The Singapore watch brand founder producing award-winning watches

For a country only a smidge larger than Switzerland’s Lake Geneva, Singapore punches well above its weight in the global horological landscape. For starters, it’s one of the top markets for luxury timepieces – in the first half of 2024, the city-state was the fifth biggest market for Swiss watch exports.
In 2023, global powerhouse LVMH chose to showcase its LVMH Watch Week novelties at Capella Singapore. In October 2024, the IAMWATCH expo, organised by retailer The Hour Glass, will bring together a litany of horological heavy hitters, including independent watch brands and the industry’s most influential minds.
And speaking of influence, not only does Singapore boast a thriving watch collecting community, but several Singaporeans hold prominent positions within influential organisations. Sitting on the advisory board of the Fondation Haute Horlogerie (FHH) are The Hour Glass’ Michael Tay, Revolution magazine founder Wei Koh and WorldTempus editor-in-chief Suzanne Wong.
The trio are also academy members of the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve (GPHG) and jury members of the Louis Vuitton Watch Prize (Tay was nominated as the inaugural jury president in Dec 2023). The latter also counts SJX Watches founder Su Jia Xian as a jury member.
Yet amid this flourishing landscape, there hadn’t emerged a high-end Singaporean watch brand until Benjamin Chee unveiled his eponymous label, Benjamin Chee Haute Horlogerie (BCHH), in 2019, with prices starting from CHF50,000 (S$76,000). The watches are produced, assembled and regulated by independent Swiss watchmaker Svend Andersen, who spent almost a decade working at Patek Philippe in the 1970s.
To be clear, Singapore is home to homegrown brands like Azimuth, Boldr, Vilhelm, Zelos and others, but their offerings are typically more accessible, with only a rare handful of watches from Azimuth crossing the S$10,000 mark.With BCHH, Chee, 39, is determined to wrestle a position for Singapore in the high watchmaking stakes, noting that “With the Celestial Voyager Singapore edition, we quite literally put Singapore on the map”. But perhaps more significantly, he has received three nominations at the GPHG – known as the Oscars or the Olympics of watchmaking – for the Celestial Infinity astronomical clock in 2022, the Celestial Voyager “Arctic Sunrise” in 2023, and the Celestial Voyager “Sakura” in 2024.
Chee is also the founder of two other brands, Celadon – a line of high-quality Chinese watches – and Millechron, a vintage line inspired by designs from the Art Deco and mid-20th century periods. Together, he expects the three brands “to cross the US$10 million [mark] in annual revenue soon”, thanks to healthy demand from markets Singapore, Hong Kong, the US, Europe and the Gulf. “I have people who spend mid-six digits US dollars with me,” he quips.
It might seem that Chee is riding high for the moment, but success didn’t come easy. He spent almost a decade “labouring in the darkness”, with profits being funnelled back into the business. It wasn’t until his collaboration with Andersen that he received recognition, as well as “some good feedback and good sales”.
FROM LAWYER TO BUSINESS OWNER
The son of a venture capitalist father and gynaecologist mother, Chee was originally destined for a life as a legal eagle, having trained in law at University College London.
“When I graduated, I had a law training contract lined up at one of the largest firms in Asia, and a spot to read my Masters in Law at one of the top universities in the world. But after interning at several law firms both in London and Singapore, along with trying out several other industries, I still didn’t feel any great passion for any of them,” he explained. He added: “I’ve always been of the firm belief that you can only create your best work when you truly love and feel deeply proud of what you do.”
In his final year of law school, Chee started designing and commissioning his own bespoke cloth with English and Italian fabric mills, mostly to create his own clothing. He would then sell the remaining fabric to classic menswear enthusiasts. It sparked an idea: What if he could create his very own watch?
He had already caught the watch appreciation bug from his collector father, who gifted him his first mechanical watch, a Porsche Design Titan Chronograph Moonphase by IWC, in 1999, when he was 14. But with no knowledge of, or contacts in, the watch industry – let alone a business background – Chee was at a loss as to where to begin.
It was the online watch forum WatchUSeek where he found sanctuary. There, he learnt about Chinese watches, which he had never even heard of before. Immersing himself in the online community, he shared that he was designing his own watch – the Celadon – and asked for feedback. He had some positive response, with enthusiasts contacting him to ask for pricing details and availability. That was all the encouragement he needed.
INTO THE HOROLOGICAL MULTIVERSE
In 2012, with a starting capital “in the mid-five digits”, Chee’s journey into the horological multiverse began. His first Celadon watch – the Celadon Imperial – was produced by the Beijing Watch Factory, the prototype of which he showcased at the inaugural Watches & Wonders trade fair in Hong Kong in Sep 2013.
Chee went not as an exhibitor but as a guest of another high-end watch brand. With the watch strapped to his wrist, he attracted positive comments from collectors, buyers, brand executives and the media.
Buoyed by the response, he attempted something even more ambitious the following year: To produce a high-end Chinese watch that would celebrate five millennia of Chinese civilisation. He failed.
“Starting a [high-end] Chinese brand was obviously a very counterintuitive brand back then, because everyone wanted to produce watches in China but label it as Swiss. I was producing watches in China and labelling them as Chinese. Everyone thought I was crazy,” he shared. Getting investors on board wasn’t an option, as the business model didn’t seem viable. In any case, Chee wanted to chart his own direction.
“As a total outsider to the watch industry, and indeed to business as a whole, I had completely no industry knowledge or business expertise when I first began. I had to learn practically every area of business from scratch, on my own, and it certainly wasn’t easy, but it was a challenge that I truly appreciated.
