meet our team
Austen Chu, Founder & CEO
Born and raised in Shanghai, China, Austen has loved watches since his kindergarten days. Driven by an overwhelming sense of loneliness in the watch space, he founded @horoloupe on Instagram in 2016, eager to build a greater sense of community.
In 2019, he became the first collector ever to collaborate with Audemars Piguet for a commercial release.
He co-founded Wristcheck in 2020 – with a mission to revolutionize not only the secondary watch market, but the industry as a whole.
His efforts have since been recognised in the industry: he was invited to be the youngest jury member of the 2021 GPHG Awards, and appointed a committee member of the Swiss Institute.
Championing young Asian voices in the industry, Austen is determined to continue making waves and changing the watch industry for the better.
Sean Wong, Co-Founder
Sean first got into watches in 2012, when he received a Rolex Submariner 'Hulk' as a wedding gift from his parents in-law. It was the first time he had ever owned a luxury timepiece. And, shortly after – as most do – he fell down the ‘rabbit hole’, trying to acquire as much knowledge as he could about horology.
In tandem, prior to co-founding Wristcheck, Sean spent seven years working at Hypebeast Limited, ultimately serving as the Senior Vice President and spearheading the company's E-Commerce and Retail Arm, HBX.com. During his tenure at Hypebeast, Sean helped build, manage and operate HBX from a start-up operation to an internationally influential platform that carried over 200 brands including Nike, Adidas, Off-White, Stone Island, Moncler, Prada, and many more; reaping in USD $40M+ in yearly revenue an amassing 1M+ monthly unique visitors. In addition, Sean played an important role in helping Hypebeast IPO, joining the GEM board in 2016 and later, the main board in 2019.
During his time at Hypebeast, it was clear to Sean that watches had progressed from a niche that only a small percentage of the Hypebeast community were interested in, to something that an increasing amount of people were paying attention to – and Sean was no exception.
All this culminated when Sean first met Austen in late 2019. Austen brought up the idea of building a low-take rate marketplace business for luxury watches, designed to enhance and support the needs of aspiring watch collectors. This concept resonated with Sean deeply. With Austen's close ties to watch brands and Sean’s extensive experience in e-commerce and retail, he knew that Wristcheck could be game-changing.
Wristcheck aims to transcend boundaries: to seamlessly merge e-commerce, brick and mortar retail, and world class content creation into one cutting-edge horological platform.