At home with luxury pieces
WITH an interior that houses lavish furniture and ornate styles that resemble a French chateau, the Malmaison by The Hour Glass, on Bideford Road in Singapore stands out.
Part of the distinguished Grand Park Orchard hotel, this flagship boutique, which opened its doors for business in 2011, was named after Le Château de Malmaison, the last residence of Napoleon Bonaparte, who rose to fame during the French revolution, and his wife Empress Josephine.
Yet this 8,000sq ft (743.2sq m) retail store for luxury watches and timepieces is anything but antiquated. Lined next to busts of the “Little Corporal” are futuristic timepieces that resemble arachnids and insectoids.
There is even a piece that pays tribute to the television series, Star Trek.
And like the chateau, it seeks to instill more than just a sense of opulence and grandeur. It also gives an all-encompassing experience that goes beyond just a simple viewing or the purchase of a watch.
The Hour Glass was established in 1979, and has today become one of the world’s leading specialist luxury watch retailers.
It has sought to engage new audiences, cultivating their interest in horology and the watch-making arts.
As one of the world’s leading specialty luxury watch retail groups today, the company has an established presence of 40 boutiques in 11 key cities in the Asia Pacific region.
One of its group managing directors,
Michael Tay, who is also the son of founders Dr Henry Tay and Datuk Dr Jannie Tay, explained that the objective of The Hour Glass is focused squarely on pursuing qualitative growth.
“We don’t speak so much about how big we want to be in terms of sales or what we want to grow our sales revenues to, or how we want to grow our number of store counts to,” he stressed. “We focus on qualitative growth because it is sustainability that we are after.”
Tay was appointed group managing director of The Hour Glass in 2015, having been executive director since 2005.
He first joined the company in 1999 as its business re-engineering manager. Since then, he has developed extensive experience in the watch industry through heading multiple facets of the business, from specialty watch manufacturing to wholesale channel distribution, and greenfield retail development.
Tay is a member of the cultural committee of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, a member of the jury for both the Grand Prix d’horlogerie de Geneve and the FP Journe Young Talent Competition. He is also a member of the governing council for the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art and an advisory board member of Art Basel Cities.
When it comes to the future trends of the industry, he explained: “What is very clear in the history of watch-making is that tastes change constantly. Nothing stays desirable forever.”
He recounted that back in the 1970s and 80s, watches that fetched the highest prices at auctions were pocket watches; this was what the biggest collectors back then were purchasing.
“Today, no one is really that interested in pocket watches any more. In 10 or 20 years’ time, will people really be reignited to own a pocket watch? Possibly, who knows?” Tay added.
In fact, Tay pointed out, it’s all about the iconic integrated bracelet sports watches, but these are actually a recent phenomena.
What caused that shift, he opined, were mainland Chinese who for about 20 years only favoured classic-looking watches.
“Then suddenly, three years ago, there was a shift and then all you hear from mainland Chinese consumers was, ‘I want sports watches’.”
To Tay, this has been a relatively new phenomenon, not something that had existed for years or decades. What will tomorrow bring?
“I think this is where we appreciate working with the different brands and partners that we have, and we’re constantly trying to invent the future and lead the way.”