Over thousands of years, the number seven has developed a solid reputation for being a symbol of fortune, thanks to a diverse range of religious, cultural, historical and even mathematical reasons – it was selected as the world’s favourite number in a global online poll The Guardian conducted over a decade ago, ahead of three and eight.
This preamble may appear completely unrelated, but seven also happens to be the number of years it took for Feynman Timekeepers to earn its first award nomination since the Singapore-based microbrand was co-founded in 2018 by Lim Yong Keong, its brand owner and designer. Not the result of mere luck or a fluke, but an outcome of years of striving, Feynman Timekeepers’ Coalesce – Dragon metiers d’art watch was shortlisted for the Jewellery & Artistic Crafts category at this year’s Timepiece World Awards, held in Toronto in September.
“It means the world to us that our efforts have been recognised by the international jury,” Lim remarked. “To us, this is already a win, and I’m proud to represent Singapore and showcase our local talent on the global stage.”
The inaugural piece of Feynman Timekeepers’ Coalesce Zodiac series from 2024, inspired by the Year of the Dragon on the Chinese lunar calendar, the Coalesce – Dragon was the culmination of the skills of a number of artisans from Singapore and their craft: the cloisonné enamel dial by enamellist Charlotte Hoe of Royal Insignia; the handmade leather strap by Ng Shu Yi of YI Leather and the bespoke display box by Gene Khoo of Ten10 Horowerkz, with both items painted by Aries Liew of Hui Art; and a watch assembled and perfected by watchmaker Alvin Sim. “We are [making metiers d’art watches] because we really want to showcase what we can do, aside from our normal production,” Lim added. “We want to promote what we can do in Singapore itself, because many of [these artisans] are actually quite good at what they’re doing.”
Feynman Timekeepers has been on a roll lately. Its most recent collection, the Feynman Q, has been well received since it was launched in July – back orders will take until next February to fulfill, Lim elaborates – and represents a turning point of sorts for the brand. “I tried to move a little away from a mechanical watch point of view, and I’m trying to do quartz watches to see how the market will respond,” he adds. “So it was like a gamble for us.” Christened the Feynman Q for the quirky case, an homage to the Roger Dubuis Sympathie, and also for it being a quartz movement, the first for Feynman Timekeepers, the 34mm watch features an on-trend dial of ornamental hard stone (malachite, turquoise, tiger’s eye or lapis lazuli) together with the lizard-tail small-seconds hand, a Feynman Timekeepers signature, and crimped hour and minute hands that intersect once every hour to form a rhombus. The Feynman Q follows the brand’s August 2024 release, the Feynman VI. Also named with wordplay in mind, the Feynman VI references vintage TV cases, as well as the sixth year of Feynman Timekeepers. The 40.8mm by 38mm watch features a sloping rehaut, with the Feynman logo tucked away discreetly near 6 o’clock; a custom-designed skeleton handset; and a dial with (for the earlier iterations) a scratched pattern achieved through fine vertical brushing, and rendered in dark blue, silver, or green, with the last designated the Founder’s Edition, a Feynman Timekeepers tradition.
The reception of the Coalesce – Dragon, the Feynman Q and the Feynman VI, taken together, might appear to suggest that establishing a watch brand is easy, but that would be glossing over the struggle of creating a brand from scratch, enriching it, and expanding its catalogue and clientele.
For starters, Lim designed the timepieces from the perspective of a watch collector instead of a professional designer, by drawing inspiration from features he admires – be it a case shape, lug design, dial pattern, colour, or buckle – and chose details that gave the Feynman One, the brand’s inaugural collection, a unique aesthetic. But watch watchers took some time to warm up to it, and that taught Lim about tastes and trends, as well as being firm in his own beliefs. “For our first product video that we launched, about 75 to 80 percent of the comments were negative, and then we had a huge inventory left on our first design after one to two years,” Lim recounted. “Then after we launched the second, third and fourth designs, people started looking for the first design, and the entire opinion seemed to change overnight. People were saying that the first design is very nice, so why don’t we produce it again?”
“So I’m also thinking, Yeah, maybe sometimes we just need to insist on what we want to do, and perhaps people will realise what we’re trying to do and appreciate it.”
Along the way, Lim co-founded, with Sugiharto Kusumadi of Red Army Watches, the Spring Sprang Sprung fair for independent watch brands in 2022, and the annual event’s fourth edition, in November, gathered more than 50 exhibiting brands in Singapore. “The past few years have seen a surge in events like Spring Sprang Sprung, allowing brands to connect with collectors and showcase our work intimately,” Lim said. “We find these events far more effective – they let people experience the nuances of a watch firsthand, something a photo just can’t capture.”
According to Lim, the biggest hurdle for a brand like his is establishing an image that can compete with mainstream giants who have been around for generations, and to convince consumers to give it a chance, by staying true to its convictions: to deliver quality products with strong after-sales support, his focus for Feynman Timekeepers since 2018. “Today, we still have parts for the very first model that we developed seven years ago … We do have quite high inventory cost because we keep all the spare parts that are required,” he said. “That’s how we want to uphold customer service.”
Building and sustaining a watch brand took years of investing on his part, in terms of time, resources, and also faith: Four years of work went into demonstrating encouraging progress, and the fifth year finally brought Feynman Timekeepers to a place of stability and financial health. Asked how he managed to stay the course for such a long duration, Lim revealed: “I honestly have not told anyone, but because when we first designed the watch, I used my son’s name, so in a way, I feel a strong sense of responsibility. … If I fail, it’s not very nice. How am I going to tell him in the future, right? That was one of the reasons why I worked very, very hard to try to keep the brand going for the first five years and make sure that by then we should be able to at least break even.”
From the start, Feynman Timekeepers had been established by Lim with the purpose of becoming a gift he could share with his older son. The 10-year-old wears a reliable Casio for now, but that could change someday soon. “He’ll spot a new prototype and immediately ask if it’s a Feynman timepiece,” Lim shared. “I heard from my wife that he goes around telling all his friends [that he has] a watch brand; it was so funny that he came back and asked me, ‘Papa, what’s our website? I want to tell my friends about our website.’” Now, Lim’s younger son has entered the Feynman Timekeepers universe as the namesake of Fahren Concepts, its line of watch accessories such as storage cases and leather pouches. “I try to work it out as a partnership, so that hopefully in the future, the brothers can work together, because it’s still related,” he added.
Through it all, Lim has never lost sight of his admiration for watchmaking – “The fact that so many intricate parts come together in such a tiny space to keep time is pure engineering magic,” he opined – or of his cherished colour that set in motion the Founder’s Edition model for nearly every one of Feynman Timekeepers’ collections. The collector, who goes by the handle @greenhorology on Instagram, attributes this affinity for green to his first luxury watch purchase, the Rolex Submariner nicknamed Kermit for its bright-green aluminum bezel insert. “The seller insisted I check it out, and wow, it stole my heart. I had no idea I’d fall for green, but that watch was a game-changer. I ended up wearing it daily for years, and coincidentally, my career took off,” the former IT consultant explained. “I started associating green with good fortune. So when we designed our first watch, it had to be green. I spent hours on Pantone, mixing and matching until I got ‘my’ shade of green, a blend of 51 percent green and 49 percent blue. I’m obsessed with how it turned out, and now it’s a staple in our Founder’s Editions.”
Effort, faith, and a striking lucky colour, simmered over seven years – that is the recipe for making one’s own fortune.
This story was first seen as part of the WOW #82 Festive 2025 Issue
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