I own a Bell & Ross BR-92 which cost me nearly 6K. Many years on, the watch is pretty much worthless. It depreciates like mad. I had offer for it at 1.5K last year and man, that sucks big time. Anyways, it now relegates its life on a watch winder. Luxury watches, other than true vintages or Rolex, are pretty much shit investment. Period. So why even buy one? Well, you don’t – if you are in Singapore because a startup called Acquired Time is here to help.
In simple terms, Acquired Time is a luxury watch rental company, or in today’s context, it is a luxury watch sharing company, or for the sake of sophistication, you can call it a watch subscription club. It is like the Reader Digest of watches, except that you don’t it. It operates on the same basis as rental, or if you will, sharing services. You subscribe to a tier, pick the watch of your fancy, and wear it for a month. When the month’s up, you repeat all over again.
In the process of realizing your desire to wear your dream watch, you also get to “test-drive” it to see if you really like it on your wrist. If you do like it, you can buy the watch. However, if you prefer to swap watches every month, you can choose to pick up a subscription only plan. The boon here is not only about the ability to keep changing pricey timepieces; but also it is relatively inexpensive to do so. In fact, it cost as little as S$6 (US$4.40) a day to sport a watch like the Rolex Submariner which, btw, costs about S$18,000 (about US$13,000) in Singapore.
Acquired Time is not alone in this, though. As it turns out, the tiny island state has not one, not two, but three luxury watch sharing companies. As to why this many watch rental companies for a country with just 5.8 millions people? Well, you see, many Singaporeans are head over heel with luxury watches, but the high prices have prevented many from committing to this expensive hobby and therefore, watch sharing seems like an affordable way into this hobbies, albeit you don’t actually own the watches. At least, you won’t bear the blunt of depreciation like I have experienced.
As far as Acquired Time is concerned, the company offers a variety of luxury watch brands, including Audemars Piguet, Rolex, Hublot, IWC, Panerai, Tudor, Omega, Cartier, Chanel and Chopard. If you are keen, you can learn more about Acquire Time on the company’s official website.
Images: Acquired Time.
Source: Yahoo!
