Swatch Group buys Harry Winston property on Bond Street

Properties on London’s Old and New Bond Streets continue to be in high demand and on Friday, Swatch Group said it had acquired a key space at 171 New Bond Street.

The property is currently home to the watches and jewellery giant’s Harry Winston brand. A Harry Winston salon has occupied it since 2006 as its London flagship. It was reopened in 2016 after a nine-month renovation and currently houses the brand’s top fine jewellery and timepiece collections, “including the world’s rarest diamonds and precious stones available today”. 

Swatch Group said the transaction is worth around CHF90 million (€93m/£80m/$98m). The building, constructed in 1856, covers 562 sq m spread over five floors. 

The company has been actively buying properties this year and in the first half acquired 1,347 sq m at 32-33 Old Bond Street for around CHF 120 million, as well as a store on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. 

As mentioned, Bond Street has seen plenty of deals in recent periods and post-pandemic has regained its status as one of the world’s most expensive (both in terms of the products sold there and its rental/property prices) shopping thoroughfares.

At the moment it’s seeing a spate of upsized/upgraded openings and relocations, the most recent being the Burberry reopening in the summer after two years of work and the Gucci opening last month.