Singapore is flourishing as a marketplace for Swiss watches, and its homegrown watch manufacturers are blossoming, too.
Fifty years in the past, in keeping with its profile on the World Financial institution web site, the nation suffered from extreme unemployment and poor infrastructure, however many years of inner funding have helped develop a high-income financial system. And plenty of of its roughly 5.5 million residents are shopping for high-end watches.
Between January and Could, exports of Swiss watches to Singapore rose to 676.4 million Swiss francs, an 8.6 % enhance over the identical interval final yr, in keeping with the Federation of the Swiss Watch Trade. The outcomes extended its rating because the world’s sixth largest market, forward of Germany, France and the United Arab Emirates.
In January, LVMH Watch Week, an annual showcase of manufacturers from the French luxurious large, got here to Singapore for its fourth iteration. And a second version of Spring Sprang Sprung, the microbrand truthful that debuted final yr, is scheduled for Oct. 20-22.
All of the exercise means “more people are more aware about watches and watch collecting,” mentioned David Sze, 34, the founding father of Humism, a neighborhood watch model.
Each main manufacturers and native makers agree that Singaporeans favor large names. Rolex represented 42 % of all 2021 gross sales within the metropolis, whereas Omega claimed 12 %, and Patek Philippe, 7 %, in keeping with Fflur Roberts, Euromonitor’s head of luxurious items analysis.
Concentrated within the high-density procuring areas alongside Orchard Highway and within the Marina Bay Sands resort complicated are many single-brand boutiques and multibrand outlets like Honest Advantageous Watches and The Hour Glass.
Panerai, a model owned by Richemont that’s primarily based in Florence, Italy, has boutiques in each areas. Jean-Marc Pontroué, Panerai’s chief govt, mentioned the store within the ION Orchard shopping center is especially busy. “We have about 40 people entering every day, sitting and trying watches,” he mentioned, which he famous is about twice the variety of every day customers in different Panerai boutiques world wide. “For a mono watch brand, it’s a very good number.”
Nobody may present a agency quantity on what number of watch shops are in Singapore, however they’re spreading past the middle to areas just like the Resorts World Sentosa, an island off Singapore’s south coast, which incorporates an outlet of the Swiss Watch Gallery, a multibrand retail chain, and different procuring malls in residential areas.
A few of Singapore’s curiosity in main manufacturers has been generated by way of native watch golf equipment, just like the Singapore Watch Membership, which has had special-edition watches designed by firms reminiscent of Cartier, Hublot and Ulysse Nardin. The membership has greater than 50,000 followers on Instagram, and it frequently schedules occasions throughout town.
RedBar Group, which describes itself because the world’s largest watch fanatic and collector group, additionally has a chapter in Singapore with greater than 150 members and greater than 1,200 Instagram followers.
One RedBar member, Ivan Chua, 46, based the watch firm Vario in 2016. He joined the membership “to network with other watch enthusiasts,” he mentioned from his dwelling workplace within the metropolis heart, the place he has designed six collections, together with a limited-edition 40-millimeter Swiss-quartz reversible dual-time watch (priced at $421).
“We have events at the watch brand’s boutique,” he mentioned, “or there are some meet-ups where everybody brings a few of their watches and we sit at a long table and we will be talking about watches and looking at each others’ watches.”
“It’s good for me,” he added, “as I see firsthand what the local market likes,” recalling one session final fall the place members shared a Tissot PRX, a brand new Cartier Tank, a pure gold Grand Seiko and a few timepieces by Mitch Mason, a microbrand primarily based in Singapore.
Native watchmakers agree that abroad consumers, primarily from the US and Europe, are their foremost targets. Leon Leong, 38, proprietor of the watch and equipment maker Boldr Provide Firm, mentioned abroad consumers make up 80 % of his clientele.
However many Singaporeans who help native manufacturers are “people who are just starting out, you know, learning about watch collecting,” mentioned Sugiharto Kusumadi, 46, founding father of the multibrand retail chain Purple Military Watches.
Mr. Kusumadi additionally co-founded the Spring Sprang Sprung watch truthful, which featured 13 native watch manufacturers among the many 24 exhibitors and attracted greater than 1,300 guests, he mentioned in a textual content message. He hopes to almost double the variety of native exhibitors this yr, he added.
Some entrepreneurs who created native watch manufacturers say they confronted steep studying curves.
Benjamin Chee, 37, mentioned he had no enterprise expertise in 2012 when he began his first model, Maison Celadon, promoting Chinese language-made watches and “learning the ropes as I went along, making a lot of mistakes and losing a lot of money,” he mentioned.
He now owns 4 watch manufacturers, together with Benjamin Chee Haute Horlogerie, which has collaborated with makers together with Andersen Genève on timepieces like a platinum 37.7-millimeter computerized world timer with a map of Singapore on the dial.
The watch, which sells for 58,800 Swiss francs, or $65,740, was designed to enchantment to consumers in Singapore who’re watch lovers and connoisseurs, in keeping with Pierre-Alexandre Aeschlimann, president and chief govt of Andersen Genève.
There’s risk-taking among the many native watch manufacturers, too. Cody Chua, 31, who based the model Coup De Coeur in 2015, opted for a barrel-shape case for the unisex 44-millimeter stainless-steel mannequin Élan as a result of “a circular shape is too common,” he mentioned.
Most native watch entrepreneurs sketch their concepts or use computer systems, with the plans then going to producers in international locations like China. The finished timepieces are sometimes saved and distributed from dwelling places of work.
Working from Singapore could make it laborious to safe the best high quality product as a result of “you don’t have the personal network,” mentioned Ray Pee, 45, who had no watch business expertise when he based Gane Watches in 2020. “So I was searching in countries like Japan and Germany,” he mentioned, earlier than discovering a producer in Switzerland.
However his engineering background helped, he mentioned: “I had a lot of experience in sourcing, discussions on specifications, in engineering drawings and in machine capabilities. It helps with my discussion on what design is viable and what is not,” and when negotiating costs.
There are some efforts underway to enhance watchmaking expertise in Singapore.
Gijs Terhorst, an teacher on the Patek Philippe Institute, which presents a two-year program in Singapore, mentioned by e-mail that it had skilled 11 watchmakers since 2017, 5 of whom have been Singaporean.
Purple Military Watches mentioned it runs 24 courses a yr in its retailer on the Suntec Metropolis shopping center “for people to, you know, try out,” Mr. Kusumadi mentioned, and “have a taste of watchmaking before they take a more serious course. Because it’s not cheap to go to Switzerland, and you end up spending like $50,000 for the whole course.”
The one-day program, known as The Watch Academy, might be booked on the retailer’s web site for $412.52 per individual. Mr. Kusumadi mentioned new collectors typically wish to tinker with their watches, however “they do not know how to open up the case, how to remove the hands.” The course presents fundamental instruction on dismantling and reassembling watches and the instruments to make use of.
Mr. Chee mentioned he has been creating an apprentice program for his haute horology manufacturers since 2021, and now he has 5 college students between 18 and 35 years outdated who have been born or reside in Singapore and who are actually studying enamel work and different strategies from watchmakers in Switzerland, China and elsewhere.
He’s additionally constructing a brand new dwelling studio in La Zagaleta, Spain, close to Marbella. Mr. Chua of Vario mentioned his five-year plan consists of “going more into craft.” Mr. Pee mentioned he desires to experiment with a dive watch or a chronograph. In a later e-mail, he wrote that he now has preliminary designs for a 38-millimeter chronograph that he intends to unveil subsequent yr.
