Time in the City
Leroy Xavier Zhong is a man of art and commerce, a duality that is quickly apparent when you talk to him. As an artist, he imbues his watches with a sensibility and style that close approaches art; and as a businessman he has, in the short span of two years, established Edypoi as a much sought-after watch brand from ‘the little red dot’.
This watch-maker’s tools are his accuracy and sharpness. “People only get to see things on the surface, they see the final product,” pointing to a screen of excel spreadsheets he declares, “but this is Edypoi and Hyper Grand”. As we chat over a proudly-pressed coffee in the second floor of Konzepp (he also takes his coffee seriously), we’re starting to see how this craftsman is elevating the status of the watch beyond that of a mere time-telling accessory, but a true statement of one's self.
Can you share with us a little about life before Edypoi? Before Edypoi, I worked at A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology, and Research) for about 4 years, where I was the commercialization person for all the technology that came out of there. I was like the business guy for A*STAR.
My degree was in Engineering, so while I had to go to school to acquire fundamental engineering knowledge, my business acumen came from seeing how my family dealt with businesses as I grew up. My mum's family runs a dog farm in Pasir Ris, and my grandmother used to open pubs along the current Shenton Way. That was in the 1970s. She started from one, took the profits to start another, and soon enough she had 7 of them. So growing up, I heard her talk about her businesses a lot. That got me interested in doing business.
What eventually made you leave to start your own watch brand? Ever since I started working, I knew that my calling was to do business, but I had enough sense to go out and work for someone first. So I had sufficient experience before I left. Being in a government organization opened a lot of doors. You actually get to meet people at the CXO level! It also bred the business decorum and acumen to do my own thing - with that kind of exposure you're not afraid to talk to anybody, not afraid to knock on doors! Finally I felt 3 to 4 years was enough to learn everything I could learn.
"It's the romantic idea that you can actually power your watch mechanically, and how much effort it takes to push out time by engineering every gear, every spring, to make that movement"
Was it always watches for you? Not really. I had to push around a few ideas. I used to collect watches. I think a lot of people thought that the engineering background was why I branched out to watches - they could see the relevance. I can say it's only partially true. Ultimately, you have find the idea that is viable as a business, but of course, passion is still part of the ingredient, otherwise you wouldn't be able to push out the kind of branding you’d want for your own business.
Making a watch isn’t simple. How and where did you learn to do that? To really understand the watch business, I had to get my hands dirty. I flew to Hong Kong to find people and knock on doors and say, hello, I want to make watches! One of the take-aways for me is that you don't get to learn these things by googling. You have to get to the crevices to get the knowledge you won't be able to get online. You have to get to the hotspot where everything happens. And for me that's Hong Kong.
I went to not only the engineering design offices, but I also went down to production offices to see how people carry out their productions. Designing a watch is not an abstract thing where you just go all artsy and draw whatever you want, because ultimately it has to be manufactured. It's actually two separate jobs - one, the designer; the other, the industrial designer. I have to wear both hats.
Has your watch-making journey been fraught with challenges? Actually, right from the start it has been good, for the sole reason that Singapore doesn't have any watch designers. We have one other brand that occupies a different positioning, like a $3000-$5000 range. I'm trying to occupy the gap between fashion watches and very well-made watches. Fashion watches are those that you wear for one year and then they break down or scratch easily. The well-made watches are built to last, but they over-engineer to beat the competition. Oh yours has 96 parts, mine has 205 parts! But in the end they all tell the same time.
So what I wanted to do was to keep things simple: a well-made watch that doesn't spoil within a year, doesn't scratch easily, made of good materials. When making the watches I used a more simplified movement that's of quality as well - movement is the thing inside your watch that runs it - and I retained the things that are important to people: the case materials, the nice leather straps, good design. Things that could add a lot more value to fashion watches and take away stuff from the high-end watches that would serve no purpose to the crowd.
How many pieces of watches did you initially make? We started off, plus the pre-orders, with about 400. The first 200 sold out really fast. I was so focused with getting the watch out I forgot about the sales portion. But one day I walked into a shop in Marina Bay Sands called the Society of Black Sheep - it's a multi-label store and I was there to buy clothes - and I started chatting with the shop owner. She found out I was a designer, but she was not surprised, maybe she thought I was a t-shirt designer, then when I said I design watches, her eyes opened up, because you don't get locally-designed watches here. I was wearing one, so she saw the prototype and she was so interested. Then they started stocking Edypoi watches.
Can you explain to us the process of making a watch? Is it really as difficult as most people think it is? To make a watch, first of all you have to mitigate the huge, huge challenge of making your watch look different from what's out there. The problem is that as an artist or designer, your canvas is really small. And fixed. Two hands, a face and straps. So how do you design a watch? Sometimes it doesn't have to look over the top, it just has to look pleasing. So I always start from the conceptual design. When it comes to making the watch itself, you start from the movements inside your watch.
