Chronopassion and L’Heure Asch - putting the play in display
Most retailers display watches in their windows in the same, traditional way – rows and rows of watches in brand-supplied fixtures. Some try to do things differently, but it’s tough to stand out from the crowd.
A revolutionary new window display system, called ‘Carrousel’, was recently debuted in Paris and Geneva, giving the customer control of the watch displays in the store’s window, even when the store is closed. The customer is clearly king with this innovative breakthrough in retail display. After all, today’s world, with iPhones, video on demand and customization, is all about the customers having it their way.
“The problem with retail watch display is that it's all the same,“says Xavier Dietlin, owner of Dietlin Artisans Métalliers in Lausanne, Switzerland.”I was in Hong Kong before I came up with the idea and in one street alone I walked past 10 retail stores, and their windows all looked exactly the same. Store after store of the same display material, the same watches and same flatness. I knew we had to come up with something radically different. The Carrousel is completely unique, with movement and life."
The idea for the Carrousel is based on the old View-Master toy, where you pushed a button and the slide changed. In this iteration, however, the watches appear and disappear in the display boxes like magic - the watches are there, the display box goes dark, then other watches are there.




Chronopassion



L’Heure Asch


At the heart of the system is a rotating core in each box that displays four ‘niches’, each of which can hold up to five watches. The niches display the watches and add security, as the system locks if it is compromised in any way.
The retailer can decide the rate of change of the display boxes, the length of display and other things, via a computer controlled interface. An infrared button on the exterior window glass gives customers the ability to control the niches – rotating them at their whim and will. The goal is that customers become entranced by the technology and the interactivity, spending more time in front of the window, looking at all the watches.
Laurent Piccioto, owner of Chronopassion, one of the best watch boutiques in Europe, was trying to figure out how he could display his watches better. The display window of his retail shop in Paris was crowded with watches and it was a bit of a mess, he admits. He knew it was the wrong way to do it, but he didn’t know what else to do.
So, he called Dietlin and asked him to come up with something new. The Carrousel is the result.
“I had over 25 brands and 120 watches in my window, which is only two metres wide. It was a bazaar!“Piccioto says sheepishly.”This system lets me display over double the amount of watches in total clarity. People love playing with the display and I have noticed that many of them are now less intimidated to come inside and take a look around too."
Currently, only two retailers are using the system, which, as you can imagine, isn’t cheap. Chronopassion in Paris has the exclusivity for France, while L’Heure Asch in Geneva will be the sole retailer using it in Switzerland. Dietlin will roll this system out around the world, keeping the use very exclusive.

Retailer Innovations: Part 1
Retailer Innovations: Part 3


Source: Europa Star December-January 2010 Magazine Issue

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