Fashion Entrepreneur Nejla Matam-Finn Shares Why An Audemars Piguet Watch Is Her Beloved Timepiece

Her website, www.thefifthcollection.com, may stock rare vintage from brands like Bozart and Christian Lacroix, but her personal uniform comprises white shirt and jeans, and is almost always topped off by one thing: an oversized ticker. “My mum used to joke that it looked like I was wearing an alarm clock on my tiny wrist,” says the Frenchwoman, whose first watch purchase was a Cartier Must de 21 at the age of 16, which she attained after saving for an entire summer.

Though her personal collection of 10 watches includes names like Cartier, Piaget and Chopard, taking pride of place in her stash is the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. It belonged to her dad, and she plans to hand it down to her daughter. “When he passed away a few years ago, it was the one thing I wanted to have to remember him by. Wearing it is like having my father around me – it always reminds me of what a visionary he was.”

Photography Joel Low Assisted By Alfie Pan Art Direction Jonathan Chia Hair Ash Loi/Atelier Hair & Beauty, using Sebastian

An adapted version first appeared in 24:7. 

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