NIGERIAN ENTREPRENEUR DEREMI AJIDAHUN

WE TALK ABOUT VANISHING WATCH COLLECTIONS AND WHAT INSPIRES HIM TO BUY A TIMEPIECE

WORDS DEBBIE HATHWAY

OPPOSITE AND TOP:

Relentless frontline pioneer Deremi Ajidahun wears the Purnell Escape II ABOVE:

I buy what I enjoy. Technicality is not the first thing that turns me on about a watch. What I like is the aesthetic, how it looks and feels on my wrist, and if it makes me happy.”

Imagine his delight then when he has the world’s fastest double triple-axis tourbillon dancing on his wrist – and the distraction when his business colleagues try to focus on a meeting but they can’t take their eyes off the piece. It’s an Escape II from Purnell’s hyper-horology collection, which CEO Maurizio Mazzocchi describes as happy watches because “when you look at them, they give you pleasure”.

Deremi likes buying from series like the Louis Erard x Konstantin Chaykin limited edition released in April 2023. “I won’t wear those watches. I might just wear one of the set.”

In fact, he only wears 20 percent of the watches he buys – so what happens to the rest? Are they investment pieces for later resale?

“That’s a good question,” he says. Perhaps not intentionally, but he does rue the day he parted with his Patek Philippe watches and a Richard Mille RM 11-04 when he was made an offer he couldn’t refuse. Some of his collection is on display in his office, while others are in safekeeping, potentially forming a showcase for a later exhibition.

Interestingly, he had no Rolex watches after losing his father’s timepiece, but that changed pre-Covid when he spotted an Oyster Perpetual Milgauss in Harrods. Innocuous in stainless steel, a sporty watch that he would wear, he returned the following day to buy it, only to find that it had been sold and the sales consultant could not confirm when another model would be in stock. “This piqued my interest. I finally managed to source the Milgauss, and that was my first Rolex. I have since bought a few.”

Deremi’s love of watches is further indulged in his publishing business, which was established early in his career. “I was a print designer. Many people don’t know this. I designed and produced [award-winning] annual reports. When I set up a print design company in 1988, that was the beginning of my business as an entrepreneur,” he says.

Deremi owned a franchise of Sur la Terre International, a network of city magazines, before starting his own in-house magazine called Zakaa.

In 2018, GMT Publishing and Deremi’s Hole19 Luxury Group of Nigeria signed a franchising agreement to create a GMT Africa edition of Switzerland’s leading watch magazine to be distributed in Sub-Saharan Africa. It was the outcome of a Dubai Watch Week discussion with his friend, Brice Lechevalier, the founder of GMT Publishing, who knew Deremi wanted to establish a business in Dubai. “My business motto has always been: The answer is yes. How I go about it, I don’t know. So that’s how it started. We’re having a blast, doing things differently and producing a lifestyle magazine for watch lovers.” ■

To me, luxury is indulgence that goes beyond comfort and elegance. I start my day by dropping my children off at school, followed by Pilates and coffee. I usually wear mom jeans or pleather tights with a blazer and sneakers. The city I love the most is Porto – Portugal is my heritage. The most beautiful hotel I’ve stayed at is the FIVE Palm Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai. My most treasured possession is my family. Three things I would like to add to my home this year are a Daniel “Stompie” Selibe art piece, a large bronze sculpture and a few seasonal decor accessories. I am reading The Bible and Loving our Kids on Purpose by Danny Silk. My favourite restaurants in Jozi are George’s Grill House at The Neighbourhood Square, Olives & Plates in Hyde Park Corner and QBar in Rosebank. The last thing I bought and loved is a pleather puffer gilet from Zara. I collect beautiful decor pieces. I love our black-and-white marble ice bucket (pictured below left). To relax on weekends, I enjoy being at our home with the kids, playing tennis and board games, and swimming in summer. My idea of a fun evening is dinner at home with friends; I usually make a delicious seafood pasta or meze platters. My drink of choice is Quoin Rock chenin blanc, but I’m partial to a freezo and drink lots of water. A favourite Da Rocha piece is the Catalina dining table and Malibu chairs (pictured below left), but it’s hard to choose as I design so many pieces. When I need to feel inspired, I travel and buy design books. I love the Assouline collection. My guilty pleasure is chocolate and coffee. The best advice I’ve been given is to work hard and play hard. ■ darocha.co.za

