Watch the big idea?

When we were little, the acquisition of our first real watch was like a debut of sorts — it was an announcement that we could tell time and could figure out Roman numerals from Hindu Arabic. It was, even then, a status symbol. A symbol that we were bright enough to tell time (I’m not talking of digital watches here, which are really a cop-out for grown-up wannabes). I remember how grown-up I felt when I was able to say, “It’s quarter-to-five.”

Nowadays, people don’t buy watches to tell time. Otherwise, they’d stick to the same old watch as long as it works. Because people wear a watch for reasons that have nothing to do with time.

This timely reminder was given to us by visiting TechnoMarine CEO Gilbert Ohayon during a lunch at the Conservatory of The Peninsula Manila.

“When people buy a watch, they’re buying a lifestyle,” says Ohayon who says watches, per se, are a reminder that time is ticking away and we’re slowly but surely, aging!

“So why not look at a watch and see something else aside from time, and be happy?” philosophizes Ohayon, who says people most often turn to their cellphones to tell time, anyway.

“Watches now are like a pair of Jimmy Choos. They are status symbols, something you wear to look stylish.”

Ohayon says that the Philippines is one of the top five countries where TechnoMarine has a dominance in the watch market. And he points out that the market share of TechnoMarine in the Philippines is double than that of its market share in Italy! In fact, despite the economic woes in the US, 2008 is proving to be a very good year for TechnoMarine.

Ohayon credits the extraordinary presence of TechnoMarine in the Philippines through the marketing efforts of its Philippine partners, Raffy and Kat Florencio.

“TechnoMarine has a unique DNA and its innovative and irreverent posture has it one of the trendiest and rebel lifestyle brands in the industry,” says Ohayon.

Ohayon has spent most of his career in the entertainment business, and was with EMI music. During his music years, he was lucky enough to work on major international acts such as Tina Turner, Pink Floyd and Joe Cocker. Besides music, Ohayon was also passionate about two other things: Chess and watches.

After collecting watches for many years, Ohayon met the TechnoMarine owner who was looking for a CEO... this is when he fell in love with the brand.

Saving Graces

The collapse of giant financial institutions in the US is sending jitters even to our shores, with even multimillionaire Manny Pacquiao rushing home to make sure his money was safe.

Those of us fortunate to have enough money saved in the bank are ironically those who have the burden of worrying when there’s a collapse in financial institutions. Those who have more, worry more. Those who have no savings simply have nothing to worry about.

Which made me wonder: Aside from money and memories, what should we save up on so we have something to look forward to someday?

An article in Time magazine, “From Health to Wealth: Investing in healthy living now may add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars later” provided an answer.

The bottomline: Good health is a blue-chip investment. The ROI is guaranteed. In fact, good health is, at any time, a windfall.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t save cash — Annette Tirol of HSBC says we should save 20 percent of our take-home pay before expenses.

“But you may accomplish more by focusing on your health,” says author Dan Kadlec, who by the way is a business, not a health columnist. “That’s because the out-of-pocket costs for diseases that may be avoidable through diet and exercise can be staggering.”

Kadlec believes that, “getting and staying fit now may be worth tens of thousands of dollars later — a sum that just might exceed the carefully crafted stockpile in your retirement fund.”

Here are some “wealth” tips from Kadlec:

1. Lose weight — Obesity is linked to diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and more. Bottomline: shed some pounds, avoid these diseases and invest the related windfall from, say, age 40 to 65 — and you could pad your nest egg by up to $700,000 (That’s almost P32,900,000).

2. Stop smoking — Not buying cigarettes alone can add up to more than $100,000 if you stop at age 40 and invest the difference conservatively until age 65.

3. Get moving — Exercise and diet are keys to avoiding high blood pressure and heart disease, which together have annual costs to the individual of $666 in the US, according to one analysis.

After reading Kadlec’s article, I made an appointment with my doctor and got a blood chemistry test.

And when my doctor Rebecca Singson said my lab results were “pretty good” I felt “pretty rich.”

(You may e-mail me at [email protected])