Bernard Cheong | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | April 10, 1958 |
| Nationality | Singaporean |
| Occupation | Physician |
| Known for | Watch collector |
| Title | CEO, Lifeline Medical Group |
| Spouse(s) | Dolly Ong |
| Children | 2 daughters |
Bernard Cheong (born April 10, 1958) [1] is a Singaporean physician and watch collector.
Cheong became a medical doctor in 1982 after receiving a degree in medicine and surgery from NUS in Singapore. His earlier days were spent practicing medicine in hospitals in Singapore, and India. He subsequently became a specialist medical officer in emergency medicine, orthopaedics, paediatrics, and internal medicine before he resigned to set up his own firm. In 1987, he founded Lifeline Medical Group (YTL Community), which he expanded into one of Singapore's five largest medical groups during his twenty-three years as CEO and partner. [2]
Cheong began watch collecting in 1973, when his parents gave him a Flyback Seiko Chronograph. [3]
Cheong often writes about his support of innovative, unique and controversial watches, and has claimed to have helped to bring many of them into the mainstream. Ever since he was young, he has chosen the path less travelled in watch collecting. When he was 23, he bought his first watch, an Omega Seamaster Titanium, while his friends opted for Rolex Submariners. His interest and passion in esoteric watches, and collecting them are thought to have evolved out of his "fascination with photography, cinema history and architecture". [4]
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, as Cheong grew his business, he expanded his watch collection, particularly those of academic and cultural relevance. In 1993, he directed his attention to marine chronometers and military clocks from 1940 to 1945, and in the following year, trained himself with a focus on pocket watches and their historical significance. His close friendships with innovative watchmakers, such as Rolf W. Schnyder, Vianney Halter, Maximilian Büsser, and the late Gunther Blumlein, in his early years of collecting gave him an unusual heritage of connections deep within the watch industry.[ citation needed ]
Cheong also gained attention in the watch community through sharing his insights and perspectives online. For years he has exchanged thoughts and opinions with manufacturers and other collectors on websites such as WatchProSite, ThePuristS, and Horomundi Horology-Switzerland. Cheong was part of the first team of unpaid Internet columnists in Timezone.com, and thePurists.com. [3]
Cheong writes syndicated monthly columns translated into nine languages in twelve countries. [2]
Since 1998, Cheong has regularly been invited to speak at financial conferences about wristwatches as portable assets. He was well rewarded for his work of investing in innovative and obscure brands, which later became mainstream and increased in value, such as his Panerai collection. He reportedly finds watches to be much more promising, lasting and meaningful investments than wines, cars or jewelry. [5] Subsequently, he has been sought after by watch collectors, connoisseurs, reviewers and investors to name the "next new wave". His focus on investing and sometimes vague connections to the watchmaking industry are however not always well-received within the collectors community, for example causing many stirs on the well-respected PuristPro forums. [6]
In April 2008, investigative French journalists from Economie LeHepDo Paris described Cheong as one of the hidden influences in an already highly covert industry. He was to become part of the formative committee of the Grand Prix Haute Horology in Asia, and later a juror in the Geneva GPHH. [2]
A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their parts, by hand. Modern watchmakers, when required to repair older watches, for which replacement parts may not be available, must have fabrication skills, and can typically manufacture replacements for many of the parts found in a watch. The term clockmaker refers to an equivalent occupation specializing in clocks.
IWC International Watch Co. AG, doing business as IWC Schaffhausen, is a luxury Swiss watch manufacturer located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Founded by American watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones in 1868, IWC has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group since 2000.
Omega SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Founded by Louis Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1903, the company was originally known as Louis Brandt et Frère - Omega Watch & Co. In 1982, the company officially changed its name to Omega SA, which is currently a subsidiary of the Swiss Swatch Group. Omega opened its museum to the public in Biel/Bienne in January 1984.
Patek Philippe SA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer founded in 1839, located in Canton of Geneva and the Vallée de Joux. Since 1932, it has been owned by the Stern family in Switzerland. Patek Philippe is one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world with an uninterrupted watchmaking history since its founding. It designs and manufactures timepieces as well as movements, including some of the most complicated mechanical watches. The company maintains over 400 retail locations globally and over a dozen distribution centers across Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania. In 2001, it opened the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.
