LIVING ART

Patek Philppe’s Watch Art Grand Exhibition in Singapore reveals far more than a few superlative timepieces

- ASHOK SOMAN

Watchmaking is a living art, which is all too easy to forget given that a certain breed of watch collector focuses obsessively on supply and demand. There is an obvious reason for this. To some, the only watches worth buying are those with built-in demand because the companies making these watches cannot keep up with the market. Consequently, such watches typically become worth more than their weight in gold, even if they are cased in steel. They are lusted after by people who haven’t the faintest clue why these objects are so coveted, which indirectly leads to higher prices in the pre-owned market. Clearly this is not a recipe for long-term success, and this brings us back to the living art part.

Patek Philippe is certainly a blue-chip watchmaker that ticks all the right boxes for collectors. A Patek Philippe watch projects and protects wealth, while also functioning as a sign of impeccable taste. Such a watch – whatever it is – is sure to be highly sought-after while being in short supply. Also in short supply are the rare handcrafts that Patek Philippe regularly deploys in some of its high-end pieces such as Ref. 5089 (wood marquetry on time-only Calatravas) and Ref. 5088 (hand-engraving and champlevé enamelling on time-only Calatravas and also Golden Ellipses). These are the sorts of watches that embody the living art of watchmaking, but I’m skipping ahead a few beats.