Deputy Store Manager, Swiss Watches, Knightsbridge

A Swiss heritage watch house

The opportunity

A Swiss heritage watch house has asked us to find the Deputy Store Manager for its boutique in Knightsbridge. The house makes few watches, on purpose, and sells them to people who have usually already decided: they come for the piece, the conversation and the wait. The boutique is small — three to five people — and every one of them is expected to sell at that level.

This is a second-in-command role in a boutique where there is nowhere to hide. You run the floor with the Store Manager, you take the store when they are away, and you carry your own client book while you do it. The house is looking for someone who has sold high-ticket watches or fine jewellery to an international clientele, and who has started to lead: opening and closing the store, coaching a newer advisor, holding the standard on a busy Saturday. At this price point a sale can take months and a single client can make a quarter; the house wants someone who is comfortable with both.

What you will be responsible for

• You deputise for the Store Manager and run the boutique in their absence: opening, closing, the team, the day's priorities
• You sell, and you keep your own clients — appointments, follow-up, allocations and the long conversations that come before a purchase
• You coach the advisors on the floor: product knowledge, the house's story, how a client at this level is welcomed and looked after
• You share the store's numbers with the Store Manager and you know where each month stands
• You look after stock and security: receiving, inventory, consignment and the controls a watch boutique depends on
• You work with the after-sales and service team so that every watch that comes back in is handled as carefully as the one that went out

What we are looking for

• Several years in luxury retail, with real time selling fine watches or fine jewellery to an international clientele
• A first leadership step — supervisor, senior advisor or assistant manager — and the wish to take the next one
• A client book you have built and kept, not just closed
• Calm with high values, long sales cycles and very particular clients
• Further languages are a real advantage in Knightsbridge; Arabic, Mandarin, Russian or a European language all count

What the opportunity offers

• £45,000–£55,000 base, plus commission on sales
• A small boutique and a house with a long history, where the Deputy is visible to the brand and the path to Store Manager is real
• You talk to us, not a portal — we meet you, we interview you, and when it fits we introduce you to the house ourselves, confidentially. Skip the formal cover letter: three lines on a watch you sold that took longer than it should have, and why it was worth it, will do more