German heritage watchmaker aims at Chinese market

The max bill collection of Junghans.[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

2 When speaking of watches, Swiss luxury timepieces seem to be the first thing that comes to people's minds, what competitive edge do German watchmakers have over Swiss ones?

The comparison is difficult, but if we look into history, in 1903, Junghans was the largest clock producer in the world, and the region in the southwest of Germany, especially the city of Schramberg was the biggest watch and clock manufacturing area in the world, so Switzerland and Southwest Germany are very close and they share similar conditions, like in winter time, it was snowing, it was cold, people had enough time to work, to make handmade watches. So that is the common thing we share.

The Swiss watchmaking industry is better protected because it is kind of an identity for Switzerland, they do much more wristwatch business since the middle of the 80s, the industry is bigger, that is why people are more familiar with Swiss watches.

But in terms of the difference in design, the design of the German companies is more straight and clear-cut, but in Swiss watch designs, you can see more art embodied in it, more fancy decorations.