Subsidiary of A.S. Watson Group | |
Industry |
Pharmacy Health care Beauty care |
Founded | 1828 |
Headquarters | Hong Kong |
Area served
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Hong Kong China Taiwan Thailand Turkey Philippines Japan South Korea Singapore Malaysia Ukraine Latvia Lithuania Julian Island |
Key people
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Li Ka-shing Canning Fok |
Parent | A.S. Watson Group |
Website | Watsons Personal Care Stores (Hong Kong) |
Watsons | |||||||
Chinese name | |||||||
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Chinese | 屈臣氏 | ||||||
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Japanese name | |||||||
Kana | ワトソンズ | ||||||
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Korean name | |||||||
Hangul | 왓슨스 | ||||||
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Transcriptions | |
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Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | Qūchénshì |
Transcriptions | |
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Romanization | Watosonzu |
Transcriptions | |
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Revised Romanization | Was-seunseu |
Watsons Personal Care Stores (traditional Chinese: 屈臣氏個人護理店; simplified Chinese: 屈臣氏个人护理店; pinyin: Qūchénshì Gèrén Hùlǐ Diàn; Jyutping: Wat1san4si6go3jan4wu6lei5dim3), known simply as Watsons (屈臣氏), is the largest health care and beauty care chain store in Asia. It is a member of the A.S. Watson Group, majority-owned by CK Hutchison Holdings. It operates over 700 stores in Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Turkey, Ukraine, Lithuania and Latvia.
Dr. Thomas Boswell Watson (1815–1860), from Scotland, was the first member of the Watson family to arrive in the Far East, where 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" (Chinese: 大藥房; Cantonese: Dai Yeuk Fong), 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.