At 6:15 p.m. on a warm Wednesday this summer, upbeat music was playing through several speakers as a handful of men positioned themselves around the bar in the Watches of Switzerland store at the Hudson Yards mall in Manhattan.

Some were talking on their phones or taking photos; ice clinked in the glasses that held their beverages, mostly whisky or tequila. Pricey timepieces — some being considered for purchase, but others already owned — were removed from wrists and passed back and forth for admiration.

The drinks were free; the watches were not.

At Watches of Switzerland, shopping while enjoying a Macallan 25, a single-malt Scotch that can run $2,500 for a 750-milliliter bottle, is not out of the ordinary. But then serving high-end chocolates, cookies and drinks to customers (as well as dog treats to their pets) has become something of a trend among luxury watch and jewelry brands in recent years — all part of an effort to put shoppers at ease and, hopefully, in a mind-set to buy.

Ezra Sultan, 37, the vice president of 2 Monkeys, an apparel company in New York, was one of the men at the bar. Two hours earlier, Mr. Sultan, a Brooklyn resident, had purchased a Patek Philippe Nautilus reference 5712/1R, which can retail for more than $80,000.

“The quality of the bottles of alcohol they have here is a level above anything I’ve seen,” he said, gesturing toward the liquor-filled shelves directly in front of him. The bottles included two Japanese whiskys, Hibiki and Yamazaki Distiller’s Reserve; tequila, Don Julio 1942 and Clase Azul; vodka, Tatra and Belvedere 10; and Champagnes, Louis Roederer Cristal, Bollinger and Billecart-Salmon Brut Réserve.

Mr. Sultan said that the shop had expanded his watch collection and his cocktail repertoire. “The bartenders introduced me to an espresso martini, Moscow mule and an old fashioned,” he said. “I have a bar in my office, but choose to come here.”