As Wristcheck’s Sales Manager, Kevin finds new homes for the watches being consigned on our platform and comes up with strategies to achieve our monthly targets. He helms the Sales team to handle any sourcing inquiries to help our clients build their watch collections and acquire the timepieces they desire
Born in Hong Kong to a Chinese mother and French father, Kevin spent his early years all around the world, living in Lebanon, Mexico, and Poland before settling back down in France after his father passed away when he was only nine years old.
Despite experiencing loss at such a young age, Kevin remains unfailingly positive, with his warmth and caring immediately evident to anyone who meets him. He credits this to his mother’s strength in raising him and his brothers on her own after the family tragedy - despite all of life’s ups and downs, Kevin has made it his goal to always find the silver lining in any situation.
Before joining Wristcheck, you were actually a journalist working with household names like the BBC, the WSJ and RTHK. Could you tell us what prompted you to make the career change, and how you've found the transition so far?
I got into watches in 2015 and my wife is actually the person to blame for that. She was also a journalist like me (we met at HKU during our Masters of Journalism degree) and transitioned to a lifestyle magazine before me. Through her, I got to attend many luxury events, including the ones organized by watch brands.
In these events, brands sometimes fly in some of the watchmakers or artisans from their manufacture, and more often than not, they would be a bit older, Swiss, and would only speak French. As a Frenchman, I was able to strike up conversations with them and learn a lot about their crafts and the art of watchmaking. The human aspect of creating these intricate timepieces is what really hooked me into watchmaking. I started doing my own research and went down the rabbit hole.
I then started working for a lifestyle publication in Hong Kong because I wanted to build relationships with watch brands and get closer to the watch industry. After attending what was still called SIHH (now W&W) in 2018, I knew that I was going to continue working in this industry for many years to come.
One of the stories I wrote was a listicle of the top watch Instagram accounts to follow, and I included Austen’s account, @horoloupe. When he saw the story, he reached out to me to thank me for including him and we started keeping in touch. When he moved to HK to launch Wristcheck, he invited me to be part of his team and I felt like being part of this project was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I jumped onboard; I believe I am employee number #5 at Wristcheck, and so far it’s just been a blast to be part of this company!
Some say that when you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. Others would argue that turning your passion into a career is a gateway into toxicity and even losing that passion down the line. As someone who's embraced his love for watches and turned it into a job, what is your stance on this?
Your perception changes for sure, but what I love is seeing all the variety of watches that the watch industry has to offer, and we definitely get to experience that on a regular basis. To me, it has only strengthened my interest in watchmaking. I’ve had the chance to see and handle some of the rarest watches on the planet. I also get to learn a lot from our watchmaker, Peter Glomb whenever a watch with an intricate complication or complex movement architecture comes through our doors.
The other aspect that I love about the job is meeting and talking to so many different people, with different backgrounds, but all united by the same hobby of watch collecting.
Seeing that many timepieces does help refine your own personal tastes, I think. You learn about what fits you and your style, how a watch feels on the wrist, what’s too big, what’s too small, what’s comfortable and what’s not.
The one thing I will say is that, since we deal with values ranging from a few thousand Hong Kong dollars all the way to a few million HKD, we tend to become a bit numb to these big numbers now, but it’s definitely a very expensive hobby.
We adore your son and have to know - if you could only pass on one watch from your collection to him, which would it be and why?
That’s always one of the toughest questions to answer. I did buy a watch for him when he was born from a French microbrand called Baltic. It’s a French company that uses Chinese parts for their watches and since my son is half French and half Chinese, I thought that was a fun way to celebrate his birth, so he could get this one.
I think the right answer would be the AP Royal Oak 37mm ref. 15450ST blue dial that my wife and I bought together and share regularly. Our son would receive a watch that was worn by both his parents, with scratches made by the both of us. He would continue the story of the watch and add his own wear to it, and whenever he looked at the watch, he would always remember the times he saw it on his parents’ wrists and he would carry the memory of his parents with him at all times.