INTERIOR DESIGNER

DANIELA DA ROCHA WORKS WITH CLIENTS LOCALLY AND AROUND THE WORLD ON LUXURY RESIDENTIAL PROJECTS. SHE HAS A KEEN EYE FOR CONTEMPORARY DETAIL AND IS PASSIONATE ABOUT HER AWARD-WINNING FAMILY BUSINESS, DA ROCHA INTERIORS

DANIELA’S IT LIST

Beauty: Heliocare Tinted Gel Cream yourluxury.africa

SPF 50, Babor Hyaluronic Serum, Esse Cocoa Exfoliator and a fullbody massage when I need a treat.

Scent: Louis Vuitton Attrape-Rêves.

Sunglasses: Tom Ford. Watch: Apple Watch Series 8 in rose gold.

You’ll find our weekly YOURLIFE profiles on our website, yourluxury.africa. From fashion designers and foodies to stylists and social influencers, hoteliers and entrepreneurs, you’ll get to know some of the most interesting people in Africa and beyond.

BEYONCÉ SOLIDIFIED HER Renaissance world tour as one of 2023’s definitive pop culture events when she mounted a platinum disco stallion during her final set at Stockholm’s Friends Arena back in May. It was an event Billboard would normally cover, not Bloomberg or The Economist. Nonetheless, when one economist in particular attributed Sweden’s lacklustre inflation decline to the so-called “Beyoncé Effect”, he sparked dozens of reports in the international business press.

Analysts had predicted that Sweden’s inflation would decrease to 7.8 percent in May, but it stubbornly remained above 8.0 percent. “Beyoncé is responsible for the extra upside surprise this month,” Michael Grahn, the Swedish chief economist for Danske Bank, told the Financial Times He believes the favourable dollar-krona exchange rate was a driving factor for the legions of American fans that visited Sweden in May to see the singer perform. In an email to the BCC, Michael holds the popstar’s world tour partly responsible for rocketing hotel room rates, but clarified that Bey can’t solely be blamed for Sweden’s high inflation print.

High-profile celebrities wield significant economic influence, particularly over the financial markets, partly because of the markets’ reactive nature. When an It Girl or a star athlete throws a company some shade, Nasdaq immediately clutches its pearls, while the Dow spirals into a tizz.

Remember when Kylie Jenner wiped $1.3 billion from Snapchat’s market value in 2018 with a casual tweet suggesting she’s not using the social media platform anymore? Similarly, Cristiano Ronaldo sent Coca-Cola’s share price into a brief sulk – pardon, slump – because he chose water over Coke at a press conference. Unlike markets, macroeconomics seems a bit more resilient to the vagaries of celebrities. Should the rand plummet even further and we get downgraded to economy class on our next business trip, the cause is likely a geopolitical one, not a rambling Kardashian. A pop star in a bedazzled catsuit is also not the obvious explanation economists consider when analysing rising food prices. The culprits hacking away at consumers’ potential purchasing power are generally forces of an odious nature – Russian imperialism, countries defaulting on their debt, pandemics or power-hungry despots.

Germany’s Weimar Republic is an exemplary case study of exactly how not to exacerbate inflation. When Herr Deutschland’s checks for Germany’s World War I reparations started bouncing, the Reichsbank’s solution was to simply print more money when France’s debt collectors came a-knocking. Soon after, the German Papiermark’s exchange rate plummeted to roughly 100 000 marks for one square of single-ply toilet paper.