Exclusive, traditional, steeped in history—these are just some of the common terms used to describe the watch industry. For Austen Chu, there would also be transparent and accessible—two words that may not sit well with everyone. 

As a university student in Shanghai, Chu’s curiosity would take him to watch boutiques regularly, where he could admire the timepieces on display. But many of his visits weren’t too pleasant.

“I would walk into every boutique that I could go into and [I would get] the feeling [that] the sales associates [would] just [assume] I couldn't afford anything at the time—[and] they were right. But it didn’t matter [because] I was curious and I wanted to learn [about] these amazing watches that I normally could only view on the internet.”

That sowed the seed for his watch consignment store Wristcheck, which he co-founded in 2020 to “make [the] purchasing of exclusive watches and collecting accessible, non-intimidating and transparent for the next [generation]”.

Read more: Clockwise with Austen Chu: How to start collecting watches

In a conversation with Gen.T’s Lee Williamson for this week’s episode of our podcast Crazy Smart Asia, Chu shares how he deals with age discrimination in the watch industry, why being relentless in pursuit of your goals is the key to achieving your dreams, and how he’s using community to help a new generation of watch collectors. 

Here are a few excerpts from the conversation. Click the audio player below to listen to the episode or subscribe via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.