Patricia Chiu is the owner and founder of luxury watch retailer Monards. For over 30 years, she has been sharing her passion for watches and discovering her customers’ stories. Luxury is an emotion, for Patricia. Despite growing trends in e-commerce, she continues to believe in the importance of retail stores to engage with clients, form relationships and provide a singular emotional experience. 

I’m passionate about watches – such a small case with so many pieces inside. You have to put all the tiny little parts together to make it work. And they’re so expensive. We are in the watch business, but the most recent renovations have transformed our entire mezzanine level to include all our jeweller brands. They are obscure brands, but not if you know our watches. They’re high quality and beautifully crafted, and all with a story to tell, that’s what keeps us intrigued. Monards is a purveyor of the stories a timepiece can tell. 

The name is a combination of my two sons’ names, Desmond and Bernard. When I first opened, they were five and three years old and I used to bring them and my three young girls into the shop every day. Today, there is a childcare centre at 101 Collins, which would have been better for me at the time! Now, my son’s daughters will go there. I raised my kids at 101 Collins and now my grandkids will be raised here too. 

Watches reflect a personality, so it really depends. Once, I had a teenage boy come in when he turned 18. He had seen a watch in a newspaper ten years prior and had been saving for ten years before he came and bought it. It’s a personal journey. We need to understand the client and their lifestyle before we can start making recommendations. First and foremost, it’s about forming a relationship. We must always be very honest and professional. We have 40 luxury brands, and our product knowledge must be second to none. We provide exceptional service and pride ourselves on strong and lasting relationships with our clients.