It is with great pleasure to welcome my good friend and a respected watch expert, Mr Su Jia Xian to be a guest blogger of WatchingHorology.com.

Jia Xian's handle is SJX and he is the moderator of the Daniel Roth Forum at ThePurists.com. Those who know SJX personally have discovered that his relative youth belies his maturity in the field of horology and he is respected by brand managers, authorised dealers and fellow collectors. I am sure that his participation here will be most welcomed by visitors here as he will give this blog a different perspective as well as covering other aspects of the industry which I am sure will be appreciated by fans of this blog. I personally look forward to his participation and information he will be sharing with us here.

Business Montres - a French magazine covering the watch industry recently conducted an interesting survey/poll about the management of watch businesses. It surveyed 75 key-journalists from 21 different countries giving their opinion on the best bosses in the watch industry. Many will find the results as unsurprising - at least for me - and my personal congratulations to all of them.

To read the report CLICK HERE (note that the report is in French only)

After managing to find a few spare hours I finally completed the post processing of the DB22 images. I was rather surprised how well the images turned out and in all fairness, the quality of the final published images are reflective of the quality of the watch in real life.

David Zanetta (the CEO of DeBethune shown above modeling the DB22 for me) shared with me that in the DB22 the manufacture of this particular titanium dial is very costly and almost as much as the movement itself. I do like the clever hands as well as the dial as they give DeBethune an altogether different look. Since 2005, DeBethune has embarked on the design and production of extreme timepieces, expanding from their earlier range of understated classic designs.

With the trend to extreme designs for watches, I am sure that DeBethune will succeed in capturing that segment of the market with these watches.

To view the photomontage of the DB22 CLICK HERE.

This weekend I completed photographing 4 incredible DeBethune watches. The DB21 (MaxiChrono), DB22 (Power), Digitale and DBS. Mr David Zanetta (CEO) and Mr Denis Flageollet ((Watchmaker) flew into Singapore with these four timepieces to host with the Hour Glass a dinner for collectors of the brand here in Singapore.

I became a fan of the DeBethune brand after photographing the DB15 Perpetual Calendar earlier and now having seen these foursome and spoken to Mr David Zanetta, I can now appreciate the direction of thier brand development and their style of delivering complications.

Over the next few weeks I will showcase each of these exquisite timepieces after I do justice at post processing the photographs. In the meantime, here are a few tease images to show what is in store.

The Loiste II is special for me because until now, its never been seen in Singapore. A watch that has great detail and quality that will shine out from the images you will see here. For me, I am convinced that Finnish watchmakers will one day be as well regarded as the top Swiss and English watchmakers of today. With the fame and quality of Kari Voutilainen's work, I think this will happen sooner than later. Stepan Sarpaneva comes from an altogether different philosophy of watch making but no less focussed in quality and originality. Do have a look at this movie montage and consider whether Sarpeneva deserves a wider audience.

(More information on this watch will be posted here later this week)

To view the movie, CLICK HERE.

Over this weekend I happily spent countless hours photographing and processing (finished only round one of editing out the unwanted images and just beginning to process the rest) my images of this rare never seen before in Singapore - Finnish watch by Stepan Sarpaneva. A young up and coming watch maker with a penchant for design. Here is the composite of the first images I completed. I expect to have the rest of the images and montages published within the week (time permitting of course).

This watch is a breath of fresh air for me. Imaginative case design, wonderfully original winding crown, northern and southern hemisphere moon phases. Hand made and assembled by Stepan Sarpaneva himself.

Wait till you see the case back. Yet another clever innovation. Come back soon to see it!

First, a Very Happy New Year to all visitors here!

I have been pondering for a few days since the new year started about what is in store this year for watch collectors and fans. Brands since last year changed their modus operandi and not let on what is in store at the coming Basel and SIHH fairs. So, one can only speculate what is new in store for this year.

Do I wish for another repeat of 2006 or something more? I think 2006 was a consolidation year for many brands and I suspect (looking at my proverbial glass ball) that a couple of brands will be announcing completely new calibres and movements (including a completely new Chronograph movement!) and I know that at least one new brand will be launched officially (Romain Gauthier) at Basel or SIHH events.

What I hope to see is that brands will return to the bread and butter of watch industry for eons - quality, quality and quality. Given that quality is a subjective measure, we know it when we see it. I was rather taken aback in 2006 how brands were releasing old designs in new colours and diamonds as well as releasing models that are over designed or garish/loud. I wonder when the Swiss watch industry will awaken to realise - they are not in the fashion industry.

The other worrying trend that many of my fellow collectors have complained is the rate of inflation of prices for Swiss watches. It is almost mechanical as to the rate and time when the prices of watches are being revised - upwards. Often explained due to demands from suppliers, exchange rates, cost of operations and manufacturing. Revision of prices downwards is a rarity (although that happened late last year for IWC albeit a small adjustment). So when I read the press release from Richemont (owner of many watch margues) on the Revolution site here: // REVOLUTION // Richemont Net Profit grew by 37% to Euro 371M (Press Release Excerpts) - I was totally surprised at the level of growth that company enjoyed. Not surprising though is that Richemont has posted record growths for some years already. It does make me wonder whether their capability to post record growths across their brands due to greater market share or due to the inflation of prices? I hope sooner than later that the manufacturers realise that there is a ceiling for price inflation - even for luxury goods - before collectors starts to consider alternatives for their hard earned money.

The good news this year is that Hour Glass Singapore will be hosting the Tempus II event in the third quarter! This long awaited event being the second after the very successful first run held two years ago. By all measures, it looks like it will be an even more exciting event than the first Tempus. It will be an exhibition of watches par excellence and I expect an even greater number of watch collectors from all over the world coming to the event that will have public forums, presentations and seminars in addition to the wonderful array of timepieces. More details about the event will be reported here when it is being released.

In addition to this event, I expect as in last year some exciting developments in the local scene to which I will endeavour to cover and share with you here. So, keep an eye out for more exciting horological offerings and more watch photography in 2007 here!