On the wrists of Thailand’s cabinet ministers this month sits a digital Casio with a small world map on the dial and the prime minister’s name engraved on the back.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has been gifting them to ministers, senior bureaucrats and political allies, reportedly buying them in small shops and markets around Bangkok before having them engraved.
In a capital where horology has long functioned as a ledger of status, the gesture reads as an inversion.
Fashion has moved in the same direction, with technical watches, resin straps and tool aesthetics appearing on runways built around tailoring.
The most legible luxury in Bangkok this season costs less than dinner, which is exactly why it works.