“Apart from that, not having any investors or base of capital apart from my own savings and taking personal loans, I was continually stressed financially for the better part of a decade, but this allowed me to learn how to manage cash flow well. It was very difficult with an undertaking as ambitious as building a high horology brand from scratch from a continent away from Switzerland where all the suppliers are located. But this has made me more resourceful, and has made the resulting accomplishments more satisfying,” he said.
Likening his entrepreneurial journey to that of Singapore’s own historical narrative, he offered: “I personally think that the Singapore story is one of entrepreneurism – a small upstart nation with no inherited resources charged with the immediate, existential imperative of building her future from scratch, surrounded by unfriendly behemoths, and using all her resourcefulness, hard work and determination to achieve the seemingly impossible.
“Like my homeland, I started my journey with almost no resources apart from myself, and I continuously compete with billion-dollar brands with centuries of history and accumulated knowledge, and legions of staff. The way I’ve succeeded is to complement instead of compete head-on with them, and to build a symbiotic relationship with the large brands.”
BRANCHING OUT
Today, those early struggles have borne fruit. His first brand, Celadon, now has two lines: The Haute Horlogerie line (Celadon HH) and a more entry-level collection, Celadon CL. Chee’s intention is for the latter to serve as a jumping-off point for enthusiasts looking to collect high-quality Chinese watches.
Prices for Celadon HH start at US$15,000 (S$19,560) and comprise metiers d’art pieces alongside technical complications such as regulators and jumping hours. These features are paired with finely finished bespoke movements. Celadon HH watches are produced entirely by independent Chinese watchmaker Lin Yong Hua.
As for Celadon CL, prices range between US$2,000 and US$10,000, and come with simpler decorated dials. These are fitted with workhorse movements. However, enamel dials for both Celadon HH and Celadon CL are produced in Beijing by grandmaster Xiong Songtao, a third-generation heir to the family that were once imperial enamellers in the Forbidden City.
Next came Millechron, a brand that Chee describes as “a throwback to vintage designs of the Art Deco and mid-century periods, remixed with modern improvements both technical and stylistic”. Prices for this brand, which was launched in 2018 and produced in Switzerland, range from CHF 2,000 (US$2,372; S$3,093) to CHF 20,000.
The following year witnessed the birth of Chee’s flagship brand, BCHH, which now counts three collections: Celestial (elegant dress watches), Sovereign (sporty) and Stratosphera (futuristic). “BCHH was borne from my vision to create sleek and futuristically elegant watches and other horological art with innovative and exceptional complications, coupled with traditional finishing of the highest quality,” he explained.
BRINGING SOMETHING NEW TO THE TABLE
When deciding how to position a new watch creation, Chee looks at the prospective timepiece through the lens of both a collector and a businessman. “I make it a point to bring something novel and unique that the watch world has never seen before.”
The watches are still produced in small numbers at this stage, with the combined annual production in the dozens to hundreds for BCHH, Celadon HH and Millechron. For Celadon CL, quantities are now in the thousands.
The fact that his watches are priced at a lower premium than those of big brands stands him in good stead. He is able to do this because he doesn’t spend on marketing or retail; instead preferring to sell directly to his customers via forums and social media, relying on word-of-mouth to fuel growth.
“I enjoy this as it allows me to better know my watch owners. Many of them have also become close friends over the past decade. I have people who spend mid-six digits US dollars with me. They like buying a lot of watches. They buy for their friends and family or their companies. I get a lot of repeat customers, and they also tell their friends,” he shared.
Earning the GHPG nomination, he says, was a landmark moment in his journey. “The Grand Prix is the highest award in the global watchmaking industry, and we are the first and only Singaporean brand to achieve any nomination, let alone two. I couldn’t be more proud of this achievement, which I of course credit also to my partners in Andersen and Alessandro Rigotto,” he said. Rigotto is the master clockmaker who crafted the movement and body of the Celestial Infinity astronomical clock.
“We were nominated alongside Louis Vuitton, Chopard, Dior, Gucci and IWC in 2023, so as the only brand from Asia, it’s unbelievably gratifying. We are also one of only three brands in the world, together with Van Cleef & Arpels and Alain Silberstein, to have ever been nominated for both watch and clock categories.”
ON THE HOROLOGICAL HORIZON
At present, Chee is in talks with the owners of a luxury hotel in Sentosa to display the Celestial Infinity astronomical clock. The futuristic looking contraption depicts the star map of the night sky over Singapore, with more than 400 diamonds serving as the “stars”.
He is also working on several new launches, including the Celadon Calibre 4414 jumping hours, a watch made in honour of his late dog Chestnut. It will feature an enamel dial with Chestnut’s likeness on it. Then there is the Sovereign minute repeater, which is a sporty repeater with a futuristic design, a departure from the typical classically styled repeater watches.
“When I first started Celadon in 2012, there were no other watch brands doing what I was doing, creating watches proud of their Chinese heritage. There were Chinese brands for sure, but they tended to have a derivative design language and neglected the traditional, native designs of the past, which I felt was a shame.
“My vision was, and is, to create Chinese watches of the highest quality, with no compromises, reflecting an indigenous, original and charismatic design language exemplifying the 5,000 years of China’s illustrious history and culture. I firmly believe that in the next five to 10 years, and in the decades thereafter, proudly Chinese watches will be the next big focus for the watch industry, and Chinese high horology will be among the world’s great watchmaking traditions, deservedly so.
“My hope is for Singapore to not just be a consumer of high horology, but also a creator, and I think that with the Celestial Infinity and Celestial Voyager, we have begun to accomplish this dream.”