In the 1960s and 1970s, the Shanghai Watch Industry Company was one of the most prestigious brands in China. The then prime minister Zhou Enlai, Mao Zedong’s closest ally and a man still admired by many Chinese, used to wear one of the company’s simple but iconic wristwatches with its fabric strap.
Now based in a run-down building that used to be the Chinese offices of British American Tobacco before the communists took over, the company embodies the turbulent recent past and uncertain future of Chinese watch-makers.
