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CHINA
Atelier Wen
Founded by two Frenchmen, Robin Tellendier and Wilfred Buiron, who are still in their
20s, Atelier Wen’s purpose is to showcase the true artisanal beauty and construction quality that existed in China’s mechanical watch industry but was inaccessible to buyers who only ever associated the country with inexpensive pieces.
Wen, which means “culture” in Mandarin, looks to China’s rich artistic heritage for inspiration. This is best expressed in the use of porcelain for its dials, the embossed figure of Chinese mythological bird Kunpeng on the caseback, and a distinctly Oriental approach to design.
Memorigin
William Shum established Memorigin for the best of reasons. Swiss tourbillons were simply too expensive so he decided he would make his own, at a lesser cost, and create a brand out of it too. Relying on his father’s interest and acumen in watchmaking—senior Shum was a heavy investor in movement manufacturers already—this finance and economics major sought to fuse Eastern and Western designs in his all-tourbillon watches, establishing a DNA that consisted of Swiss precision and Chinese characteristics. Memorigin’s watches are often created in collaboration with Hong Kong’s storied collecting community, with
Shum expressing a desire to make the brand more bespoke than mass.
Celadon
Although born in Singapore, Celadon founder Benjamin
Chee only discovered his drive for fine watchmaking in China.
The London-educated, urbane entrepreneur was enthralled by the
quiet elegance and delicate grace of Chinese culture, and made it his mission to build a luxury brand of global renown.
Some of Celadon’s most notable pieces incorporate cloisonné dials made by master enamel artisan Xiong Songtao, the inspiration taken from both western and eastern art. The watches are powered by a manually wound movement created and extensively decorated by master movement maker Lin Yong Hua.
Chee also founded his eponymous flagship brand Benjamin Chee HH (BCHH) in 2019 as his ultimate expression of contemporary haute horlogerie. BCHH received a GPHG nomination in 2022 in the mechanical clock category for the CH5 movement.