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Oral History
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- Leung Lung Kee founder Leung Yat Lung's background
Leung Yat Lung, proprietor of Leung Lung Kee, received junior secondary education and went to Guangzhou to work in a locomotive factory as an apprentice when just 16. While there, he engaged in mechanical and engineering technical work. Leung Yat Lung later came to Hong Kong from the mainland in 1946 at the age of 20, working as a master at Sun Kee Watch Case Factory. While machines in the locomotive factory were mainly heavy machinery, their operation principles were similar to lighter equipment such as lathes or planers. After working at Sun Kee for four years, Leung Yat Lung established the joint venture Kwok Kwong Watch Case Factory. A year later, in around 1950, he started his own business.
- Leung Lung Kee’s plant changes
In the years from 1950 to 1953, Leung Lung Kee relocated its small plant four times. The company’s first facilities were located in Shek Kip Mei’s squatter area. The second factory was based in a shop at the junction of Canton Road and Public Square Street, close to the Yau Ma Tei Police Station. The third site was located in a ground floor shop of an old building near Tin Kwong Road and Kau Pui Lung Road at To Kwa Wan. This plant was primitive and small and measured less than 500 square feet. While it only had space for lathes and drills, it employed around 20 workers. The fourth and final move was to an old building at No. 66 Tong Mi Road in Tai Kok Tsui in 1955. This last building was a mixed use one, with the upper floors housing families while the factory and its 70 to 80 workers occupied the lower two to three floors.
- Leung Lung Kee’s production processes and division of labour
Leung Lung Kee mainly produced watch cases. Including the plastic cover and crown, there were about 12 kinds of accessories in a watch case and some 40 processes were needed to complete its manufacture. First of all, a bronze cast mold base had to be ordered from a metalware factory. In those days, technology was poor and the size of the delivered mold base could sometimes be 40% larger than that actually ordered. Such oversized molds needed to be cut and grinded by a milling machine before they could be used. As cutting copper materials required high temperatures, workers’ hands frequently bore many painful looking red burns. Male employees mostly handled lathing, milling and other machines responsible for cutting and polishing, while female staff took charge of assembly and packaging. The Tong Mi Road factory had more than 80 workers, of whom about 55 were male and 25 were female.
- Leung Lung Kee’s apprenticeships
Leung Lung Kee’s mold department was equipped with large-scale production machinery. During his early days with the company, Leung Wai Ho initially worked in the machinery department where he learned about all the machines used to produce different types of watch case. The master taught and guided him earnestly and Leung Wai Ho listened diligently, mastering each of the many techniques used in making machines and equipment. Leung Wai Ho stressed that apprentices needed to be attentive, hard working and willing to climb under dirty machine tools to carry out repairs. Apprentices also had to be prepared to work extra hours and had to comply with the master’s every command – even when it came to buying breakfast! In the first two years of his career, Leung Wai Ho mainly learned in the machinery department. In the next two years, he learned watch case production processes such as cutting, grinding and drilling. Leung Lung Kee did not have a formal three-year graduation requirement for apprentices. Younger workers who had mastered all techniques could graduate at almost any time.
From 1964 to 1968, Leung Wai Ho learned all of these necessary production processes. Apprentices in the factory generally learned either machinery or watch case production. Under the wing of his uncle, Leung Wai Ho was able to learn all about several different departments. In the 1950s to the 1960s, workers mostly entered a trade through apprenticeships. In the 1970s, piece-work-based wages that boosted production output became more popular although they were limited to master-level employees only. In the early years, most male workers could complete their apprenticeships and eventually become masters while female workers oversaw non-technical processes such as packaging and assembly. Female apprentices only started to appear in more recent years when Leung Wai Ho set up production facilities in Dongguan.
- Labour relations at Leung Lung Kee
While he was the proprietor’s nephew, Leung Wai Ho never used his status to take advantage of his colleagues. As his family was living near the factory, he moved, ate his meals and lodged there between 1964 and 1967. His aim in doing so was to mix with the masters so that he could ask and learn from them at any time. Leung Lung Kee’s masters and apprentices slept on bed planks in the factory each night. In the 1960s, Leung Lung Kee provided its employees with daily lunches and dinners. After Leung Lung Kee began taking US orders, Leung Wai Ho often worked overnight with the masters and female workers in order to meet shipment delivery schedules. In the early 1960s, the Labour Department stepped up inspections of unauthorised overtime work and legislated that younger and female workers could not work after 11:00 pm. When the Labour Department’s inspections were frequent, Leung Lung Kee would allow female workers to take packaging work home. Leung Lung Kee’s staff received overtime pay for their overnight shifts and its kitchen also served them chicken congee while they worked. Leung Wai Ho felt that in those days both employer and employees were of one mind and one heart and that later labour relation never again achieved such closeness.
- Leung Lung Kee’s expansion in the 1960s and 1970s
Leung Lung Kee opened in 1953, moving to Tai Kok Tsui in 1956 and then to Kwai Chung in 1974. Between 1969 and 1974, Leung Wai Ho was responsible for operational matters and planed the plant relocation to Kwai Chung together with his uncle. Thereafter, Leung Lung Kee’s business developed continuously from this base in Hong Kong. In the 1950s, the company began to handle US business, with customers coming to Hong Kong once every year to place orders. After Leung Lung Kee relocated its factory, it began to further develop this overseas business. Leung Wai Ho was among the first personnel in the local watch case industry to seek overseas opportunities. He went to Chicago and New York in 1974 for the first time in search of customers and received satisfactory orders. Leung Wai Ho regretted his limited English proficiency at that time. Around 1974 and 1975, mechanical watches began to give way to electronic digital watches. Leung Wai Ho then went to Silicon Valley in California four times in 1975 alone. While there, he sold Leung Lung Kee’s products to Intel who only produced electronic movements and had no desire to move into watch case manufacture. Leung Wai Ho successfully marketed Leung Lung Kee’s watch cases, generating huge profits for Leung Lung Kee between 1975 and 1977.