WHERE Li Ka-shing leads, smart investors follow. So when, back in January, the tycoon bought numbers one, two and three of a limited edition of 18-carat pink-gold watches, launched by Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet to mark the change of sovereignty, it was only a matter of days before the other 16 were snapped up.
The $238,000 price tag - that is each - would not have fazed Mr Li, the founder, chairman and managing director of Cheung Kong (Holdings). But the sheer volume of high-end goods on the market to commemorate the handover and the speed at which they are being bought up proves it is not just the super-rich who are going on a spending spree.
Audemars is by no means alone in tapping a market in which investment matters as much as sentiment - although after selling all 19 of its pink-gold Royal Oak Offshore watches and the 97 $73,000 models it had made in steel, it is among the most successful.
Lighters, pens and coins have flooded the market and have proved enormously popular among well-off souvenir hunters giving a nod to their investment portfolios.
But it has been the watches that have really caught the eye.
Bidding on a pair of platinum watches brought out by Bvlgari - numbered 0000 in the lady's version and 1997 in the gentleman's edition - has closed, and agent Dickson Promotion would say no more than that they went for 'very much more' than twice their US$19,970 asking price.