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Chanel’s new watches and fine jewellery flagship in New York — its first in the US — has been a long time coming. Ten years, to be exact.
The French luxury brand has been patiently searching for the perfect location on New York’s Fifth Avenue. Frédéric Grangié, president of Chanel’s watches and fine jewellery division, thinks they’ve finally found it: at number 730 in the historic Crown Building.
“This is a very key milestone for Chanel,” he says. “Year after year, the demand for watches and jewellery in the US is stronger and stronger. We have very, very high ambitions for the US market.”
The flagship — a physical marker of those ambitions — will open on 9 February. It’s designed by architect Peter Marino, a long-time Chanel collaborator, who also worked on Tiffany’s Fifth Avenue reopening just across the road.
The Crown Building is also home to brands including Zegna and Prada. The flagship references Chanel’s watches and fine jewellery flagship at 18 Place Vendôme, Paris (which Grangié describes as the epicentre of the brand’s watches and fine jewellery operations) and pays homage to founder Gabrielle Chanel. “She first came to New York in 1931,” Grangié says. “Since then, the US market has been a stronghold for Chanel.”
It’s also a declaration of Chanel’s aim to be known as a leader in the watches and high-jewellery space. “It’s a major responsibility to ensure that our standards for watches and jewellery are the highest standards. From that perspective, we are a pure player,” the president says. “A flagship store is the ultimate way to express that.”
Chanel is relatively new to the watches category, having started in 1987. “By watchmaking time, we’re very young,” acknowledges Grangié. During that time, Chanel has developed two products identified by Grangié as “iconic” — the J12 and the Première. At the new flagship, they feature alongside staple fine jewellery collections like the Coco Crush and N°5.
An ‘ultra-ultra-luxury’ experience
Chanel doesn’t do e-commerce for watches or jewellery (or fashion). That makes the physical flagship all the more essential, Grangié says. The goal is to position the offering as “ultra-ultra-luxury” — an experience attainable only through the physical store experience. “It means that what you need to bring to the market in terms of experience is through the most extraordinary boutiques. Not the biggest, but the most detail-oriented,” he explains.
Customers can expect lots of gold accents, in part a nod to Chanel’s 31 Rue Cambon apartment. The walls are lined with contemporary and fine art, antiques and custom-made furniture, including a sculpture by French artist André Dubreuil and a wall collage by Iranian American painter YZ Kami. There’s a gallery, four fine jewellery salons (one reserved for private appointments) and a watch salon.
The opening product mix features collections exclusive to the new space. That includes Eternal N°5, a jewellery collection available only at the New York flagship, comprising a diamond necklace and earrings. A new collection, Lion Solaire de Chanel, which is inspired by Chanel’s Leo astrological sign, is also pre-launching at the boutique.
Exclusive to the space is a customisation opportunity for the Coco Crush collection, one of Chanel’s most popular fine jewellery offerings. In store, shoppers can have their Coco Crush rings engraved. “We want it to be a new type of experience,” Grangié says. “We know that there is a high expectation from clients to enter this world and have something more personalised once they select the product.” The plan is eventually to expand this service beyond New York.
Location, location, location
Chanel waited years to find the right location on the celebrated avenue for its first watches and jewellery flagship, Grangié says. “What’s fascinating about Fifth is that it’s a very long avenue, but from a luxury retail perspective, what you can make use of [on] Fifth Avenue is actually very limited. The perimeter is very small.”
This is evident in the string of luxury buyouts and renovations along the very portion of Fifth Grangié is referring to. Brands are shelling out millions to ensure they have bigger and better physical offerings in this most prime of locations. Tiffany’s revamp made waves last year. Prada recently agreed to splash out $835 million on neighbouring 724 Fifth Avenue, where its flagship has been situated since 1997. And Kering just agreed to buy the retail portion of 715-717 Fifth for $963 million.
Chanel’s new flagship is around the corner from Chanel’s Madison Avenue fashion boutique. Previously, watches and jewellery were confined to spaces within Chanel boutiques and smaller standalone spaces. Grangié believes existing customers will appreciate the improved offer, while, by virtue of Fifth Avenue’s tourist pull, the flagship will also boost recruitment of new customers. “It will be a combination, and we will learn as we work,” he says.
Big ambitions
New York and America are key to the maison’s plan for doubling its fine jewellery and watch business in the US (it last achieved that in the four year period from 2019 to 2022). While Chanel doesn’t release sales figures, Morgan Stanley’s most recent estimate suggests Chanel’s jewellery sales amounted to approximately €765 million in 2022.
Globally, the fine jewellery market was worth between €165 and €168 billion in 2023, according to Bain and Company. The Americas represents about 25 per cent of this share, and is favoured by a larger number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, says Claudia D’Arpizio, senior partner and global head of fashion and luxury.
The plan is to build out Chanel’s watches and fine jewellery network rapidly in the US. “If you look at the US beyond one market, it’s really a continent made up of several regions. You need to address each and every one of them,” says Grangié, who ran Louis Vuitton Japan before joining Chanel in 2016.
There’s ample opportunity for growth in the branded luxury fine jewellery space, which currently makes up just 30 per cent of the fine jewellery market globally, D’Arpizio says. “Unbranded remains fragmented and radically more exposed to macroeconomic cycles, while branded jewellery houses are continuously investing in fostering their communication and customer-engagement skills, driving traffic to stores and enhancing retention.”
Grangié points out that watches and fine jewellery have been allocated an entire floor in Chanel’s Los Angeles flagship, which opened last May on Rodeo Drive. Plus, all of Chanel’s investments in boutiques in 2022 and 2023 had a watches and fine jewellery component, Chanel global CFO Philippe Blondiaux told Vogue Business last year.
The New York opening is at once a US and international opening, Grangié argues. “The expectation in the US is clearly to double the business again, but it’s also related to the big picture in terms of where we want to take watches and fine jewellery.”
That process involves more investment in manufacturing, in precious stones, and in the physical spaces to sell these products.
It’s a long game. “If you have a very long-term vision and long-term objectives, you should not compromise on the short term,” he says. “This is what’s leading our business strategy, our business objectives and our high expectations in the US. It will be the start of a new era.”
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