May 14, 2022

Arbutus #MyFirstAutomatic with @jeslenec (Part 1)

Part 1: Get to know more about @jeslenec

Meet Jeslene Chia, also known as @jeslenec on Instagram. Here she shares with us her first experiences with Arbutus and how Arbutus Skeleton AR1719SWS is an ideal choice for her first mechanical watch.

Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Jeslene Chia, and would rather be known as Jes. I’m currently working as a full time Producer at The Smart Local.

What are your personality and core values?

First: Always put others before self.

Second: If there’s anything I can give back to society, I will do it without a second thought. At least whatever that is within my means.

Third: As simple and cliche as it may sound, but I just want to be a kind and decent human being.

What drives or motivates you?

Life stories inspire me. Especially stories from the people with no voice. That is why I stepped into the filmmaking/media industry. I believe this medium is able to tell stories interestingly and creatively.

What are you good at?

I guess you can say that I’m good at my job - Producing. I entered The Smart Local when I was 20-21 years old, right after I graduated from Poly. Fast forward to 3 years 9 months, I’m taking up larger projects with bigger responsibility. It’s a tough and draining industry but I’ve never dreaded going to work, and that should be the way. What’s living if you are doing something you’re not interested in?

What are your hobbies?

Besides slogging at work during the day, I’m a National handball player for Singapore. If I’m not working/out drinking, socialising with my friends, I’m in my sports attire, training 3-4 times a week. During circuit breaker, I picked up a new hobby - computer games HAHA. I fell in love with the game - Call Of Duty, Warzone. It’s an amazing game. Great graphics, amazing user experience, immersive storytelling. You should play it too haha.

Tell us what inspires you or who are your inspirations in life?

To be honest, I don’t specifically have someone in mind who inspires me. Is that weird? Hahah. I feel like I’m my own inspiration. Everything that I’ve done/achieved for the past 24 years, I learned from it and always wanting to be better.

Tell us about your dreams for the future?

My dream is to see this on a big cinema screen - “Produced By Jeslene Chia”. How amazing does that sound?! That thought makes me excited!!! But I have a long long way to go. I want to be able to work alongside my favourite Singapore filmmakers - Royston Tan, Boo Jun Feng and Jack Neo.

As an influencer, what kind of content do you cover?

My content on Instagram is mostly on my works (latest projects I’m working on). And I guess lifestyle content. I like to keep my feed as personal as possible. If someone who’s looking through my profile, I would want them to have a feel of what my personality is like. No pretentious captions, no pretentious contents. And I would like to keep it that way.

What would you like to tell your followers in terms of life advice?

Honestly, if there’s one liner that stays true to myself, that would be “Be kind to others and to yourself”. I honestly feel that even if you have the highest paying job and the most luxurious life you can afford to lead, if you’re shit to people around you, you’ve failed in life. So be nice to the people around you.