Newly appointed CEO of TimeVallee International, Richemont’s wholly owned luxury multibrand concept, Michael Guenoun is for the first time sharing his knowledge and ambitions for the development of TimeVallee in Middle East. 

Can you elaborate more on the concept of TimeVallée? 

TimeVallée is an innovative multi-brand luxury watch boutique concept. 
TimeVallée offers an engaging journey throughout the discovery of the most prestigious Luxury Watch and Jewerly brands. Characterized by sophisticated in-store design, unique in-store experience and spacious product displays, this concept has been conceived to offer the utmost experience to our clients.  
We aim to ensure that clients, in our stores, can browse, learn and define their own path. 
For that, our TimeVallée ambassadors are ready to welcome and support any request with their expertise. 

Do you depend on retail partners to operate your concept boutiques? What are the advantages and challenges in this trading model?

We aim to continue the global expansion of the network of our TimeVallée stores: for that, we believe in partnering with our strategic partners in the region, who bring their knowledge and expertise to best meet the expectations of our local clients. 
A prime example of this is our close partnership with Luxury LLC (Trafalgar), known and highly respected Retailer in the Middle Eastern region: through the union of both their expertise and TimeVallée’s unique concept and offering, we were able to bring TimeVallée in Dubai for the first time, in a luxurious pop-up located in City Centre Mirdif mall.

What are the main brands do you target to be part of the TimeVallee experience in the Middle East? Are you open to independent brands as well or you are limited to Richemont’s brands only?

Our aim is to maximize the client experience in our stores, by ensuring and offering the finest selection of Watches and Jewelry products. For that, across the 20 TimeVallée currently open globally, our brand portfolio includes more than 20 prestigious and internationally renowned Watch and Jewelry brands, including but not limited to Richemont’s Maisons. 
In order to maintain TimeVallées high luxury standing and to ensure the long-lasting value of the products our clients find in our stores, we strongly believe in being strongly selective in the choice of Brands we carry. However, we do currently include within our offer several high standing independent brands. 

How do you rate your success in the far East so far? Do you see similarity between the Far East markets and the Middle East markets?

We are highly satisfied of TimeVallée’s first venture in the Middle East market – our pop-up TimeVallée in City Centre Mirdif Mall, currently offering a wide range of Watch and Jewelry products from well loved Maisons of the likes of Baume et Mercier, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Officine Panerai and Piaget. 
We are looking forward to continuing our adventure in Middle East, this is just the beginning for us. 

Retail business is changing and it’s changing to meet the global customers’ requirements. Do you have any plans for e-commerce?

Timevallee is by definition an online to offline platform, providing to the client through innovative digital touchpoints. This blend of physical and digital elements – phygital – is since the beginning a core and distinctive element in our concept.
We therefore believe that the evolution to online sales is fully complementary to our current offer. We are at the moment working on several ambitious projects in this direction and I am really looking forward to seeing us progressing towards an even more integrated approach.