Are you considering starting a watch business and sourcing watch suppliers in China for your brand? Are you worried about what should you know and care of?
You need to know where watch manufacturers are located. Is China the best choice? What are the basic types of watches? And what are some important points to consider in the sourcing process?
If you’re new to custom watches or already sourcing Watches from Chinese suppliers, this simple guide will help you understand the entire process, from sourcing to shipping. this is a general guide for online brands and new starters. If so, this article will help you avoid common pitfalls.
Let’s discover more,
Say Before Sourcing Watch Suppliers in China
Sourcing Watch Suppliers in China is Challenging work, with a population of 1.421 billion, China has an endless number of watch suppliers, So before sourcing watch suppliers in China, You should know:
- Why Sourcing Watch Suppliers in China?
- What types of watches does China have an advantage in producing?
- Where’s the watch supplier in China? how do find them?
- How to Sourcing Watch Suppliers in China?
- Some attentions & avoidable things when soucing from China(Quality, logistics , Scams, Trademarks)
Why Sourcing Watch Suppliers in China?
Watches made in China have long held a prominent position in the global market, especially in terms of cost-effectiveness. Many Chinese watch brands are highly regarded for their excellent craftsmanship, innovative designs, and affordable prices. Brands such as Seagull, Rossini, Fiyta, and Beijing Watch are well-known internationally, particularly in mechanical and quartz watches, and have secured significant market share.
In addition to these established brands, China has also seen the rise of many emerging watch brands that have made a mark globally. These brands attract a wide range of consumers through custom designs, refined craftsmanship, and flexible production methods.
Let’s see the watch market and China’s roles in international market
Reason 1: China occupied high export percentage
In the Year 2022, China occupied 21.43% of the total world’s export amount, the next is USA, Germany, Italy, and France
Data from UN datacom trade
Reason 2: China is one of the world’s leading exporters country in the world
After many years of development, China has become a big name in the worldwide watch market. China is one of the world’s leading exporters of watches, dominating the global market with a vast range of timepieces, from affordable quartz watches to high-quality mechanical and smartwatches
from below data, you can see, the leading countries worldwide in the year 2019- 2022 are ranked :
- #1: China
- #2: Hong Kong
- #3: Switzerland
Reason 3: Even major watch brands source components and finished watches from China
Buying watches from China comes with big perks. You’ve got a sea of different watch styles and wallet-friendly prices. Plus, China’s got this whole watch-making thing down with great factories and expert workers, making it a go-to place for brands that want good quality without the hefty price tag.
Many popular brands, such as MVMT, FOSSIL, etc., have been at the top of the market in terms of sales volume for many years, and they all source from the Chinese market.
This is the export data for Quartz Watches from the year 2021-2023. the Data from China Customs
What Types of Watches I Should Source from China?
From the above export date, You can see China has an advantage on those watches:
- Any Kinds of watches;
- Quartz Watches or Mechanical watches;
- Stainless steel or other Material Watches;
- Quality Watches.
What Types of Watches China’s Supplier Produce?
Chinese suppliers produce a wide variety of watch types, catering to multiple market segments from affordable fashion watches to high-end luxury timepieces. Here’s a breakdown of the main types:
1. Quartz-horloges
- Features: Quartz watches are popular for their accuracy and affordability. China has a well-developed supply chain for quartz movements and can produce high volumes of stylish quartz watches at competitive prices.
- Applications: These are commonly used for casual and fashion watches and are highly popular in mid- to low-end markets globally.
2. Mechanische horloges
- Types: Includes automatic and manual-winding watches, with additional complications such as date displays, dual time zones, and even tourbillons.
- Features: Chinese brands like Seagull and Shanghai Watch are known for producing reliable, intricate movements, including some with advanced features such as skeleton designs or multi-function dials.
- Applications: These mechanical watches are found in mid-range to luxury segments and are often sought by watch enthusiasts for their craftsmanship.
