Hong Kong Watch and Clock Fair

[jdm]

I was able to visit this important fair which closed Sept. 10th, and wanted to share my impression and something of what I saw in a short report, but quickly realized that the task is beyond me, so I'll give just few highlights related to aspects that are of my interest, that is watch movement manufacturers and tools suppliers. Please excuse the poor quality of my pictures, even if using a good camera I couldn't do better than that.

That was my first time in the city, and I was impressed by its organization and ease of transit. Budget was helped having been pre-registered for free admission and airfare partially paid with travel credit. Overall it has been a very pleasant and interesting visit that I would recommend to anyone.

 Getting to the fair is extremely easy, take the metro Island line to Wan Chai, and walking the pedestrian bridge to the exposition center. Weather was rain showers, nothing like the windstorms of the previous days, so I was lucky to avoid that.  

The fair is as very large, divided on two floors and three sections. In short, the most space was taken by Chinese watch brands, large an small, which names are virtually unknown to West, or event to the East. The style choices are also much different from what is generally liked and discusses on watch forums, with the large majority being fashion quartz watches. It was very time consuming to at just walk by all the booths, and only rarely I found necessary to stop for a second look. There were also many European brands which are clearly made in China, one is Obaku, which for its general design lines one could confuse with Skagen and many others. 

The Chinese also manufacture vintage inspired watches and practical automatic watches, but at least in my opinion there is always something "not right" in them. However it was nice to see some of the brands that are on Aliexpress, like e.g. the Gotop which had a small stand but in my opinion come with simple design that is better than most others.

Even if the only practical use of these is marketing gifts, it's nice to have the business card of their sales manager. All the stands and booths gave a kind reception to any visitor and were available for a frank discussion of prices, minimum q.ty, etc. However compared to the fairs of other industries which I've visited in the past, there was not the gloom and abundance of shows or  free gadgets.

One of the booths of my interested was the one of Time Module / Seiko, of which I'm not posting any picture because these came out even worse than the others - I found later that I could not focus well, either in auto or manual mode. I had a nice conversation with one of their sales, a dynamic young Japanese which illustrated me their sweeping second quartz line, in short these are not suited yet for all designs due the lack of a date indicator, which is being developed. He indicated that that quartz makes about 80% of their production, but the best of their production is with the NE series. I was pleased to learn that they make all spare parts available (except the main plate) and that there is new product development on the mechanical movements, which are sold as being made in Japan (that is a subject often debated on forums, but I avoided grilling him on the matter). I missed the determination to visit the Miyota / Citizen stand, but that is a good reason to come back for it the next year!

My other area of interest was the manufacturers of watch components, of which I've seen quite a few, but not in an outrageous number. The quality, level, and presentation of their products and factories was excellent. The ones with the most prominent spaces were Peacock and Sea-Gull, with the first doing a much better job of welcoming and informing visitors. But since I'm interested in thin movements, I'll be more likely to come back to the latter.

Moving on to tools manufacturers / distributors, all the major ones where there, and there is always something to see and learn about. For me it was the Witschi "dry" pressure tester. I immediately asked how would I know from where the watch leaks, the answer is that the main purpose of the tool (including the pathetic LCD version) is to give a pass/fail response and a warning about NOT placing it in the traditional machine if the leak is too large. I was also told that a new version of the traditional timegrapher is about to be released, with a much, ,much better display, which I did not photographed also because I'll never buy it:)

The Bergeon stand was setup very well, with their nice work benches including the flagship motorized one,

A*F had much smaller boot but their European staff was more interested in finding a good restaurant for dinner than receiving visitors, so I moved on. For the lovers of cleanliness some Indian exhibitor proudly showed this:

However, for the humble watch repairer / hobbyist the peak of the fair was probably Watchme booth, a prominent Ebay seller. He was selling directly, so I got myself a small set of extra tools, of which I could probably have done without, but is the expereince that counts, and they made a nice shopping souvenir. Thomas is a really nice guy with good beer taste, and before I could finish the word "discount" he already had knocked down the price a bit.

Not photographed, he makes a clever press / case opener combo tool, which I really liked except for the price, which in my opinion is way too deep into Bergeon territory.

For the major tooling needs there was a small number of exhibitors, for example this one is for laser etching casebacks.

My kudos however go to the Swiss manufacturer which installed two functioning CNC milling machines to demonstrate machining of plates and cases. I was told that ETA's movement sales restrictions are good news for them, as it's boosting production by competitors. 

Finally in the dedicated section there were the "better" brands, including a dark gallery of few expensive Swiss one, of which I recognized only Blancpain, and gladly didn't picture. Some more aficionado brands and the "independent" watchmakers confined all together:

I also skipped the Invicta booth after learning that Eva Longoria had failed to show up, and being these the last hours of the fair everyone started packing up, which should not be allowed, I was also tired, so rather than chasing runners I crashed on a bench for a while before going for a well deserved street food feast and flight out.

Hope you have enjoyed this.

Edited September 13, 2016 by jdm

[Alaskamick]

A great post JDM. Very informative.

Thanks for the opportunity to look over your shoulder.

[clockboy]

A really great post JDM. Thanks many on the forum will enjoy. 

[WileyDave]

WOW thanks for sharing jdm, anytime you can travel and enjoy watches or the industry, it's a plus! I saw a blip on advert, (probably because most of the 'surfing' on this pc is about watches) about this show and wondered about it. Appreciate the perspective.

I met Eva Longoria once, and told her "I'd like to see more of you", then by a strange circumstance we met again, this time I told her, "that's not what I meant"!

[parmenion31]

Thanks for sharing jdm , its always nice to have a view from the other side of the planet

[arkobugg]

Thanks for the ride jdm!  It was nice seeing photoes from the fair. We are going to HK in Feb. next year, do you know if somthing cool is taking place in the period 17 to  25 of february ?

Kind Armand

 

[jdm]

1 hour ago, arkobugg said:

Thanks for the ride jdm!  It was nice seeing photoes from the fair. We are going to HK in Feb. next year, do you know if somthing cool is taking place in the period 17 to  25 of february ?

There will be the last 2 days of the Fashion Week for Fall/Winter at Trading Center, but the calendar of the AsiaWorld Expo doesn't cover that period yet. For sure is a very lively city, but I prefer beaches and nature for vacations and lower prices if possible   

Thanks guys and sorry again for the many spelling and grammar errors. It's always too late when I see them.

Edited September 14, 2016 by jdm

[arkobugg]

3 minutes ago, jdm said:

There will be the last 2 days of the Fashion Week for Fall/Winter at Trading Center, but the calendar of the AsiaWorld Expo doesn't cover that period yet. For sure is a very lively city, but I prefer beaches and nature for vacations and lower prices if possible   

Thanks guys and sorry again for the many spelling and grammar errors. It's always too late when I see them.

Im the one that should say thank you, grammar errors , no problem, we all do them....we understand anyway...thanks...

Armand

 

[NickP]

Thanks for that. Really interesting. Love the guy with a can of Special Brew on the table. Glad to see bad habits travel well

 

[Geo]

An excellent report JDM, thank you for taking the time and effirt to produce it!

[Vich]

Thanks for this post which I really enjoyed reading.
Vic

[dadistic]

Thanks a bunch! It's unlikely that I'll ever be able to travel to Asia, so I really appreciate the reports of others who can make the trip.