Benjamin Chee (BCHH)

Singapore's first haute horlogerie brand was founded by Benjamin Chee in 2019 as the flagship of what has become, over more than a decade, a three-brand empire. While studying law at university in London, Chee developed a passion for history and design that steadily pulled him away from a legal career and toward watchmaking; since 2012 he has built Maison Celadon (affordable pieces built on Beijing Watch Manufactory movements and Chinese cultural aesthetics, from roughly $1,000, with cloisonné enamel dials by third-generation artisan Xiong Songtao), Milléchron (2018, vintage-inspired watches 'reinvented for modern use,' built on Vaucher micro-rotor movements including the world's first application of the latest 5401 calibre, $4,000–$15,000), and finally BCHH itself — in his own words, the ultimate expression of his vision for contemporary haute horlogerie. 'It's more about me always wanting to tweak something to my exact wishes,' he has said, 'because I always feel I can do better.'

BCHH unites master artisans from across the world under one roof: cases by Voutilainen & Cattin (Kari Voutilainen's own case workshop), dials by Comblémine (Voutilainen's dial manufacture), movements by Vaucher and AHCI independents including Chinese watchmaker Lin Yong Hua, alongside enamelling, silk embroidery, guilloché, precious stone cutting, and master finissage. The Celestial — conceived as the quintessential dress watch — houses an ultra-thin micro-rotor movement inside a platinum case with distinctive scalloped teardrop lugs, its dial offered in aventurine, white or green jade, solid platinum, silk embroidery, or enamel. The Celestial Voyager, a world-time collaboration with fellow independent Andersen Genève, combines cloisonné enamel and jade dials and earned a GPHG nomination in 2022; the Celestial Infinity, an astronomical pendulum clock created with Italian AHCI clockmaker Alessandro Rigotto, depicts a sky chart of 461 diamonds representing the stars over Milan, and followed with its own GPHG nomination in 2023 — making BCHH the first Singaporean watchmaker to earn back-to-back nominations at the industry's most prestigious awards.

The Sovereign, BCHH's first sports watch, took a different tack entirely: a bold, almost futuristic design inspired by supercar chassis and yacht hulls, hand-assembled in 904L steel or platinum (from $18,900), built to order with a flying tourbillon variant hand-finished by the same AHCI watchmakers behind the brand's dress pieces. Every design across all three brands is Chee's own, sketched personally before being realized by his global network of artisans — a decade-long project he pursues, by his own admission, less out of entrepreneurial ambition than a restless perfectionism, one still determined to put Singapore permanently on watchmaking's global map.