FOR Dr Bernard Cheong, a collector extraordinaire, great watches can be like good food and fine wine. They bring joy.

But one does not necessarily need deep pockets to collect watches, he says.

Haute cuisine and rare wines are epicurean delights, but cheap and good hawker food can also blow a gourmet away, he reasons.

Dr Cheong, 49, practises what he believes in. Of the more than 100 watches he has, most of them cost between $30 and $1,000, while the expensive ones were acquired with the high profits he got from selling some of his pieces.

"Watches are an expression of one's personality and one's own values, what one stands for," says Dr Cheong. For him, watch collecting is about the art behind it, a passionate pursuit of "something we find lacking in ourselves".

Dr Cheong, a director of the Lifeline Medical Group, was rated as one of the top three most influential watch collectors in the world in December last year by the magazine Chronos Japan and his views carry weight in the industry.

Dr Cheong buys the watches for their artistic value. "Buy because you appreciate the art," he says. He defines art in a watch as the breaking of boundaries, or the creation of something that has never been done before.

Consider the Ulysse Nardin Freak. Dr Cheong wrote in an article on the website of the University of Salzburg in Austria that the watch stretched the envelope of engineering and lateral thinking so far that it was inconceivable that it was produced. It has many unique features, one of which is how the external case forms the bridge as well as the crown and the barrel.

Dr Cheong points out that the Swatch, a slim plastic watch with just 51 components, was also revolutionary when it was launched in 1983 by the Swiss in response to the threat from Japanese electronic watchmakers. The Casio G-Shock made an impact too in 1983 with its "Triple Ten" concept: 10-year battery life, 10 bar water resistance and 10m freefall.

Dr Cheong feels that the watch collecting fraternity is still evolving. "There were very few watch ads in magazines before 1998, he says, and watch collecting as a hobby or for investment only took off after 1998. People tend to go for status first, he points out, then art.

"The good thing about modern society is that people are learning faster, sharing much more," he says, adding that the best source of information is the Internet because it is interactive. He recommends thepurists.com, "probably the most regulated site of all".

He adds that the website belongs to an enthusiast in Los Angeles and it is frequented by many Japanese and Taiwanese collectors.

Dr Cheong cautions against buying watches based only on endorsements or the popularity of a brand. Also look for quality, the finishing, the skilled labour in making it, the number of watches made, as well as the relevance and aesthetics.

Even if the watch fulfils these criteria, one will usually lose some value on it initially. He says: "Watches may depreciate in the first five years but after that, it will go up in value because there's skilled human labour involved."

Dr Cheong says it is a watershed period now for the industry. In April, Jaeger-LeCoultre presented the Master Compressor Extreme LAB, a watch that will run smoothly for years without its parts showing wear or deterioration. It works well without any lubricant at extreme temperatures from minus 40 deg C to 60 deg C.

With this breakthrough, he says the old way of making watches is going to vanish in the next five years, so one should buy the best examples of such watches because they will become collectors' items in time to come.

Tips for collectors

1. Look for quality. Watches made by skilled craftsmen is worth much more than mass-produced machine-made watches.

2. Appreciate the art in it, for example, how a watch breaks the rules of horology and yet works well. A cheap watch, like the Swatch, can be groundbreaking for its time and become a collectible too.

3. Less is more. Go for watches with limited production.

4. Examine the finishing, such as the print quality of the dial, whether the screws are well polished, or if the angles are rounded and polished.

5. Consider the relevance and aesthetics. Is the watch relevant to the watchmaking industry? Landmark watches like the Ulysse Nardin Freak with its new escapement (the part that regulates the movement) and F.P. Journe Tourbillon Souverain with dead seconds (the second hand remains motionless or "dead" as long as the second is not over) will remain of value.