3. Smartwatches
- Features: Leading tech companies and specialized manufacturers in China produce a range of smartwatches with functions like fitness tracking, heart rate monitoring, GPS, and Bluetooth connectivity.
- Applications: These are popular among tech-savvy consumers and fitness enthusiasts and compete strongly in the global market, with brands like Xiaomi and Huawei gaining significant international traction.
4. Fashion Watches
- Features: Fashion watches are generally made with design as the primary focus and often use materials like alloy, stainless steel, or ceramics with various finishes and embellishments.
- Applications: Widely used by fashion brands, these watches prioritize aesthetics over function and are marketed towards the trendy and affordable segment.
5. Luxury Watches
- Features: Some Chinese manufacturers specialize in higher-end luxury watches, using materials like stainless steel, sapphire crystal, and precious metals. They often incorporate Swiss movements or high-quality Chinese mechanical movements.
- Applications: These watches are intended for the high-end market and feature refined craftsmanship, with a focus on brand-specific detailing and customization.
6. Sports and Dive Watches
- Features: Sports watches from Chinese suppliers are rugged, and water-resistant, and often include chronographs, luminous dials, and durable materials like silicone or stainless steel.
- Applications: These are popular among active consumers and are designed to withstand outdoor and water sports, with features like water resistance up to 100-200 meters.
7. Children’s Watches
- Features: These watches often include colorful designs, simple functions, or even GPS tracking for safety. They are designed to be affordable and durable.
- Applications: These watches are made for young children and pre-teens, with easy-to-read dials, shock resistance, and in some cases, educational features to help children learn to tell time.
Chinese suppliers’ ability to produce such a wide range of watch types, often customizable and in large quantities, has made them integral to the global watch industry across many market tiers.
For reference on more watch styles, you may want to check out our comprehensive article:
Where are the Watch Manufacturing Suppliers in China?
China has thousands of watch suppliers, but the watch production base is concentrated in Guangdong Province.
While in Guangdong Province, Shenzhen city occupies a large proportion, especially in the western part of Shenzhen, mainly produces cheaper quality watches;
Dailywin Group- a large watch Producer, in Dongguan Fenggang town, they OEM ODM watches for many big Swiss brands.
Why Guangdong province is the watch base site in China?
-Because Guangdong is the go-to spot for watch parts like cases, dials, and straps. It’s got good prices, quick material supply, easy shipping, and a solid supply chain all setup. This makes Guangdong the top place for watch-making with a big advantage.
Where is the Copy brand base in China?
In Guangzhou, which is part of Guangdong, you can find lots of imitation watches. If you get the chance, you should buy an imitation watch here. They’re made so well, you can hardly tell them apart from the real thing just by looking.
To learn about some of the replica watches in China, you can read this article
Replica and Original Watches, Differences? What are they? Where To Buy?
Many watches made in China are sold in the market, and many niche brands are looking for suppliers in the Chinese market, so the Chinese market is very well-informed about some of the market trends.
How to Sourcing Watch Suppliers in China?
If you are out of China, how do you search for a Chinese supplier?
they can be B2B platforms, social platforms, and trade fairs.
1) On Social Platforms
You can source watch suppliers from WeChat video moments, or normally used platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, let’s check How to source from social platforms.
Search keywords on the platform.
such as Instagram, Search #watchessupplier, #OEMwatchesmanufacturer, #watchfactory, and some other keyword search.
Then filter.
the same way when using other social platforms.
2) Social Platforms
- Pluspunten: Rapid Familiarization with Suppliers: In the era of short video content, many watch suppliers showcase their products and company information on social platforms like WeChat and LinkedIn. This enables a quick understanding of suppliers and their offerings.
- Nadelen: Variable Supplier Quality: Since many suppliers promote themselves on these platforms, the quality and reliability of suppliers can vary significantly. Careful discernment is needed.
