The watch and clock industry is one of the four industrial pillars of the Hong Kong economy. Clock and watch products also occupy the fourth place in Hong Kong's overall exports. As a manufacturing and sales center of these products, Hong Kong has emerged as a world leader in terms of total volume exports, while occupies second place in value terms. The achievement is the result of efforts put in by individual manufacturers, a proactive promotion on the part of the local watch and clock trade associations, and government support.

Hong Kong's watch and clock industry has been focusing on diversifying its product lines, and is adept at responding to market needs quickly. But as competition in the global market gets ever keener, the industry can to longer rely exclusively on the middle to low end range of the market. As customers nowadays make ever higher demands on watch quality and design, enhancing watch making technologies and design is the direction Hong Kong's clock and watch industry must take to capture the high-end market. In recent years, Hong Kong manufacturers have invested much effort in technology development, resulting in a high level of competitiveness in terms of product quality, fashion trends, production cycle and pricing.

Technological Development of Watches

According to figures published in 1995, Hong Kong has a total of 1,006 companies engaged in the production of watches and clocks and the components thereof. Thirty percent of these were watch makers, principally producing electronic watches. Over fifty percent were makers of watch components, including cases, hands, dials, and bands.

When it comes to movements, the involvement of precision manufacturing techniques require huge investments, while the market demands that pricing has to remain competitive. The prospect of profit returns has deterred manufacturers. As a result, Hong Kong watches have always relied on imported movements. Sixty percent of the movements imported come from Japan, the remaining chiefly from China and Switzerland. In recent years, a handful of manufacturers have started producing movements on their own. But the development has been slow. In contrast, the production technologies of watch components have matured, enabling most manufacturers to produce high quality goods at a low cost.

Manufacture Technologies

Cases and bands are mainstream products among watch components. Traditional modes of production are based mainly on injection molding (for plastics), die casting (for zinc alloys), metal forging (for brass and stainless steel), and post machining. Since die-casting enables manufacturers to produce highly complicated cases and bands at relatively low costs, its use has been widespread. But since the die-casting material (melting temperature) has a direct effect on the die life and hence the production cost. For this reason, its use has been limited to cases and bands of zinc alloys.

To circumvent the problem, the Hong Kong Die-casting Association applied for a grant from the Industry and Technology Development Council four years ago, with the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) as the implementing agency to research and develop brass die-casting technology. To date, the technology has been mastered, and is being promoted among industrialists.

At the same time, funding was also granted to HKPC by ITDC to develop metal injection molding (MIM) technology, with the aim to enhance the productivity and competitiveness of local manufacturers. The technology involves the mixing of metal powder and a binder, and injecting the mixture into the die to form a green compact. The green compact is subsequently de-bound and then sintered in a furnace resulting in a product of high density and of complex shape. The technology is especially suited to the production of stainless steel cases, bands and buckles of complex shapes, and is beginning to be widely used in Europe and the USA.

Surface Finishing Technologies

In watch making, surface finishing is one of the most important processes. Electroplating, especially precious metal electroplating, is a matured technology in Hong Kong. Newly developed surface finishing technologies adopted by manufacturers include electrophoretic plating, palladium plating as a substitution for nickel, and ion plating. The last named especially is finding widespread acceptance, since it is able to produce a corrosion-resistant and wear-resistant surface coating. All the three technologies were developed by HKPC with funding from ITDC in the last three years.

Electrophoretic Plating

In certain aspects electrophoretic plating resembles electroplating. Resin paint, after treatment contains positively or negatively charged particles. The object to be painted acts as the anode or cathode, attracting the electrically charged paint particles in the tank.

With the formation of the paint layer, the electrical resistance of the painted layer increases, preventing further coating. As a result, the thickness of the coating is very even. After being painted, the objects is rinsed and then allowed by curing in an oven.

Surfaces painted with the electrophoretic process have a more even coating then those treated with spray paint. They look more brilliant and do not show a porous, "orange peel" effect. Moreover, no organic solvent is used in electrophoretic plating, making it a reliable and environmentally clean method for painting.

Palladium Plating Technology as a Substitute for Nickel Plating

Some European countries have forbidden the use of nickel plating in objects that come directly into contact with human skin, since nickel may cause skin allergy. To assist local manufacturers to solve the problem, HKPC has already developed the technology of substituting nickel through palladium (which also happens to be the mainstream solution to date). But since palladium costs more than nickel, HKPC is studying ways to reduce the cost, including reducing the amount of palladium in the coating, and substituting pure palladium with palladium iron.

Ion Plating

Ion plating is one of the most advanced surface finishing processes in the trade. In traditional processes, the gold coating on the surface of the case can be rubbed off easily. Ion plating makes the gold plating more durable, more wear resistant, and also has a higher brightness.

Ion plating involves adding of a titanium nitride layer, which has a high chemical stability, to the component to be plated. To this is added a gold coating, normally not exceeding 0.3 urn in thickness. At low pressure-one thousandth of mercurial pressure-solid metal vaporizes and becomes electric ions when heated and bombarded by electrons, known also as plasma. Accelerated by a magnetic field, ion plating is carried out in a vacuum environment.

