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**taxico** · 23-09-12, 10:19 AM

SP

That was with the Rolex but if we can just look at this overall… we will come back and talk about some of the projects within Rolex. But what do you or somebody inside the watch business, how do you perceive and how do you account for the …Today you walk into any shopping mall and there are half a dozen watch shops selling watches anything from 20 dollars up to 120,000 dollars and beyond. What‟s happened there? How has Singapore gone from one extreme – from the very cheap watches right up to what we see today?

JR

Well, it‟s actually not changed really. They always had these very expensive watches but you see I think you have to realise that you can have a brand which the average price is say 1,000 dollars. If you want to make the same model and put diamonds all round the bezel and cover the whole of the dial in diamonds, you could probably say the price becomes 40,000 dollars.

So it‟s a question of jewellery really. I must say that Rolex never bothered too much about fashion. And they never cared although they sell very expensive watches but they don‟t get too excited about the jewellery side of it. We have them. Very often these very wealthy people will say, “What is the most expensive watch you have?” Rolex would say something like, “Look, just tell us what you want and we will make it for you. We will make a watch with …You like emeralds, you could have emeralds all round the bezel, you could have a Pave dial with diamonds and you could have a bracelet like this one or that one. We can make a watch for 300,000 Singapore dollars”.

So they do have these very expensive items and we used to sell quite a lot of them. But of course the movement of the watches is the same and it‟s the same watch, it is jewellery really. It‟s just adding jewels to them.

SP

Add in the surface. So when you look at the competition, because when you started out there was Rolex, you mentioned Omega was around too. What were they like to compete with?

JR

I would say that Omega was quite strong in the ‟50s, then when …

SP

Who dealt with Omega? Were they an independent company or …?

JR

It was a Sri Lankan - B P De Silva. The owner of it was a Sri Lankan. And they did quite well but they suffered during the …When Seiko commenced its expansion, lots of Swiss companies went down the drain, they couldn‟t compete. And the big companies like Omega were asked to help out. They took over these companies and tried to incorporate their own production into the Omega factory.

And for a time they had a lot of problems with that. They had a much too big production because they were literally taking over companies and putting the Omega production line into these factories. And they were not doing a very good job and they had a lot of quality problems and so on. So they lost ground in those years. It probably took them 15 years before they recovered from that. Now, I think they are probably doing much better.

But I think they still have some difficulty. They are neither one thing nor another; they don‟t have the sort of quality image that Rolex has. But I think they are doing better, I think they are.

SP

And what other companies were around at that time; the names that we‟d recognise today?

JR

If you take these names like Patek Philippe which is a highly respected company making very high quality watches. Many people say, “Oh, they are better than Rolex,” and so on. But of course I think it is pointless to compare because Rolex makes a very solid watch which it sells at a very high price and it sells in great quantities. The Patek Philippe – their production is tiny in comparison. So although they make beautiful watches and they sell for high prices, they hardly sell anything.

SP

But you could say they are more exclusive in that respect.

JR

Yes, in a way you could say, you could say they have a certain cache because they are very, very respected.

SP

They were around even in the ‟50s?

JR

They‟ve always been around. Yes.

SP

Today there‟s a lot more that have come on the market and the other thing that I think you might have some insights into is, if you look at the kinds of watches. I am amazed when I researched and written watch stories, people show you watches, you wonder what on earth is going on. What is going on? Why aren‟t people just saying, “Here‟s a really good Rolex watch. It‟s going to last me a lifetime, worn for sports and so on.”

JR

Well, a lot of people do say that. We used to find… in Singapore you have these cycles which usually end up in a bust. Well, when it‟s the boom cycle, then the very wealthy people, they have already probably got four or five Rolex. So somebody says, “Try it. What about this, you haven‟t seen this one.” And they show them something very exotic with lots of jewellery on it and so on and so forth. And they say, “How much is it?” “50,000 dollars”. “Okay, I will try it.”

Well, then suddenly the market collapses and the people who stock those unknown brands, they are in a panic state. They don‟t know what to do with the stock and how to get rid of it. They have got a few million tied up in those things. But of course if they have a Rolex, they don‟t care because they know they can always sell it eventually.

SP

And they recognise that, some business people.

JR

They know that. Yah.

SP

What was the business culture like in Singapore during the ‟70s and ‟80s when you were with Rolex? Because you were travelling a lot, what was your role and how was Rolex operating in the region?

JR

We were always asked by Rolex to maintain a very strong relationship with our watch dealers and to visit them regularly. And to listen to their complaints or whatever; when they used to have problems, they would be the first people to tell you. You have a new model or something and there‟s some small error with it or problem with it. If you go around and you talk to them, they will tell you straightaway about these things. You have to report them and you get the answer to it - the solution.

I think one of the very important things we did was the service. We had a wonderful service. And it used to be such that some customers, difficult customers would say, “I want my watch sent back to Switzerland.” So alright, we‟d say, “Right, we will send it back to Switzerland.” It goes back to Switzerland. Instead of taking three weeks to service. I don‟t know how long it takes now but in those days it might take three weeks in Singapore, [it] probably took three months in Switzerland. And instead of costing say 100 dollars in Singapore or 50 dollars or whatever it costs, it would probably cost 300 dollars in Switzerland.

