Singapore Watch Week: A Preview of IAMWATCH and Spring Sprang Sprung

Summer music festival season may be over (at least in the Northern Hemisphere), but this fall, watch fans are experiencing a cornucopia of fairs showcasing watches and bringing together the collecting community. With the blend of independent watchmaking, artists, writers, and enthusiasts, these shows provide the same weekend-long sense of camaraderie one experiences at music festivals like Glastonbury and Coachella (but without the mud and dust).

In North America, the Toronto Timepiece Show just took place last month, and now everyone is gearing up for the WindUp and WatchTime fairs in New York City.

Meanwhile, in Asia, Singapore is gearing up for a lollapalooza of a watch week with two shows: IAMWATCH and Spring Sprang Sprung.

Being held concurrently from October 17 to 20, both lean into independents and micro brands, and both see each other as complementary, not competition. Here’s what the watch fam can look forward to…

Billed as the place where collectors and enthusiasts can gather, IAMWATCH traces its beginnings back to 2004 when The Hour Glass – a Singapore-based specialty luxury watch retailer – launched one of the world’s first enthusiast-facing watch expositions, “Tempus – The Great Watchscapade.”
 

Two decades later, The Hour Glass is bringing collectors, watchmakers, and horological culture workers together in a unique new community experiment called IAMWATCH. And this year, the intimately scaled four-day program is set to be held at the luxury EDITION hotel.
 

Dedicated to the Pan-Asian watch-collecting community, IAMWATCH has a relaxed and casual atmosphere and hopes to recreate the energy of events like Geneva Watch Days, Dubai Watch Week, and WatchTime with enthusiasts and industry luminaries sharing their passion, knowledge, and stories through a series of conversations, horological lectures, and get-togethers.

One of the 40 insiders representing at IAMWATCH is Lee Yuen-Rapati, a.k.a. @onehourwatch. Yuen-Rapati is a designer specializing in watch and type design, and he’s currently working as a designer for the Fears Watch Company. Watchonista caught up with the artist at the Toronto Timepiece Show to ask about his hopes for the fair.
 

“I’ve never been to Singapore before,” Lee told us. As a result, he’s excited to discover some of the city’s micro brands. However, he’s also interested in the diversity of the participants, which range from superstar auctioneer Aurel Bacs, Senior Consultant at Phillips, to journalist Su Jia Xian of SJX watches.

Yuen-Rapati also told us that he feels a little humbled to be included in such company but noted what links all the participants, including visitors: a passion for watchmaking. Sometimes, the obsession is expressed through art and sometimes through business.
 

What makes this show particularly interesting is the number of hands-on experiences open to attendees. The public days of the show (Friday the 18th to Sunday the 20th) offer a series of lectures by writers like David Rooney, who has dedicated three decades to the history of timekeeping and technology and the profound impact of timekeeping on human civilization.
 

There are also intriguing panels, including a meeting of the minds between independent icons Kari Voutilainen, Felix Baumgartner, and Rexhep Rexhepi.
 

To learn more or to attend IAMWATCH, you can register via the IAMWATCH website.

If you’re looking to buy a watch while you’re in Singapore, then Spring Sprang Sprung is the show for you.
 

Conceived as a showcase for micro watch brands in 2022, the fair promises a music festival vibe and the opportunity to discover the unconventional world of independent watchmaking.

This year’s lineup consists of 23 returning brands and 20 new brands. Among the headlining acts are independents such as Oris (a huge ally of local watch fairs), Vario, Atelier Wen, and Nodus.
 

We spoke to co-founder Yong Keong Lim (and the man behind Feynman Timekeepers) in Toronto last month about the local horological scene.

“Singapore is hot for micro brands right now,” Yong told Watchonista. “It’s a diverse community, and most of the brand owners know each other.” There’s also crossover between the two shows because “the brand owners are also the collectors,” he shared. “I bought seven watches at my own fair!”
 

Like IAMWATCH, Spring Sprang Sprung is sponsored by retailers more than brands. For boutiques seeking out micro brands, it’s a chance to discover both veterans and newcomers.

It’s also an excellent opportunity for those from the collecting and enthusiast community outside of Singapore to experience timepieces in the metal. Previous shows have attracted visitors from Malaysia, Hong Kong, and even Australia.
 

So, if past attendance is any indication, visitors can expect to make a lot of new watch friends as well – win-win.

To learn more or to attend Spring Sprang Sprung, you can register via the show’s website.