The greatest advantage of this process is that the titanium nitride produced is both harder and chemically more stable than that produced through traditional plating methods. Experiments have proved that the plating obtained through Ion plating is five to eight times better than that obtained through traditional methods in terms of wear and corrosion resistance. The term "permanent coating" can be appropriately applied in this case.

Since the technology reduces the gold material used by a large amount, and the automation process also calls for a smaller number of staff, it helps to reduce the cost of the plating process. Developing the ion plating technology to replace the traditional "wet" plating method is the future trend. HKPC has mastered the basic techniques, including the 1 N14 gold color, which is difficult to control. HKPC has also created some new plating colors, for example pink, blue, and two tone gold.

Supporting Technologies

Other supporting technologies include computer aided design (CAD) systems. The designer can use computer software to create and modify a design, and can see 3-D image of the object on the screen. Some manufacturers have already mastered the technology of computer aided manufacturing (CAM) for the production of cases and related components. The system can also work with the Rapid Prototyping Technology to quickly and automatically produce 3-D components of high precision, speeding up thereby the product development cycle, shortening the "time to market", and enhancing the productivity and competitiveness of an enterprise.

HKPC has also developed a laser marking technology controlled and operated through a computer. It can be linked up with an automated assembly line to engrave patterns, logos, numerals and letters on the back-side of the cases.

Testing of Watches and Clocks

To ensure the reliability of watches and clocks and enhance the confidence of customers in Hong Kong-made products, HKPC secured funding from ITDC in 1995 to establish the Hong Kong Watch and Clock Technology Center. Swiss testing standards and techniques were introduced. The scope of testing ranges from rate measurement (accuracy), watch resistance and shock resistance to magnetic field resistance and environment testing. The Center also provides cyclic mechanical testing, simulating conditions that a watch or a brand would go through in its expectant life cycle, to determine how much damage it may incur in daily tear and wear. The range includes the operation of the movement and the crown, opening-closing test for clasps, dry and wet friction test and torsion-traction test for leather bands, and shock and vibration test for metallic bands.

The test center helps manufacturers monitor watch parts and components, and test movements they have produced or bought.

The Center is now developing a Hong Kong quality system, to be implemented within a year.

As far as quality control is concerned, the watch and clock industry was a pioneer among industry sectors to attain ISO 9000 certification. To promote a quality management system that complies with international standards, HKPC collaborated with the Hong Kong Watch Manufacturers Association to initiate a pilot program, selecting several typical representatives of the industry as participants. Based on the project, a set of quality management documents was prepared for the special use of the watch and clock industry. Some watch and clock manufacturers as well as component manufacturers have successfully applied for ISO 9000 certification with the assistance of the manual.

Technological Development of Clocks

Compared to the development in watch manufacturing, the technological trends in clock manufacturing are focusing on plastic injection molding. Clock movements used to be imported as well. But the rapid development of die and mould, and plastic technologies has enabled some manufacturers to master the production of electronic clock movements. Many manufacturers now use CAD/CAM and Rapid Prototyping Technology in their production.

Developing Radio-controlled Watches and Clocks

Radio controlled watches and clocks first made their appearance in Germany as early as a decade ago. To date, the technology has been adopted by the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. Radio controlled watches and clocks made use of the transmission of time signals through a terrestrial station, set themselves automatically and precisely to the received time according to an atomic clock. The range of transmission is up to 4,000km.

The advantage of radio controlled watches and clocks are its accuracy, the automatic setting and resetting function, and the ability to change automatically to Daylight Saving Time or British Summer Time and back. The accuracy is within one second in a million years. The difference of a hundredth of a second can be set right automatically.

To enable more manufacturers to master the technology, HKPC has, jointly with the Hong Kong Watch Manufacturers Association, applied for funding from the Government. The project has been successful in producing a digital clock that can receive wavelengths identical to those transmitted in Germany. It has also succeeded in producing, under laboratory conditions, a digital clock that can receive the different wavelengths transmitted in Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. The product is now being tested. The next stage is to develop an analogue radio controlled clock.

Prospects for the Future

Since the watch and clock industry is closely related to other industry sectors such as die-casting, plastics, mould making, metal stamping, computer aided manufacturing and surface finishing, its future also depends on the enhancement of technology in these areas and awareness of present market trends.

Faced with increasingly keener competition in the global market, Hong Kong's watch and clock manufacturers must proactively adopt new technologies to sustain their capability. As an industry support organization, HKPC will continue to assist watch and clock manufacturers to develop new production technologies. I am convinced that, with the adeptness of Hong Kong's manufacturers, active support of the local watch and clock associations, our watch and clock industry will clear the hurdles and attain new heights. Last but not least, I wish the Federation of Hong Kong Watch Trade and Industries a flourishing future, and a leading role to the summit of new technologies.

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