His distant relations - the Emperor Napoleon, Napoleon's brother, King Jerome of Westphalia, and Jerome's sister, Caroline Murat - were all big collectors who dedicated areas of their residences for showcasing their precious possessions, including watches. Living up to that tradition, De Witt himself owns about 120 wristwatches worth many millions of baht. The most expensive is worth US$800,000 (Bt29.3 million), and it is a timepiece made by his own company.

De Witt didn't begin his fine watchmaking business until about three years ago, when he quit the financial and construction businesses.

"He did not use his time in those businesses simply to create the watchmaking business to make money. Neither is it because he was born into a prestigious family, nor that he uses that benefit to build connections with people," says Claude-Daniel Proellochs, who has been working with De Witt since the launch of the watch business.

Nevertheless, he's lucky to be surrounded by top people, including experts in the watch business. He has been able to find people with the same passion as him, to create, develop and market fine watches.

His business background is totally different to his current ownership of the small company making high-end Dewitt wristwatches. But for De Witt, the wristwatch business did not spring out of thin air. It began as a matter of mathematics, and a fascination for precise calculation.

"A watch is a device of fine calculation. It has certain positions. We have a day containing 24 hours and in every hour, minutes and seconds. If anything is missing, the watch will stop," De Witt explains.

Making watches, for him, is not a matter of combining the imagination of all watch creators into an ultimate timepiece. All such creators begin with a basic watch and first ensure accurate function, to get the time precise, before going for more and more difficulty and complication, he says. The more complicated the watches are, the better quality they have and the more expensive they are.

Perhaps, he says, his fascination for watches began with his curiosity as a seven-year-old boy. At that age, he entered a room and saw a showcase displaying several beautiful watches. Attracted by the shiny objects, he chose one of them and opened its case, to see how it worked. He was not to know that the case was equipped with delicate springs. He tripped the springs and the watch was destroyed.

He remembers that still, as one of his worst days. But he learned something about precision devices, and his father ordered him to put all the pieces of the watch into an envelope and said the watch would be passed down to him upon his father's death.

Recently, De Witt found the envelope and asked his staff to restore all the pieces to make it a fine, prestigious watch once again.

As for the watches made by De Witt's present company, stability of design is regarded as an important selling point. All Dewitt watches carry a design of columns holding a clock dial.

De Witt feels columns represent something strong that have offered protection for many years.

"We want something that will stay for a long time and will be recognised for a long time," Proellochs says.

At present, Dewitt's concept and unique design has its name in about 30 countries, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Italy and the United States. It made its recent Thailand debut at Yafriro, the newly opened Singaporean high-end watch retailer at Siam Paragon shopping complex.

The Asian market for high-end wristwatches is still developing, De Witt says. Hong Kong shows big potential, and Thailand is developing well.

It is planned that the Dewitt brand will be offered in more countries, so the company will gradually increase its production capacity. The company has about 20 employees, and individual watches can take from three days to several years to complete, depending on its complication.

Proellochs says Dewitt wants to remain a family business rather than big brand. "We want to stay niche and we want our company to work with heart."

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation