Focus on your domestic market, not foreign buyers: The Hour Glass’s Michael Tay
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Focus on your domestic market, not foreign buyers: The 60 minutes Glass'south Michael Tay
Every bit The Hour Glass celebrates turning the big 4-0, Group Managing Managing director Michael Tay ruminates over surviving ii fiscal crises, and how he feels about the current land of the lookout manufacture.
Michael Tay, Grouping Managing Managing director of The Hour Glass. (Photo: Mark Lee)
23 Nov 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 21 May 2022 04:52PM)
In a young nation similar Singapore, homegrown companies that have been effectually for decades are a chip of a rarity. That'south perhaps why The Hour Glass, which was founded in 1979, is pulling out all the stops to mark its 40th ceremony.
Its flagship store off Orchard Road, Malmaison by The Hour Glass, has been redesigned by JoAnn Tan Studio, a Milan-based firm specialising in window brandish, installations, scenography and fix pattern. The new – albeit temporary – refresh is an ode to Stanley Kubrick'south iconic retro-futuristic flick 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The refresh sets the stage for And so At present Beyond, an exhibition featuring special commissioned works past four renowned designers and contemporary artists addressing the beauty and essence of time. Information technology will run from November 24, 2022 until Jan 31, 2020.
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"The idea to have this themed exhibition came about two years ago," Michael Tay, The Hour Glass's Grouping Managing director since 2015, told CNA Luxury. He commencement joined the company in 1999 as its Business organisation Re-Engineering Manager, and has been its Executive Director since 2005; his parents Dr Henry Tay and Jannie Chan founded the visitor in 1979.
"Nosotros decided to leverage on our reputation as specialist watch retailers, to dig deep, to expand the cultural milieu of watchmaking arts, to locate contemporary watchmaking correct alongside gimmicky art and design," he elaborated.
Horology and fine art are twin passions of Tay'due south, and then it was a natural decision to commission works that fuse the two disciplines. Studio Wieki Somers' artwork Protrude Clock, for example, sees 2 beetles chase time around the age rings of a tree torso. It explores the increasing destruction of insect habitats through urbanisation.
A cuboid shaped clock by Nendo sees the clock's hands neatly overlap simply twice a day (at 12 o'clock), uniting the shape in its original appearance and signifying the resetting of the heed.
A bronze construction past Daniel Arsham (who oft collaborates with brands such as Rimowa and Dior) examines the constructions of fourth dimension and immortalises the form of the ancient time-telling device, the hour glass.
Marc Newson's Klepsydra reinterprets the ancient hour drinking glass, with 2.viii million metallic-dusted nanoballs trickling betwixt two interconnected crystal structures to provide accurate recordings of time.
"We commissioned Newson to produce a limited-edition series of hour spectacles to mark our 30th ceremony in 2009, so information technology seemed fitting to invite him back to exercise a limited edition collection of 10 Klepsydras for our 40th ceremony, particularly since he also designed other timepiece-related works earlier, for instance, Jaeger LeCoultre's Atmos clocks," said Tay.
Specially-commissioned commemorative watches from brands such every bit Audemars Piguet, Chopard, TAG Heuer and Ulysse Nardin will as well be on sale.
"We decided to leverage on our reputation as specialist watch retailers, to dig deep, to expand the cultural milieu of watchmaking arts, to locate gimmicky watchmaking right alongside contemporary art and design." – Michael Tay
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NO Residuum FOR THE WICKED
Despite The Hour Glass'south credible success, which includes representation of forty luxury brands such as Cartier, Hublot, Patek Philippe, Piaget and Rolex; and dozens of stores across the Asia-Pacific – Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Japan and Commonwealth of australia – Tay still feels information technology'due south non fourth dimension to rest on his honour.
"You know that quote by Jack Kerouac? 'When you get to the pinnacle of the mount, continue climbing'? To me, there'south never an stop in sight; there's no way one tin stop improving," said the cocky-confessed workaholic, who names his biggest learning experience equally the Asian financial crisis in 1997.
"Dorsum so, nosotros had a scattering of regular foreign clients who made very big purchases; half our concern was driven by them. When those clients faced difficulties, they stopped buying, which definitely impacted us," he recalled.
