Included also in the Chinese tradition of pre-wedding engagement ceremony called Ting Hun is the giving of watches. This is part of the exchange of gifts and every item has an important meaning.
The parents of the groom will give my daughter a watch, and we, in turn, will give the groom, an equivalent watch. There is no strict rule that the watches have to be matching, same brand or model, color. There is also no rule that the watches have to be expensive or of a particular brand. In the Philippines, the preferred brand families buy is Rolex. I don’t know how and when this started but every parent we asked that had Ting Hun before suggested that Rolex is usually the brand of choice. You can buy Citizen, Apple, Seiko, Coach, Michael Kors, or whatever you want, but to play it safe, people usually give Rolex. If you are rolling in dough, no one will stop you if you want to give Patek.
Oyen and Derrick agreed on a mid-price range for practical reasons. To make things easier for the parents, and to make sure that what we end up buying is something they would like, I suggested that they just go to either Washington or to Lucerne to find the watch that they will like. Derrick found a simple style but the store didn’t have the style Oyen wanted.
In principle, we agreed that we, the parents of the bride, would buy the watch for Oyen, and the parents of the groom would just reimburse us. This is for practicality reasons. Rather than them buying and not sure if my daughter would like it, Edmund and I agreed, we would just be the one to buy Oyen’s watch. Preferably, the style is similar and the price is equitable with the groom’s watch. Hindi pwedeng yung isa eh gold, yung isa eh stainless steel. Hindi rin pwede na yung isa eh puro diamonds, tapos yung isa eh plain. Mas maganda kung medyo hawig ang itsura. They don’t have to be exact matchy-matchy, but more or less within the range. May differ in style and price but the range must not be too wide.
So on our first night in Bangkok, we made usyoso the watches at the Rolex store across Hotel Intercontinental. They have a few styles on display. They didn’t mind me taking photos.
Oyen’s specs were 31mm, pink face, Roman numerals. We took note of the suggested selling prices, the available styles, the discounts. At this particular store, the sales agent said they give a standard 5% discount and the VAT refund in Thailand is 6.1%. When Edmund asked if they could give a 10% discount, he said he would ask his manager.
