Thierry Dubois, Asia Pacific managing director of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, is not quite who you might expect.
He doesn’t concern himself with price tags on a timepiece or stylistic trends, but rather the nitty-gritty details of a watch’s history, its mechanisms and, essentially, what makes them tick – otherwise known as horology.
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“I was just reading a book about the first watchmaker in Geneva. It’s truly fascinating. A bit geeky, but fascinating,” he says.
From art of time to the Launch of LUOXO
As a self-proclaimed nerd, Dubois has always been around the art of watchmaking.
“My grandfather and grandmother worked for watch manufacturers in Switzerland. In the evenings and weekends, we would have people ringing our doorbell asking for their watch to be repaired, which my grandfather did to earn some extra money as they were not paid much in those days.
“Both my grandparents as well as my father, have proper watchmaking training. They know how to disassemble and reassemble watches. I do not have that training.”
So, when the time came for Dubois to pick his own path, he chose to study law. He became a lawyer but without noticing it was happening, became drawn back to the watch industry. “Frankly speaking, I found law a bit boring. Reading and reading,” he says.
So how does one go from law to founding a private members’ club for watch enthusiasts?
Inside LUOXO’s watch community in Hong Kong
“At the time, when I decided to start the group in 2008, I was dealing with watches at the business to business level in my job – so retailers to distributors, distributors to brands. But I’ve always been fascinated by and interested in the consumer, in the watch enthusiast. Why are they so interested? That’s when I started the Art of Time.”
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This was the original name for his group of watch enthusiasts but Dubois had initially wanted to call it something that arguably conveys his interest more accurately: ‘Toyz for Boys’. However, his colleagues advised against it, so he went with the name Art of Time.
The Art of Time would often meet for dinners or drinks to discuss their shared passion but they never had a physical space to call their own.
“When we tried to organise events, we would meet at restaurants.”
Many years later, he found a location in Aberdeen. From there, he decided to use his network to turn his interest group into a private members’ club that hosts events, workshops and meetings for people who love watches.
LUOXO, founded at the start of this year, is located in Wong Chuk Hang and is staffed with watch experts.
Why horology still captivates collectors
Dubois has a team of people who have extraordinary skill sets when it comes to horology. Loraine is a young woman who single-handedly disassembled and reassembled a watch that’s over a hundred years old – twice. It belonged to one of LUOXO’s members, who had bought it at a flea market in Europe.
She took every cog and spring apart, cleaned it and put it back together.
Marc, another person on Dubois’s team, holds a Bachelor of Engineering, Degree in Microtechnology, Specialisation in Watch Engineering and Microtechnology and is able to look at the movement of a watch and tell you which pieces the watch will fit in and how it ticks.
LUOXO also has a “digital safe” in which its members can store information about their precious time pieces to be accessible only by them when needed. This doesn’t just mean Rolexes and Patek Philippe–it can be any watch, branded or not.
“It’s a space that is completely neutral, meaning that it’s not attached to any brand, where people can really think and say whatever they want about horology and watch brands. There’s no pressure from a particular brand.”
LUOXO has no affiliations so all members are free to criticise and debate watches as they please.
The location also has a two-tier roof. Their meeting room, which is completely soundproof, has a view of the terrace and Wong Chuk Hang’s surrounding mountains and bay, but has blacked out windows so that it is completely private – something his members value more than anything.
Dubois emphasised that this club is for everyone. “You don’t even need to own an expensive watch,” he says.
It was difficult to understand exactly what he meant until he told us this story.
“This guy who follows me on Instagram had very good, pertinent questions about watches and water resistance. We were speaking and he brought up an interesting point. I told him, ‘Wow, I’m really impressed. That is a really good question.’ To which he responded, ‘I’m only 14 years old.’”
From that conversation, Dubois invited the boy and his parents to come and learn about watches at LUOXO, proving that it’s not an elite club for high society. It’s for anyone who genuinely has an interest in horology.
While LUOXO is the first-ever physical location, Dubois is now planning to open three more locations in Shanghai, Singapore and Japan, in 2022 and 2023.
