,Chronoswiss Designed by IWCs Creative Director, Christian Knoop, and IWC’s team of in-house architects with support of MACH architects, the new IWC Shop-in-Shop concept marks a major leap forward, both aesthetically and functionally. The concept underlines IWC’s strategic drive towards “customised distribution”. At the core of the concept lies the idea of highly modular units which transform any wall into a 3-dimensional texture in IWC’s corporate materials and colours. This texture is the framing element for a mix of different showcases, screens, visuals and functional features, such as storage units, POS-stations and catalogue shelves. The staggered fronts of these units are finished in corporate white high-gloss lacquer, whilst the side faces are finished in mirror-polished chrome to create a light and seemingly floating effect for the display of IWC’s coveted timepieces.  The showcases themselves are styled in the colour and texture of Ebony Macassar wood in order to create a warm and rich contrast with the crisp white front paneling. In terms of visual merchandising, there are some major innovations in the system, which have not previously been seen in a shop-in-shop concept. IWCs product worlds and seasonal themes can be dramatically brought to life by animating the launch display showcase, adding a backlit visual and playing IWC’s renowned product films via the central media player which feeds content to all screen elements. The main showcases are also fitted with so-called “watch stand groups” which pre-define the best possible visual merchandising setup for groups of 2-6 timepieces inside the showcase making the day-to-day merchandising task substantially easier for retail staff. The lighting system has been designed with maximum presentation quality and flexibility in mind. These extremely compact linear fittings allow an even distribution of light throughout the showcase. The light colour has been especially selected to offer the best combination of creating highlights on the watch cases and bracelets whilst at the same time ensuring ideal colour rendition of precious metals and coloured straps. IWC’s new Shop-in-Shop concept has been launched at René Kahlé in Laren, the Netherlands and at Umeda Daimaru in Osaka, Japan, and is now in the process of being rolled out across the entire IWC network over the coming years.