A Wrist to Watch

A chat with WatchBox co-founder Tay Liam Wee gave Tatler an insight into the life and times of a die-hard watch lover and collector who has brought some of the most discerning independent watchmakers to Asia from Europe 

- Amrita Katara

Sixteen years ago, Tay Liam Wee sold his family-owned, multi-brand luxury watch retail chain Sincere Watch, which was originally founded by Tay Boo Jiang in 1954, to Hong Kong-based watchmaker and retailer Peace Mark. With haute horlogerie in his veins, Wee went on to co-found another platform in the luxury watch landscape: enter WatchBox. “Danny Govberg, Justin Reis—who is now our CEO—and I started out as co-founders of WatchBox,” says Wee. While Reis came from a private equity background, Govberg and Wee had over three decades of luxury watch experience each, and had earned the title of industry veterans. The new platform aimed at digitising the watch collecting experience. However, the curation of collectible luxury timepieces can also be viewed in person at the brand’s collector’s lounges. “Sometimes it’s your grandfather’s watch or it’s a gift from your father, so we realised that each watch is special. So, in 2016, we launched an e-commerce platform for watch lovers where they could buy, sell or even buy back their favourite timepieces,” he says.

On the day Wee spoke with Tatler, WatchBox had hosted a 100piece exhibition in its Hong Kong lounge on Duddell Street honouring two independent watchmakers, or “living contemporaries”, as Wee refers to them: FP Journe by François-Paul Journe and De Bethune by Denis Flageollet. The watches went on tour, appearing in WatchBox’s collector’s lounges in Singapore, Shanghai and Dubai.