A League of Her Own

Lung Lung Thun’s collection has been a long time in the making— though the relationship between watch and owner has not always been easy By Annie Darling. Photography

- Annie Darling

Thun wears the Royal Oak Frosted Gold “Carolina Bucci” Ref 15454BA by Audemars Piguet. Opposite page, from top: Royal Oak Openworked Double Balance Wheel Ref 15466BC by Audemars Piguet; a vintage pendant watch by Seiko

Lung Lung Thun whizzes around Singapore in her cherry-red Ferrari, down Orchard Road and past the city’s upscale shopping malls and high-fashion houses. It’s 2012, and the 23-year-old is hot off yet another spending spree. In the boot of her car are several unopened shopping bags from similar splurges. She comes to a stoplight and bursts into tears. “I was buying so much and just couldn’t understand why,” she tells me over gin and tonics at Hong Kong’s The Upper House hotel. “I felt really empty and wasn’t satisfied at all. I was feeling super unfulfilled.”

Now 31, Thun is crushing it as a successful financier who manages her own securities brokerage. Crackling with energy, she wears a moss-green jumpsuit that ties around the waist. Yellow gold bangles light up her wrists alongside an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Openworked Double Balance Wheel. It’s hard for me to believe that Thun, who is so sweet and self-assured, is the same woman that she describes from 2012. “In that very moment, as I sat there in that car, I made a mental note to always remember that buying things won’t make me happy. And that I can live without all that extra stuff.”