Man of the Hour

Luk sees the success of the Cartier brand in China as a natural progression for the company –and for the Cartier line of products.

“The brand is about exclusivity, the history and legend of the design, and the art of being unique. We are producing works of art,” he says. “We started in 1847 and we are now charting our future in China. It is dynamic and something new is happening every day. Everyone wants to be a part of building the success of China and we do too.

“Twenty years ago it was just me working there, now we have around 1,200 people in China working for us. So, looking back to me this is a giant footstep. Every morning when I get up I am excited and I feel the energy.”

And it was doing business in China – and looking for what to do with some of that energy – that led Luk to golf, although he readily admits that it took a long time for him to be seduced by the game’s many charms.

“The truth is that when I was at school in the UK I had all these mates from Portugal and from Spain who wanted me to play golf but I thought they were mad,” says Luk. “I wanted to play football and rugby. So when I saw the guys swinging these clubs I would say ‘Come on guys, this game is for the oldies.'"

But time has a habit of changing how a man sees the world – and indeed, how the world sees him.

“In 1996, one of my dealers, Wong Kam-shing from the Kowloon Watch Company, enrolled me for lessons at Sai Kung and said I had become too fat and I needed exercise,” laughs Luk. “He was really the driving force. I had a tough coach who made me work hard and Mr Wong was there all the time. I started to find this game interesting. It’s tough. There is so much to learn and it is a constant challenge.”