AlbertaTime
in China, China visit #3, Post #11 - covering June 27th to 29th/2014... 25th Annual Shenzhen China Watch and Clock Fair in Shenzhen (Part 2)
The Rest of
the show...
Warning:
this is a monster post, almost 200 modem-taxing photographs...
The next
morning, Day 2 of the China Watch and Clock Fair. Galen (btgalen) and I
left the hotel together to walk to the Fair location, only a few blocks
away, as LiWei and some others had a private meeting to attend.
These next
shots are from that walk. It was about 10:30AM and already it was well
over 30°C and very humid...but gorgeous.
So we made
it to the Convention Center and...
...from here
on in, I\'m just going to post about the rest of the China Watch and Clock
Fair, but in no particular chronological order.
The next few
days were a whirlwind of activity, meetings and dinners, booth visits and
revisits, lots of general wandering, a magazine and a radio interview...so
I\'m going to break up the report on the rest of the fair (27th/28th/29th)
into two sections, with today\'s post being about the Fair itself (the
remaining three days), and the next post being about the social evenings
during the fair.
So: At the
Fair...
The Sea-Gull
booth:
Yantai/Polaris,
including a video of the 100th Anniversary clock, taken in Yantai..
...and a
visit to the Meishijia/Yantai Messica booth, including a revisit with
Meishijia\'s XuRong, who I\'d met in Yantai, and who is a friend of
Cathleen of the Yantai Polaris marketing department. They noted that both
had travelled to Switzerland together on trade business.
Some
wandering of the fair exhibits, including a historical exhibit...
A vist to
the Jintuofei booth:
More
wandering, to the Nanning Watch factory booth, with thanks to Mr. Wu
Zhaochang, sales mager for hospitality...
Various
businesses in both buildings...
Time2U
watches, and a thank you to Deputy General Manager Mr. Arch Hu
There was a
lot more to see here than just watch companies. the second building was
full of exhibits from manufacturers of parts, leather and strap merchants,
production machine, CNC and tool companies, publicity agencies...
Breaks over
the days were often spent in the VIP lounge, where business and/or
discussions took place.
...very good
food...
...and it
was here that I concluded the deal with Liu Zhi Yang for my awesome
Jintuofei tourbillon.
It was also
here that I was interviewed by Ms. Rachel Xie for China\'s Moment magazine
(http://www.ewatch.cn), the horological publication of the Shenzhen Fitime
Conference and Exhibition Culture Co. Ltd., with very kind translation
assistance from Ms. Tina Luo of ZhuHai Rossini
I loved
discovering this company\'s clocks although I don\'t know anything about
them. They build beautiful smaller clocks...
...and this
incredible behemoth. Just jaw-dropping when seen in person.
Wandering
around, and to the Beijing Watch Factory booth for some more photos...
Another one
I haven\'t seen before from beijing...
And a watch
that bears surface similarities with Ben\'s Imperial, except the
differences show Ben\'s attention to detail. The Beijing has a much
plainer crown and case (especially lugs), finer finishing on the indices,
and the Beijing radiant crysanthemum wave guilloche is only the wave
pattern to the edge, unlike the Imperial\'s alternate band of pattern
inside the chapter ring.
We leave
Beijing for Tianba, and thanks for hospitality to mr. Zhang Chen Jian.
More
wandering...
...and back
to Jiusko, this time to meet Cherry (Ms. Lin BaoRu) of Guangzhou Yonghong
Watch Technology Development Co. Ltd, as well as Morgan (Mr. Lu Hai)
We also
visited the booth of Lishida, with Liu HuanJun and Li TianHui
Then past
Sinobi to Adrian Choux of the Chinese Timekeeper. Adrian comes to this
business hionestly, with past experience as Marketing Manager at Officine
Panerai and Assistant Brand Manager at L\'Oréal. Adrian\'s Chinese
Timekeeper booth was visited by both Mr. Wang Mengjin, the Vice-Chairman
of the China Horologe Association, and Koncise Watch Company Chairman, Mr.
Kong Lingjun.
Two proud
customers made purchases while we visited...
We also made
a quite detailed visit to Ezon, possibly China\'s top brand of \"smart\"
and/or digital multifunction watches, and talked with Marketing Assistant
Kelly Ng translating during discussions with Manager Mr. Ai Qi When I
asked for a brand I could use as a reasonable comparison, I was advised
that these are competitive with Suunto in both quality and function.
Note the
watch I was wearing, Ben...
Wore the
Celadon Imperial all over the place...
And that\'s
what I saw in Shenzen at the 25th Annual China Watch and Clock Fair from
June 26th to 29th. It was a highly educational and very busy four days.
I\'ll close
this post with a shot out my hotel window, and a look down at a local
school next to the hotel, and finally a few shots of the Fair and
surroundings...
...And how I
feel about being there... :-)
And, as I
noted: the next post will cover the social evenings during the Fair
including (tease...) yet another shot of independant watchmaking
wonderment. More to come...
