Nanjing Watch Factory made China's cheapest watch — and couldn't survive quartz

Nanjing Watch Factory, maker of the Zhongshan (钟山) brand, was one of the giants of planned-economy Chinese watchmaking, with monthly output peaking at 200,000 watches. Its proposition was price: a Zhongshan mechanical watch cost about 30 yuan, against 120 yuan for a Shanghai watch — the cheapest way to tell time in China.

The advantage was real — until it wasn't. From the 1980s, imported electronic and quartz watches flooded the Chinese market, and domestic assemblers multiplied. Cheap mechanical movement was no longer a moat — it was a technology on its way out. The Zhongshan brand went into a long decline.

The factory never successfully pivoted. The 2008 global financial crisis pushed it into serious losses, with unsold stock piling up in 2009. In 2010 the Nanjing Watch Factory was officially shut down and placed under a custodial center. The site later became a history and culture park — a museum where a factory used to be.