With auction season behind us, stories of lots, performances and what it all means ruminates in the minds of collectors. One such collector, Mike Tay, has been present in the industry since the late 90s, making his mark as the Managing Director of his family's watch-retail business, The Hour Glass, in Singapore. We decided to catch up with Mike to talk about his history in the watch-world as well as to shed some light on the results of the Geneva auctions. 

So Mike, tell us a little bit about how you became interested in watches and the watch industry?

For me, watches were always in the blood. My grandfather started his first watch-retail business in 1942, which was a small kiosk in what was, back then, a lively area in Singapore. However, shortly after establishing it, the Japanese invaded, which forced the business into hibernation during their occupation. It would lay dormant until after the second world war, when in 1946 he re-established it with a proper physical retail store, rather than the kiosk he had previously.

And what sort of brands did he stock the second time around?

He had merchandised a very many Swiss brands which were extremely popular during the time, like Titoni and Enicar; brands which carry far less gravitas in today’s industry but certainly had clout back then. Though the the business dramatically transformed in 1948, after a visit from Hans Wilsdorf of Rolex, who was travelling around south-east Asia and happened to drop by the store. He saw that we were carrying a decent range of Swiss brands from the time and asked, “do you want to work with Rolex?” - naturally you don’t think twice, and the business became the first distributor retailer of Rolex in Singapore.

 

 

That’s quite a couple of years the business e