Star man
This impossibly complicated piece is coming to a store near you
There’s a flurry of London watch shop openings in the offing this summer: Richard Mille’s coming to Mount Street, Blancpain to Bond Street and Harrods is opening a second branch of its Fine Watch Room in Heathrow’s re-opened T2. But the most exciting new arrival has to be Watches of Switzerland’s new flagship megaboutique opening at the end of this month at 55 Regent Street. As well as promising 17,000 square feet of “retail theatre”, it will also carry some seriously exclusive pieces. For example, one of very few examples of IWC’s Portuguese Siderale Scafusia, its most complex watch by a country mile. The huge tourbillon on the front is bewitching to see in action, but it’s the rotating star map on the reverse – made bespoke to the co-ordinates chosen by the buyer – that makes this a truly jaw-dropping timepiece.