Luxury Swiss retail giant Richemont, owner of such brands as Cartier, Piaget and Jaeger-LeCoultre, is to open the world’s largest shop for luxury watches in Paris.

Business Montres quoted an internal memo saying a three-storey 2,200 square metre (24,000 square foot) shop would open early 2013.

The shop would take over the premises of the landmark Old England shop near the Place Vendome, famous for its luxury watch shops and hugely popular with Middle Eastern and Asian tourists, in particular Chinese.

They may now not have a formal home but the people at Hong Kong’s Shanghai Tang brand are still making consumers sit up and take notice.

After 17 years at the Pedder Building in Central, Shanghai Tang lost the bid for the space to Abercrombie & Fitch, which will pay two and half times the previous rent.

And now Shanghai Tang takes up residence from Friday night on Hong Kong’s iconic Victoria Harbour — inside a series of Mongolia “gers” or traditional houses.

Watchmakers gave upbeat forecasts for 2011 at the industry’s largest fair on Wednesday, although the deadly earthquake which hit key luxury consuming country Japan and Arab uprisings cast shadows over the expectations.

Industry giants including Swatch and LVMH have all posted strong recoveries over 2010 and they are expecting the recovery to continue in 2011.

Swiss exhibitors underlined that January sales were up 16.9 percent over a year ago and predicted that 2011 would be a new record year for the industry.

The tastes of China’s wealthy are shifting away from designer goods with flashy logos to more understated luxury brands, the chief executive of French fashion house Chloe said Friday.

That shift has helped Chloe become one of the Swiss luxury goods company Richemont Group‘s fastest-growing labels in China, its CEO said.

“China has been very fast at picking up the most well-known brands,” Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye said in a group interview.

Mont Blanc starts off 2011 with a limited edition variant of their Time Walker timepiece which is set to be presented during the SIHH event.

The watch is encased in blacked-out DLC-coated stainless steel and features a Flyback Chronograph which is powered by a 36 jewel Swiss Automatic movement developed for Montblanc via Richemont’s ValFleurier.

The caliber features a twin-barrel winding system that stores enough power to animate the watch for as long as 72 hours.

The new Ralph Lauren Sporting Watch draws its inspirations from Ralph Lauren’s antique car, the 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic coupe.

The watch’s aesthetics combine the luxurious wood finish of the Bugatti with a matte black dial, all of which are reminiscent of the car’s interior.

Arabic numerals for increased legibility, arrow-shaped hour and minute hands, as well as an elm burl frame, are all among the highlights of the new product.