For years, Mark Cho, an owner of the Armoury, a men’s wear brand, searched for the Philippe Patek 565 — an exceedingly rare vintage sports watch. Released in 1938, it was the Swiss company’s first waterproof watch.
It had gained a cultlike following among collectors and was difficult to track down. When Mr. Cho, an avid watch collector, finally got his hands on it, he was surprised — and disappointed. The watch didn’t sit well on his wrist, he said. The screwed back felt uncomfortable, and the watch face seemed crowded and bogged down by Patek’s design elements.
Now, years later, that experience has inspired Mr. Cho to design and introduce his own watch brand at the Armoury.
The brand, Temporal Works, introduced a Series A in December with three watch designs. The watches are encased in a sculptural 37 millimeter stainless steel case with a mirrored finish. The dial, which comes in black or blue, has a watch face divided into four quadrants that emit a subtle shimmer when the wearer tilts their wrist to check the time.
The watch also comes in the glossy two-toned red Fortune Watch, a nod to Chinese culture, which reveres red.
Mr. Cho and his co-designer, Elliot Hammer, were inspired by fountain pens when designing the watch hands. They created a faceted minute and hour hand, which they call “nib” hands. The watches, which retail for $2,500 each, come with a calfskin strap with a metal clasp. Customers also have the option to buy a stainless steel band with a hidden clasp for $250.
“It’s a reimagining of the 565 if it had a great-, great-, great-grandson,” Mr. Cho said.
He opened the Armoury in Hong Kong in 2010. The store began modestly as a shop with high-quality men’s wear and eventually transformed into its own clothing brand with suits, ties, polo shirts and safari jackets.
The brand, which expanded to New York in 2013, has gained a loyal following. For many customers, the personalized shopping experience and Mr. Cho’s taste are a big part of the draw.
Born in London to Malaysian Chinese parents, Mr. Cho now lives in Hong Kong. After graduating from Brown University in the United States, he got a job at the London headquarters of HSBC.
While there, he would often walk past a jewelry shop that sold vintage watches, which piqued his interest. In 2006, he spent his first paycheck on an Omega chronostop watch from the 1970s with a gray watch face and a bright orange second dial for 350 pounds, about $650.
“What started out as a shortcut to adulthood ended up turning into quite a passion,” he said. “You don’t just collect watches, you collect the brands and the people who work them and create them.”
Mr. Cho has collected dozens of rare vintage watches from Vacheron Constantin, Grand Seiko and F.P. Journe, and championed independent watchmakers. In 2022, he sold more than 60 watches, the vast majority of his collection, at an online auction.
He used about $800,000 from the sale to develop the Pedder Arcade — a European-style shopping arcade in the Beaux-Arts-style Pedder Building in Hong Kong’s Central district. The arcade is home to the Armoury’s clothing store.
Before starting Temporal Works, the Armoury worked on several collaborations with watchmakers, including Paulin, Unimatic and Ressence. Mr. Cho learned about watchmaking and took a class with the Horological Society of New York.
Starting a watch brand was a chance to “take the training wheels off,” Mr. Cho said. “We wanted to work with something that was completely of our own language, our own design and our own conception.”
He figured the project would take about a year and a half. It ended up taking three years. Mr. Cho and Mr. Hammer began by researching vintage watches, looking through old catalogs and collectors’ photographs on Instagram. Mr. Hammer, who is trained as a graphic designer, sketched designs with pencil on paper and made 3-D models.
The men also traveled to Japan to meet artisans who specialized in zaratsu, a finishing technique associated with Grand Seiko watches that creates a mirrored surface, free from distortions.
At a trade show in 2025 in Geneva, they met with the German company Hermann Staib, which specializes in producing Milanese mesh watch straps made from delicately braided stainless steel wire.
Mr. Hammer said the watch was “a little bit of the best of everything.”
“We wanted people who are used to having $20,000 watches to feel like it was up to their standards,” he said. “And then people who are getting into watches or interested — it’s a little taste of how good watchmaking can be.”
Mr. Cho paid close attention to how the watch prototypes fit. “When you slip on the right jacket, it can feel very coherent with your body,” he said. “We tried to seek that feeling.”
The resulting watch is what he describes as the navy blazer of watches — something that goes with everything.
“To me, the navy blazer is one of the most fundamental items in a man’s wardrobe,” he said. “Everyone can wear a navy blazer their own way. It’s a garment that takes on the personality of its owner while being very flattering.”
He plans to introduce more watch series under the Temporal Works brand and experiment with different finishes for the watch case.
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