Despite ‘Chinese made’ being a bit of an out secret in the watch world, the phrase still has negative connotations for many collectors. It has undertones of low quality, mass-produced movements that fall apart a few days in, barely finished cases and combined watches barely worth the pittance they cost. If you know someone that thinks those very thoughts… give them a slap.
While cheap knockoffs may have been the bread-and-butter over there once upon a time, Chinese watchmaking today is a much more established, serious and downright impressive craft. Hell, half of the watch industry leverages the quality of Chinese parts, which goes some way to showing just how good they can be.
And yet, while established watchmakers may want to obfuscate their ties to Chinese manufacturing, there’s a modern crop of brands dedicated to showing it off. Atelier Wen may be one of the best-known, but for me the most exemplary is in fact Celadon. Surprisingly however, it’s a story that starts in London.
Benjamin Chee, as well as being a man of many talents, is a bit of an international traveller. Singaporean by birth, he studied law in London – where he discovered our love of antique shops. I’m sure most of you know where this is going as, along with classical furniture and artwork, London antiques shops have plenty of fantastic watches. And so, Benjamin got the bug.
These old mechanical marvels gave Benjamin an appreciation of heritage and the past – which got him thinking about his own. And so, after leaving university, he moved to Shanghai to get in touch with his own Chinese heritage. There he was presented with crafts millennia in the making, but which were slowly dying out. Well, what better way to honour the past than make sure it’s not forgotten?
In 2012 Benjamin founded Celadon, making the brand one of the most established attempts to bring serious Chinese watchmaking to the West. He launched with the Imperial collection, a selection of elegant time-only watches with beautiful, beautifully thematic engraved dials in incredible colours. Peacock feathers in mint green and salmon, gorgeous scalloped waves in rich reds and creams, it was a fantastic collection that punched well above it’s sub-£2,000 price tag.
I say was, because the Imperial collection is tragically coming to an end. Not Celadon though; far from it. In fact, these days the company is doing more than ever around that tentpole of Chinese artisan crafts. At the top end is Celadon Haute Horology, which specialises in the rarefied art of Cloisonne enamel. For the uninitiated, this is where you build a picture out of gold wire, creating sections that are then filled with coloured enamel. It allows experts to build incredibly intricate pictures with the kind of vibrancy of ancient tapestries.
Celadon HH pieces will set you back a good deal more than the Imperial ever did, coming in at $15,000 (£11,000) and up. They’re worth it for what you get, but if you are looking for something a little more accessible, look no further than Celadon’s latest collection, Claire de Lune.
This collection uses cloisonne still, but in a more pared-back form than the brand’s haute horology collection. It’s also home to various forms of guilloche and, much rarer, paillonné. This is the unusual technique of layering translucent coloured enamel over little motifs made from silver or gold. To put it in context, one of the only Swiss watchmakers to use it is Jaquet Droz, and they make Automata.
So far so aesthetic. But Celadon is determined not to stop on the outside of the watch. Working with AHCI watchmaker Lin Yong Hua. Lin Yong Hua has his own brand and workshop in Shenzhen, and his own pieces are worth an article on their own merits. Seriously, check his Instagram, @lyh_watch_shenzhen and try not to gawk. It’s this maestro that makes Celadon’s in-house movements.
These movements – the CH1 and CH5 – cost a fair bit in the bespoke Century collection, but if you really want to flex that Chinese haute horology and, understandably, can’t get hold of a LYH piece, you’re the target audience. At the same time, they’re stunning on their own merits, with Imperial touches like a phoenix crest balance cock and bespoke finishing across the board.
It’s worth noting that Benjamin didn’t stop his meteoric horological rise with Celadon. In 2018 he founded Milléchron, who build handsome neo-vintage pieces that’ll make Baltic owners desperately want an upgrade. And in 2019 he founded BCHH (Benjamin Chee Haute Horology) with, as you might have guessed, a focus on exceptional limited editions.
Celadon though remains his first project and to this day one of the most influential brands bridging the east-west divide. There are more accessible Chinese watch brands out there and there are more prestigious. But when it comes to celebrating the style and substance of Chinese craftsmanship, I don’t believe there’s a better ambassador out there.
More details at Celadon.
