I want to tell you about watches, but I wanted you to hear it from the horse’s mouth – the collectors: Singapore-based Melvyn Teillol-Foo, Chief Executive Officer of PuristSPro, a reference website for watch lovers in Asia, collects with and for his wife and speaks fondly of the first double purchase they ever made – the Omega Constella-tion 5125.“
It was a serendipitous buy, as I actually never thought of watches as an investment. I consider a watch a worth-buy, not a value-buy. At one stage I could be buying up to three watches a month. I have 365 watches so I can wear a different one every day.”
Singapore-born Eric Lim, executive director of Chemical Industries (Far East), said: “You do not want to get me started on watches as I have about 50 of them, and collect them with passion for the elegance, the technical mastery and the sheer beauty of the object.’’
To bring the topic closer to my home, French entrepreneur Jean-Louis Bouchard, chairman of Econocom, confesses to buying “a massive Panerai” that used to belong to a prominent figure in the German navy, an admiral commanding U-boats during World War II.