Time is wealth for watch-collector doc

Straits Times: Sun, Jun 17

Regarded in high society as a respected watch collector and expert, Dr Bernard Cheong has invested in timepieces since 1982 and has profited from this activity. Despite his success, however, the doctor still lives in the first house he bought, though he has renovated and extended the building, and he still goes to work at his Bukit Batok clinic. Dr Cheong, 54, owns more than 100 watches, including pieces from MB&F and his favourite brand De Bethune, as well as the more well-known brands like IWC. He is the first collector and non-watchmaking industry ambassador for the Swiss-based Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie. Money, he says, cannot be separated from one's life. 'Money talks, but not in the way you think. The language it speaks most, and where it conveys the most intent, is how you can make each dollar relevant. 'If you are the only person to spend, say, $2,000 on a promising but very small enterprise, you will make a huge difference. 'I see people with too much money. They either buy rubbish, feel insecure and name-drop, or overcompensate with ultra expensive luxury goods that are often the laughing stock of small dinner parties.' Dr Cheong, who runs for up to three hours every day, is a founding partner of the Lifeline Medical Group of general practitioner clinics. His wife Dolly, 51, is a financial controller with the group. They have two daughters - Patricia, 22, and Cheryl, 20. Q: Are you a spender or saver? I am a spender. Even when I save, I am saving with the approach of a spender. There was once in the 1980s when I wanted to know what $100,000 would look like, and to save it for a rainy day. I earned that $100,000 and it sure looked good in a briefcase, nicely stacked and all. But, before the rainy day ever came, I had spent it on a car. About 80 per cent of my money is invested in collectibles such as rare furniture and watches. I also buy rare comics, rare books and unknown watches with no brands. I have a deep belief in quality of life and sharing it with as wide a base around me as possible and my family. I also spend on education, even at my age. Education for a person almost always, without fail, delivers success. It may be money. It may be influence. But it will be profitable, and will lead to better lives. Never underestimate what a good school will do for your child. It's also about the network. Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards every month? I have credit cards, but I rarely use them. I carry cash with me. Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself? I have bought watches from visionary men, who thought that I must have a lot of money to spend buying the watches that they made then because no one else in the world was comfortable buying a $100,000 wristwatch in 1998. But I sincerely believed that they were there to show how watches can give hope to people who were unable to move from one social class to another, despite education and hard work. I wanted young people who had worked hard to have social mobility. I know how it feels to be looked down upon as a lesser person. So I drove myself to work, to pay for those watchmakers to put the watches on the market. The rest is history. From 1999 to 2012, the same watches now cost $300,000 to $450,000. Because watchmaking relies on artistry, artisan values and geek world's technology all at the same time, it was something I wanted to invest in. But it is very difficult to make money from watches. I will not recommend it for the faint-hearted. It would, however, bring you into a world of culture and you will begin to understand envy and how destructive it is. Anyway, I plan to not have any money left in my bank account on day zero. I want to give my children the money now, while I am alive, so there is no need to write a will. My parents have paid for two properties for my daughters, which are just walking distance from my place. If you have wealth, you have to have assets of some form, even if it's just a good collection of small toys. There's no point just holding on to a lot of cash. Otherwise, you can't enrich yourself. Q: Moneywise, what were your growing-up years like? I have a younger sister. My father was a school teacher and my mother was a nurse. As a child, my parents told me that I had ridiculously expensive tastes in things meant for old people. Q: How did you get interested in investing? When I realised that I was the poorest kid in primary school, I invested in a film camera. I then made a darkroom under the staircase of my house and went to the library and learnt how to develop photos. I was from Anglo-Chinese School and learnt in 1965 that my classmates used Rolleis, Leicas and Canons. It occurred to me that I could develop their films and make really good pictures for them, because it was hard to take pictures of yourself. I must have made tons of money from that. It lasted all the way to med school, when colour photos became the norm and I could not keep up with it. I learnt then that items that depend on technology for investment are bad. Watches, houses, art do not. I stuck to my belief even when the quartz watches came because they were highly tech-dependent, and soon, each would become outdated. I kept buying mechanical, and I was just a kid. History will show that watches came back, with a vengeance. People became highly nomadic as they became successful and the wristwatch became the item they could easily bring along from one country to another. Q: What property do you own? My one and only house in Hillview, which I bought 23 years ago. It cost me $800,000 then, plus maybe $90,000 more in interest. I have plans to expand it again. It will house my collections from travels and study, as well as be a home for my extended family. Similar homes in the neighbourhood now go for about $7 million. Q: What's the most extravagant thing you have bought? A brand new Mercedes SL 320 in 1993 for $430,000, to impress my friends. It was a totally silly thing to do, when I could barely afford it back then. I lost $100,000 after three years. Q: What's your retirement plan? The way I look at it, I am already retired. I am working as I like, when I like, which happens to be every morning. I don't need to work but if I don't work, I start to lose my friends. I also discovered that I really enjoy sitting in my clinic and the irony of it all is that this only comes after you have made enough money. I am already financially independent. How much money can you spend if you don't need to pay for a house and car? Q: Home is now... My very first home, where my kids were born, and where I brought my parents over to stay. It has a built-in area that exceeds 6,000 sq ft, with the potential to double to a built-in area of 12,000, and a pool where my kids grew up learning to swim. Our family dog was born here, lived to an old age, and was buried next to the pool. The house has history and incredible good fortune. Everything good comes into this house, no wealth has left it. Even the people who have visited this place, during the early days when watchmaking was not hot, they too have prospered into the big brands they have become. No matter how much more money I make, I want to be here. Q: I drive... A silver grey Porsche 911 Carerra, 2011, the very last of the model made before the one just launched. I plan to keep it forever, as it is me. I usually drive my 13-year-old two-door Toyota RAV 4 to work at the clinic because this car is also totally me. I plan to keep it forever too. [e-mail] Learning means success 'Education for a person almost always, without fail, delivers success. It may be money. It may be influence. But it will be profitable, and will lead to better lives.' - DR BERNARD CHEONG, who says that even at the age of 54, he continues to spend money on education WORST AND BEST BETS Q: What is your best investment to date? I sold a major collection, just once, and it was my Panerai collection. The brand first came to Singapore in 1997 and I bought one for $2,800. It had been in their inventory for half a year. I was sure it would become popular as it had all the design elements of greatness, so I went back and bought more than 100 pieces. It was a big risk. My wife would have killed me had she known about it. I kept the watches in a warehouse and forgot about them until 2007. I was surfing the Internet and found that the prices had risen by a lot. So I decided to keep four pieces and sell the rest at three major auctions, for about $8,000 each. Luck played a big role here, though. Had I not forgotten about the watches, I would have been tempted to sell early, maybe two years after buying them, and I would not have made more than 200 per cent profit. This was an exception as I have never really been tempted by making money. Q: What is your worst investment to date? I have bought things just so I could have 'the best' or 'the most expensive' and not because I liked them. In 2004, I bought a $150,000 tourbillon from FP Journe, even though I wanted another model. I just had to have it for 'boasting rights' but the price did not appreciate much and those in the resale market were going for $70,000 or less. In the end, I cut my losses and sold it in 2009 for $100,000, which was very fortunate as most others would have had to sell it at an even lower price. The buyer was a well-known personality in Hollywood. We had a mutual friend, who was an art dealer in New York. Source: The Straits Times