I remembered when I was much younger; I used to visit Petaling Street. Not for anything, as my good friend from Singapore, loves to shop for timepiece there. He used to purchase a minimum of twenty timepieces. For present to all his staffs and relatives, he said. Of course he bought a few for himself. On average, it cost him RM twenty each. He was a millionaire.
Let me share you an amusing story that he shared with me. As we all are aware, Singaporeans have this yearly national duty that they have to fulfil. So during one of those session, his squad was send into the “jungle”. It was in the middle of a dark night, when the subject of timepiece came up. It seems, my friend and a colleague, wore the same “branded” timepiece.
He being a millionaire, everyone else was saying that the other colleague’s timepiece was from Petaling Street! So they were arguing whose timepiece was original. They then had a great idea. The timepiece that can be seen in the dark (glow in the dark) should be the original. Putting their hand side by side, so that the timepiece sat side by side, they all looked in the dark night. Behold! My friend’s timepiece glows in the dark much brighter!
My friend was so amazed and amused, that he will without fail, when he visited Malaysia, he will buy more timepiece from Petaling Street. Officially and truthfully, according to him, his colleague’s time piece was original!
So where do I fit in this story of timepiece? Well, at that time, I was a budding successful IT Bumiputra entrepreneur. I too at that time can purchase these “branded” timepieces for about RM twenty each, because of my affiliation with my Singaporean millionaire friend. Those days, I had between five to ten “branded” timepieces at any time. I will tell my friends, it was from Petaling Street, but surprisingly, none believed, and all says it is original. Sometimes, I even have a “branded” model that even the original does not have!
As time goes by, I grew older. Yes older….
I started purchasing time piece for RM forty thousand and above. The most expensive was a RM sixty thousand second hand timepiece. Recently, I bought one that I really love for RM forty thousand brand new!
I can see that most of my friends have timepieces on average RM One hundred thirty thousand! A few have timepieces that exceeds RM half a million. It is a symbol of status and stature. Kudos to all my friends for their hard earned achievements.
What is next? I am looking for a brand new timepiece that last I looked was about RM One hundred thousand…..
P/S: Samsung will soon come out with a smart device that cost in the region of over RM One hundred thousand. Looking forward for the merging of the timepieces and smart devices!
Rostam Effendi 