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New year, new bling: Shawn Thia flexes $2,000 IWC watch purchase from Tokyo shop

New year, new bling: Shawn Thia flexes $2,000 IWC watch purchase from Tokyo shop
PHOTO: Screengrab/TikTok/shawnthia

Everyone heard of the phrase 'New year, new me', and that usually includes a spanking new wardrobe to boot.

Local actor Shawn Thia recently added the first piece to his 2023 wardrobe by flexing the $2,000 IWC watch he purchased from a small Tokyo shop.

Currently on vacation with fiancee Xenia Tan in Japan, the 26-year-old shared his vintage shopping experience in a TikTok video posted on Wednesday (Jan 11). It has since garnered over a million views and 80,000 likes.

In the clip, Shawn visits Dazzling – a vintage watch and jewellery store – located five minutes away from Omotesando station, an upmarket Tokyo shopping district. 

[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@shawnthia/video/7187212338930486530[/embed]

While there, he encountered the practice of "lucky bags" – or the Japanese version of mystery box – and narrowed it down to three choices. 

Armed with nothing but the watch brand and price, Shawn had to choose among Rolex, Omega and IWC lucky bags, saying it "felt like a kid choosing his first Pokemon again". 

Clearly, he was going to need some help and decided to ask the friendly shop owner for more clues.

Despite not being the most fluent with English, the shop owner was able to reveal the year of manufacture, size of the three watch models' face and that they all retain their original strap. 

However, the additional information only seemed to send Shawn into more agony as evident from his onscreen caption "Can't decide help [sic]".

After racking his brains, Shawn decided that the Rolex lucky bag was the first to go because he felt that a "34.5mm [watch face] is too small for [him]".

One down, two more to go. 

Next to go was the Omega lucky bag – due to Shawn's preference for an automatically winding watch over the manual winding Omega – but not before reluctantly admitting that he "will like the Omega [watch] design more".

While he initially was tempted to get both watches, he settled on the IWC watch which turned out to be a 1973 IWC Yacht Club model in the end. 

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Immediately, it was love at first sight for Shawn as he laid his eyes on his gold-accentuated vintage watch.

A quick check online reveals that a vintage IWC Yacht Club watch from the seventies cost on average around $4,000, but he managed to snag his 1973 IWC timepiece at a steal at 350,000 yen (S$2,022).

Clearly a happy camper with his exquisite purchase, Shawn even wrote "10/10 would recommend the place".

In the comments, netizens' reactions were mixed. Some netizens commended him for making "the right choice" of watch and urged him to "buy all three" watches since they were "so cheap".

Others were not impressed by his purchase with one saying that it literally "looks like any other $125 watch".

One commenter highlighted the practice of the lucky bags in Japan, sharing that it’s a New Year tradition called fukubukuro.

These lucky or grab bags are filled with random items at heavily discounted prices to attract customers and clear stock for the new year. 

Previously, Shawn and Xenia also encountered another unique Japanese tradition on their trip in the form of ikizukuri.

They tried the style of sashimi - where the seafood is prepared alive to ensure freshness – and were taken back when the sliced fish's head and tail were still twitching on their plate. 

ALSO READ: Too fresh? Xenia Tan's twitching sashimi in Japan is making people squirm 

timothywee@asiaone.com

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