24. 09. 2008

And I thought I was the only crazy one…

Guess most of us owned at least a SWATCH during the '80s ... I recently went through my boxes of stuff & came across my old “collection” of Swatches. Amongst them was this very colorful chronograph, which brought back lots of memories. Sweet mostly!!  I still remember using this particular chronograph to time my tax consultancy work diligently. As we charged our clients by the hour, every minute counts & precision was vital……to fill up the timesheet, that is.     Back then, I must be the only one in the firm who timed his work with a chronograph on the wrist....

Well, this chrono has some very nice elements that I like on a watch, especially the colored pushers (resembling a good friend’s Flightmaster  910 with beautiful aged dial) & it is in MINT condition with box & papers, unsigned too!!!     So excited, I wore it to bed that night although it was not ticking.  A new battery, I thought was all it needed BUT “CRAZY” was what I heard in the middle of the sleep….. No gift for guessing who uttered it. 

A trip to the watchmaker spoilt the following day. It refused to work with the new battery & is now a new display in my humble gallery…the only way to prolong its “shelf life”, I guess.     Along Came Polly-anna !!     Many of you know that my heart would beat faster & my knees go weak when I see a nice watch accessory.  Well, a friend picked up the same “bad hobby” of mine recently & started collecting the related stuff starting with ads, goggles, boxes & who knows what …..But I say WELCOME TO THE CLUB, The Karangguni (rag & bone) club !!

Well, people used to call me CRAZY Collector.  But if you really love someone or something & there is no whisper of thrill, not an ounce of excitement, have you really loved?   When you do, shouldn’t you be swept away & be deliriously happy?        I know it is a corn-ball thing but love is passion, obsession, something you can’t live without.  So, for all of us who love watches, I say fall head over heel, find some pieces you can love like crazy & they will love you the same way back.    Forget your head, listen to your heart.  The truth is, there is no sense living your life without this……To make the journey but not  fall deeply in love…well, you have not lived your life at all. 

The world’s First Grand Prix Formula 1 Night Race is taking place right here in Singapore over this coming weekend (26-28 Sept) & the racing track is a stone throw away from my gallery. Although I am not crazy about F1, I am equally excited & can understand why thousands of fans flew in to witness the race & experience the deafening engine sounds, but only to do it with ear plugs, to avoid ear drums perforation.  How ironical?   Well, I guess it takes one lover to know another & like Formula 1, some watches that I will have this coming Saturday are not for the faint hearted.....

Shawn, 24.09.2008   (ps: don't you love the watch display on the left? Resembling the scene at F1 Pit Stop)

Anyone can be passionate,  but it takes real lovers to be silly  ~ Rose Franken
 

08. 08. 2008

What is your favourite number on the dial of your watch?  For me, it has to be the only number that is obese, round & still insists on wearing a belt.     Haha... it is number 8, a lucky number in the Chinese culture. 

August is the 8^th month of the year & Beijing Olympics kicked off on the 8.8.2008 with Michael Phelps making history with 8 Gold medals. Singapore just celebrated its National day on 9.8.2008, & won an Olympic silver medal 48 years after the last one in 1960.  Well done, Team Singapore!!

Last Saturday, I was invited by a Bank to do a talk on Collecting Watches As An Alternative Investment. I brought x8 watches with me & went through slides of exactly 28.

Closer to heart, I was born & brought up in a house numbered 88, & there are 8 kids in my family.  My sister’s home is a very good number 8, my own house ends with a 8, & the phone number for my humble gallery has a couple of 8s.  My best friends’ car numbers are 4x88, 8x88 & the last 2 digits of my car add up to 8.  Incidentally, my waistline is ahem ... 28?

My wife & a few good friends were born in the months or on days with the digit 8 & one of them just got herself a pair of Panerai Goggles that has the shape of 8 (OO).    Guess what, my oldest customer is 84 years old !!!

Most of the above were not premeditated & all true except my waistline, which luckily is not 38 !!      Last but not least, this is my 8^th year in the watch business & I look forward to more g8d years with your fantastic support, whatever your favourite number may be.

:O)  8hawn

29 MAY 2008

12 months ago this day, I was busy preparing for the Watch Talk & Exhibition held in my humble gallery with the help of a few close friends.   It was a sharing event, tiring affair, costly too as it was self-financed.   But it went well & we had lots of fun doing it, the excitement still lingers in the air every time we talk about it. This is a form of happiness, I think.

