Reply With QuoteI was in York yesterday but didn’t venture down Davygate. Agree, York is turning into a great place to browse, although for anyone wanting to visit, Sunday isn’t the best as Berry’s and Ogdens are shut!
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This weekend a new Breitling Boutique opened on Davygate in York, opposite a new Tag Heuer store, and soon opening next door is new Mappin & Webb Rolex AD.
Along with two Berry's stores, Bradleys and Ogden's - the city is turning out to be a decent place for watch shopping and window browsing.
I was in York yesterday but didn’t venture down Davygate. Agree, York is turning into a great place to browse, although for anyone wanting to visit, Sunday isn’t the best as Berry’s and Ogdens are shut!
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Haven't Berry's got three shops now, they opened a Patek boutique where Links of London used to be too
Quite right, although I wouldn't call it a Patek boutique (they are a Patek dealer but also for other brands) - accepted the outside Patek awning might imply otherwise. (o: [I visit York a couple of times a year and like to stroll round.]Originally Posted by vortex89
Thanks for the heads up, I live near York and we're going in tomorrow as it happens. I'll have a look.
Same concept is happening in most Uk major cities,Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham etc all have Tag,Breitling,Omega Rolex boutiques etc
York benefits from plenty of tourist trade too.
The move of watch shops from Spurriergate / Coney Street to Davygate is now mostly complete, with Mappin + Webb closing the store on the corner of Coney St and Market St and opening the big Davygate shop, which is mostly a Rolex showroom.
The third Berry's at the top of Stonegate is two windows jewellery and two windows Patek - the original branch two units down looks pretty much the same as before, ditto the Omega-dominated store at the St Helens Sq end of the street. Seemingly, no greater emphasis on VC than before.
Compared with four years ago, York feels more like a local centre and slightly less of an international tourist destination — the pandemic seems to have reminded people from round about how nice it is to wander around a cute city centre, leaking money, and turned off the flow of Chinese tourists.
Coney St and Spurriergate are now looking even more pointless, though not as bad as Feasegate, which is almost entirely barren, hasn't even got drunk punters falling out of Yates.
Mappin and Webb's new store opened this weekend with a full compliment of Tudors, a good amount of Rolex on display plus Bulgari and Hublot which I've not seen in their old shop.
The landlord of the vacant units in-between M&W and Breitling is now to find another watch brand to complete the row.
There is hope for those streets. A local property investor has been buying up the units along the street with plans to develop them into a more riverside destination, and Evans Cycles is opening a large unit on Feasegate so that may bring some life back in to that street.
The City Centre seems to be doing a lot better than many other similar sized places in the UK.
Lived in York for many years including school years - missing it now.
Try to get back from time to time and will certainly try to spend time in the city centre checking out the new shops.
Me too, I went to Archie’s before leaving at 18 to go to uni.
Me too, went to Archie's, now back in the UK after a spell abroad.
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I used to teach at Archie’s, and Fulford before that, and lastly at Malton before I gave up entirely!
I don’t know how the York shop got on, but the Breitling store in Kingston has shut. Must be a maximum of 6 months since it opened, and probably less.
Oh, and Ernest Jones shut too. Ses like tough times post the Covid watch euphoria.
I'll PM you, they haven't shut for economic reasons but there's a reason I can't go into on here until it is publicly released.
Interesting...maybe I should visit again! I live within reasonable reach of York and used to visit quite often, but stopped a few years ago as the place seemed to lost its soul completely. Everything seemed designed for tourists - cheap tat for the Brits, expensive tat for the rich and Chinese & American tourists, plus restaurants aimed at the party crowd - and everything cost a fortune. Maybe the winds of retail carnage have been less destructive there than in many towns and cities (where I live all the high streets are stone dead with all the big shops closed), but there seemed to be lack of the interesting shops that York used to have. In that general area, Northallerton is still a great place to shop, though there's only one upmarket jeweller plus a pawnbrokers who sells some preloved Rolex and Omega at astonishing prices.
The recently opened Omega, Brietling and Cartier boutique in Manchester operated by Ernest Jones has also shut, 6 months after opening.
Yep same reason as Kingston.
Seems public knowledge now so I'll share.
WOS has bought them. They will be refurbished and reopened as either Goldsmiths or WOS shops.
Is it just the boutique stores they have bought or the whole EJ group?
They bought some 17 EJ stores across the UK. The Breitling Boutiques were run by EJ so they count as some of the stores.
I was in York with a friend over the weekend and he was interested in the new 42mm Avenger so popped into the Breitling Boutique.
The staff were very helpful and it was very nice, but absolutely no discount (maybe a strap thrown in?).
We strolled round the corner to Berry's where 15% was easily achieved and purchase made.
Shame but who pays full RRP for a Breitling?
I've recommended a few people to Berry's and they've always had a pleasant buying experience.
The salesperson was pretty knowledgeable and we had a pleasant chat. I think he recognised I had "the illness" and brought out a AP ROO they had in which was pretty nice. The Breitling was apparently a new model released the week before and whilst they didn't have one in store, it was delivered to my friend yesterday. He is very happy with it.
Whilst not for me (I don't really gel with polished bezels), the general finish of the watch is quite good and the case has interesting recessed bevels to it.
I will certainly consider Berry's when I have pinned down my next purchase.
thats the problem with the boutiques!
It sounds like you may have had the same sales person as me when I was in there last weekend. He was happy to spend an hour chatting about watches despite the fact that I told him from the off that I wouldn’t be buying that day. I was there to try on the Pelagos39 and Seamaster but he ended up bringing all sorts of different watches for me to try just for the fun of it. I never knew that I’d like the look of a £30,000 gold Speedmaster!
I must say the experience when I went down the road to Mappin and Webb was entirely different. They had an Explorer2 in the window (which is one of the 4 watches on my list for a big purchase next year). I spoke to the sales advisor and enquired about trying the watch on and joining the waiting list. Her reply was ‘as you are not an existing customer, it is unlikely we could you supply you with that watch’. Nothing we all don’t already know, it just was completely opposite to the service I had just experienced in Berry’s. I have worked hard, saved money and am lucky enough to be in a position to spend a considerable amount of money (to me) on a watch next year. I think know where my money will be going…
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