Royal Salute and FutureGrail Launch Singapore Partnership Pairing Aged Scotch With Rare Collectible Timepieces

Royal Salute has announced a partnership with FutureGrail, the Singapore-based watch auction house and museum, under the banner of "Mastery of Time & Craft". The collaboration launched publicly at an event in Singapore on 11 June and has since expanded into an ongoing arrangement: Royal Salute expressions are now served at FutureGrail's space, alongside the timepieces from its collection.

FutureGrail was founded by watch collector and investor Ali Nael alongside his business partner Mohsin Rizvi. The company operates as an auction house, museum, and bonded vault from a facility in Pasir Panjang, and positions itself to charge the lowest premium on hammer prices offered by major auction house. Its head of curation is Arnaud Tellier, who spent twelve years as director and curator of the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva before joining FutureGrail.

On the Royal Salute side, the partnership is represented by Sandy Hyslop, who now holds the title of Master Blender Emeritus. Hyslop stepped down from the active blending role at the end of 2025 after 42 years in the Scotch whisky industry, handing over to Kevin Balmforth, who had worked alongside him for over two decades. In his current role, Hyslop continues to represent Royal Salute's prestige expressions and handle global ambassador duties. He turns out to be a natural fit for this particular project: Hyslop has spoken publicly and on social media for years about his personal enthusiasm for watches and for pairing them with Scotch. 

| Read our latest interview with MBE Sandy Hyslop for a retrospective of his career!

The launch event paired four Royal Salute expressions with four timepieces from FutureGrail's collection, each matched on character as much as on age or price point.

The foundational piece of the lineup was the Royal Salute 21 Year Old Signature Blend, the expression whose recipe Royal Salute says has remained unchanged since the brand was created in 1953 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The core malt component comes from Strathisla Distillery in Speyside, one of the oldest continuously operating distilleries in Scotland, founded in 1786. On the nose, powerful aromas of sweet pears and citrus fruits are balanced with the fragrance of summer flowers, elegant vanilla, and subtle notes of sherry and smoke. On the palate, the first sip brings sumptuous sweet orange marmalade and fresh pear notes, followed by a rich medley of spices and hazelnuts, ending with a warm hint of smoke. Paired against it: a Patek Philippe Nautilus Ref. 4700/160J. The Ref. 4700 was introduced in 1980 as the first ladies' Nautilus – a 27mm quartz movement in 18K yellow gold, conceived by Gérald Genta, who had also designed the original Nautilus as a sports watch for Patek Philippe four years earlier.

Second in the lineup was the Royal Salute 26 Year Old Colheita Port Cask Finish, the third release in Royal Salute's Kingdom Collection which takes a different European kingdom and its wine tradition as its reference point. The Colheita Port Cask Finish is the first expression in Royal Salute's entire portfolio to be finished in a Port cask. The blend was fully finished in ex-Colheita Port casks hand-selected from a winery in Portugal's Douro Valley. The result is what the brand describes as a distinctive sweet berry and spicy character with an intricate and profoundly indulgent flavour profile. Its paired watch is the Rolex Ref. 8171, better known as the "Padellone" – a name given by Italian collectors and translating literally as "big frying pan", a reference to its 38mm case, which was considered strikingly oversized for a dress watch when it was made between 1949 and 1952. The Padellone is one of only two vintage Rolex references to combine a complete calendar with moonphase, alongside the Ref. 6062.

Third was the Royal Salute 30 Year Old Key to the Kingdom, named for the Ceremony of the Keys – an annual ritual at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh in which the keys to the city are presented to the arriving monarch. The nose opens with ripe, juicy pears, blood orange, and thick-set honey, giving way to toasted oak, dried redcurrants, and subtle wisps of bonfire smoke. On the palate, hints of subtle sweet smoke, candied walnuts, peaches in syrup, and delicate ginger spice make up what the house itself calls "the epitome of elegance and sophistication". Paired with it: the Patek Philippe Ref. 3970, produced between 1986 and 2004, and part of a lineage that runs back to the Ref. 1518 of 1941 – the world's first serially produced perpetual calendar chronograph wristwatch.

The fourth pairing is perhaps the most unusual and arresting. The Royal Salute 62 Gun Salute Original Reserve, named for the highest ceremonial salute in British royal tradition (a 62-cannon firing usually reserved for the birth, accession, or coronation of the Sovereign – distinct from the 21-gun version that gives Royal Salute its name), is blended from over 50 of Scotland's malt and grain whiskies. It offers intense sweet orange with a nutty, oaky depth on the nose, and an extremely rich palate. Paired with it: a flintlock pistol-form perfume sprinkler with a watch concealed in the grip, attributed to Moulinié, Bautte & Cie, the Geneva firm active in the early 19th century. Objects of this type were made for the Chinese imperial court. Pull the gold trigger and the mechanism releases a jet of perfume rather than gunpowder, while the timepiece sits concealed within the handle. Fewer than a dozen examples are believed to survive worldwide, with known specimens held by the Patek Philippe Museum, Topkapi Palace, and the Wilsdorf Collection, among others. It is an object that looks like one thing and turns out to be several others at once — which is, in a sense, what the best expressions in any collection tend to do.

The partnership continues beyond the launch. Royal Salute expressions are now poured at FutureGrail's Singapore space for visitors to the museum. For access to Royal Salute's rarer releases, enquiries to Le Cercle, the brand's invitation-only client society, can be directed to hello@le-cercle.sg. FutureGrail can be reached for private viewings, acquisitions, or advisory at info@futuregrail.com.

Kanpai!

88 Bamboo Editorial Team