Time+Tide’s London premises is tucked inside the first floor of a building around the corner from Oxford Street’s bustle. Inside the 170-square-metre space, T+T founder Andrew McUtchen is chatting to Matteo Violet-Vianello, the man behind the new microbrand Anoma, while a shop assistant discusses the finer points of a Nivada Grenchen chronograph with a customer.

This so-called discovery studio is primarily a retail space; the walls lined with cases of watches from Furlan Marri to Zodiac. But it also doubles as a media office for T+T’s editorial website, while providing an informal clubhouse for watch lovers. On Watch’s visit, three punters are lounging on a banquette sipping cold bottles of Peroni. “I wanted a place where people felt like they could hang out and have a beer,” McUtchen says of his multipurpose boutique. “But also one that was still clearly transactional and not too confusing.”