Trip 5 - April 23 2018 Part 2 Shandong Liaocheng Zhong Tai Watch - AMCHPR: vintage and modern Chinese watches and clocks

AMCHPR China Tour 2018 - April 23 - Shandong Liaocheng Zhong Tai Watch Co., Ltd

...and Liaocheng Old Town.

I had first visited Shandong Liaocheng Zhong Tai Watch Co, Ltd. in 2015 and I was really looking forward to re-meeting General Manager Li Song Dian, and revisiting the factory.

Personal challenges had prevented me from writing much about my 2015 visit to the facility (and, in fact, most of the later parts of my 2015 trip), but life had very much returned to more normal for me by the summer of 2018.

I know I'd hoped to do more with my 2015 photos, and given the warm hospitality I'd received from Mr. Li and everybody at Shandong Liaocheng Zhong Tai on my previous visit, everyone had deserved better from me. So I was thrilled at the opportunity to catch up and--what I'm doing now--write a somewhat more current post that would include photos from both visits.

Liaocheng Zhong Tai Watch has a long watchmaking history, producing time instruments since about 1966. My mentor and CHA notable, Mr. Li Wei, had accompanied me on my first visit to the factory, and explained their history to me.

The original tooling was first based in Yantai, producing military ship's clocks and other timing devices under the auspices of Yantai Watch and Clock Factory, but as China moved to ensure more defensive security, military timepiece production was moved inland to Liaocheng. In the early 1970s, however, Shandong Liaocheng Watch Factory (as it was then known) moved most production capacity to wristwatches, starting with its first model: "Xiangyang". When commercial production started in 1975, the watch was branded as Taishan. The factory had other successes as well. For example, in 1978, two ships clock models won the Chinese National Science and Technology Conference Award.

The factory is still primarily a watch factory, but continues with some production of military, automobile and motorcyle, educational and other instruments, as well.

Shandong Liaocheng Zhong Tai Watch Co, Ltd.: is also a significant partner with PTS Resources, a large and influential movement supplier based in Hong Kong. At the PTS Resources website, PTS describes the relationship like this:

"We have long-term partnership with 3 mechanical watch movement factories in mainland China in Hangzhou, Shandong and Qingdao. Hangzhou Watch Co., Ltd. (杭州手表有限公司),has certified with ISO 9000, and we have over 800 workers there. Shandong Liaocheng Zhong Tai Watch Co., Ltd. (山東聊城中泰表業有限公司), hires more than 500 workers. Qingdao Zixin Industrial Co. Ltd. (青島紫信實業有限公司) hires more than 200 work[ers]."

Zhong Tai Watch Industry (translation)

I claim very little expertise in the technical aspects of watch and clock production, so I'll let the photos do the talking. The work area photos in this next section are from 2o15 and 2018, as I noted earlier.

The embroidery is Zhong Tai Watch Industry.

I'd love translations for the characters in this photo...I'm pretty sure the small lettering above the lower door is "聊城辰光原创钟手表公司" or Liaocheng Chenguang Original Clock/Watch company, but that's in more normal script for me. The larger charcters are a mystery to me.

In any case, the next photos were all taken in 2015, , and the completed watches shown were on display in the showroom pictured below which was immediately adjacent the factory itself.

Also on display in the showroom was a selection of watches and documents from the earliest days of the factory.

And, because this is an appropriate place to show it, this is my older Taishan SZLC watch from the early 70s.

Again, and with all signage: translations would be very appreciated. Written on the factory wall...

During my 2015 visit, I was provided these movements to examine and photograph...

I very much want to thank General Manager Mr. Li Song Dian for his good-natured hospitality on both visits, and I'm happy to show these two hastily taken, but fun, photos that were snapped in 2015 when it was realized that Mr. Li and I were both wearing domestic Chinese watches from the same company, in this case Beijing Watch factory. The photo quality on both of these is really poor, but the friendship and good humour is obvious.

I'll also note that Mr. Li's Beijing watch is indicitive of something I noticed many times on my visits to watch companies in China: they compete in the marketplace, but help, promote and support each other in the industry.

While I was writing this post, I was contacted by Mr. William Ho of PTS Resources, who very kindly provided additional photos of the Liaocheng factory as well as photos of movements made in Liaocheng. The photos Mr. Ho provided are below and bordered in red. Mr. Ho's factory photos are from January 2019.

Mr. Ho reminded me that among the accomplishments of Liaocheng Zhong Tai Watch Co, Ltd. was the design and production of the very first "open-heart" watch movement built in China, which Mr. Ho described as "rais[ing] the visible balance wheel over watch dial."

That open-heart design, and a number of other Liaocheng movement designs, were the creation of China's Li Chenguang 李晨光 ( who "designed and developed more than 20 series of mechanical movements with hundreds of varieties and obtained more than ten national patents. In 2012, he was named the first Chinese watch master. In 2013, his work 'Hiduo Automatic Mechanical Watch' stood out from 416 entries in the country and won the highest award in the first China Blu-Ray Cup Watch Design Competition. [Ed: Award seen in a photo above]."

Li Chenguang started work for Liaocheng Watch Factory when he was 16 years old, learning the business from the bottom up, and before leaving to pursue other horological interests, spent three decades with LZTWC, Ltd. He is considered instrumental in reviving the fortunes of the company after rough times for the Chinese watch industry in the 1990s, and achieved not only design accolades but management positions as well.

The first photo below is of a watch carrying that first Chinese "open-heart" movement, Mr. Ho's own MG-6102 movement watch.

The second photo is of me, Mr. Li Chenguang, and my mentor , Mr. Li Wei (not related), taken when I met Mr. Li Chenguang in Liaocheng in 2015.

Thank you again, Mr. Ho, for your kind contribution. I'm happily in your debt.

Liaocheng Old Town (later the same day)

After my visit to Shandong Liaocheng Zhong Tai Watch Co, Ltd., I had some time to visit the Old Town section of Liaocheng, which is being rebuilt and restored, and which is in the city center and more or less on an island in Liaocheng's Huancheng Hu (Huancheng Lake), and there are four bridges leading to the section.

This map will explain (click map for more detail/Google maps):

It was a cool and gray overcast day, so the photos don't benefit from lovely sunlight and clear skies, but the Old Town section is still beautiful, and I still found it fascinating. Here's a bunch of photos...