"I learned information technology'southward important to build and scale a business with a keen focus on the domestic clientele in each market we're in, and to diversify our client base. We besides needed to overhaul our retail setting and customer service – self-approbation had gear up in.
"And, even though our borrowings were nominal at that betoken, we still felt pretty intense pressure level from the banks. We besides endemic brands such equally Gerald Genta and Daniel Roth, which we've since divested. It was almost the perfect tempest for disaster. Only I believe we should e'er exist forging alee to continue creating our destinies. Mistakes will of course be made, but the point is just never to repeat them!"
"Y'all know that quote past Jack Kerouac? 'When you lot get to the top of the mountain, go along climbing'? To me, there's never an stop in sight; there'due south no way 1 tin stop improving." – Michael Tay
When the global financial crisis hit in 2008, Tay and his firm were more than gear up.
"One of my staff commented that there seemed to be a lot of froth on the market, given the style people seemed to exist spending so recklessly. That's the point I knew the chimera was going to flare-up – I didn't know when, but nosotros reduced debt and started to prepare for the downturn.
"When the economy went belly up, it caught anybody off guard except us. Between 2009 to 2012, we managed to negotiate excellent leases and went on an expansion spree. This help put us in a bully position for when the economy picked up again," he recalled.
As for the business firm'southward overarching strategy, Tay offered: "Our singular aim is to advance watch culture, to pursue qualitative growth. We don't demand to be the biggest, to make the most sales, to have the largest number of stores. What we aim for, is to exist the favoured and trusted place where customers know they're getting proficient service from knowledgeable watch experts, and feel welcome and at domicile when they visit u.s..
"In terms of online engagement, nosotros're non focusing on e-commerce, simply on providing quality content, with lots of storytelling, to engage and brainwash consumers, to push CRM, to get a better sense of our clients. What we do know is, for big-ticket items such as luxury timepieces, people nevertheless adopt to buy offline, even if they do a lot of prior research online."
"Nosotros don't demand to exist the biggest, to make the well-nigh sales, to have the largest number of stores. What nosotros aim for, is to be the favoured and trusted place where customers know they're getting good service from knowledgeable watch experts, and feel welcome and at abode when they visit us." – Michael Tay
THE Sentry INDUSTRY TODAY
In spite of ongoing U.s.a.-Communist china trade tensions and the crisis playing out in Hong Kong, Tay remains bullish near the current state of the scout industry.
"Nosotros're operating in a office of the world that's experiencing very stiff growth rates, seeing very peachy interest from a big and growing pool of immature watch enthusiasts. If you look at the Swiss luxury watch industry, 65 to 75 per cent of its products end up on Asian wrists.
"The 60 minutes Glass is poised to benefit from this trend… we're in a region where there'southward tremendous wealth creation, coupled with huge income disparities. That creates a tremendous need for status competition, and that's where sales of objects of prestige actually take off," he noted, adding that "scout enthusiasts are withal mainly men".
He observed that the idea of a "starter picket" has evolved. "Fifteen or 20 years ago, a contempo graduate might care for himself to his first squeamish watch with his first paycheque, and upgrade over the years in tandem with his annual bonus or a large promotion. These days, the bar seems to be set higher. People seem to be buying fewer watches, but buying better. And they seem to take it all planned out.
"Now, a recent graduate might spend up to four months' salary – not on a 'starter scout', but on a watch that'll be part of the drove he plans to aggregate over a lifetime. At that place's an 'always-on', 'instant gratification' approach, with people ownership watches when the whim hits them or when an eagerly-awaited model becomes bachelor."
And what of having grown up in a family that's been involved in the watch concern for this long? "Working [in the business organization], having a passion for [watches] and building my own collection of watches, I actually take to say that timepieces form the cadre of my being.
"I consider myself very, very fortunate that I'm in the business of watches, and I have a personal passion for them. Not many people get to love the products they deal with. For example, a guy who runs a waste product manufacturing constitute may love his business concern and his work, simply I doubt he gets to say he loves his products," he concluded.
"I consider myself very, very fortunate that I'm in the concern of watches, and I have a personal passion for them. Not many people get to love the products they deal with." – Michael Tay
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