So that tended to cure them but it was the first… that was the top one. We were the second one then of course, to some extent there were certain parts which do need to be replaced once in a while. Like the winding crowns were always troublesome, they used to …

So we used to sometimes to supply our watch dealers, only our own appointed dealers that we trusted, we would supply them a few of these winding crowns. So they would have a watch maker who could on the spot put a new one in. And then we used to see… we used to have those watch makers from our dealers work in our workshop so we can see their standard and correct any faults that they had. And we used to send our own staff to Switzerland for a few weeks training, to bring them up to date or if there was a new model or new movement coming.

So service was very, very high on our list of priorities. We maintained that, we spent a lot of our time not to make money but to back up our sales.

--- irrelevant lines removed from transcript ---

SP

What else do you recall of those years with Rolex? I mean it was a good time and most people remember you as Mr Rolex, I think.

JR

Well, I mean you couldn‟t have a better chance than I had. It was an absolutely wonderful job. And not only was it rather well-paid but also they had such a …You know everything was surrounded with luxury and I remember when we bought the building, I had a…

(continued in the next post)

**taxico** · 23-09-12, 10:20 AM

SP

Yes, I was going to ask about that because it was Rolex House. You didn‟t actually build it, it was a building you took over?

JR

What happened was that the Chairman of Rolex, he was a great man. He used to come to Singapore and he said to me, “I am not very happy about the fact that we do not have our own building.” So he said, “I want you to go and buy a building. Now, I will tell you what you got to do. I am going to give you all the authority to do this. I will write you a letter when I get back, authorising you to go and buy that for Rolex. I want to be on the ground floor, it‟s got to be enough for all of our staff.”

SP

How many staff did you have at that time?

JR

Over a hundred. And he said, “See what you can do.” So after he had gone back I walked up and down Orchard Road, I decided it must be at Orchard Road. And I started to examine all the possibilities. And eventually the one that really attracted me had one big disadvantage. There were two companies occupying the ground floor; one of them was Patek Philippe and the other was Gucci, you see (laughter).

So I started to talk to the owners of the building and I said, “Look, if Rolex is here, it would really make the value of your building go sky high.”

SP

But you said you were going to buy the building outright? You were actually going to take …

JR

I mean to buy the building outright would have been impossible at that time because it had 20 floors or something. So although he said buy your own building, I realised it wasn‟t possible. But I talked to them and I said, “I would like to buy the ground floor and the first floor.” They didn‟t have at that time… the building wasn‟t divided into strata title. That was another problem. But anyhow the negotiations went backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards. Of course, they asked sky high prices and there was bargaining. And we bargained and we talked and met again and again and again. Until eventually they said, “Alright, you could have the first two floors.” So we signed on the dotted line and we bought it.”

SP

And how did you get the competition out?

JR

Well, they were on a lease so I went to see them and I said, “Look, I have to tell you we have bought this property that you are occupying. But you still have time on your lease. If you want to give it up immediately we will agree to that or if you want to wait for another 18 months when the lease expires, that‟s fine.” So that‟s what we did. One of them, Patek wanted to go out straightaway. I don‟t know why they did that. They were irritated, I don‟t know. Anyhow, they gave up straightaway and then Gucci wanted to stay on. And then we had a bit of problem with them in the end. But they had 18 months or so.

So eventually the place became ours and we bought the two floors and there are actually three or four floors.

SP

And it became renamed; it became known as Rolex House – that‟s how I remember it. Still is, in fact.

JR

No, I don‟t think he did it. Still called Tong Building. But we were offered that, we were offered the opportunity of calling it Rolex House. But they wanted us to pay for that. I think they wanted 50,000 dollars. Well, I put it to Geneva, I said, “If you want it, you can have it - 50,000.” But they said, “No, we don‟t want it.”

SP

But in fact it doesn‟t make much difference because everybody knows it is the Rolex Building.

JR

Well, everybody calls it Rolex Building, anyway.

SP

Yah, because that‟s the first thing you see when you walk past.

JR

And actually they did well because we bought three floors eventually. And the third floor I got it, I was just sitting in my office at lunchtime actually and the owner of the building came in and said, “Do you still want to buy the third floor?” So I said, “Why not.” So he said, “Alright, four million.” So I said, “No, no two million.” So he says, “3 million.” So [I said,] “Two and a half million.” “Okay.” So we just settled it.

SP

So basically you have those three floors pretty much in perpetuity. Is that how it works?

JR

Well, we own actually, I think now four floors.

SP

Four floors, okay.

JR

Yes, we have. It‟s freehold.

SP

So even if the building is torn down, you will still own the next four floors of… because buildings are coming down everywhere.

JR

Oh, no it can‟t come down so long as we are there. It can only come down if …or during my time, it could only have come down if over 50 percent of the owners wanted to go en bloc. But actually we got other Rolex dealers like Hour Glass to move their offices in there as well. So they always voted with us because they don‟t want to upset us (laughs).

--- irrelevant lines removed from transcript ---

end of transcript

**taxico** · 23-09-12, 10:35 AM

source: Collection of Oral History Recording Database, Oral History Centre, Singapore National Archives

http://cord.nhb.gov.sg/cord/

**Darkangel** · 23-09-12, 11:22 AM

I must say very good read on a nice sunday morning! Thanks for sharing bro

**t28** · 23-09-12, 03:33 PM

Yes, a good read, I love history! Thanks!

**R-oyster** · 23-09-12, 07:39 PM

A good historical perspective of Rolex Singapore. Thanks.

**Ken3** · 23-09-12, 11:16 PM

V good read indeed...

on a side note: while queueing @M1 shop for my iphone today.. saw 1 of the RSC staff & she recognised me... think i pop by RSC too often liaoz..

**clemo** · 24-09-12, 02:50 PM

Thanks for the post, such a nice read.

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