Case in Point

Tatler speaks to Kaifeng Huang, the founder of the Cartier Collector's Club in Hong Kong, about his passion for the maison and the unusual cases that shaped his love for the little red box By Amrita Katara Photography by Zed Leets

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What would you do if your childhood watch ran 15 minutes fast? Most people would fix it. But what if, instead, you embraced that quirk and let it shape your entire relationship with time—and eventually, with one of the world’s most prestigious watch brands?

This is exactly what happened to the founder of the Cartier Collector's Club Kaifeng Huang, whose unconventional journey from owning a misbehaving quartz timepiece to curating rare Cartier treasures challenges everything we think we know about luxury watch collecting. In an industry obsessed with Rolex’s dominance and investment returns, he has deliberately chosen the less-travelled road, seeking out Cartier’s most unusual and overlooked designs.

His philosophy is refreshingly contrary: while most watch lovers chase the latest steel sports watches or blue-chip vintage pieces, he hunts for asymmetrical cases from the 1970s, forgotten semiprecious stone dials and limited-production oddities that most collectors wouldn't give a second glance—or even know about. It’s an approach that has not only built him a truly distinctive collection but also sparked a global community of like-minded enthusiasts who believe that passion should always trump profit.

Through the Cartier Collectors Club—launched as an Instagram page, which has organically flourished across Asia over the past two years—Huang has proven that the most meaningful collecting happens when you throw conventional wisdom out the window and follow your curiosity instead.