Every two years, Dubai Watch Week holds a special Horology Forum — a sort of horological road show — in a different location around the world. Setting up shop in the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Henderson building in Central, the 2024 Hong Kong edition offered attendees a wide variety of masterclasses, forums and even a special product launch during the course of its three-day run.
One of the more eye-opening experiences during this year’s Horology Forum was hearing from several Chinese-owned watch brand principals and designers. Long stigmatized for its reliance on knockoff designs and inexpensive parts, Chinese watchmaking has long been written off in the West as cheap, inferior and uninteresting. However, the country’s native horological industry is far from monolithic: in addition to supplying the Swiss watchmaking industry with millions of components — which often go unnoticed given the extremely loose definition of a “Swiss-made watch” — China has a growing number of local brands and businesses that produce compelling timepieces on par with European and Japanese counterparts.
From more affordable mechanical offerings to mind-blowing pieces that incorporate high-end metiers d’art, modern Chinese watchmaking is quickly growing in scope and refinement. And while not every business owner is a Chinese-born native, each watch company owner is someone deeply passionate about the country’s culture and craftsmanship — in other words, this incredible country with thousands of years of history has plenty to offer the wider horological world. Read on to discover five awesome Chinese-made watches, from a $1,000 GPHG winner all the way up to a $46,000 hand-crafted dress watch masterpiece.
Atelier Wen Perception
Guilloché, a mechanical engraving technique requiring enormous skill and concentration to execute, is generally reserved for the dials of high-end watches costing many thousands — or tens of thousands — of dollars. That Atelier Wen, a Chinese company based in Hong Kong, is able to offer a beautifully produced guilloché dial for under $3,500 is the product of several factors, not the least of which are its geographic location and direct-to-consumer model. The Perception, with its nifty integrated bracelet and octagonal case, may look influenced by classic Genta designs, but its dial is a different story entirely: Produced by Master Cheng Yucai, the only guilloché master in Asia, each example takes over eight hours to complete. The result is a gorgeous piece of wearable art that won’t break the bank and that begs to be worn every day.
Diameter: 40mm
Movement: Dandong/Peacock SL1588 automatic
Water Resistance: 100m
Qin Gan Pastorale II
After working for many years as a restorer and producing his own complicated watches, watchmaker Qin Gan debuted his time-only, stainless steel Pastorale in 2021 to much fanfare. The sequel, the solid-gold Pastorale II, is a significantly more expensive product, but the precious-metal case and superbly hand-finished dial and movement go a long way toward explaining the delta. Measuring 38.5mm, the polished housing features handsomely chamfered lugs screwed into the midcase and a gold dial finished in enamel with laser-engraved indices and heat-blued, mirror-polished hands. The movement, which is based upon the famous Longines Cal. 30L, consists of parts made in Hong Kong and hand-finished by Qin Gan in his atelier in Chongqing. Taken together, the result is a stunning product that stands head-to-head with high-end independent Swiss watchmaking.
Diameter: 38.5mm
Movement: Qin Gan Cal. 1810 hand-wound
Water Resistance: 30m
Celadon Haute Horlogerie Temple of Heaven
Founded by Singaporean Benjamin Chee, Celadon produces Chinese-made watches steeped in a deep appreciation for Chinese culture. The Haute Horlogerie line offers, as expected, some of the brand’s more involved and expensive models, including the Temple of Heaven — a beautiful cloisonné enamel-dialed piece within the Century collection depicting an ancient Beijing temple. Made by Grandmaster Xiong Songtao, the dial requires 25 firings as well as additional hand-hammering in order to achieve its multi-dimensional, highly chromatic effect. The hand-wound movement, meanwhile, is produced from scratch by master watchmaker Lin Yong Hua and can be customized to the customer’s wishes. Its bridges, balance cock, and click reference the head and tail feathers of the phoenix, a mythological creature sacred to the Chinese imperial court.
Diameter: 42mm
Movement: Celadon CH1 or CH5 hand-wound
Water Resistance: 30m
Behrens Ultralight 20G
If you love the idea of an ultra-thin, extremely light watch in the mode of Bulgari’s Octo Finissimo line but can’t quite stomach the Swiss pricing, you might consider the captivating Ultralight 20G from Shenzhen-based Behrens. Housed in a Grade 5 titanium case measuring just 20g in weight — with a further 14g added via the FKM rubber strap — its curved, trapezoidal 38mm silhouette strikes a unique pose, and this is before one even considers the dial: Displaying the in-house, hand-wound BM02, it shows the time in dual retrograde displays at 5 and 7 o’clock. While time-telling is perhaps less clear and intuitive than on other retrograde models by virtue of the watch’s color scheme and layout, the visual feast offered by the movement is nevertheless captivating — as is the fact that the watch head weighs as much as just eight pennies.
Diameter: 38.2mm
Movement: Behrens BM02 hand-wound
Water Resistance: 30m
CIGA Design Mechanical Watch Series U Blue Planet
China International Great Design, founded by designer Zhang Jianmin in 2016, took home a coveted GPHG prize in the Challenge category in 2021 for its Blue Planet, a mechanical watch that tells the time via a large rotating globe micro-engraved with the Earth’s terrain. Unconventional yet affordable, the Blue Planet manages to offer a poetic interpretation of standard time-telling without delving into the realm of haute horlogerie: The globe, inscribed with a compass robes, rotates clockwise and serves as the hour hand, while an outer, rotating minute disc functions as the minute indicator. Housed in titanium, steel, or gilded steel, the Blue Planet is a fine example of the outside-the-box thinking that characterizes much of Chinese watchmaking.
Diameter: 46mm
Movement: CIGA Design automatic
Water Resistance: 30m
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