"Today, I've brought with me a selection of watches from my collection that I find particularly interesting," says SL, whose office is located in Times Square in Causeway Bay, arguably Hong Kong's busiest luxury goods district. He's also the editor-in-chief of a watch magazine published in Hong Kong. So what kind of watch-loving life has this watch enthusiast, now a distributor of watch information, lived?
Born in 1969. His father is Hong Kong and his mother is French. He specializes in business management and IT. After earning a master's degree in Hong Kong, he moved to the UK and worked in consulting in London. After returning to Hong Kong, he used his IT knowledge to work as a program manager for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, before joining a watch magazine in 2009, where he continues to work to this day.
Photographs by Eiichi Okuyama, Yu Mitamura
Interview and text by Yukiya Suzuki (Chronos-Japan)
[Khronos Japan Edition 2018]
"My father gave me a Cartier watch for my eighth birthday. That's when my life with watches began."
"I have a long history with watches," Mr. L said, and began to talk about his own watch history.
"Ever since I was a child, I loved mechanical things and would ask my parents for a mechanical toy at every opportunity. Finally, my father couldn't stand it any longer and gave me a watch for my eighth birthday. It was a Cartier watch. Looking back, I can say that this was the beginning of my life with watches."
Mr. L grew up in Hong Kong, but his mother is French and his father is Hong Kong. His first encounter with watches was a shocking "rocket start," but he says he eventually got back on track.
"After that, I wore a Casio watch for a while. But when I was about 16 or 17 years old, I decided to get serious about watches, and bought a Longines Conquest on my own."
However, when you're young, even if you come from a wealthy family, there's a limit to how much expensive watches you can buy on your own. When Mr. L was young, he had no choice but to sell the watches he already had in order to buy a new one. Until his early twenties, he kept selling and buying new ones, so he never built up a collection of watches.
"After completing my master's degree, I moved to London and got a consulting job there. I remember being fascinated by perpetual calendars during my time there from 1998 to 2001."
In 04, Ms. L had the opportunity to meet François-Paul Journe, who was visiting Hong Kong, through an introduction from Steve Luc, the current general manager of the FP Journe Hong Kong boutique.
"Meeting Journe rekindled my passion for watches, which I had almost forgotten while working in London."
The following year, in 2005, FP Journe released the Chronomètre Souverain, further fueling L's love of watches. This was one year before the FP Journe boutique opened in Hong Kong. Fascinated by the Chronomètre Souverain, he bought a Tokyo Boutique Limited Edition model, limited to 20 pieces, released at the Tokyo Boutique. When he met Journe again in Tokyo four years later, he also purchased the Octa Calendar, a watch he had long been interested in and coveted, further deepening his relationship with FP Journe.
"The first watch my father bought me was a Cartier, a symbol of France, and just as FP Journe, which reignited my passion for luxury watches, is headquartered in Geneva, Journe himself is French. Being able to converse with him in French gives me a sense of security, like returning home. His watches, whether it's the Chronomètre Souverain, the Grande Sonnerie, or the Centigraph, always have that innovative 'something' embedded in them. I think that's what so captivates me."
After returning to Hong Kong from London, Mr. L developed his business mainly in IT, but in 2009 he was invited to join the launch of a new watch magazine, and has been involved ever since.
"Since I started working with watches, it has actually become more difficult to choose a watch. I am always looking at new releases, so my eyes and thoughts tend to wander from one thing to the next. However, if I had to choose just one watch from my collection, regardless of work, it would be the IWC Doppelchronograph. This is because it was the last watch my father gave me before he passed away."