When I resigned from my tax practice years ago, one of my former bosses told me that the watch business that I am leaving my professional job for is a very good business to be in.  Her reasoning: As with most gifts, whether we buy them for ourselves or our loved ones, it is always initiated by happy & loving thoughts. So the whole business really circles around a few important things in life, passion, love & happiness.      Hemm .. philosophical .. I thought then.

After a few years in this business now, I began to appreciate her sentiments.  Especially when I see the happy & passionate faces that go along with the beautiful timepieces.  I also realised that the happiness does not end at the point of purchase. When presented as gifts to ourselves, friends or loved ones, the watches will bring back lots of sweet memories every time we look at them.  Ask yourself this question: How many times have you looked at your watch today? What does it remind you of? Your last birthday, new job,  anniversary or Shawn? Ha ha, thanks.   At any rate, I am sure we are a very happy bunch of people.

One day, these watches may become someone’s precious heirlooms. Then, the happiness is shared perpetually….. it is timeless !!!  And I am glad that you share it with me, first.    

    Pleasure is spread through the earth, in stray gifts to be claimed by whoever shall find 
                                                                                                                          ~William Wordsworth, 1806

21 APRIL 2008

The World's Most Expensive Fishbowl YES, this one ... was sold for a World record price of US$23,400 at the Antiquorum Auction on 17 April 2008 in New York  and there is no fish in it !!!

The auction, namely “Revolution: The Evolution of the Rolex Sport Watch” commemorating the 100th anniversary of Rolex, achieved a total auction value of $ 8,479,860.  

Although the fishbowl did not do as well as my pal’s Comex (Sold for USD 248,800), it has turned out to be a good investment piece so far !!    This ties to what I always tell my fellow collector friends: Follow your heart, buy what you like, if the value appreciates in the future, it is a bonus!!  And I think, I have done pretty alright here with this little fishbowl investment & would definitely wish the same for you & your collections :O)  HAPPY HUNTING !!!      

Those of you who know me well would know that many birthday cakes have been cut & candles blown in my humble gallery over the years.   I hope your wishes have all come true !! :O)  

A very close friend of mine proposed recently to use the gallery for a small event, I gladly agreed.  When he & his girlfriend arrived yesterday (10 Mar 2008), they were both dressed to the ninth.  He was in the best suit I have ever seen him in.  Looked very handsome too with his hair well sculpted.  As she tip-toed up the stairs with the tail of the long white gown in both hands, I saw HUGE happy smiles, & can’t help feeling happy for them too.  They are getting married soon!!  

Well, I have known him since my tax practice days & he is finally getting married!!  I am glad that he has found someone he loves to share his life with. Congrats !!

A collector of rare coins & notes himself, he has recently turned to serious watch collecting.  How serious, you ask.  Well, serious enough that he wanted part of his wedding photos taken in my humble gallery.  I guess they would like this special occasion to be filled with lots of love & nice watches!!     Was it an Indecent proposal? May be not.   Strange? May be, but I would rather say it is UNIQUE.  Unique in the way that he had this happiest & most important moment of his life permanently registered in HEIRLOOM GALLERY.     I felt like a priest but am touched by his sincerity & honored by his choice.   

You know what??   After they left, I noticed that the floor was a lot cleaner than before…. haha …that is what friends are for!!!!      Best of all, the “en-bloc” cloud which has been hanging above my head for a while now disappeared with the dust & the sky is a lot clearer.  I think they have brought me luck.  Thanks YP & LL.   Congrats once again ! 

As you are probably aware, 2008 is a LEAP YEAR.  

A special year with one extra day inserted in the month of February in order to keep the calendar year synchronised with the astronomical year.  So there will be 29 days as opposed to the normal 28 this month.   I know some of us may resent the fact that we will need to work an additional day.   Personally, I am excited that there is another 24 hours at my disposal.   Well, a very good friend of mine took a step further & went on to insert another day into his personal calendar as he is holding his 6th Solo Art Exhibition & launching his 1st publication, both titled “30th FEB ” .  Congratulations, my friend!!

Through one’s flaws, a greater whole is found.  In pitch darkness, an abundance of colour arises.    Without the struggle of mortality, how can one realise the freedom of mind and soul?                  

