Chinese billionaire’s son buys his dog 2 gold Apple Watches

BEIJING — Thought you were splurging by buying yourself an Apple Watch? Think again.

The 27-year-old son of China’s richest man took to social media site Weibo to post photos of his dog wearing not one but two gold Apple Watches.

Lifestyle news portal Shanghaiist said the caption on the photos reads: “I have new watches! I’m supposed to have four watches since I have four long legs. But that seems too uncouth so I kept it down to two, which totally fits my status. Do you have one?”

Apple’s gold watches retail for between US$10,000 (S$13,518) and US$17,000 each depending on specifications, and have a three- to four-week wait time.

Mr Wang Sicong is the son of Mr Wang Jianlin, who is worth about US$34 billion and runs the real estate development company Dalian Wanda.

Chinese billionaires probably have reason to splurge. The Shanghai Composite Index is soaring again and is up more than 50 per cent so far this year.

As the economy booms, lifestyle fads have also gripped the country’s nouveau rich. A few years ago, the keeping of Tibetan Mastiffs, a shepherding dog native to the Himalayan highlands, for a while became the must-have accoutrement for status-conscious Chinese.

A pure-bred Tibetan Mastiff named Big Splash sold for US$1.6 million in 2011, said news reports. No reasonable buyer, self-anointed experts said at the time, would pay more than US$250,000 for a premium specimen. Since then, most Tibetan Mastiff breeders have gone under as interest in the breed waned. AGENCIES