Published on October 19, 2005

Wristbands honouring His Majesty the King have become instant best sellers with almost all of the one million pieces sold after just one day yesterday.

The King Power Foundation ordered the manufacture of one million yellow wristbands bearing the slogans “We Love HM the King” in Thai and “Long Live the King” in English.

Each wristband was numbered individually from 1 to 1,000,000.

People queued up outside Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) branches yesterday to buy the wristbands at Bt100 apiece.

“We stocked up on 3,000 wristbands at our branch, but they were sold out within an hour,” said Supong Limpanich, manager of SCB’s Ratchayothin branch.

The proceeds will go towards funding the diamond jubilee celebrations of His Majesty the King, commemorating his 60th year on the throne next year.

Many SCB branches such as that located in Rajvithi Hospital decided to retain some of their stock for sale today.

The silicone wristbands come in two sizes: 57 millimetres and 64 millimetres in diameter.

“We have delivered 700,000 wristbands to all 628 branches of the SCB and we have received reports of almost all of them being sold out,” said Julajit Boonyaket, vice chairman of the foundation.

Julajit said the foundation has independently been selling the remaining300,000 wristbands, including those with unusual number combinations such as 111. They are on sale exclusively to members of the King Power duty-free shop. Bidding will also take place for some of the wristbands in expectation that it will dramatically raise their prices.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was flaunting wristband No 999 yesterday, said he needed to pull some strings to secure a band with such an auspicious number. During an interview yesterday he also proceeded to buy another wristband numbered 855937.

Wichai Winijkool, a district official helping SCB branches in Chiang Mai with the wristband sales, said the number of bands to be sold to a single customer was limited to five. Even so, the wristbands were flying off the shelves.

“People formed long lines in front of each branch before opening time,” he said. Only the strict quota limit helped save some of the bands for sale today, he said.

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