Hong Kong

It was a trading port first. Donzé writes that Hong Kong became a hub of trade between Asia and Europe after the First Opium War and that Swiss watch traders were present from then on.¹

It began with repair: workshops making cases and straps for imported watches appeared in the 1930s.^2, 3

Revolution on the mainland made it the region’s watch market. Donzé argues that after 1949 Hong Kong became the main hub of the Asian watch trade, used by Swiss, American and Japanese firms alike.¹

Labour and freedom of trade drew assembly. HK Memory points to cheap labour brought by mainland immigrants after the war; Chinese Wikipedia adds that low wages and free business made it attractive to foreign watch firms looking for assembly abroad.^2, 3

The trade organised early. The Federation of Hong Kong Watch Trades and Industries dates itself to 1947; HK Memory gives 1945, and says the federation grew from the Watch Art Society and the Hong Kong and Kowloon Watch Association.^2, 5

Parts came first. Donzé records a letter of December 1958 counting 13 case makers, six glass makers and three dial makers in the Hong Kong and Kowloon Clock and Watch Trade Merchants Association, and finds Hong Kong supplying 60.8 per cent of the cases Switzerland imported by 1970.¹

Assembly followed. Donzé lists Timex Hong Kong (1967), Hattori’s Precision Engineering (1968), BFG Far East (1970), Ronda (1971) and Swiss Ebauches Production (1973); HK Memory records the Hong Kong Watch Manufacturers Association, founded in 1968 as the Hong Kong Roskopf Assemblers Association, after the cheap Swiss pin-lever watch.^1, 2

Local firms grew with them. Donzé tells how C. P. Wong, of a Chinese trading family in Thailand, founded Stelux Manufacturing in 1963 to make cases, dials and straps, listed it in 1972, bought Swiss parts makers in 1975 and in 1976 became the largest shareholder of Bulova.¹

HK Memory calls 1969 the watershed, when finished watches first earned more in exports than components, and says export quantity grew about fivefold between 1968 and 1974.²

Swiss movements came by roundabout routes. Donzé writes that Shriro (China) Ltd., founded by an American trading firm in 1948, imported Swiss movements from the United States and cased them in Hong Kong, and that the Swiss consulate complained of its practices in 1950.¹

Japanese makers sold through Hong Kong houses: Donzé names Gilman & Co. for Citizen in 1962 and Thong Sia for Hattori in 1963, before both opened their own subsidiaries.¹

Swiss law followed the trade. Donzé says the Swiss Made ordinance of 1971 let Swiss movements cased abroad carry the label, which helped Hong Kong’s case industry.¹

How a watch’s origin was decided is told two ways: Chinese Wikipedia says the Hong Kong government followed the Swiss in fixing it by the place of assembly rather than the movement; HK Memory states that the international rule defines origin by the movement.^2, 3

Quartz movements, chips and displays came from Japan, the United States and Europe, among them Citizen’s movements from 1979; that part of the story is told in The electric and quartz revolution.^1, 6

The number of watch firms is counted differently: 1,509 in 1980 and 1,805 in 1985 in the government figures Donzé uses, 1,187 registered factories in 1980 in HK Memory and 1,436 in 1985 in Chinese Wikipedia.^1, 2, 3

HK Memory says that by 1992 Hong Kong watches made up seventy per cent of the world’s supply.²

Factories moved north from the mid-1980s, to the mainland, keeping offices for orders, design and shipping in Hong Kong.^1, 2, 3

Donzé says that by the 2000s nine tenths of Hong Kong’s watch exports were re-exports, mostly of watches made in China, and that Hong Kong firms bought Swiss names: Juvenia in 1988, Le Phare and Sultana in 1991.¹

The trade still meets there: the federation says it organises the yearly Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair.⁵