In a New Time Zone

The oversized hands of an 8-foot-diameter watch face practically wave customers like Carolyn and Art Martinez into Synchrony, a new store at the Glendale Galleria. Inside, the Arleta couple is nearly overwhelmed by the wall-to-wall watches. More than 3,000 of them, representing more than 40 brands, cover the walls, shelves and special displays.

“I’m a real shopper,” said Carolyn Martinez, whose husband of 33 years bought her a $1,700 stainless-steel-and-diamond watch. He purchased a $250 Swiss Army watch for its easy-reading face design. “Everyone else has watches, but they have the best selection here,” she observed. “If you can’t find it here, you can’t find it anywhere.”

Synchrony’s goal is, indeed, to be the first and last stop for watch shoppers. The prototype store is a testing ground for new ideas about fashion retailing from the French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

Its LVMH Specialty Retail Concepts unit in San Francisco is pioneering a new generation of single-product stores in the United States. First, it brought the Sephora cosmetics superstore concept from France in 1998. Five of the almost-self-service stores have opened in Southern California, offering customers up to 200 brands and 365 lipstick colors. In November, LVMH opened Synchrony to focus entirely on watches. That same month, it unveiled the Solstice store in Orlando, Fla., which sells only sunglasses.

The Sephora, Synchrony and Solstice stores seem to have borrowed every proven retailing concept except the drive-thru. Swatch, Timex, Sunglass Hut and others have tested the single-product store. Like record stores that display the chart-toppers, Synchrony and Sephora display the week’s 10 bestselling items. But unlike department stores, customers can freely inspect the watches, sunglasses or cosmetics.

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At Synchrony, watches that sell for $995 or $59 are displayed within inches of each other.

“There are plenty of watch stores. There isn’t a watch store like this that has combined mass with status,” said Susie Watson, advertising and public relations director for Timex, which sells several of its brands at Synchrony.

And, the store’s design, from the slick displays to the uniformed sales assistants, aims to make watch-buying entertaining--and easy.

“Retail has to be fun to keep the customer coming back,” said Tony Cherbak, a partner at Deloitte & Touche specializing in retail and apparel.

To provide a different watch-shopping experience, Synchrony follows common sense--and consumer research.

“There are key barriers to buying a watch,” said Michelle Martinez, Synchrony store director. “They’re all under glass. You can’t see a price. You can’t touch it, and you don’t know the features.”

But the store is hardly self-service, according to Fred Wilson, president and chief executive of LVMH Specialty Retail Concepts.

“I’d call it shopping freedom,” he said, noting that trained sales associates are available to assist customers but not be pushy.

“What the consumer is telling us is that they want as much service as they require and as much freedom as they desire,” Wilson explained.

To that end, almost every watch at Synchrony is displayed on C-shaped stands that are recessed into wall shelves, a tactic borrowed from mass merchants. Customers can touch the watches but must ask a “timekeeper” sales associate to electronically unlock the watch from its case. A bar-code-reading computer will dispense information about selected watches’ functions.

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The watches are arranged by the rather murky concept of lifestyle and are further divided by brand. Bracelet watches are on one side of the store; straps on the other. Fashion and luxury watches line the walls in the back; sport watches are in front. Prices range from $20 for a children’s watch to nearly $4,000 for a luxury timepiece, with most less than $100. No matter the price, most are given equal display treatment.

Whether it’s an upscale Longines, a Timex sport or Bebe, Guess or Kenneth Cole fashion watch, they all get the same treatment. A few pricier brands such as Gucci, Rado, Hermes, Tissot, Hamilton, Christian Dior, Fendi and Longines are, however, sold from traditional glass cases in a jewelry store-like setting.

For luxury watch customers, “it’s very important that the consumer buys a part of the image,” said Scott Woodward, chief marketing officer of the Movado Group, which also includes ESQ, Concorde, Coach and Corum brands. Its top echelon brands, Concorde and Corum, aren’t available at Synchrony because the $5,000 to $10,000 price tags require a status, luxury atmosphere, Woodward said.

It is too early to tell if the all-inclusive Synchrony concept will change the selling of watches and make the experience fun. Watches, after all, are decidedly different from cosmetics.

“You hear a lot of talk about so-called entertainment retail. Sephora truly is, but it’s self-entertainment,” Howard Meitiner, the American chief executive and president of Sephora.

The Sephora store at Fashion Square Mall in Sherman Oaks has become the favorite after-school activity for browsers Erika Bouso, 16, of Beverly Hills and Lauren Stanton, 17, of Brentwood.

On a recent afternoon, Erika could be seen stroking mascara on her lashes, while Lauren spritzed perfume and dabbed on glitter.

“They let you try everything on here,” Erika said. “We’re here, like, twice a week. We come for the make-overs. We do them to each other.” Freedom and selection are only part of the draw; speed is another. Without waiting for sales assistance, the teens can head right to their favorites.

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The fun may not last, said Maggie Gilliam, president of the retail research firm Gilliam & Co. of New York.

“I think the jury is still out on this thing. Sephora has played out quite well in Europe, but you don’t have department stores to the extent you do here,” she said. And American department stores often have impressive cosmetics departments. She also dislikes the huge size of the inventory and the “gimmicky” feel to the layout.

The Synchrony layout may democratize shopping, but it also “gives the products all the same personality,” Watson said. “That’s the problem. It’s much more of a problem for luxury products than it is for low-end products. The bottom line is, what sells better? If someone like Synchrony comes up with a better concept and consumers buy more, then it is a good idea.”

Valli Herman-Cohen can be reached at valli.herman-cohen@latimes.com.