MINT Interviews Sam: The Story Behind Wearable Treasure

We sat down with Sam, founder of Wearable Treasure, for a conversation about building a watch business from scratch, why he authenticates every watch in front of the customer, and what it really takes to survive as an independent dealer in Singapore.

This is the full interview, lightly edited for clarity.

For the narrative version of this story, read Singapore's Smallest Watch Dealer.

On How It All Started

MINT: Can you introduce yourself and tell us about Wearable Treasure?

Sam: Wearable Treasure was started in 2021. I wasn't from this industry initially. I used to work in banking, for 10-plus years. But even in my uni days, I was already interested in watches. I've been collecting watches. I didn't have a lot of money to go Rolex, the expensive ones. So I started collecting the cheaper pieces.

Even as I was working, I was literally rushing home after school just to play with my hobby. Studies were not part of my life. Watches were.

MINT: So the passion was always there.

Sam: I developed my own thinking, my own interest, my own skills. I was a little bit OCD. It started with a scratch. I couldn't take it, so I wanted to handle the scratch. During those times I would mess things up. There's a price to pay when you want to learn yourself. I spoil things. Then I'll just sell them off half price since I already spoilt it.

If I couldn't repair it, I'd sell it off. If I could repair it, it became something. And then there comes a point where, if I need one tool today to do something, I need to buy it. So inventory just gets bigger and bigger. It literally becomes a point where you need to have everything.

On the Decision to Start

MINT: What made you decide to leave banking and do this full time?

Sam: During COVID, I started thinking about career progression. Is it to work for somebody for the rest of my life or to do something myself? Back then I was 38 years old. I thought, if I continue, it becomes 45 very soon. And then I most probably become that middle-aged guy who is unemployable.

If I decide to do something and I fail, it means I'm still 41 and I can still go back to the workforce. If I make it, then I won't be thinking about being an employee anymore.

MINT: Did you tell anyone? Friends, family?

Sam: I didn't say, I just do. There's no announcement. You want to start, you just do. Who do you want to consult? A consultant who has never been in the business? Or another competitor? There's no one to consult.

You want, you do. You fail, people laugh at you. You succeed, people say you are good. If you are stagnant, people will say, hmm, okay lor.

MINT: But it wasn't uncalculated.

Sam: Not uncalculated. First month I made S$1,000. Second month, S$2,000. Then S$3,000. I asked myself, if within 12 months I reach this level, is it okay? I saw a trend, I saw a roadmap, then I went ahead. After 12 months, I looked again. No turning back already.

But if at six months I couldn't even make S$2,000 or S$3,000 to cover my own expenses, then you have to know: what is the cut-loss point? Is it when you have zero in the account, or is it when you see the future is bleak?

On Starting From Home

MINT: You started from home. What was that like?

Sam: I used to meet people in McDonald's. Car parks. Everywhere. Anywhere you can think of. Dark places, literally any time of the day.

A home-based business is exciting. You can have dynamic growth. You can grow fast. But it's not a shop that gives people visibility. When you're handling high-value items, some people may not want to come to your house to give you that watch to service.

MINT: So the shop changed things.

Sam: If it's the same brand, me running from home versus me having a shop, maybe 50% of people may not even want to look because it's home-based. If it's a shop, at least you get past that hurdle. The first hurdle is you cross the door. After that, it's showtime. People now want to step in. You got a chance.

On Being Small But Structured

MINT: You call yourself the smallest watch dealer in Singapore. But you also seem very process-driven for a small business.

Sam: Small, but structured. I have a POS system, a CRM system, where I can track my customers' buy and sell to the dollar. Accumulated dollars. I know who is my biggest spender, who gave me the most revenue.

Coming from a corporate background, I always tell my staff: I don't need you to remember. I just need you to follow procedures. If you don't know something, don't ask me, just go and find the procedure.

If something goes wrong, it's either the human go wrong or the process go wrong. If the human cannot go wrong, then check the process. It's not complicated, but there's a framework. This must be done so that there's always an easy way to manage.

MINT: That's unusual for a one-man operation.

Sam: Every time there's a new procedure, we update it. This thing keeps evolving. It came from my corporate background. It's not complicated, but it's a framework that I know this must be done.

On Buying and Selling

MINT: Walk us through what happens when someone comes in to sell a watch.

Sam: Check the watch. Check for authenticity, then give a quotation. There's a lot of factors: the age, what we call full set. We need to consider all those and give a price. There will be times where you need to haggle. There will be comparison shopping.

The first thing about buying is you need to buy authentic goods. That's the first thing to say yes to. So we need to be able to know how to do that.

MINT: Your Google reviews mention your authentication process. People talk about how transparent you are. Why is that important?

Sam: You can think of it like knowledge sharing, letting people know more about what they are purchasing. Consumers nowadays are well-read and interested in what they're buying.

But it also means I spend double the time compared to other dealers. If you want to be transparent, you spend time. When you do that, you talk a lot. A transaction other dealers do in 10 minutes, I need half an hour, one hour.

MINT: And you don't plan to change that.

Sam: That was how it worked when I started from home. Nobody's going to trust you. How to make someone trust you? Show them. Show them it's authentic, show them the issue, explain why the price is what it is. They can take photos for comparison. Hopefully the next time, they come back.

I'm not going to change the formula that's not broken.

On Repairs and the One-Hour Rule

MINT: You also do repairs, servicing, and polishing. How does that fit in?

Sam: Selling is the most important thing. The rest are complementary services. There are big players who are the real one-stop shop. There are shops that only do selling, and shops that only do repairs. I'm a hybrid. I can do most things.

