China Daily Global Edition (USA)
ANTIQUE QUEST New online documentary shows Chinese restorer working at Cartier workshop to bring old timepieces back to life. Wang Kaihao reports.
After the three-episode TV documentary Masters in the Forbidden City went on air in 2016, Wang Jin, an antique clock restorer at the Palace Museum in Beijing, became a celebrity.
Many visitors to the museum have since asked to take selfies with him.
And now, a documentary film has recorded his recent tour of Switzerland.
Huanxing Shijiande Jiyi (Reviving the Memory of Timepieces), which is directed by female filmmaker Li Shaohong, was released last week on Tencent, one of China’s major streaming sites.
Wang was only one of the “masters” in the previous TV production, but he is indisputably in the lead role this time.
The online documentary, coproduced by the Palace Museum and Swiss watchmaking company Cartier, records the collaboration between artisans from China and Switzerland as they set out to restore six antique timepiece movements from the museum in the Chinese capital.
“I really admire Swiss artisans’ diligent attitude,” Wang says, recalling his two-month stay at the Cartier workshop in La Chaux-de-Fonds last year. “The basic techniques of both sides are quite similar. It’s an interesting dialogue between the two cultures.”
Wang jokes that he had little to do in rural Switzerland’s Jura Mountains other than being fully emerged in work.
Through this documentary film, Li says she hopes to “showcase the craftsmanship represented by watchmaking artisans as they revive the spirit and historical memory of antique timepieces”.
The Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, was imperial China’s seat of power from 1420 to 1911. Several emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) were big fans of Western clocks and watches. Consequently, many luxurious timepieces were ordered from Europe, mainly Britain and France.
The museum, which houses more than 1,500 antique timepieces, is generally considered to have the world’s best horologic collection from the 18th to 19th centuries.
The six timepiece movements taken to La Chaux-deFonds — all with British origins — belong to two pairs of clocks and two pocket watches.
Wang, 57, who has worked at the Palace Museum for about 40 years, says every detail needed scrutiny. To guarantee the operation of movements, some old parts had to be duplicated. Even so, these newly-added parts would be polished to ensure the overall aesthetic consistency. But one timepiece that lost its dial hands almost halted the joint restoration.
Wang disagreed that they should use newly-made hands, which he thought would affect the timepiece’s originality.
So, Swiss technicians rummaged through documents in La Chaux-de-Fonds museums, and finally found a set of backup dial hands that was made in 19th-century Britain.
Wang says this is the first time antique clock restorers from his museum have undertaken a joint project with Switzerland. Qi Haonan, Wang’s apprentice at the Palace Museum, also participated in the program.
“Switzerland has training schools for timepiece restoration, but we don’t have that in China,” Wang says. “There are still many areas for cooperation in the future.”
The documentary crew traveled across China and Switzerland to shoot the film, and also made a video log of the program until the restored movements were assembled back in Beijing in the summer.
The Palace Museum first reached an agreement to work with Cartier in 2014.
Wang says there might be potential for other timepiece exhibitions in the future.
Cyrille Vigneron, CEO of Cartier International, says the timepiece collection at the Palace Museum is as famous as its jade and porcelain treasures, and is made of “grand creations”.
“With the delicate restoration of the imperial collections, our workshop has experienced a great human and cultural journey, nurtured by curiosity and mutual inspiration,” Vigneron says.
Calling the documentary a “rare testimony”, he says it is a result of the collaboration between master watchmakers from the East and West.