There are 12 animals in the Chinese Calendar with the Rat leading the cycle, which means another 12 years have passed us by & a new cycle will begin.   They say early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese. Why? Because the first mouse got caught in the trap.  So, before we hit the reset button to restart the cycle hastily, it is always a good practice that we take stock, reflect & plan the year ahead to make sure that we are not enrolling ourselves into another Rat race.  Well, if only life is as simple as resetting the hands on our chronographs ... but, even that requires an observation of sequence, or the watch will give up on us.

Realistically, with the current economic outlook, I guess we must make ourselves RELEVANT so that we will not wake up in the next morning & exclaim “ WHO MOVED MY CHEESE? ”.  Well, in the coming year of the Rat, I choose to be Haw & not Hew. You? ps: by the way, that is a chrono resting on a cheese ball not bowling ball, too many holes !!! :0)

TGIF!!   Well, we were just celebrating the arrival of 2008 & voilà, it is now the FIRST Friday of 2008 !!

Time flies!!!   Gerd-R. Lang said it & I quote “time flies, so I caught it in a cage”.   In this first week of the new year, rather than counting the wrinkles on my face & losing sleep, I chose to count my blessings instead of sheep…..

A good friend once told me: “I have something to look forward to every morning when I wake up: WHICH WATCH TO WEAR? & WHAT CLOTHES TO MATCH THE WATCH?”   Well, me too & I think it is a blessing !!

      HAPPY NEW YEAR & HAPPY HUNTING !! 

DECEMBER is the twelfth & last month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar.  A month that sums up all months of the year, a period that many of us are looking forward to for various reasons: the year end promotion or bonuses at work, the annual holiday, the all important marathon that you have been preparing for, & for some, fabulous birthday & Christmas presents that you will be receiving !!

December begins (astrologically) with the sun in the sign of Sagittarius & ends in the sign of Capricorn. To the few people close to my heart (the young one & the not so) who celebrate your birthdays (6, 8, 26, 28 & ?th) this month, I say : never mind the numbers, you are only getting wiser.   Well, you were born in the most joyous & celebrated month of the year, that is a blessing too!!  So, Happy Birthday & May All Your Dreams Come True.

ORANGE:   The colour is named after the orange fruit.     Seedless or not, most of us love an orange or two for its rich source of vitamin C & citrus liminoids.   The first recorded use of orange as a color name in English was in 1512, in the court of King Henry VIII.    In the modern world it is often used for visibility enhancement.      

How many of us can resist the beautiful touch of orange color on a wrist watch?   In recent years many vintage watches with a slightest touch of orange have all appreciated in value!!  Rolex Explorer II Ref. 1655 is a classic example. Others such as Omega Seamaster Big Blue 120m Diver's Chronograph, 600m Ploprof, Speedmaster Mark II Exotic Dial & Flightmaster with orange hands etc are all highly sought after.  Equally in demand is the Omega Memomatic or Dynamic with orange hands!   

I personally like the color orange for many reasons…To me, the sight of the color orange brings a smile to one’s face.  It is bright, cheerful & so endearing that looking at it sometimes gives you butterflies in the stomach.  =)           Please don’t take my word for it, look around you now for an orange or something in orange color, see what magic it would do to your mood. 

Ok, if I could, I would paint all watch hands to orange color & rephrase the old saying to : “An orange a day, keeps the doctor away” …… Meanwhile, for those of you who are looking for one, I am glad to present a few items with orange hands for your consideration this week.                                                      (ps: sorry guys, I can't take oranges in exchange for these orange hands. Nice try though !! )

Due to different commitments, we can’t meet as often as we wish, but the most beautiful discovery true friends make is that we can grow separately without growing apart.   While we may not communicate as much as we would love to, it is heartening to know that silences make the real conversations between friends.  Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts.  So, even if we don’t say “Hi” often enough, we know that we do CARE. 

1 OCT 2007

Dreams are for those who sleep

Last night, I slept like a baby …waking up every two hours, that is.   A friend said it is a sign of aging. As I tossed & turned, I realised that it is now October, a month of certain significance to me.  No wonder.

