Hong Kong Watch & Clock Design Winners Announced Creations on Show Next Month at World’s Largest Timepiec...

A pocket watch that can also wrap around your wrist and a wristwatch that uses a world map to help keep track of two time zones have earned top honours at the latest Hong Kong Watch and Clock Design Competition – and a place in the spotlight at next month’s HKTDC Hong Kong Watch & Clock Fair, the world’s largest timepiece event.

The winning designs were announced by organisers of the September 7-11th  fair, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

More than 700 exhibitors from 12 countries and regions are expected for the event, which will take place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Themes for the design competition’s 28th edition were “Classic Reunion,” in the open category, and “Dream Team,” in the student category. The champions, selected from more than 210 entries, included Wincy Horological Ltd’s “10.2” in the Open Group, and “Globe Watch,” by Fok Yiu Chor, a student at the School for Higher and Professional Education (SHAPE), in the Student Group.

Wincy Horological Ltd’s designer said watches can be made with classic design, and “classic for me is something that never ends – beauty that lasts.” The designer said “10.2” includes a hand-winding mechanism, creating a combination “modern watch and pocket watch,” which avoids “sacrificing the core spirit of a pocket watch and allows its classic nature to stand out.”

Student Group champion Fok Yiu Chor noted that, while Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) helps divide the world into different time zones, “many existing watch designs do not provide a user-friendly interface for GMT.” The world map dial in his design, however, helps the wearer connect two different places with two different time zones.

In addition to the designs of tomorrow, visitors to this year’s Watch & Clock Fair will see today’s top creations at the Brand Name Gallery and World Brand Piazza. The gallery will feature more than 110 brands, including Alexis Garin, a Swiss manufacturer of handmade watches, Chouette Teslar®, a new health watch collection launched by Christie Wo of Hong Kong, and EDWIN from Japan, which will launch its Dragon & Phoenix limited-edition watches for couples. Cosmopolitan, ELLETIME, Gemtique (by Aaron Shum), Levi’s, Neolog, o.d.m., Romago and Temporis are among the other notable brands taking part.

World Brand Piazza, sponsored by Prince Jewellery & Watch Company, will feature rare timepieces from 12 internationally renowned brands: A Lange & Sohne, Audemars Piguet, Blancpain, Breguet, Chopard, Franck Muller, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Omega, Panerai, Piaget and Vacheron Constantin. Within the Piazza, Celsius X VIII presents the world’s first cell phone with a tourbillion, retailing at HK$2.8 million.

Complementing the brand-name zones is the Pageant of Eternity, which features original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and more than 270 exhibitors showing timepieces of outstanding beauty and craftsmanship.

The fair will present more than 25 special activities, including cocktail receptions, conferences, lucky draws, public seminars and product launch events. About a dozen parades will be staged, with Chouette, Temporis and Romago organising their own, while o.d.m will host a cocktail party featuring product designer Michael Young. In addition, a launch party will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the EDWIN brand watches.

Representatives from global watch associations will discuss the state of the industry at the Hong Kong International Watch Forum, 7 September. The 8 September Asian Watch Conference will feature the insights of award-winning US designer Jason Martin from “new” design. Brand Name Gallery will open to the public on the last day of the fair. Public sessions are also planned, including “Crossover between Watches and Fashion,” by Christie Wo, and the “Finest Watches to Watch,” by Simon Shia.

Hong Kong is the world’s second-largest watch and clock exporter; growing demand from the Chinese mainland is expected to further expand the market. The city is also the top import market for Swiss watch products, with January to June 2011 imports from Switzerland totalling US$2 billion (HK$15.8 billion), a 45 per cent increase over the same period last year.

Fair Visitors
Trade only (free admission).

September 11th: Brand Name Gallery opens to the public.

http://www.hktdc.com/hkwatchfair

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