Visiting special watch stores... and getting a special watch

Hubby's passion in watches seems to be growing endlessly... yesterday, he had us both visiting non-mainstream stores that specialised in watches and related stuff. One is JW Horological Gallery, located at Great Eastern Centre, and the other's a small store named Big Time, along Sims Avenue near Aljunied, which also does watch wholesale business.

JW Horological Gallery's a cosy little store with a classy ambience (cos of the classical opera songs playing in the background) and several beautiful watches on display at wonderful discounts, with costs ranging from the tens to tens of thousands. What's special about it is also that it's got a little watchmaker's room/bench at the back of the store, and from the display window, you can take a peek at what's going on in there. JW stands for the owner's name -- John Wang, who's one rare soul in Singapore with watchmaking skills certified by ETA Swatch Group.

Big Time took us quite some time to get there by walking from Aljunied MRT Station, but after the troublesome walk through several alleys, streets etc. which we didn't really enjoy cos the area seemed rather sleazy and just not that nice to us (Geylang mah... maybe that's why), we finally found the small store among a row of other shops. Thank goodness the people at the store were really wonderful and amiable people who made an honest living from their watch business so we felt really good at the store, nothing like how we felt on the way there. :p

Anyway, the main reason Hubby wanted to visit that store was to get himself a pocket watch, which he'd always wanted since eons ago. This one'd caught his eye while he was surfing online in the wee hours of the morning (well, that's another story altogether), and after making some calls to enquire about the product, he'd made an appointment with the lady boss to view the item.

Yup, here's what he got -- an Orient pocket watch. The brand's a Japanese brand that's about to break into the Singapore market. Currently, only this place and the watch counter at Takashimaya have Orient watches on sale. Heh, I think this one's a beauty too. It's clean-looking and not too big or bulky, unlike other more branded pocket watches I've seen before. I like it's blue steel needles too. Very classy piece. :) Hubby's really pleased with it. What made him pleased too was how he was able to hold a looooooong conversation about watches etc. with the male boss while poor me had to smile or nod politely along, half the time not understanding what was mentioned. =.= Oh well, it's so obvious who're the experts and who's just there to kay poh and look at what's pretty! :p