Fostering horological culture and an appreciation of artisanal watchmaking has been a mission for PMT The Hour Glass since it was established in 2008 by Narun Thamavaranukup and Michael Tay.
Beginning with two stores, the luxury watch retail company currently manages 15 multi-brand and mono-brand boutiques in Thailand and Vietnam.
The official retailer of Rolex, Patek Philippe and Tudor also carries timepieces by Hublot, Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin as well as artisanal brands like Urwerk, MB&F and De Bethune.
Five of them illustrate fascinating haute horlogerie, dedicated to the 15th anniversary of PMT The Hour Glass.
Firstly, Girard-Perregaux gives its Laureato Chronograph 42mm a pink gold case and a green face that references the retailer’s emblematic colour.
Enriched with a Clous de Paris motif on the sunray dial, the limited edition of 50 pieces subscribes to design codes of Laureato, launched in 1975, with an integrated bracelet and an octagonal bezel.
One of 50 is engraved on the solid caseback protecting the self-winding movement with a power reserve of 46 hours.
One of the oldest Swiss watchmakers, Girard-Perregaux was born in 1856, two years after Constant Girard and Marie Perregaux tied the knot in Le Locle. In the same town, Ulysse Nardin founded his workshop a decade earlier and made a name for his marine chronometers and complex pocket watches.
Along with the rich heritage, the Ulysse Nardin brand took a futuristic approach to engineering the Freak, released in 2001.
Without a dial, hands or crown, the hyperwatch is now housed in a 43mm grey titanium case and dressed with a blue dial to celebrate the 15-year milestone.
Available in 50 pieces, Freak x Enamel Blue offers a power reserve of 72 hours thanks to an automatic movement equipped with a flying carousel that turns on itself once every hour to indicate the time.
The hour disc is enhanced by traditional métiers d’art involving a guilloché technique and enamelling to give the pattern in vibrant blue.
Green and grey meet black in a camouflage motif on the dial and structured rubber strap of Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Tourbillon 5-Day Power Reserve Carbon Green Camo. The pattern represents the long journey from Switzerland to Southeast Asia’s tropical forests.
Founded in 1980, Hublot combined an 18-carat gold case with a rubber strap as the first expression of its Art of Fusion.
The Nyon-based company has collaborated with PMT The Hour Glass since 2008, and the first Hublot standalone boutique in Thailand opened its doors at Central Embassy in 2014.
The same year saw the debut of the Spirit of Big Bang in a barrel-shaped case, which can be fashioned in different combinations of materials, colours and finishes.
Frosted carbon fibre with matte green composite inclusions was chosen as the material for the 42mm case of this 15th-anniversary timepiece, whose transparent sapphire caseback and dial reveal the manual winding skeleton tourbillon movement with a power reserve of 115 hours.
Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Tourbillon 5-Day Power Reserve Carbon Green Camo is limited to 30 while the Urwerk UR-100V is a unique piece in three variations.
With the case and bezel in steel and titanium, this fourth timepiece for PMT The Hour Glass shimmers with diamonds as well as emeralds, rubies or sapphires.
Master watchmaker Felix Baumgartner and chief designer Martin Frei launched their innovative brand (Urwerk meaning original accomplishment) in 1997 along with models boasting the minimalistic “wandering hour” recalling a satellite or planet moving across the sky.
The satellite configuration works its magic on the self-winding UR-100V with a 48-hour power reserve.
Two recesses on the sides of its satellite carrier count the kilometres travelled by Earth along its own axis in 20 minutes (555km), and the other of the distance covered by Earth around the Sun in the same period of time.
Like avant-garde Urwerk, MB&F (Maximilian Büsser & Friends) develops its unconventional time machines in Geneva.
Since 2005, the artistic concept laboratory has been disrupting the industry with Horological and Legacy Machines. Its relationship with PMT The Hour Glass is celebrated by Legacy Machine FlyingT Cœur de Rubis.
Inspired by women, the original Legacy Machine FlyingT earned MB&F the Prix de la Complication pour Dame at the 2019 GPHG.
The radical design features a high convex dome of sapphire crystal while an asymmetric ventricular opening in the dial plate frames the heart of the automatic engine, ensuring a power reserve of 100 hours.
Its three-dimensional vertical architecture embraces the cinematic flying tourbillon and a sun-shaped rotor.
The time is indicated by a pair of serpentine hands on a black subdial inclined at 50 degrees at 7 o’clock.
Legacy Machine FlyingT Cœur de Rubis shines in a diamond-set white gold case with a diameter of 38.5mm.
Adorning the dial, Cœur de Rubis refers to the ruby heart of anyolite, also composed of green zoisite and sourced from Tanzania.
The healing stone embodies positive energy in this fifth commemorative model, available in only five pieces.
