Oct 11 2024 Merkur Fanzhi with Mr. Li Pin (Philip Li) of Merkur/Fanzhi/Pierre Paulin/Seizenn/FOD
The trip from Peace River to Beijing was long.
25/26 hours of economy-class and long layover discomfort plus 10 hours before my flight began awake on the day I left : no sleep, lots of fairly confined boredom, with occasional jaunts through customs and boarding line-ups, for 35 hours).
That made a very tired me extremely grateful that Mr. Li had offered to meet me at the airport in Beijing and to drive me to my hotel, which was then followed by an immediate dinner at a nearby restaurant. What a great start to my first hours back in China, back in Beijing! Very cool.
But first, this post took far too long to actually get up and online, so I'll start with my excuses and my apologies :-)
Mr. Li brought two flats of lovely watches to show me, and a number of the wonderfully finished Fanzhi tongji movements that power many, if not most, of the company's watches, and we had a long and detailed talk over dinner about his company, his vision, the meaning of his brand , watch design, the future of the company and lots about his movements...
...but I returned to my hotel room, dead-tired, slept and then, like I said, woke up the next day realizing that I had zero notes and only 5 photos.
I'm 73, so... LOL ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That meant I had to reconnect with Mr. Li to get photos of the movements he'd brought, and to confirm and refresh the accuracy of my tired memory. Well, I have the replacement photos and refreshed memories, now (thank you, Li Pin!) --so lets' get on with the show.
The first of of the five photos I took when we met, this one a few minutes after we'd dropped off my luggage at my usual Beijing hotel.
I present: Mr. Li Pin (Philip Li) of Merkur/Fanzhi, in a very local-level Lishi hutong neighbourhood Chaoyangmen South restaurant (with great food).
25/26 hours of economy-class and long layover discomfort plus 10 hours before my flight began awake on the day I left : no sleep, lots of fairly confined boredom, with occasional jaunts through customs and boarding line-ups, for 35 hours).
That made a very tired me extremely grateful that Mr. Li had offered to meet me at the airport in Beijing and to drive me to my hotel, which was then followed by an immediate dinner at a nearby restaurant. What a great start to my first hours back in China, back in Beijing! Very cool.
But first, this post took far too long to actually get up and online, so I'll start with my excuses and my apologies :-)
- It's taken far too long to post my thanks to Mr. Li and Merkur/Fanzhi for his fine hospitality and easy friendship, and to post the article I intended (this one), and
- Mainly because I was thoroughly enjoying my time with Mr. Li and really involved in the conversation, and maybe partly because I was also tired, I only took five photos while we talked and ate.
Mr. Li brought two flats of lovely watches to show me, and a number of the wonderfully finished Fanzhi tongji movements that power many, if not most, of the company's watches, and we had a long and detailed talk over dinner about his company, his vision, the meaning of his brand , watch design, the future of the company and lots about his movements...
...but I returned to my hotel room, dead-tired, slept and then, like I said, woke up the next day realizing that I had zero notes and only 5 photos.
I'm 73, so... LOL ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That meant I had to reconnect with Mr. Li to get photos of the movements he'd brought, and to confirm and refresh the accuracy of my tired memory. Well, I have the replacement photos and refreshed memories, now (thank you, Li Pin!) --so lets' get on with the show.
The first of of the five photos I took when we met, this one a few minutes after we'd dropped off my luggage at my usual Beijing hotel.
I present: Mr. Li Pin (Philip Li) of Merkur/Fanzhi, in a very local-level Lishi hutong neighbourhood Chaoyangmen South restaurant (with great food).
Plainly, Mr. Li was far more awake than I was, and every bit as friendly, down-to-earth and energetic as he looks in this photo.
Mr. Li brought me this kind gift, a pin he designed to celebrate the year's company anniversary.
And here are the other four photos I took as we met and talked:
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So here's an insight: a while after I'd returned to Alberta and thinking about writing this, I asked Mr. Li what his title was with the company and he replied, exactly: "Founder, I think. Actually, no title."
And that matched exactly what I'd understood during our meeting.: that Merkur /Fanzhi and its brands are thoroughly Mr. Li's project, his vision and his creativity.
I'll add this: I enjoyed my time in Beijing with Mr. Li very much and I was very happy to be able to introduce him to my mentor, Mr. Li Wei later during my time in Beijing. He's a great guy to meet, open and eager to answer questions, and I'd encourage collectors to reach out to him if they're ever in Beijing.
On to two aspects of Mr. Li's watches.
First: design/cosmetics, then a focus on Merkur's tongji (aka Chinese "standard" or "unified") movements.
DESIGN:
While eating, Mr. Li told me that Fanzhi 凡致 references his company's vision: "gorgeous watch for ordinary people," attractive watches with good design and dependable movements at affordable prices.
(I think the photos below from my collection show that the company is certainly succeeding in the design department.)
During our discussions, Mr. Li stated that the watch designs were very much his own.
Apart from his quite unique designs, when it comes to referencing/homaging historical designs (like the 114 military watch, or vintage cross dial watches) he emphasized that he didn't want to produce 1/1 copies, but instead wanted to produce respectful but fresh new variations.
I'll get this disclaimer out of the way: all these watches were purchased at retail by me, most before I met Mr. Li and three since then. None of these watches were provided free or in return for promotion.
I purchased six well before I met Mr. Li personally (these are my photos, taken in Alberta):
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And these after we met, after I returned to Canada:
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I think the 9 examples above clearly demonstrate Mr. Li's commitment to the Fanzhi 凡致 vision. If I had a bigger budget, I'd be buying more of his watches.
Merkur/Fanzhi tongji movements:
First: the finishing on Merkur tongji movements is really attractive, especially when compared to the usual very utilitarian finish on most tongji, and it goes some way to showing Fanzhi attention to detail and beauty. The first 5 photos are from Mr. Li, the last two are from me.
Mr. Li explained why he went with Tongji movements in his watches and I was impressed with the forethought.
As he noted:
- the tongji is 100% public domain, "the tech sheets are public." No matter if, for example, like ETA with movements (my example) or Huawei with chips (his example), there's no way a big company can arbitrarily cut off his supply.
- Plus, it has decades of proven use, understanding and reliability behind it--*and*
- it's a historic, thoroughly Chinese movement design.
He also noted two important differences between the historic Tongji and Merkur/Fanzhi built tongji.
Merkur/Fanzhi tongji have
- a larger balance wheel and
- a stronger, better quality, mainspring.
Because of these improvements, Mr. Li wrote: "from the pictures it wont tell the accuracy, we can easily obtain +-5seconds per day, and power improved from36 to 46hours."
He also added that the improvements mean that the tongji base movement can trade reasonable reductions in power reserve to support additional complications, including IIRC, a tongji based tourbillon. (I'll ask about that.)
As many already knew, and as is probably very clear reading this post, I'm a real fan of the Merkur, Fanzhi and Seizenn watches I own. And: I like Mr. Li, I'm glad we continue to be in touch, and I hope his company is successful and constantly improving.
Thanks again to Mr. Li for his very friendly hospitality, and for a great time talking watches!
Thanks again to Mr. Li for his very friendly hospitality, and for a great time talking watches!