THE HOUR GLASS OPENS AT SAIGON CENTRE IN HO CHI MINH CITY

The Hour Glass has opened a new multi-brand boutique within Saigon Centre in Ho Chi Minh City, bringing Cartier, Hublot, TUDOR, Zenith, and Grand Seiko together within a single retail environment. With a street-front façade along Lê Lợi, the boutique marks a further step The Hour Glass is taking in growing its presence in Vietnam and its wider mission to advance watch culture across the Asia-Pacific.

Rather than imposing a uniform visual language across the five maisons, the boutique has been conceived to give each its own distinct setting. The result is a space that moves between different expressions of watchmaking while remaining connected by an overarching architectural identity.

Cartier, Hublot, TUDOR, Zenith, and Grand Seiko each arrive at Saigon Centre with histories and approaches shaped by different traditions. The selection spans jewellery-house heritage, experimentation with materials, and approaches to precision watchmaking, giving visitors several perspectives on contemporary watchmaking within the same boutique.

The interior makes those distinctions visible. Cartier occupies a refined, light-filled corner informed by the Maison’s established design codes. Nearby, Hublot draws upon its “Beach Concept”, first introduced at its boutique on the Greek island of Mykonos. Open and filled with light, the concept takes on a new context in Ho Chi Minh City.

TUDOR adopts a more immersive approach, taking cues from its #BornToDare campaign and the character the Maison has developed around its watches. These individual spaces are then connected through a design language developed for The Hour Glass boutique itself, allowing each Maison to retain its identity while contributing to the larger environment.

The Saigon Centre boutique continues the longstanding focus The Hour Glass has on creating spaces where collectors and enthusiasts can engage more closely with watchmaking. Positioned in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, it has been designed as a setting for discovering watches, exchanging perspectives, and developing a deeper understanding of the craft.

That intention extends to the physical experience of the boutique. Its lighting, layout, and transitions between the individual brand environments have been considered to encourage an unhurried visit. Rather than treating the five Maisons as separate destinations, the space allows visitors to move naturally from one watchmaking vocabulary to another.

The approach reflects a broader principle within The Hour Glass’ writing and communication: specificity takes precedence over broad claims, with the qualities of an object, space, or experience demonstrated through tangible details rather than hyperbole.

The boutique formally opened on 9 September 2026, with representatives from The Hour Glass, its partner Maisons, the management of Saigon Centre, and invited guests in attendance. Among them were Narun Thamavaranukup, Managing Director of PMT The Hour Glass, and Tran Thanh Hai, General Manager, Vietnam.

Speaking at the opening, Tran described the boutique as an important milestone for The Hour Glass in Vietnam and placed its purpose within the wider culture surrounding watchmaking.

His comments point to the role the boutique is intended to play beyond presenting watches. It provides a permanent setting for conversations around the people, knowledge, and traditions that have shaped watchmaking, while giving collectors and enthusiasts in Ho Chi Minh City a place to encounter five different Maisons in greater depth.

The opening programme brought contemporary technology together with Vietnamese tradition. Guests were greeted by a humanoid robot dressed in an áo dài, which interacted with visitors and performed dance movements during the evening. The juxtaposition formed part of “The Finest Shapes of Time”, the theme carried through the event.

With its opening at Saigon Centre, The Hour Glass adds another retail environment to its network across the Asia-Pacific. More importantly, the boutique gives Cartier, Hublot, TUDOR, Zenith, and Grand Seiko sufficient room to speak in their own voices, while creating a shared space in which Ho Chi Minh City’s watch community can meet, discover, and spend more time with the craft.