My gauge is one hour. Can I finish it? If yes, it's mine. If not, I'll outsource it.

MINT: You do polishing with a same-day turnaround?

Sam: One to two hours and most probably I'm the only one who does it with such a quick turnaround. I've created my own set of procedures for myself. I roughly know what I can do to achieve 90% results.

Other shops charge S$140 and the customer gets 100%. I offer to do it in two hours, maybe 90%, which to a normal person is really 95%. At S$80 to S$120 depending on condition. Some people will choose that. It's for the customer to give and take.

On the Hardest Parts Nobody Sees

MINT: What's the hardest part of the business that people on the outside would never see?

Sam: Every business says their business is hard. Every business invests a lot of time. I think the thing is, sometimes you invest a lot of time into something and it may not yield. The time spent repairing a watch for three hours, I'm not going to make S$500. But I spent one hour buying a watch and I would have made more.

Repairing things is like opening a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. It can mean you do it right and something else breaks. Or you yourself are not technically good enough and you end up spoiling something. There are too many variations in the process.

MINT: And outside the shop?

Sam: What time do you want to wake up? What time do you want to sleep? Do you have time for anything else? How does your family revolve around it? Who is supporting you?

I've got people messaging me at 2am. My contact details are online. I cannot prevent people from texting me. The phone rings, even if I'm not surprised, your partner will be surprised that somebody is texting you at 2am.

Work-life balance happens when you have a format to follow. When my business doesn't have a fixed format, when I'm running my own show, you cannot just don't care.

It's not what you see in the influencer. There are things that surround the business outside of the four walls.

On What Scares Him Most

MINT: If something happened to the business tomorrow, what would be the hardest thing to deal with?

Sam: Losing inventory, we are covered by insurance. I claim, go through the process. There's a flow.

I think the part is where you make a human error about buying something that's not authentic, and you resell it. Then I think you are really in deep trouble. Because now you got to find the person you bought it from and say you want your money back. And you got to call the person you sold it to and say, your item is not authentic.

That one is more scary than me losing something. Me losing something is me and insurance. That one is me versus customer. And what will the customer think? Then who will they tell? Social media? You don't know what the reaction will be.

MINT: So authentication isn't just about process. It's existential.

Sam: Between me and my staff, I always have one sentence: zero tolerance for fake. I can see fake, but I cannot pay for fake. I will not pay. If I make a misjudgement, I pay for it. It has to stop there. It cannot be I resell it already.

Put it into the procedure: check this, check that. In doubt, double check. It has to stop the loss right there.

On Navigating 2026

MINT: What's next for Wearable Treasure?

Sam: This interview came at a time where, over my four or five years, I never said that times are difficult. This is one of the first times I'm going to say it. Because of the current macro and political situation, the first one to feel the impact is the luxury goods sector.

We really need to navigate 2026 carefully. Some things we are a lagged indicator, but some things we are the first to feel. We are lagged when people make money. They won't immediately come and buy from us. Then there are people who still haven't realised the full impact, still have a little bit of money, and they give you a false impression.

But I already have customers coming to sell their watches because they lost money in the stock market. And the prices of watches today are still very stable, some even higher. It's a very awkward situation. Confusing.

MINT: How do you approach that?

Sam: You got to manage your risk. You got to manage your resources. The period that you enter the business matters. When it's an uptrend, it's a no-brainer. I buy S$1, I sell S$2, tomorrow it's S$3. Anyone can join. Today's market, where it's slightly trending down or sideways, then it's hard.

On What He's Proud Of

MINT: What about Wearable Treasure today are you really proud of?

Sam: Surviving. Word of mouth. Continuity.

MINT: What's the most rewarding part of running something this personal?

Sam: We can really dictate the direction we want. The mix of goods, our social media, our image. If I'm working for someone else, I cannot change direction on marketing or the corporate image. Here I can experiment. And making money is good.

Rapid Fire

Best watch under S$5,000?

"I seldom answer this kind of question. What is nice and of value to me is not nice and of value to you. Understanding the customer is the most important thing."

Most underrated watch brand right now?

"Jaeger-LeCoultre. They were born watchmakers, making complicated, fine handpieces. The most famous one is the Reverso."

Most overrated?

"AP."

Advice for someone starting a collection?

"Go buy the genre you like first. Dress watches, dive watches, whatever. Find the genre, then find the price you can start with."

Dream watch?

"Patek Philippe 5712."

What would you tell someone starting a watch business?

"Think about everything beyond the four walls. Your time, your energy, your family. Do you have a supporter who is 100% supportive, no questions asked? What's your cut-loss point? A lot of people do the maths to start but never count the exit."

MINT Conclusion

Sam's story is a reminder that the watch trade in Singapore isn't just the big showrooms and the established names. It's also the small operators who started from nothing, built trust one transaction at a time, and treat every deal like their reputation is on the line, because it is.

Whether you're running a one-man shop or a multi-outlet dealership, the risks are real: inventory exposure, authentication liability, the trust that takes years to build and seconds to lose. Having the right structures and the right protection in place is what lets you keep going.

MINT provides specialist insurance for Singapore's luxury watch ecosystem, from Jeweller's Block coverage that protects dealer inventory to collector policies designed for how watches are actually owned and moved.

Find out how MINT protects watch businesses

Visit Wearable Treasure on Facebook at Wearable Treasure.

This interview was conducted by MINT in March 2026 and has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Business details and availability may change. Contact Wearable Treasure directly for current information.