I may not be an astrologer but I know timing is everything in astrology as your real birth time influences the relation between the zodiac, your ascendant, & all of your astrological houses which in turn determine what kind of person you would turn out to be...very much the same ways the value of a vintage watch is determined.  Its year of production, design, type of movement & functions are the reasons for its irresistible intrinsic values which make each dream watch SPECIAL.   Well, whatever zodiac sign you may be, I am sure you are Special & Unique !!   
         May all your dreams come true, too.      yours, Shawn

15 SEP 2007

Time flies !     We say it all the time :   The Pretty Young Ones are indifferent & end it with a high. The not so Young Ones punctuate it with a sigh.

Time, as Einstein showed, is a tricky concept to nail down, & all languages resort to metaphor to express it, with staggering monotony.    We count the annual rings on a tree trunk and wrinkles on one’s face to estimate their age.  But does the number really matter?    At the age of 21, Einstein came to a sudden realisation: time is not absolute & it does not progress at the same rate for everyone, everywhere.  In other words, despite our common perception that a second is always a second everywhere in the universe, the rate at which time flows depends upon where you are & how fast you are travelling.    So if temporal landmarks don't exist except in our heads, where does our notion of time come from?   To me, it is all relative & since we can’t defy the natural process of aging, we must make sure that we take the driver’s seat and determine how fast we will travel & grow with each passing second, inscribing beautiful memories & wisdom onto the trunks as we go. 

From vintage watch collecting perspective, we all know that old is gold & the dull patina is a mark of class.  In a way, collecting watches is like collecting time. While no one can be said to possess time, one can form a collection of instruments which measures it.   This, to some, may be a trade off ...for me, it is a blessing!       YO2  

17 AUG 2007

TGIF !!  Trust you guys are wearing a special watch today..... I know a friend would.

How time flies, it is almost a week since we launched our Black Label series.   

Hope you are not DRUNK yet.... although the "Black" Collection has nothing to do with anything alcoholic, I must say that sometimes I am guilty of getting myself drunk and drowned ......... in the sea of watches, that is.... Well, *Call me irresponsible, call me unreliable, throw in undependable, too.....tell me I'm impractical, but  it's undeniably true, that I'm irresponsibly mad for you.....

Have a good one !!!!!!!         yours, Shawn

AUGUST 2007

A friend once asked:  why would you spend so much time, effort & resources in watches?  To which I said: Have you ever stopped to think that during the course of a typical day, we look at the watch on our wrist more often than anything else??  “What time is it now ? When is lunch? The next meeting is at ? ... best of all ….Is it time to go home yet ?"   and the list goes on & on.   Undeniably, it is one of the most important tools and closest companion one could have on a day to day basis.    Why vintage?  For me, the answer was simple…. they don’t make them like that anymore!!!   And my striving for the timeless values becomes a matter of character rather than one of ephemeral fashions.            The recent watch events held in my humble gallery brought back lots of fond memories, especially when I was going through the rare exhibits on display, as many of them (though not all) were handled and sold through us and it is very heartening to know that they are being taken good care of and would one day be someone’s HEIRLOOM…  Time is precious, measure it with style...that is the reason for our BLACK LABEL.. 

Valentine's day is around the corner and will soon be followed by the Chinese Lunar New Year on the 18 Feb 2007.  Love is in the air and all loved ones will gather to celebrate these joyous occasions.

Trust most of us have received our X'mas presents and gifts.  Well, Santa Claus, I am not but if the gifts were from us, we would like to say a BIG THANK YOU for your support !!!

1 DEC 2006

HOW QUICKLY A YEAR GOES BY !!  As the year draws to a close, I reflected on what we have achieved in 2006 and realized that much has happened here at Heirloom Gallery.     It has always been our mission to bring to you unusual, rare and collectible timepieces, and we’ve worked hard to do just that in the past year and trust that 2006 has been a great collecting year for you too !! 

For me, this is a LOVE / HATE period of the year.      LOVE it because it's the most wonderful time of the year.  A few special people close to my heart celebrate their birthdays this month (on the 6, 8 & 26^th).  You could feel the Christmas magic every corner you turn. There'll also be much mistletoeing and hearts will be glowing when loved ones are near ……

HATE it because the calendar is saying that you are one year OLDER … ok, ok…..WISER !!      

Well, since we can’t turn back the clock, I decided that we will end the year with a bang and have put together our SPECIAL 2006 X’MAS COLLECTION with a few very collectible timepieces, just for you this X’mas. Hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did putting them together !!! REMEMBER EARLY BIRDS GET THE WORMS !!!!     Merry X'mas, all  !!!      Love, Shawn