‘We’re bringing a bit of Geneva to Leeds’: Luxury Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe to open new boutique

The store will be designed by Patek Philippe’s architects in Switzerland, with shopfitters from the UK. Preparation works are already underway for the conversion, with the store set to open around June next year.

Adrian Lurshay, managing director for Patek Philippe in the UK, said: “I think when a customer visits they’re going to feel like they're in the Patek Philippe world. We’re bringing a bit of Geneva to Leeds.

“It will be fantastic, and will be one of the finest shopping locations outside London.”

The site, which was previously under discussion for around 18 months, will mark only the second mono-branded Patek Philippe store in the UK, alongside the brand’s London store, which it owns.

Berry’s will continue to run the Albion Street boutique, and the site will retain Berry’s branding through a plaque on the doorway.

Patek Philippe is a luxury Swiss watch brand which was first established in 1939. The company’s watches, which sell for an average price of around £55,000 in the UK, cannot be bought online and can only be bought in stores.

The company only produces around 60,000 watches per year.

Simon Walton, managing director of Berry’s, said: “This is great news for Yorkshire, for Leeds and for Patek Philippe. For any watch enthusiast in the North of England, this is music to their ears.

“We’ve seen Leeds change a lot in the last 30 years, and it has become a huge commercial city in that time. We rival Manchester, and I think this is a real feather in the cap for Leeds to have managed to have this boutique here, rather than it being granted to Manchester.

“That's down to the relationship between Patek Philippe and Berry’s, but also the city being the ideal location.”

Berry’s Jewelers is a fifth generation family business based in Leeds. The company operates multiple sites across the city, including its own branded stores, a Breitling boutique and an Omega boutique.

The business has stocked Patek Philippe watches for a number of years.

Speaking on the relationship between the two businesses, Mr Lurshay added: “When I first started working for Patek Philippe 30 years ago, we were already talking to Berry’s.

“Over that 30 years we’ve seen customers buying into the Patek brand through Berry’s, and then their children buying into it as well.

“The relationship Berry’s has with their local customers is fabulous, and we’re so pleased to be working with them. We work together as two family companies with a lot of the same values in how we conduct our business.

“We’ve got so much confidence that Berry’s are going to do a fantastic job for Patek Philippe in the North of England.”

Speaking on the choice of Berry’s to invest further into the high street, Mr Walton added: “If you only wander around Leeds city centre, Berry’s have really invested in the high street.

“Yes, the high street is a tough place and certainly with cost-of-living prices things are not easy, but we are very fortunate that there are certain brands that perform really well even in difficult times, and Patek Philippe is one of them.”