Watch Porn

http://bernardcheong.com/blog/

http://bernardcheong.com/blog/  to read rants

The number of Rolex and Omega watches astound me in Singapore

http://bernardcheong.com/blog/

To read rants

But....These watches will be seen at Dempsey and at the upcoming F1 Night Race.

A lifetime pursuit, not taken in a hedonistic direction...but of cataloguing man's desire for design

My 10 year wait, 2003 till last week 2013, OPUS 3 platinum

For those who have read my posts since 2003 in the USA forum, thepurists, yes..one word...it is at the Harry Winston forum..early posts as I was the moderator for Harry Winston till 2009.

Here are the OLD..2003 pics BEFORE Basel:

I had alot of FUN creating those images for the campaign, as then it was 2003, 10 years ago...and my job was to bring a brand not known for watches, into the field and attention of the major collectors.

Well, I guess I as well as Max Busser, no humility...over suceeded.

It also created Opus as a benchmark against ALL watchmaking.

The launch of Opus is actually arguably THE event of Basel, as it remained up till present days.

It was also the ghost of ONE machine, one man...Vianney Halter, who had envisioned a totally unimaginable movement...taking over an estimated 11 million chf of just r&d to solve.
Not including the cost of making these watches...estimated to cost $300,000 and more...and if sold today..$700,000 usd.

Not that I am even THINKING of selling, because for 700,000...you cannot even get a watch that would be anything close to what the Opus 3 is.

Boiled down..it is almost TWO grand complications, with a gyrotourb, and a grand sonnorie stuck together.

So today..or rather last week.

My younger of two girls was there when I collected another landmark, the FREAK from UN.

And it is so strange that it so happened that this time around, my elder girl was there.

I am actually so impressed with HARRY WINSTON.

Most of all...Max and Vianney, and all the people who work at AP and the watchmakers.

Thank you Harry Winston.

The new COE, TAX, ARF and CAR LOANS

These drastic changes will drive even more to the rewarding collecting of watches!
Right now...I am at my desk, I have 10 minutes to shower and go down to the office...but a peek at three things I want to rant over:

The new car prices...so these are my VERY lucky doctor friends last saturday, before the announcements...note my car number is now 4420.

The arrival of my Sevenfriday, which cost exactly 100x less than my Opus 3!
Square watches are a rare experience.
More later on both the unboxing/purchases of the two watches.

When you are finally going to buy an expensive wristwatch..think MOJO

Perspectives of why collectors see UN as a valued gem.

Intellectually speaking, it takes a very farsighted, daring, and connected person to evaluate what UN really does, and how it will fare without its real leader.

With the use of silicium, and the values of being the only company to discover a truly new and untried technology, one must see Ulysse Nardin exactly like the makers of todays ruling Japanese camera makers. These early prewar camera companies were laughed at, undervalued, as trash when compared to the Germans. Likewise, the electronics companies of the very same country.

Like Japan, Ulysse Nardin is much more than a company. It is, if it charts the course set by their late leader, a force that will shift watchmaking into a commodity that is an aspiration to own, whether it be a Rolex or a Omega or a Cartier.

The young, before the invention of cars and roads, had no car to aspire to.

I will dare to predict that based on status and on aesthetics, the watch will become EVERYTHING the auto industry failed to deliver, and 10x more!

If you have small means, it will pay to collect watches, used ones of value.

If you have larger means, it pays to buy even at prices that are higher than what the same watch sold for 10 years back.

Some brands, some makers, will excel…just like cars.

You need a box the size of a shoe box, and Louis Vuitton will see that its old trunks can now be remade smaller, and become valuable items again.

 

THE MOJO

You can spend even 10k++ for a FREAK or a watch made with specific silicium parts that are/were Ulysse Nardin’s great build quality and exceptionally good metal and gold work — above all, however, the wristwatch feels unique and the “super watch” land makes you part of a great heritage that inspires creativity and living a life.

Of course, these watches give you nothing that’s way better than the rest of the market, but they all share that mojo.

What serious customer or consumer has never asked him or herself whether to take the plunge into serious money mechanical watches? Point is, if deliberations are based only on methodical analysis, you’ll never find convincing arguments to really be assured that you’re taking the right road, and buying something that will not reward, but rather hurt you financially.

High end watchmaking and serious companies at the levels of Patek, Rolex, Richard Mille and Ulysse Nardin are not all about rationality, it’s about life, living, seeing, leaving behind legacies and on the longer terms of 10 years, often much less during these rocky times, it is about asset preservation. Keeping your hard work and money safe, and employing them to enrich your life. The same way that going to school, reading and visiting history will always touch your soul, and often, if your eyes are open, your mind.

More simple or less costly watches paired with steel or precious metals can produce exceptionally remarkable watches these days, even though the history and story behind these machines will never be as relevant to your philosophy that you shared as ideals to people who believed in you.

Even the less well-to-do is finally able to enjoy some of the magic at a fraction of the price. Still, I have no problems spending 10k for a wristwatch with history, art and most of all ideals. Because it’s at least as important how it was conceived and why I connect to it. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it’s not only the workmanship and movement. It’s also the principles behind the brand.

Never happened to you that you had a great watch but somehow it didn’t feel right? Looking at it was more routine than joy? And soon you didn’t feel like picking up the watch from its box and showing it to your children or friends? This will not happen with a watch you can connect to.

A wristwatch lends its own mojo, and that can play an important role in your business and life, the way others will see you. You’ll be able to produce way better results, project way better ideas.

It’s not only the feel, but also sound of the crown as it clicks back and winds, the form factor and certain something of the curves of the casework and printing and finish of the dials that connects together to enable an experience that another watch simply cannot.

Understanding why watch collecting and collectors are so much more than the finish, movements, brand image and a zillion complications

Chances are, once you start working with a watch you’re really longing for, the more it will complement your whole philosophy and life. This was always so, especially when you reflect on old photographs of the great leaders and achievers before us, and notice that they never wore inferior or poor quality timepieces.

Fact is, today, with almost all things being out dated or redundant, or victims of trends and fashion, the wristwatch is the ONLY material man made item that holds value, and even increases its worth over a decade or less. Even the world has paid attention to it by advertising. No magazine or high profiled web page is without wristwatch advertising money today, and this was not so before 1998.

And that’s what these watches offer. The prices are hideous — but only if you ignore the mojo. Somehow these watches turn every owner into a personality. You will feel like you have changed in your very own footsteps. Yes you pay for a different experience with a high level of inspiration juice bundled in the package.

It’s a personal connection to the watch and system of collecting more that inspires a totally different mind.

Because in the end, all watches today are technically good enough to tell time.

 

But the experience itself, of owning and seeing a work of man, with the interaction of art and engineering can be so much more rewarding. The watch has the power to change your perspective of life and decision making entirely.

Chances are you keep that watch with a mojo. So you might pay more in the beginning, but with no need to upgrade, who cares about the newer, the faster, the better?

The fact is that NO watchmaker has ever mastered their work. Instead they allow the work to master them and go on an endless exploration from one cog to a new pinion to a new lubricant to a new lever, never staying with one long enough to discover its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical puzzles that is a Pandora’s box.

 

Look at a watch, a considerably “delicate” watch, that I have used and roughly thrashed..yes…after 10 years

CLICK on

http://bernardcheong.com/general/4296/

to see this, my 10 years with a delicate gold watch.