When you are paying more for your watch than many people pay for their car, or even their house, you might expect the transaction to be carried out in ‘comfortable’ surroundings like these at Watches of Switzerland, where Reed Harris provided the stone.

The new Watches of Switzerland outlet in the prime shopping location of Regent Street, London, finished too late to be entered in the Natural Stone Awards presented just before Christmas but the company that provided the stone, Reed Harris, is already preparing to enter the project in the 2016 Awards.

Gerald Allbury, the principal architect behind the scheme from Callison London, says Watches of Switzerland is “a store as precisely engineered as the Swiss timepieces it represents”.

The three-storey, 1,700m² store offers a wide choice of Swiss-made watches, including the most exclusive end of brands such as Rolex, Patek Philippe and Jaeger-LeCoultre.

The overall design of the refurbished interior was created by Callison’s New York and London offices, collaborating closely with Watches of Switzerland to create an environment that would appeal to a wide range of watch buyers from enthusiasts to connoisseurs to collectors.

“The Watches of Switzerland Regent Street store is not just about luxury and service,” says Design Director Tom Pulk of Callison’s New York office. “The intent was to create an intelligent retail environment that offers an immersive retail experience with a theatrical element catering to each of the distinct client types.”

Watches of Switzerland is on three floors, each one targeting one of the different kinds of client. The stones used at each level help to differentiate and define that level.

The lower level, the Calibre Room, has the sophisticated international traveller in mind. It houses more than 20 watch brands on a 206m² floor of honed Isola Calacatta Fine Vein marble in a mixture of 1000 x 800mm and 1000 x 200mm tiles. The marble complements stainless steel and walnut fixtures.

The ground floor is lined with six boutique showrooms from some of the world’s finest luxury brands for the watch connoisseur. Here, 200m² of honed Isola Pietra Essenze Grigio has been used on the main floor area, again in 1000 x 800mm and 1000 x 200mm sizes, while each of the franchisees has been responsible for the decor in its own booth – Rolex, for example, chose Crema Marfil from the Marble & Granite Centre.

Upstairs is a sumptuous VIP lounge with 181m² of smoky Isola Coffee Bean flooring in the same size tiles as on the other two floors.

The lift floor is honed Isola Pietre Essenze Grigio. The same stone has been used as a facing to 25mm aluminium honeycomb panels, with the stone bookmatched horizontally and vertically, in the toilet lobby and the staircase. The cut-to-size treads are inlaid with stainless steel at the leading edge and the stone is bookmatched on the landings.

Honed Essenze Grigio has also been used for vanity units in the lower ground floor toilets, while polished Coffee Bean has been used for the vanity units in the toilets on the first floor.

All the marbles were supplied by Reed Harris, based in Fulham, which worked directly with Watches of Switzerland and Callison on a 10month contract to provide stone to exacting standards of quality and finish. Fixing was carried out by Tudor Stonework in Enfield working for main contractor Beck. The three companies were so pleased with their relationship during the project that they followed it up by working together again on a residential property in Kensington.

But Beck and Tudor Stonework were not appointed until after Reed Harris had been chosen by the architects to help with the selection of materials. “Having a direct relationship with Callison and Watches of Switzerland presented us with a fantastic opportunity,” says James Reed, Sales Director at Reed Harris.

Reed Harris continued to be involved with the supply and fixing of the stone once work was underway. “We had to get quite close to Beck, who did the final drawings, to evolve solutions with them,” says James Reed, “and we were on-site with Tudor. They were happy to go with our recommendations, such as the Ardex adhesives we suggested.”

While the clients and their architects had a clear idea of what they wanted to achieve, they invited Reed Harris to become involved in the selection of materials to realise that vision, which involved Reed Harris in supplying a lot of samples.

It was not even certain that natural stone would be used and at one stage they all visited the men’s shoe department at Harrods where Reed Harris had supplied the floor in a conglomerate it own-brands as Selari. But at Watches of Switzerland it was natural stone that was eventually chosen throughout.

All the stone was fabricated in Italy under the supervision of Reed Harris, who took the architects there to make the final selection of the stones. It took two trips for them to decide on the Coffee Bean from Pakistan for the first floor and they changed their mind and chose the Calacatta for the Calibre Room on the lower ground floor while they were there.

“I’m more and more inclined to take clients and architects to Italy now,” says James Reed. “It helps to get them to really understand stone. There’s an education process that many of them have to go through and they can’t do that with a 150mm square sample.

“The days of being able to sell marble tiles are gone. People want larger format and cut-to-size solutions. It’s more bespoke – and I like it that way.”

Watches of Switzerland was a fast-track project (which project isn’t these days?) with eye-watering penalties for delays. That might concentrate minds on getting on with the work but it can lead to problems. It is easy to underestimate how long floors with stone surfaces need to dry out. At watches of Switzerland the floors were covered so other trades could carry on with their work before the floors had dried completely. It would also often be better if stone was laid later in the programme so there was less danger of it getting damaged, but contractors like to get the floors laid and work up from them.

When the fit-out was complete and the covers were removed just a week from opening day the moisture trapped under them had led to mould growth. Chips had also been broken off a few of the tiles where heavy equipment had run across them.

“I got a call from the architect and client saying get down here,” says James. “That was a Monday morning. By that afternoon Tudor Stonework was already working on it, but you can imagine the dust and mess that caused, which all had to be cleaned up.”

Fortunately, Tudor Stonework were up to the challenge. They ground off the surfaces, re-honed and then re-sealed the floors in time to meet the deadline.