SINGAPORE — “The back of the watch is where the beauty lies,” said Ian Chang as he raised a GMT 6 watch by Kari Voutilainen that Mr. Chang had helped personalize, choosing its distinctive red hands. “The back is the first thing I look at. It’s a work of art.”

Turning the watch over, he marveled at the balance springs and fingered the hand-polished edges.

Mr. Chang, 45, an independent solicitor who calls himself a “young collector,” says he prefers simplicity to complication in watches. “When I buy, it must sing to me,” he said. He owns 23 watches — not including those that belong expressly to his wife — keeping some at home and others in the bank vault.

His desire to collect was ignited in 2007, rather by chance.

At the time, he wanted to buy a watch for his wife, who had never owned one. They visited The Hour Glass, a well-known watch retailer in Singapore that had been recommended by a friend. She picked out the Patek Philippe Ladies’ Calatrava, then urged Mr. Chang to buy a new watch, too — to upgrade from the TAG Heuer he had been wearing since his university days.

He chose a dress watch, the IWC Perpetual Calendar, but soon realized he needed a sports watch as well. Being an avid sailor, and fishing in the Singapore Strait every week, he chose the Jaeger-LeCoultre Diving Pro Geographic, which is guaranteed water-resistant to 300 meters (985 feet). He says it still is the watch he wears most often.