My Horological Collection Preview

The rosewood display cabinet in my room is currently 60% filled with watch-related stuff. I have magazines, watch catalogs, souvenirs, watch boxes and stacked watch trays.

Check out my cosy Horological corner!

I bought these Cartier-like watch display trays to keep my ladies watches and some "pending sale" items. It took me some effort to convince an old watchmaker to part with some of his own.

This is an Ermenegildo Zegna silk tie made for Patek Philppe for 2007.

This is a NOS Rolex organiser in the classic green Rolex leather.

This is a souvenir from the OMEGA Speedmaster 50th Anniversary launch party. I don't own an Omega yet, but the first on my list will be the Speedy Pro (the original Moonwatch).

Another holy grail on my wish list is the ROLEX Sea Dweller. I find her to be a rugged tool watch. Well, I don't dive but I do appreciate the Sea Dweller as this is a watch design that has lasted through the decades (as seen in Revolution - The Evolution of the Rolex Sport Watch).

I recently had a mega sale of my used watch boxes. This exercise was to raise funds for the purchase of another make of watch boxes. Before the new batch arrived, my clothes drawer became my watch drawer. Take a look at the MESS, an organized mess I mean.

Now that you have seen the mess and I have sorted out most of my stuff, I will begin to slowly introduce my humble collection of timepieces in the next few posts. Stay tuned for more!

a BALL pen

I received this gadget from Ball distributor Singapore when I pointed out that a particular forum has a post which is not very friendly to their brand.

It is a pen with a light source at the top. By pressing one of the two buttons, the source will emit normal flourescent white light or UV light.

I especially like the UV as it charges up my watch lume very fast. Also a good gadget to have handy when checking the lume power of watches.

Thank you Ball Singapore.

Ball Fireman Ionosphere Chronograph

This Ball Fireman Ionosphere Chronograph was a gift from Dad's overseas friend. As I am not yet into this brand, I have decided to put it up FS at 40% off RRP!!??.

Hopefully from the sale, I can pull the trigger on an Oris BC3 Chronograph.

Our country's Great Singapore Sale is ongoing currently but sadly, there are still no takers for this BNIB watch.

But I am confident it will be sold off soon. So much confidence I actually packed the watch and remind myself everyday to make the sale happen!

As I look at this watch, I recalled that it was one of my shortlisted brands together with the Tag Heuer. Guess I still cannot warm up to the "gas tubes" technology. But I do not mind having the Ball Chronometer Cleveland Express and the Cannonball series into my collection.

Maybe later.

You know you are a Seiko-lunatic

when you have a Seiko wall clock in the living room...


and in the master bedroom...


but somehow you wake up by a Citizen manual winding alarm clock?!?!




Thanks to Yeoman who posted in his blog about the Citizen alarm clock. I did not expect the alarm clock to be so compact and cute!

For Him & For Her

Now restored to mint condition, here are the Rolex my father and mother once worn some 20 years ago.

This is my sister's Datejust Engine-tuned bezel. She bought this in Copenhagen and has kindly allowed pictures.

Some Restored Rolex

Recently, my father gave me his beaten Rolex Datejust. My mother has a spoilt Rolex Ladies. My uncle had earlier gave me his spoilt Rolex Precision 6694 too.

And so I brought them for a complete overhaul to return life to them. The "surgeon" in charge of the operation is Mr. Goh from K2 Watch Co @ Tg Katong Complex. Mr. Goh did a beautiful job in just 1 week! Thank you, sir!

Here are the "after" pics:

I also managed to snap a quick pic when Mr. Goh opened the caseback of the Datejust.


Now I add two Rolex to my humble collection of Seiko, Orient, Citizen and Oris!

A Russian Love Affair - CCCP Russian Navy

I thought it will be good to have at least one watch from Russia.

And so during my early trial days at TZ, I bought a Russian Hand-Winder and called her the CCCP Russian Navy. This was one of the first time I did Paypal online purchase! I could never forget the excitement receiving an overseas package.

The CCCP Russian Navy had a 35mm with jet black dial with Arabic numerals and a Red star. The silver hands were thin and the ticking of the movement was crisp. Till today, I never knew the meaning of the Cryllic wordings on the dial.
Even though she has been sold and is happily in someone else's watch collection, my desire for Russian timepieces remain.

Another Russian piece I once owned is this Poljot Alarm. It has a beautiful gold finished case and I thought it went really well with the black croc leather strap. The alarm function is fun to play with. It was some time after this Poljot been sold, that I picked up another very good condition Seiko Bellmatic. Mechanical alarm watches never fail to thrill!

I was at Red Army Watches @ Republic Plaza and was particularly interested in the Aviator and a pocket-watch convert (which I forgot the brand). They are selling in the range S$600+.

Maybe next time when funds permit, I will pull the trigger.

Flashback - How it all started...

I was then an engineer. A Civil & Structural engineer. Precision is key to the stability of structures. Precision is also key to me. I keep to time and it was time to own a watch, A Real watch.

Well of course, I was not wearing a toy watch then but a Casio quartz. It was a present from my sister. Today the battery is long dead and the Casio lays motionless in my drawer. But I never forget her as my first "decent-looking" watch.

Quartz is precise but somehow the power was generated by a battery; somehow it does not feel Real...

I then started reading some posts in Timezone.com. This marked the start of my interest into Horology & Mechanical Watches and this took me north to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2004. I travelled to KL to celebrate the New Year with my girlfriend but the hidden agenda was to buy a watch! KL is a treasure trove of watches - Seiko, Citizen, Orient at Sungei Wang, Chinatown etc, and of course many up-market brands at Times Square, KLCC etc.

In my mind, I had my eyes fixed on a Tag Heuer Carrera Automatic but ended up buying this Tissot Le Locle (originally in steel bracelet):


The Le Locle came in a very beautiful and large presentation box which I still keep till date. Together with her, I bought two quartz models (I think it is the PR50 Roman Numerals) which I gave to Mum and girlfriend.

As I go along, I come to realise I should be focused on just self-winding and hand-winding watches. But the same mistake was made again in the winter of 2005 in Japan where I purchased a Casio Solar Argent (solar-powered quartz):

Well alas, I finally sold the Argent. I guessed this should be my first and last puchase of a quartz watch. Ironically, the Citizen ECO Drive and Seiko 6M26 Auto Calendar are on my wishlist. Hmm...maybe it is also time to review the list!

My first automatic watch, my Tissot, is now my dress watch and I begin to love watches in leather especially as it brings out a class of their own. Here she is in brown leather:


And so this is the humble beginning to my hobby and interest into watches. I am more of a "Clean-dial" person than a "Complication-movement" person. The watches that catch my eye are simple, evergreen and timeless designs. I am more of a "Classic" (not boring, mind you!) guy.

Maybe this is inherent in me and this charted my direction in the design of the watches I collect.

The purpose of kymwatchlog is to share what I have owned before / currently own in my watch boxes. My target is to document each and every small watch encounter I can remember since the days of my Tissot in 2004; as many watches have came, have gone, have stayed on...

Well, as I can only write at night and sometimes on weekends, so let's see how things unfold...

The time starts NOW.