CALL COLLECT: MARK CHO
MOOREIf you tell Mark Cho, founder of the menswear atelier The Armoury, that he’s a bona fide style icon, he’ll deny it with his usual modesty. Even so, what cannot be denied that in the 10 years since he first opened shop in Hong Kong, is that he and his brand have had an outsized effect on contemporary menswear.
In addition to being a somewhat reluctant avatar for modern men’s fashion, he’s also an avid watch collector with a keen eye for value and an even keener eye for provenance and manufacture acumen. To this end, we were fortunate to steal a moment at his NYC flagship to talk about his collection and how he goes about selecting the pieces that tickle his particular fancy.
When did the watch bug hit?
2006, I was at my first job in London and I used to walk by a used watch store called Austin Kaye every day on the way to work. It’s interesting that “vintage watches” weren’t really a commercial thing yet, you just called them “used watches”.
My interest in watches, especially early on, was because they were cheap and small. My Omega Chronostop cost me £350 pounds and it was 36mm. I quickly realised that there were a lot of great, cheap and small watches out there. Looking back, it’s interesting that even then, I instinctively found watches larger
