This article was written and contributed by Simon Lazarus who writes for several national and international publications.

2013 could be a very different year for one government official in Gansu. A lavish watch collection belonging to Yuan Zhanting is set to see him doing time rather than admiring it on a costly timepiece.

He is due to face an investigation into his unusually expensive timepieces that don’t seem in line with a public servant worker’s wage.

Zhanting has been pictured recently out and about showing off his arm candy and according to reports has allegedly worn several items including a $30,000 Vacheron Constantin, an Omega as well as a gold Rolex, and all on a Timex payslip.

All of these watches are reported to be worth more than $30,000 a piece. In fact, a similar case had been brought about just a few months earlier which also involved one of his colleagues.

Yang Dacai, a safety worker from China’s north western province of Shaanxi was caught up in numerous revelations back in September.

The backlash came after a host of people gathered pictures of him flaunting his luxury watches that did not comply with the modest salary he was on.

Dacai proclaimed; “”Over the past ten years or so I have indeed bought five watches. I purchased them at different times, using my legitimate income to buy them.” He was eventually fired from his role.

Time certainly ran out for this gentleman but it looks like Yang may also face retribution, especially after other images surfaced online of the new culprit suspiciously posing with different watches in publicity shots.

Thanks to public reaction, an immediate probe was launched by The Gansu Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection who are taking the allegations extremely seriously.

Pictures were forward by an in-house company salesman based in east China’s Zhejiang Province who felt something was awry.

He began to recognise the brands that Yuan was wearing and passed on images to friends who verified the value of the pieces. This was further confirmed when he gained an insight into prices via a watch expert who confirmed the extortionate prices.

The worker began to spread images across a number of different blogs and forums in order to attract attention.

As with many viral posts, it exploded overnight and comments which he made via the popular Chinese version of Twitter entitled Weibo catapulted him into notoriety.

His post went on to become one of the most popular and talked about topics with around six and a half million comments in the space of a few days. No doubt a timely reminder for China’s government officials to stick to the Chinese equivalent of the humble Argos catalogue next time they need a watch.