Singapore's oldest watch retailer sold at the 2007 peak — later absorbed by its rival

Sincere Watch was Singapore's oldest luxury watch retailer, founded in 1954 by Tay Boo Jiang with a shop on North Bridge Road and listed on the SGX in 1993 under his son Tay Liam Wee. At its end it ran 18 boutiques across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Australia, selling Omega, Audemars Piguet, Franck Muller, Panerai, Tudor, Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger-LeCoultre, with a separate Pendulum chain in Thailand.

In December 2007, at the top of the watch boom, Tay Liam Wee sold control to Hong Kong's Peace Mark Holdings for S$530 million. Peace Mark funded the purchase with a US$201 million bank bridge loan, and minority shareholders were paid partly in Peace Mark shares. The privatisation offer closed in March 2008 and Sincere Watch was delisted from the Singapore Exchange that year.

The credit crisis hit months later. Peace Mark's shares fell 73% year on year, trading was suspended on 18 August 2008, and on 11 September 2008 provisional liquidators were appointed at the banks' request. Sincere Watch was hived off and put up for sale. In 2009 a consortium led by Standard Chartered Private Equity — with L Capital, LVMH's private equity arm, and a former Peace Mark managing director — bought back about 80% of the chain for S$112.7 million, 79% below the 2007 price.

Hong Kong businesswoman Pollyanna Chu bought it in 2012 for S$232 million. In November 2020 her company sold it to arch-rival Cortina Holdings for S$84.5 million in cash — about 0.2% below net tangible assets, after a S$6.4 million net loss in FY2020. The deal completed in March 2021 at S$84.7 million. Across four owners in thirteen years the company lost 84% of its value; the brand survives as Sincere Fine Watches under Cortina.