STEALTH WINNERS

Our search for the next big thing enters its second year. Here are 10 contenders for future must-haves

- KELVIN TAN, ASAPH LOW AND ASHOK SOMAN

To be a collector is to always be on the hunt for that which others overlook. Well, that is part of it, and the part we will be exploring in this continuing series on watches that might well be worth keeping on your radar. So why does this story open with an image of a Japanese whisky, you might ask. Well, the world of whisky is defined by Scotch but, within the last 20 years, the Japanese first proved their worth against them, then bested them. You might see a parallel to watchmaking there, but that is up to you.

Now, Suntory may not have been surprised that the Yamazaki 18-Year-Old won top marks at the International Spirits Challenge in 2012 (mainly because it, and Nikka had been gaining positive notices since 2000), but it certainly did not anticipate how sought-after its spirits would become. In the supply crunch that followed, prices shot up. For example, a Yamazaki 50-Year-Old scored a record US$343,000 at a 2018 Bonhams auction in Hong Kong. The bottom line is this: if you are a connoisseur of whisky who understood the appeal of Japanese whisky early, when it was only for the domestic market, you might have found yourself with a pretty sweet collection.

Like you, dear reader, we like to think of ourselves as savvy, at least about timepieces; unlike most of you, our jobs depend on this, so it is not a small matter. I am sure that you always keep in mind that we are bringing you this magazine because it is in our commercial interests to do so. As you might imagine, this does lead to some conflicts for us, as it does for everyone else, whether at other traditional media houses or even on YouTube, where silliness is rewarded in a way that makes me envious. I assure you, we can be very silly indeed.