Rolex
At HODINKEE, we believe watches are for everyone – everywhere. So we're very proud to present this new video series, which celebrates the collectors and creators thriving in every corner of the globe. Our first installment focuses on Thailand. In Episode 1, we'll find out what makes the local Seiko market so special. In Episode 2, we'll meet the man behind one of the most interesting pilot's-watch collections on the planet. And in Episode 3, we'll visit an ordinary box factory hiding an extraordinary horological secret.
In the shopping-obsessed Kingdom of Thailand, it's a national pastime to waste away the afternoons roaming giant shopping malls. Under the same roof you'll find everything from luxury boutiques to cramped stalls. The fully cranked air conditioning offers respite from the soupy tropical heat outside, and I'd ducked in to cool off one afternoon in the early 2010s when I discovered something that blew my mind: A collection of limited-edition Seikos on display in a shop window. The centerpiece was a rare Yellow Monster, flanked by a rainbow of other Monster and Samurai limited editions.
I've loved Seikos for as long as I've loved watches. And I'd read about these Thai-only limited editions on watch forums. But this was my first time seeing them. And the shopkeeper was gone, so I couldn't ask him about them. I had to do my own research.
What followed was a decade-long quest to understand this highly particular watch market. Sure, other countries have their own limited-edition Seikos (here in the US we have the Prospex SLA053 and SLA059), but they're few and far between. Thailand was doing LE drops years before it became trendy. And to a Western audience, many of these pieces remain obscure.
For instance, last year Seiko created a 1,000-piece limited edition called the "Seiko Prospex Monster KMITL Go Beyond the Limit." The watch was created to raise funds for King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, the institution backing the building of the King Mongkut's Chaokhun Thahan Hospital, the first medical research innovation hospital in Thailand. You're not going to find a Seiko-sponsored fashion show anywhere else, nor a limited edition watch that focuses on a specific festival like Phi Ta Khon, where locals invoke the help and protection of Phra Upakut, the spirit of the river. This stuff only happens in Thailand. So we thought it was the perfect launching pad for this new series.
To my knowledge, this photograph hasn't ever been published before. I found a single printed copy (that seemed to be the original) in the archives of Seiko Thailand HQ. On the left is Reijiro Hattori, grandson of Seiko founder Kintarō Hattori and predecessor to current CEO Shinji Hattori. On the right is King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. Thailand has been an important market for a long time.
In the coming months, I'll visit plenty of other special places with their own timekeeping and collecting cultures. I hope you'll join me on the journey. Because as far as I'm concerned, watches aren't meant to be imprisoned under glass. They're meant to be enjoyed in the real world – and worn in the wild.
I want to thank Ukrit Vanagosoom, David Jumpa, and Katie McDermott for producing and filming on the ground in Thailand. Back home in the US David Aujero and Joe Wyatt made the whole thing come to life through excellent video editing. The series couldn't have happened without the folks I spoke with; in this episode it's Akirakorn I-kitisiri and Hiroyuki Akashi.
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