Time machine

Yang Zuobin adjusts watch movements in Sea-Gull's workshop. Photo provided to China Daily

The first watch on the Chinese mainland that combines a tourbillon, minute repeater and calendar was sold for 1.28 million yuan in 2011. Photo provided to China Daily

The nation's master watch and clock makers have emerged from a difficult decade to make the most of the luxury market. Wang Kaihao reports in Tianjin.

Staring at the microscope and testing tiny details - Yang Zuobin, 63, devotes his mind to the miniature world of mechanical watch movements.

He was honored as one of 12 "Chinese Watch and Clock Masters" selected by the Chinese Horologe Association in June, and has the title "chief technician" at work.

"I am only a worker, not an engineer," he says, humbly. "I didn't make them, but assembled them."

In 2011, he assembled the first watch on the Chinese mainland that combines three major symbols of a high-end mechanical watch: tourbillon, minute repeater and calendar.

An anonymous businessman from Xiamen, Fujian province, bought it for 1.28 million yuan ($201,000), the most expensive domestic watch ever sold. It is a complex and small machine containing 435 components.

"Putting these components together takes days, but I have to spend months adjusting the movements and erasing errors."

Yang began assembling watch movements in 2004, when he was supposed to retire.

He had planned to open a repair store in a supermarket after retirement, but his stall was cancelled right before he moved in.

"When I was at a loss thinking about what I would do in the future, the managers asked me to return to the factory and assemble watch movements."

Sea-Gull began producing its high-end movements in 2002. However, it lacked skillful assemblers.

"Even the tourbillon is not that puzzling," Yang says, referring to one of the most complicated elements in luxury watches. "Though I had never seen it before, I soon understand its structure."

"Maybe that's because I've been dealing with machines for a long time. No matter how complex a watch is, it is a machine."

He entered the factory in 1970 after studying machinery for five years in a technical school, and worked for eight years on a lathe, until he transferred to be a machine repairer for 15 years.

"I try to love whatever I do. I have strong vanity because I always want to be top at whatever work I do."

Yang accidentally came into possession of a textbook on how to repair watches from an abandoned library during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

He began to tinker with watches in his spare time for relatives.