Taiwan's watch industry built timepieces for the world — then wages killed it

Taiwan's watch and clock industry was a global manufacturing powerhouse through the 1980s and 1990s, producing timepieces under contract for the world's most prestigious brands including Omega, Breitling, Citizen, Casio, and Seiko. The island's skilled workforce and competitive cost structure made it the preferred production base for both luxury Swiss brands and Japanese mass-market manufacturers.

The rise of mainland China's manufacturing sector in the 1990s and 2000s progressively pulled contract work away from Taiwan. By the 2010s, virtually all mass-production watch manufacturing had moved to the mainland, where labour costs were a fraction of Taiwan's. The industry that had employed tens of thousands shrank to a fraction of its former size, composed mainly of small specialty workshops serving niche markets.

The Taiwan Watch & Clock Industrial Association's secretary-general stated publicly that the industry was facing a survival crisis, with most member companies either shuttered or operating at minimal capacity. The Ministry of Economic Affairs' Trade Administration documented the industry's terminal decline in official reports, noting that Taiwan had lost virtually all of its international contract manufacturing business.