Here are my quite unsuccessful pictures of the new IWC boutique in Buenos Aires - Argentina.
But for me it was quite a story. I had a speed visit of 2 half days and 1 full day to Buenos Aires, spanning Thursday till Saturday. While visiting the Recoleta area and the cimetry where Evita Peron's grave, actually the Duarte family's tomb is located, my in-built compass for IWC shops/boutiques must have been working as I deviated to few streets further, where I saw other brands boutiques, and in a small street the typical IWC boutique facade, together with Jaeger-LeCoultre, and others.
Ok, this was it, the word "picture" was my goal of the day, not having been on the cimetry yet. Being on the opposite side of the street of the boutique, with lots of traffic in such a small street, and traffic blocking all view to the boutique, I was waiting to take the right picture and suddenly noticed - in between the cars passing - 2 quite serious humps of meat in front of the entrance, who were "waving" to me.
Well... "waving", I mean, not to say hello, it sounded more as "no pictures or you're dead".
I am a safe traveller, taking often calculated risks, but this calculation did not fit. Moreover, not having bought a new camera myself yet, I did not want to see my wife's digital point-&-shoot being smashed on the street.
Ok, all Argentinian people I met during this week (1st trip in my life to South America) were extremely friendly, so I crossed the street (probably making myself bigger than I am) and asked the 2 "meatballs" for more information in my "no hablo espanol" spanish. But it worked. However, the message was easy: no pictures, done.
I was thinking "Zen, Zen, Zen..." , and I was calming down although sweating anyway at 36 degrees celcius around 11:00 am, so I thought they would not know the difference or where the sweat was coming from, fear or heat, so I told them friendly that I would enter the shop and ask for the manager's approval to take pictures.
And luckily somebody must already have been signalled management about my behaviour, as a senior person was waiting for me behind the dual entry doors. Only by then I noticed that "the house" incorporated more than only IWC, actually about 10-to-15 of most famous watch brands we all know, and I realised these were indeed printed on the windows of the building.
All brands are actually sharing the same facilities. Once in, all other boutiques are also accessible, so my sense of understanding the "security issue" started to grow.
The senior person called the IWC sales representative who told me no pictures were allowed for security reasons, and I explained my increased interest versus possible other customers they may have invited to the boutique.
This caused the boutique manager to be called. And With him, the "no hablo espanol" became of lesser use, and I insisted that only some pictures of the outer "facade" of the IWC boutique were my initial intention.
Meantime I was led through the JLC boutique, and was standing inside the IWC boutique. However, they were cleaning the exposition windows, etc. and no watch was present.
