ONE HONG KONG watchmaker is quietly making his way into the history books in his tiny workshop tucked away in a corner of Worldwide House in Central.
Kiu Tai-yu is not only the first Asian watchmaker inducted into the cliquey Swiss haute horlogerie independent watchmakers' league, the Horology Academy of Independent Watchmakers (AHCI, the acronym for its Swiss name Academie Horlogere Des Createurs Independants), but is also the only Asian watchmaker to hold a watch patent in three places - Switzerland, the United States and China.
His most significant creation is a 'mystery tourbillon', with no bridge and no carriage, which took the Swiss watchmaking community by surprise when he created it in 1991.
But you won't see his creations lined up in the showcases of luxury watch shops or being advertised far and wide like most Swiss-made haute horlogerie.
Why? Because Mr Kiu has the pride and temperament of a talented artist waiting to be discovered. He believes that the gods who endowed him with the ability to understand complicated watchmaking from an early age must have bigger things in store for him and, as he builds a reputation in making history, commercial success will eventually follow.
For now, he is dedicating as much energy into collecting timepieces as he is into creating them. Collecting for him is part of the creative process, as he learns to 'innovate and create through collecting'.