For the Tag Heuer store at Yas Mall in Abu Dhabi, Luxtron did the lighting end to end: design and supply. A watch boutique is a small room with a hard job. The products are tiny, highly reflective and expensive, and the store has to read clearly from the mall concourse at the same time.
The photos show a store built in calm greys and timber, with a black ceiling slot carrying recessed spots, framed brand imagery on the walls, display counters, a lounge corner and, at the centre, a classic red Porsche on a plinth.
What we did
Our scope was end-to-end lighting design and supply. Tag Heuer is one of the retail brands named on our controls showcase, next to Aigner and Rivoli, as stores we have lit.
Three jobs for the light in a watch store
Pull people in from the mall
A mall concourse is already bright. A shopfront has to be brighter at the point of interest to stand out: the window display, the lit graphics, the hero object. In this store the eye goes straight through the entrance to the car on its plinth.
Make small, shiny things look right
Watches are polished metal, sapphire glass and fine dials. Light them badly and all you see is glare. Light them well and the dial detail and the finish of the case come through. That usually means tightly controlled beams aimed at the counters and cases, good colour rendering so steel looks like steel and a red strap looks red, and light sources placed so their reflections stay out of the customer's line of sight.
Make the room comfortable
Buying a watch takes time. The lounge corner, with its sofa and framed photographs, needs softer, more even light than the display, so customers can sit and talk without being under a spotlight.
Doing the design and the supply together helps here. The fixtures, beams and positions are chosen as one scheme, rather than a design handed to a supplier who then substitutes what is in stock.
Where controls come next
Our controls page puts it plainly: we have lit stores for brands like this, and controls are the natural next step. For a retailer, that means window and display scenes that change with each campaign, and schedules that can be shared across every store in a chain, so opening and closing looks the same in every mall.
Next step
Opening or refitting a boutique? Send us the store plan and the products you need to show off, and we will propose a lighting scheme. See our services and retail downlights such as Jonny, or get in touch.