THERE used to be a time when Watt Brothers, like other big department stores in the city, was the last word in ladies' high-end fashion.

Many decades ago, chauffeur-driven cars would draw to a halt outside and drop off well-heeled female customers who, accompanied by their maids, would enter the store to look through the latest arrivals in the gowns selection.

But that was then, and this is now. Watt Brothers marked its centenary last year - it even belatedly joined the online world by launching a website and a Facebook page - and it has long diversified away from expensive gowns and gloves. It has managed to survive where other, once-equally glamorous stores have long gone to the great retail department in the sky.

Pamela Carruthers and Margaret Hill are two of the company's longest-serving employees, and together they have seen a lot of changes.

Pamela joined in 1980 when she was just 17 "and I've stayed ever since. The store was a lot different then. It was all 'Miss ----' or 'Mr ----' Everybody was immaculate. You had to dress up to come to work. Whereas I was just a 17-year-old girl running around with the mail.

"There were gowns and bridal wear - and gloves. My mother used to shop here for her gloves. There were big cabinets that people would polish, and the drawers would come out, showing the selections of gloves."

Long before the era of contactless payments or credit cards, assistants used a system of pneumatic Lamson tubes to send customer cash payments up to the cash office. It was an elaborate, time-consuming process. "Christmas must have been a nightmare," laughs Pamela.

"The store definitely had glamour," she adds. "The window displays were always beautiful. But it was a very family-run place and it was always an easy-going place to work.

"It has become bigger and more popular over the years. It has been opened up to a completely different audience, which is good. You have to move with the times, and [the owner] Willie [Watt] has had the insight to go forward.

"He thought that, rather than keep with the gorgeous gloves and the lovely ball-gowns that aren't going to be worn any longer, he decided to bring it down to the normal level for the rest of us, with things like make-up, and clothes that you can wear every single day."

Among the changes that were introduced were a gents' department and a wide range of crystal. "That was huge," recalls Pamela. "Everybody came in and would buy their weddings gifts here. But it was the make-up department that really hit the jackpot."

Margaret, for her part, joined in 1989. "I used to work for a concession in Daly's [another big department store] and I used to come in here every day and cover the same concession during the lunch hour, so I got to know everybody here.

"When I left Daly's, Miss Stebbing in Watt Brothers said, 'I know you, I'm going to take you right on'. I didn't need to fill in anything - she took me right on, and that was it, and I started in lingerie.

"I can't believe I've been here for 26 years. When I look back, it has just flown by, because it's such a good place to work."

Like other department stores Watt Brothers has always taken pride in its window displays. Decades ago, when the trams were still running, the windows would be dressed above street level so that they would catch the eye of passengers on trams and buses. Lingerie displays were always guaranteed to turn heads.

The conversation turns to the Glasgow store's old-fashioned lift, and to the day Joan Collins dropped by. Both Margaret and Pamela marvel at the history of the store when they wander around its labyrinths. If people think the store is old-fashioned, they say that that it's part of its charm.

Today, Watt Brothers sells everything from fashion to jewellery and skincare products. Brand-names range from Sloggi to Max Factor. The company now has nine stores, plus a warehouse, and has plans to open modern new stores in Falkirk and Port Glasgow. It has come a long way from the days when those chauffeur-driven cars would pull up outside the Sauchiehall Street store.

But some things never change. "You make so many friends here," says Pamela, who now works in the headquarters office, in Govan's Helen Street. "My old boss in the store was like a second mother. We knew each other inside out. My current boss in the office - we're very close too.

"It's a job for life. I didn't think that at 17 when I came in here, but it's been a job for my life." She shoots a glance at Margaret. "And yours."

* http://www.wattbrothers.com/