April 10, 2018 |
It’s nice to see the Japanese don’t faff around with ribbon and a giant pair of scissors. As far as unveiling rituals go that all feels very vanilla. There’s no spectacle, nothing goes ‘BANG’ and there’s certainly no booze. In Japan though, whenever the moment comes to celebrate (perhaps it’s the opening of an exciting new TAG Heuer store), they smash a giant barrel of sake with a hammer. It’s called Kagami Biraki and means ‘breaking open the mirror’. I mean, we’ve all been there. So too can we relate to trying to breaking into a vessel of booze, though not with the elegance that Bella Hadid demonstrated during the unveiling of the store – with us it’s more a late night act of desperation, a sad sight to any onlooker that usually involves gnawing on a cork and/or bottle cap.
Anyway, on to this boutique business. TAG Heuer have re-written the script somewhat, with their new gizmo driven Ginza store, everything from the shop facades to the displays and decoration are digital. We’re told it’s never been seen before in the watch industry and gives the customer total independence when purchasing, meaning you basically don’t have to talk to anyone. Obviously ideal. Here’s Bella herself, who sounded very excited about the whole thing, “This new boutique is truly amazing! The watches are so easy to access, which makes purchasing the watch so much simpler. And it’s great fun to be able to select the watches so easily just using the iPad!”
