There aren’t many places where you can see a 12-foot-tall hologram, a row of racing simulator cockpits, or a transparent OLED TV, especially not in one place. I’ve seen all of those things at CES, but that’s a Las Vegas trade show that’s closed to the public.
If you’re in NYC, you can now find these technical marvels and more at the new tm:rw store in Times Square. I toured it shortly before its soft open on July 29.
Tm:rw (think “tomorrow” but spelled and punctuated terribly) was created by London-based Smartech, which creates experimental shopping experiences. Its first three stores were installations in high-end department stores (Selfridges in London, Kadewe in Berlin, and Rinascente in Rome); tm:rw in Times Square is Smartech’s first standalone location.
Walking In
I got a look at the store yesterday; a grand opening is planned for September. Finishing touches were still being made, and a few installations were incomplete, but even in this state, it was an impressive showcase of technology. It was like looking at a hologram of a storefront that was covered while under construction.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
When I say it was “like” that, I mean that was exactly the case. It wasn’t quite open yet, so the large glass doors and windows were almost entirely obscured by paper. The one exception was a window that didn’t offer a look into the store itself but instead showed off a hologram of a glowing sneaker. This is one of many Hypervsn holographic displays at tm:rw, and they stand out very literally. They use arrays of fans with LEDs on them to produce bright, colorful 3D images that look like they’re floating in mid-air. I regularly see them at CES, but this was the first time I saw them in a retail environment. Even with the rest of the store hidden, that big floating shoe made it clear that there was something interesting inside.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
Inside the doors is a three-tiered affair filled with product displays, kiosks, and attractions. Small electronics are set on big, silver, almost molar-shaped tables, all ready to play with. Each product is paired with a small screen that shows off what exactly it is, or at least should show what it is when the store opens. Yesterday, most of the screens seemed to display a general tm:rw animation.
Racing Sims and Massive TVs
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
More eye-catching than these displays, though, are what flank them. To the left of the entrance, just past the stairs to the second floor, is a replica 1988 McLaren MP4/4 Formula One car (sans engine, sadly), and just beyond that are three racing cockpits in front of a huge Awall microLED display. High-end racing setups are very expensive but offer some of the most immersive simulated driving you can get, and you can book a drive in one of the cockpits for a fee.
The Awall TV interested me more, though, since TVs are one of my main fields, and microLED TVs are a still-developing and very promising technology that could potentially surpass both QLED/mini-LED and OLED in the future in color, contrast, and picture quality. It’s also extremely expensive, starting at five digits and moving up from there, and it’s almost never seen in the wild (digital signage LED screens use much, much larger lights and aren’t nearly as high-resolution).
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
If the racing and TV installations on the first floor caught your eye, you’ll find even more incredible sights on the third floor. A raised section of the floor holds another four racing simulators, and opposite them is a small museum of signed racing memorabilia. Like the cockpits on the first floor, you can pay money to book a ride for yourself, or with up to three friends to race together.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
The third floor is also where you’ll find the one TV that’s more amazing to behold than the microLED display: the LG Signature OLED T. It’s a transparent OLED TV, and has been LG’s showpiece television at CES for two years running. The 77-inch screen can smoothly shift between a typical opaque TV with seemingly all of the picture benefits of OLED technology, a transparent screen where bright elements seem to float in front of the wall behind the panel. It’s a stunning TV, and also extremely rare and expensive: The Signature OLED T is $60,000, or the price of 42 65-inch LG Evo C4 TVs like the one I bought over Prime Day (which isn’t see-through, but still looks great).
If you have the budget, though, you can purchase a racing simulator, a micro-LED wall, or a transparent OLED TV right in the store. In fact, most technology on display can be bought at tm:rw. Speak to a salesperson on the floor, and they’ll answer your questions and walk you through buying (and, if necessary, arranging delivery) almost any device there. If you just want to impulse shop for some knick-knacks, two circular display tables, one on the first floor and one on the second, are covered with less expensive pick-up-and-pay gadgets and toys. Those you can take to one of the store’s few conventional check-out stations, tucked away from the displays. They’re purely souvenir spots, and easily the dullest part of the store.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
The first floor has two additional points of interest: the Corner Shop and the Barber Shop. The Corner Shop is a small section dedicated to a single, rotating brand. On opening, the Corner Shop is taken up by wearable manufacturer Whoop, and has various health-focused smartwatches and bands that you can look at before you consider getting one through the company’s unique subscription plan. It also has a column of Hypervsn displays showing smartwatches hovering in the air. The Barber Shop is a permanent Procter & Gamble collaboration consisting of two barber stations (just for display, not staffed by hair stylists), where Gillette and other P&G products are shown off. You can see the Gillette Heated Razor there, but unfortunately not the Razer Razor.