When it comes to mechanical watches, it's the romantic idea that you can actually power your watch mechanically, and how much effort it takes to push out time by engineering every gear, every spring, to make that movement.
Where do you source most of your materials from? Mostly from Hong Kong. Unbeknownst to a lot of people, the watch industry is biggest not in Switzerland but Hong Kong. About 60 to 70% of all watches made come from Hong Kong. Traditionally they have been making watches for the longest time. The horological watches are mainly made in Switzerland, but how many people buy the expensive horological watches compared to normal watches? So most of them are made in Hong Kong. I make my watches in Hong Kong as well.
Have you ever thought of making the watches locally, here in Singapore? The problem with Singapore is that we don't have many supporting verticals. To have a watch-manufacturer you'll need a hand-supplier, you'll need a watch-face supplier. Not one factory does everything. It's hard to do it here because it’s a trade that doesnt even exist. Even in Hong Kong, nobody wants to learn the trade, so they are turning into mechanical processes where watches can be manufactured by pressing buttons.
The first thing I'm trying to educate people is, a watch is not an accessory that happens to tell the time. It's actually an extension of your personality. This applies more to guys; for guys, the only allowable sartorial thing is a watch, and at most a ring. But the watch is predominantly the statement. And if what I preach gets to people - that watches are an extension of your personality, it's a craft - then... that would be perfect.
"A mark of a good designer isn't how avant garde you can make your stuff, it's more of validation … how much people take up your stuff"
Tell us about Hyper Grand, the second watch brand that you started? How is it different from Edypoi? Hyper Grand is a partnership between me and 2 other partners. The thing for me is that Edypoi has been a success, but it's such a waste that it's not going international. And it’s difficult, because it's a small-batch manufacturing brand, and people buy it for that reason. So instead of changing the direction of Edypoi, why not just start another brand that can go on that path? Hyper Grand started because I don't want to pride myself as a pseudo-Italian or Japanese brand. I need that Singaporean brand to be pushed out globally. People become educated about a particular country or culture not through textbooks or television shows. The first time I get to know a culture is by using the country's products.
Would you ever miss the intimacy and satisfaction of making each watch yourself? I'm already missing that! I like to touch the things that I make. If I weren't so bothered with making an expanding, scalable business, I probably would be assembling every single watch and selling them in a small shop. It could be a small retail store, and I could be in a glass window and everyone could walk by and see me making watches. Imagine having to buy something where you can speak to the designer! Wearing such a product is a lot more substantial than buying it off the shelves, off the racks. That was one of my dreams.
As a busy owner of two watch brands, and wearing the hats of being both a designer and a businessman, what is one day in your life like? I will give you a snapshot of yesterday. Yesterday I was working on the design for the Esquire collaboration, I was also replying alot of emails and chasing suppliers, I was doing packing and quality control until 4am, and we had interviews to hire people. And the next day is completely different. And I do everything - the copywriting, even the website!
What inspires you? For me, it's a bit of architecture. That's why the first watch in Edypoi was so architectural. It was my best way of saying "avant garde". The first watch we did was very abstract. It had a watch face that was not conventional. There was metal dust sputtered onto the face at very high heat. This was done in small spurts - nice and glimmery. I did a black one and a blue one. The blue one looks like midnight sky. That sold out and I can't make that anymore. The craftsmen gave me hell. So tough! It is a see-through watch, so the dial sits on an island, which is laced with crystals, and the island sits on glass. When you look into the watch, you can see an island floating in the middle of the whole space. It doesn't look like it's attached to the watch. I also have floating hour-markers that are floating around the island because they are sitting on another level of glass. So that's what I mean by being inspired by architecture. That was the first watch. I was thinking, first one, go big or go home! If you want to debut you must make sure you're different, even if it's avant garde. So my "avant garde" had a purpose as well. It got me a lot of press.
What are some of your current plans? We are busy with collaborations, and once we are done with the launch this month, we will jump into the October designs. Then we will manufacture them fast. We want to sell and see which styles will be adopted. You can see I'm a very systematic person. I can't just design what I like. A mark of a good designer isn't how avant garde you can make your stuff, it's more of validation from adoption, meaning how much people take up your stuff. If it's avant garde and people appreciate it but don't adopt it, then they have never really validated you as a designer.
What's next? The lowest hanging fruit is whatever you have learnt. For now we only sell watches. In future it could be another watch brand with a different positioning. Maybe I will enter horology, maybe I will sell celebrity watches, and I market myself as a celebrity watch-maker. But another form of business would mean relearning everything. If there's no leverage from what you have already learnt, it's abit hard. But it's not impossible - as long as we see a need and no one else is doing it, and it's viable, we will do it.
Interview and Photos by Rebecca Toh for The Makers’ Journal Follow Edypoi on Haystakt