Big hit

AS the old adage goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So why did Officine Panerai - makers of the world's most distinctive oversized luxury diving watches - decide to redesign its most successful boutique in the world, located in Hong Kong's luxury retail hub of Tsim Sha Tsui?

"It was too small and I was not satisfied with it," says Officine Panerai's CEO, Angelo Bonati, who was in the Asian shopping paradise city last Thursday to officially re-open the boutique. "People were always queuing outside and that is not acceptable to me."

That scene is unlikely to happen now that the shop space has extended upwards over five floors, with the ground floor entrance expanded to face the non-stop flow of human traffic at the junction of Canton Road and Peking Road.

At 367 square metres, the boutique is now Panerai's largest in the world - an honour once held by the brand's Singapore store at ION Orchard - and its new look was conceived by celebrated Italy-based Spanish architect-designer, Patricia Urquiola.

Besides Hong Kong, the same design concept also extends to Panerai boutiques in its birthplace of Florence, Paris, New York and Miami; where Ms Urquiola has taken the brand's heritage and nautical DNA, and reinterpreted it to give the stores a contemporary look.

"Patricia has perfectly respected the philosophy of the brand and she has succeeded in expressing our link with tradition while looking forward to the future, to design, to innovation and to the pursuit of excellence," says Mr Bonati. "Hong Kong is (also) the door to China and the Far East and we wanted to show the image of Panerai in a new way (which still) expresses the soul of Italian style and design."

Ms Urquiola first collaborated with the luxury watch brand when she created an installation for its O'Clock Time Design, Design Time exhibitions in Milan and Beijing three years ago. Some of her recent architectural projects include the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Barcelona, the Das Stue hotel in Berlin; and the Spa of the Four Seasons Hotel in Milan.

The refreshed Canton Road boutique, which originally opened in 2010 and is one of three in Hong Kong, boasts a facade made up of panels of undulating aluminium. Hard to miss is a large wall clock - resembling the dial of a typical Panerai timepiece and which lights up at night to replicate the green Luminova glow of the watch when viewed in the dark - on the side of the building.

Inside, "calacatta luccicoso" veined marble, bronze, wood and a special "reeded" glass gives the interior an elegant and modern look. The elongated display cases, bronze lights and sales counters with wood details bring to mind the world of sea and ships.

Ms Urquiola's signature chairs, coffee tables and a plush sofa in the VIP room on the top floor all help to exude a warm and welcoming atmosphere as customers sit back to view the latest novelties or wait for their watch to be attended to by staff at the in-house service centre.

To celebrate the Canton Road store's reopening, three Luminor 1950 special edition models - PAM606, PAM608 and PAM618 - have also been created and all feature "HONG KONG" engraved on the levers of the watches' iconic crown-protecting devices.

Mr Bonati is confident the new boutique is set to help Panerai grow - "As we increase the size of the space, sales will also increase because we can get people in (whereas we couldn't before)... We've seen that happen already with the (new concept) boutique in Paris," he reveals.

Depending on whether it can find a suitable space, a second boutique - which will also boast Ms Urquiola's design concept - is in the pipeline for Singapore in the next two to three years, according to Mr Bonati. "Singapore is the way for the future... We want to invest and continue to grow it."