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(Credit: Will Greenwald)
Moving up to the second floor, you’ll see the largest Hypervsn display in the store. It’s a 12-foot-tall hologram that shows off animations like a rotating robot and a strutting neon woman. It’s surrounded by more big, tooth-like product displays and another circular impulse buy station. Just past the hologram are two airplane seats against a fuselage-like wall. This is XReal’s domain, where you’ll be able to try out the company’s smart glasses, which provide a huge personal display that’s ideal for long flights. They’re legit, too; the XReal One Pro earned an Editors’ Choice from me for how useful it is and how good the picture looks.
The second floor will eventually hold the tm:rw Cafe, where you’ll be able to get gelato and Schmackery cookies. It wasn’t built yet, but those refreshments will be available on the third floor until it is.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
For food with a less human touch, the second floor features several robot vending machines by Sweet Robo. You can get a multicolored sculpture of cotton candy from the Cotton Candy Robot, a custom mix of candy from the Candy Monster, or a personalized soft-serve cup from Robo Ice Cream. None of these were running when I toured the store, though they definitely look like kid-pleasers.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
The third floor is where tm:rw gets really interesting, and not just because of the racing museum and the transparent OLED TV. This level holds two VR attractions you can pay to use, just like the driving simulators. One is a pair of VRLeo machines, virtual reality arcade cabinets with headsets that drop down from a compartment above (and are disinfected with a UV system in said compartment). A fun concept if you don’t have a VR headset at home, but not nearly as engaging, or stomach-churning, as the attraction next to it.
Recommended by Our Editors
Birdly is a personal flight simulator that lets you virtually glide with a wingsuit. You lie down on a sled mounted on a motorized platform, put on the connected VR headset, put your hands in the handles of the sled’s articulated wings, and swoop your way through a series of floating rings while you make your way down a mountain. You steer and flap by tilting and rotating the wings, and the platform makes the sled tilt and shift in response to it, all while you’re blasted in the face by a powerful set of fans. I tried Birdly, and while it confirmed my suspicions that I should never attempt wingsuit flying, it was still a really fun and immersive experience. It was immersive enough that I was a bit dizzy for a few minutes afterwards, and I almost never get motion sickness or disorientation in VR. It was worth it, though.
The third floor also holds two entertainment enclaves separate from the rest of the floor, accessible through doors on either side of the racing section. They weren’t fully up and running during my tour, but I saw enough to get a feel for them.
Through the door on the left side is the Sanctuary, a sound-dampened section with an antechamber that will eventually show off Amazon smart speakers and other Alexa devices. This section was empty, but past a second set of doors is the more lounge-like part of the Sanctuary, featuring a huge leather sofa and two big TVs. Here, Vizio’s MicMe karaoke system is set up, and visitors can (free of charge, in this case) take turns singing away from the noise and ears of the rest of the store. It’s cozy, though I would expect them to eventually put some more home theater-focused products in the space, like a huge Awall or LG TV, or a Devialet soundbar to match the Devialet speakers on display on the second floor. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any good photos of this area.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
The Playhouse is on the other side of the floor. This completely red room is all about gaming, with products from Cooler Master and PlayStation filling the walls. The center of the room is occupied by Cooler Master’s Orb X gaming pod, a $25,000 battlestation gaming chair with integrated surround sound speakers, accent lighting, and support for PCs, consoles, and up to three 27-inch monitors (PCs, consoles, and monitors not included). The Orb X wasn’t fully up and running during the tour, but even without a screen or hardware to game on, it’s an impressive piece of furniture.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)
More modestly priced, also from Cooler Master, is the Shark X gaming PC. This system is $7,000, shaped like a shark, and equipped with a Core Ultra 7 265F CPU, a Gigabyte GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPU, 64GB of DDR5 6000 RAM, and a 2TB SSD. Those are good specs, but not a 5080? Or 5090? Well, part of it’s about the novelty.
The PlayStation presence was by far overshadowed by Cooler Master, which consisted of a single wall of PlayStation Portals and other accessories and a single PS5 Pro. It definitely felt puny compared with the loads of Cooler Master products, though, to be fair, the first floor also showed off some PlayStation products.
Those are the highlights of tm:rw, and you can see them yourself if you find yourself in Times Square. The store is free to enter and explore, though some attractions like the racing simulator and VR arcade are paid.
About Will Greenwald
Lead Analyst, Consumer Electronics
