Watsons

Watsons Personal Care Stores, or known simply as Watsons, is the largest health care and beauty care chain store in Asia and is a member of the A.S. Watson Group, majority-owned by CK Hutchison Holdings.

With over 175 years of history, A.S. Watson has evolved from a local dispensary to become the world’s largest international health and beauty retailer. At A.S. Watson, it is their vision to be the world’s leading health, beauty, and lifestyle retailer, with such ambition in mind, they work tirelessly to put a smile on their customers’ faces, in order to deliver their promise to bring more to life to their customers, colleagues, communities and shareholders.

Watsons all started from Dr Thomas Boswell Watson, from Scotland, was the first member of the Watson family to arrive in the Far East, in 1845 he set up a private practice in Macau, on the South-West coast of China. After selling his practice to a fellow doctor, he moved to Hong Kong in 1856 where he became part-owner of the Hong Kong Dispensary, an offshoot of the Canton Dispensary which operated from 1828–1858.

Known as the “Big Medicine Shop”, the dispensary’s main customers were soldiers and sailors. The dispensary was not known as A.S. Watson until 1870 although Alexander Skirving Watson took over in 1858 following management changes. T.B. Watson sent his family back to Scotland in 1857 and he himself followed two years later.