bought in person at the
store (so you better start looking for friends in Paris :-) About
20 to 30 watches have been launched in the beginning. Each watch
is made in a very limited edition of 500 to 5000 pieces each (not numbered).
When a watch is sold out, it will be replaced by a new, different model.
So, there are no "fall/winter" or "spring/summer"
Vendôme
collections
but a constant change of models. Also, there will be no real catalogue
for the Vendôme
swatches, so it will not be easy to find out
which models exist.
A special packaging of the Napoleon swatch Aiglon (GB 158) was distributed to VIPs and press:
Click on the pictures to enlarge.
Box
Opened Box
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So, what are the Vendôme swatches? Essentially, variations of existing models. Sometimes, the variations are not so big. For example, you can buy a Happy Joe Black Irony or a Body & Soul Irony Automatic with golden (eg. the crown) and silver parts. Also, there are seven different Secret Agent Irony chronos with colored dials (yellow, green, red, etc.) and colored (real!) crocodile leather straps. Highlight of the Vendôme swatches is a crocodile leather case with all seven Irony chronos in a limited and numbered edition of 52 pcs, selling price is 7000 French Francs (about $1020 US). This case looks very nice, almost as good as the Olympic Victory Irony watches. But the Irony chronos are also available separately.
The closed crocodile leather case
The number on the lower right corner
The seven different irony chronos
We were allowed to see the Vendôme swatches in a preview during the Paris club event in late June. All collectors said that the best swatches among the Vendôme swatches were three different colored (also the strap) transparent jelly gents: blue, violet, green; 2000 pcs each.
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All three jelly's have different hands. Excellent design, happy hunting.
By the way, there is a mini catalogue from the store but it contains only very few blurry and unclear pictures and no names. So how did I find the names of the three jellys? Click here :-)
Sometimes, the variations to existing swatches are bigger: A very nice ladies flex called Chaine de Mirroir (LN132P) with a unique strap (dial amd strap are "mirrors"):
A Pop with a clear plastic bracelet and feathers. Pop swatches where you purchase decorations for the bands. A skin swatch that can be worn like a tie. And much much more:
YSG108P
Irony Tour Eiffel YSG109P
LK186: For this watch, you decide about the length of the strap
:-)
If you want to see more pictures of Vendôme swatches, please click here.
If you go shopping to a special place such as Place Vendôme, you also need shopping bags to show your new aquisitions. Otherwise, it would be only 50% fun. So swatch has come up with a very nice semi-transparent hard plastic shopping bag:
And in many cases, you want to give away a Vendôme swatch as a gift, so you also get a nice presentation box:
The guarantee slip is embossed with the stamp from the store!
I have been told that the first run of Vendôme swatches sold very quickly at the new store. I am not sure if they are sold out by now.
The idea of Vendôme swatches is not bad, in fact, I like it. They will sell at about the same price as normal swatches. But you will not be able to collect them all, simply too many, and the change will be too fast because of the low production number.
Thanks to Lionel Vasselle for the pictures!
