Company Name: Chung Nam Watch Co., Ltd

Year of Founding: 1935

Mainstream Products: watchband, watch movement, watch

Brief History:

The founder of Chung Nam Watch Co., Ltd (“Chung Nam”), Chong Ching Um, worked in the banking sector in Guangzhou before coming to Hong Kong in 1935 to open his watch band workshop. This was the beginning of Chung Nam. Soon, the company began to engage in the watch trade, serving as agent for famous branded Swiss watches. At the end of the 1950s, Chung Nam opened its first factory in Sai Wan Ho and redefined its business as a maker of watch bands with metal straps. In early 1960s, Chung Nam became one of the first manufacturers of finished watches and introduced Roskopf Watch’s mechanical movements from Russia and Switzerland to Hong Kong.

During the 1960s, the company bought five floors on Des Voeux Road Central, centralizing its assembly line, wholesale department and warehouse in one location. During the 1970s, the company once made LCD/LED electronic watches. After 1978, it formed a partnership with a Swiss company to set up a watch band assembling factory in Mainland China. The second generation began taking over the company’s management from 1970s, and they further scaled up Chung Nam’s OEM business. They made Southeast Asia their starting point and actively moved their way into Middle Eastern, European and American markets. At the same time, the company started to build its own brand. After the 1990s, Chung Nam focused on developing and researching into new mobile phones, eye glasses and jewellery products using German technology.