Vacheron ConstantinSA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer founded in 1755. Since 1996, it has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group. Vacheron Constantin is the oldest Swiss manufacturer and one of the oldest watch manufacturers in the world with an uninterrupted watchmaking history since its foundation in 1755. It employs around 1,200 people worldwide as of 2018, most of whom are based in the company's manufacturing plants in Canton of Geneva and Vallée de Joux in Switzerland.
A. Lange & Söhne is a trademark of Lange Uhren GmbH, a German manufacturer of luxury and prestige watches. The company was originally founded by Ferdinand Adolph Lange in Glashütte, Germany in 1845. The original A. Lange & Söhne was nationalized and ceased to exist in 1948, following the occupation by the Soviet Union after World War II. The current A. Lange & Söhne trademark was re-registered when Lange Uhren GmbH was founded in 1990 by Walter Lange, the great-grandson of Ferdinand Adolph Lange.
In horology, a tourbillon is an addition to the mechanics of a watch escapement to increase accuracy. It was developed around 1795 and patented by the French-Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet on June 26, 1801. In a tourbillon the escapement and balance wheel are mounted in a rotating cage, in order to negate the effects of gravity when the timepiece is stuck in a certain position. By continuously rotating the entire balance wheel/escapement assembly at a slow rate, the tourbillon averages out positional errors.
Girard-Perregaux SA is a luxury Swiss watch manufacture with its origins dating back to 1791. Since 2011, the Swiss holding group of Girard-Perregaux, Sowind Group, has been a subsidiary of the French Kering Group. Headquartered in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, the company opened the Girard-Perregaux Museum near its headquarters in Villa Marguerite in 1999.
Le Petit-Fils de L.-U. Chopard & Cie S.A., commonly known as Chopard, is a Swiss manufacturer and retailer of luxury watches, jewellery and accessories. Founded in 1860 by Louis-Ulysse Chopard in Sonvilier, Switzerland, Chopard has been owned by the Scheufele family of Germany since 1963.
Audemars Piguet Holding SA is a Swiss manufacturer of luxury mechanical watches and clocks, headquartered in Le Brassus, Switzerland. The company was founded by Jules Louis Audemars and Edward Auguste Piguet in the Vallée de Joux in 1875, acquiring the name Audemars Piguet & Cie in 1881. The company has been family-owned since its founding.
The National Watch and Clock Museum (NWCM), located in Columbia, Pennsylvania, is one of a very few museums in the United States dedicated solely to horology, which is the history, science and art of timekeeping and timekeepers.
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie (DGC), today is an organization of scholars, collectors and enthusiasts in Germany interested in the science, art and history of horology.
The Antiquarian Horological Society, abbreviated to AHS, is the UK-based learned society for scholars and enthusiasts of horology. Its administrative office is at 4 Lovat Lane, a listed building close to the Monument, in the City of London. In early 2016, the Society appointed Dr Patricia Fara of Clare College, Cambridge as its new president, following the untimely death of its previous president Professor Lisa Jardine. The Chairman is Dr James Nye.
Manufacture Jaeger-LeCoultre SA, or simply Jaeger-LeCoultre, is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer founded by Antoine LeCoultre in 1833 and is based in Le Sentier, Switzerland. Since 2000, the company has been a fully owned subsidiary of the Swiss luxury group Richemont.
Greubel Forsey is a Swiss watchmaking company specializing in complicated, high-end timepieces.It was launched in 2004 by Robert Greubel and Stephen Forsey and is based in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.
Gallet (ˈgæl.eɪ) is a historic Swiss manufacturer of high-end timepieces for professional, military, sports, racing, and aviation use. Gallet is the world's oldest watch and clock making house with history dating back to Humbertus Gallet, a clock maker who became a citizen of Geneva in 1466. The Gallet & Cie name was officially registered by Julien Gallet (1806–1849) in 1826, who moved the family business from Geneva to La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Prior to this date, operations commenced under the name of each of the Gallet family patriarchs.
Richard Mille is a Swiss luxury watch company founded in 2001 by Dominique Guenat and Richard Mille, and based in Les Breuleux, Switzerland. The brand specialises in luxury watches.
Lang & Heyne is a manufacturer of luxury wristwatches based in Dresden, Germany.
Hodinkee, stylized as HODINKEE, is a New York City-based watch website, known as an influential editorial and e-commerce site for new and vintage wristwatches. Founded in 2008, the name comes from the Czech and Slovak word for wristwatch, “hodinky”.
Ludwig Oechslin is an Swiss watchmaker, designer and inventor.
Media related to Bernard Cheong at Wikimedia Commons