In the small merchandise offerings of Café Kitsuné, there is a charming little watch

The French brand Maison Kitsuné is picking up pace in its expansion in Southeast Asia, except on our island. In Bangkok, Kitsuné stores are popping up in the city’s major malls, such as Paragon and CentralWorld and in Kuala Lumpur, a Kitsuné standalone with a café has opened in the spanking new TRX Exchange in the centre of the city. A Malaysia reader of SOTD asked us, somewhat incredulously, “You don’t have. a Kitsuné store there?” While we have a small Café Kitsuné at Capitol Singapore, the 21-year-old brand has no store of their own. The fox-branded merchandise is only available at the multi-label boutique Manifesto (also stockist of APC and Lemaire) in Mandarin Gallery.

Manifesto does not carry what might be considered the definitive Kitsuné collection and Café Kitsuné has a very small selection of T-shirts and mugs, and such. But among the offering in café’s little showcase of merchandise is a watch that you might miss if you gave the space only a cursory glance. The Casio Vintage x Café Kitsuné digital watch, launched in September, is a charming iteration of the steel original which first appeared in the early ’90s. The two brands’ reimagining retains the metal band, but with a dial in off-white and an LCD illumination in orange. The sum is a limited-edition watch that is retro, yet not quite. In fact, it can be considered cute—not a bad thing, seeing how serious Casio watches can be.

The Casio Vintage X Café Kitsuné A168WECK digital watch, S$130, is available at Café Kitsuné, Capitol Singapore. Photo: Zhao Xiangji