It is important to find time to completely disconnect from daily responsibilities, and for Huang that happens to be in the sky. “I’m really used to long-haul travel and these days if a flight that takes under five hours I consider that an easy flight,” she adds.

The Harvard graduate architect-designer is not joking. There are occasions when she will fly into a city to go straight into eight-hour meetings and then sometimes take a flight right back out. Huang’s company has worked for recognisable brands such as LVMH, Harrods, Cartier and the Four Seasons Hotels group, to high-end property developments such as big residential towers, including London’s Knight Dragon (owned by New World), and on 1.5 million sq ft towers in mainland China, as well as projects involving urban squares and mixed-use developments.

“I love what I’m doing,” Huang says as she looks out over the harbour from the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong. “I didn’t know I could make a business out of it. I think business is a totally different skill set from talent, and it just so happens that if you have talent and you’ve got business skills and you can marry the two, then you are really lucky. There are few people who have that but they may never know. I found out because I threw myself into running my own business at a very young age, but it worked.”

There is talk of London-headquartered Design Haus Liberty setting up their first Asia studio in Hong Kong. Huang, who only came to the city for a second time last year for Art Basel, talks about meeting fellow artists, one of whom left a deep impression.

“I met Maxime Plescia-Büchi, who is a famous tattoo artist. He designs – I was told – the highest-selling Hublot watch in Hong Kong and what I love about Maxime’s design is that it is super architectural. If you look at the watch’s face, he uses architectural techniques from before the time of computers.” Huang adds, “When we start drawing blobs it’s very much about the T-square on the drafting board, and you can see he is using all these geometrical shapes. And it’s crazy because everyone is so obsessed with him that they tattoo these designs on their bodies. But he has managed to put it into the face of the watch.”

The daughter of Taiwanese immigrants to the US, Huang belongs to a group who attained the fabled American dream. With a scientist father and a devout mother, conversations at the Huang household are often, if not always, interesting.

“My father is a rocket scientist, he worked for Nasa for 40 years, and when I go home – even though he is retired – he is obsessed with the beginning of time. He’ll read everything from the Bible to the Koran, he will look into Einstein’s theories and all sorts of histories. He will ask, what does that mean? And he sits there writing his thoughts out in mathematical equations. He told me if you get into a shuttle or rocket moving fast enough you can actually roll back time.” She pauses in resignation, then says, “I’m not even going to ask about that.”

“My mum is super religious, so for her, time started with God – and that is a whole other conversation.”

Dara Huang’s preferred timepieces

“I love it because it’s simple, elegant and timeless. I’ve always loved masculine fashion and the size is quite suited for a strong woman.”

“When you see the fine details in this watch, when you flip it over, you notice the transparency of the mechanics and all the tiny pieces. It’s almost as if they placed them right in the front, but through artwork and aesthetics. The watch is literally a work of art.”

Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter .