Emotional Architecture

Girard-Perregaux has opened a new boutique in Geneva. Seated at the round-cornered green onyx table in the upstairs room overlooking the Garden clock and Lake Geneva the conversation turned personal. When Marc Michel-Amadry and I started talking about our parents I couldn’t hold back my tears. My reaction was not strange, because my mum was a few days short of passing away after a 93-year-long life. It was simply too much life happening at once. But my tears were also a sign of Girard-Perregaux actually having been able to create a space where it is possible to be yourself and feel genuinely invited. Of course, a true welcome boils down to the people you are with, and here I was in good hands: the company of Managing Director Marc Michel-Amadry, and Béatrice Morelli Carullo, the brand’s Marketing Officer. 

This is however only one of Morelli’s hats. She is also Girard-Perregaux’s Chief Customer Experience officer. Given her six years of architecture studies, a Master in Brand Building and, more recently, a Master in Customer experience from Cambridge, it makes sense that she is also responsible for the boutique. Upon entering from the Quai du Général-Guisan, the stone-like ceramic floor leads you to explore Girard-Perregaux’s history. 

As you may be aware, Constant Girard and Marie Perregaux started the brand back in 1856 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, but the brand’s roots go back even further. In 1906, Mr. Girard, two years after building his own manufacture, acquired the manufacture and boutique set up by a Mr. Bautte. (Bautte had already founded this in 1791 on Rue du Rhone, the parallel street that runs parallel to the one of today’s boutique location). This is what gives the brand roots back to 1791. And it is an important history, as Bautte’s manufacture was probably the first one where a complementary team of horology artisans were working under one roof, collectively advancing the fine art of watchmaking as well as jewelry.

The 235 years of history are depicted as a timeline surrounding the new Laureato collection, which is presented openly. Yes, each watch is fixed, but there is no glass-it is all open for a touch-and-feel session. Said Ms. Morelli: “This boutique is not about welcoming customers; it is about inviting guests to spend time with us.” She has designed everything as if it were an apartment. “The idea was depicting Girard-Perregaux as a man inviting people to his home. Here he can deliver his cultural views, his legacy, his family heritage,” she continued. 

A main idea of the boutique layout is that you are seated or standing next to each other, rather than the traditional frontal approach where a salesperson sits opposite you. This basic trick amplifies the feeling of truly sharing a moment. Girard-Perregaux has used the pointy three bridges since the 1860s, and this signum of the brand has been multiplied by Morelli. “If you look for it you can find the bridge everywhere,” she said of the wall decorations. “But they are sufficiently subtle not to be in your face; everything works together as a whole.” 

The goal was also to find the balance between the wooded, rough landscape of the Jura and the refinement of Geneva. “We used a lot of natural materials inspired by the fir trees in the Jura mountains close to our manufacture. Not only in the wooden benches, but also in the refined details of green onyx which has brown, gold and green colors in it, representing the different seasons. And last but not least we made the integration of completely open watch displays. This deliberate choice really feels like timepieces are at your disposal,” she said of the boutique concept which will soon have local adaptations in Shanghai and Japan.

Thus far the boutique that opened during the Geneva Watch Days has only received positive superlatives from its guests. “So GP!" "Feels like it was always here!” were among the accolades. This sounds just like back in the days when Mr. Bautte had a boutique and manufacture around the corner. As no less than Alexandre Dumas said in 1833, in Impressions of a trip to Switzerland: “The most fashionable jewellery store in Geneva is without a doubt Bautte's; it is difficult to imagine a richer collection of these thousand marvels that make a woman's soul mad; it is enough to make a Parisian woman go crazy, it is enough to make Cleopatra shiver with envy in her tomb.”

193 years later I agree with Dumas. You might go mad. You might even shed a tear.