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After 45 years, Rolexes will no longer be sold at Wempe, the tony watch and jewellery dealer at 700 Fifth Ave., one of retail’s most prestigious addresses.
The watches aren’t going far, though. Rolex SA is finishing construction on a new, 199,000-square-foot New York headquarters designed by David Chipperfield Architects two blocks away at 665 Fifth Ave. Once it’s complete, which the company has said should happen by the end of 2026, the space will host a multi-floor flagship that the company hopes will become a magnet for shoppers and curious tourists. As a result, the Swiss luxury timepiece behemoth is shrinking its retail network in that part of Manhattan to just the flagship plus emporiums owned by Bucherer AG, a previously independent retailer Rolex bought in 2023.
Wempe has some time left to offer its customers a Rolex. “We will be doing business as usual until the end of the year, fulfilling every order that we can,” says Rudy Albers, president of Wempe, noting that the Rolex partnership will end at the end of 2025. “However, we have not been sleeping at the wheel either. We will be partnering with Patek Philippe to open one of the biggest showrooms on the East Coast in 2026.”
Wempe has also sold Pateks since it opened its emporium in the Peninsula Hotel building in 1980, and has several retail locations in its home country of Germany. On Fifth Avenue, the footprint of the in-store Patek showroom will expand from 600 square feet to 1,600. There will be private salons and galleries, and according to Wempe the store’s allocation — how many watches it’s given to sell — will be increased.
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“With the opening of the new Patek Philippe SA showroom, Wempe continues its longstanding, trusting relationship with the Swiss family-led company,“ said Kim-Eva Wempe, owner and managing partner of her family’s company, in a statement. Her grandfather Herbert started as an authorised Patek Philippe seller in Hamburg, Germany, in 1927.
As popular as Pateks are with New Yorkers, there are only four places to buy the brand’s Nautiluses, Aquanauts and Calatravas in the city: Wempe, Tiffany & Co., the Bucherer TimeMachine on 57th Street and Watches of Switzerland in Hudson Yards. In 2023, Patek Philippe boss Thierry Stern told Bloomberg he had begun reducing the brand’s retail network by 30 percent.
By Chris Rovzar
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Swiss Watch Exports Could Dwindle to 12 Million Units As High-End Shift Accelerates
‘Big Four’ watchmaking brands Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and Richard Mille all grew last year, Morgan Stanley’s annual report said. But less sought-after names including Tudor, LVMH’s Hublot, Swatch’s Longines and Breguet all registered steep declines.