To ensure a successful sourcing experience, brands need to employ effective strategies for identifying and vetting trustworthy watch suppliers on social platforms.
Multi-faceted Assessment: Before placing orders, thoroughly assess suppliers, including their company strength, sample quality, product packaging, service capabilities, and more.
3) On B2B Platforms
Popular B2B platforms in China, including Alibaba, Made in China, and Global Sources, offer unrestricted access. You can create an account with just an email address or phone number.
After registering an account on the platform, you can search with the product keywords “watches” “wristwatches” ” timepiece” + OEM/customize/wholesale, etc..
such as search on Alibaba:
To navigate B2B platforms effectively, consider these techniques:
- Supplier Evaluation: Learn suppliers, their foundation years(production skills), their market(stands for their quality), their production time, and sample rule, including assessing their reputation, product quality, and responsiveness.
- Identifying Trustworthy Watch Suppliers and Verifying Credentials: after checking the basic information of the supplier, the fastest way to identify a supplier is to buy a sample or place a small order. for mass orders, one way is to check existing quality samples.
4) On Trade Fairs
Attending watch fairs and exhibitions can be immensely beneficial for networking and finding potential suppliers. We explore the advantages of participating in such events.
Here’s a list of some well-known watch fairs in China:
- China-horloge & Klokkenbeurs (CWCF)
- Shenzhen-horloge & Clock Fair (the most famous Fair in China Watch fair)
- Hong Kong-horloge & Clock Fair (although technically in Hong Kong, it’s close to mainland China and is a significant event for the industry)
- Shanghai Horlogebeurs
- Horlogebeurs in Peking
- Guangzhou Horlogebeurs
Know more about watch fair from this post: https://ohlalawatch.com/what-are-the-exhibitions-forums-in-the-watch-industry%ef%bc%9f/
Proper preparation is essential to maximize the benefits of attending watch fairs.
Building strong relationships with suppliers is key to long-term success.
Effective Ways to Communicate with Watch Suppliers in China
Chinese suppliers like to use WeChat, and WhatsApp to communicate, if there is important information, We will send and save it via email.
Regularly communicating with suppliers to ensure smooth operations
Key Considerations When Sourcing Watch Suppliers in China
When sourcing watches in China, You should consider their quality and product standards, prices, and MOQs (Minimum Order Quantities)
1) Watches Quality and Standards
Understanding the technical aspects and quality standards of watches is crucial to ensure that the sourced products meet your brand’s expectations. mentioned quality assurance, mostly are 1 year, some suppliers can be 2 years.
Requesting product samples and performing quality inspections are essential steps to assess the product’s quality before committing to a supplier.
2) Dealing with Proper MOQs
Minimum Order Quantities can significantly affect your inventory management and profitability. In the watch industry, because the products are not cheap and you need to open a mold to make any product, the number of products becomes a pain point in the industry.
Most OEM watch suppliers will require 300-500pcs MOQ for each style, Which makes it harder for sourcing buyers to make a decision.
Knowing why OEM Watches price are high and Why OEM watch suppliers are asking for such high quantities may help you in your purchasing plan.
Therefore, it is the best choice to match the colors and the literal design reasonably, and it is better to develop new products according to the situation of inventory.
We do with 300-500pcs MOQ with multi-colors
3) Logistics & Import Regulations
From our experiences, the peak season for watches each month is March, April, May, September, October, November, and December, Every year around the Chinese New Year( December to March), logistics costs go up, and logistics will be crowded.
Choosing the appropriate shipping method is critical to ensure timely delivery and cost-efficiency.
Familiarizing with import regulations and customs duties
Every commodity will have import tariffs, and there will be different tariffs depending on the product, no matter what logistics method you send, express or ocean freight, be sure to understand the import tariffs you need to pay, before importing to understand the import tariffs, whether or not there are incentives, whether or not you can afford these tariffs, the tariffs should also be added to the cost of the product inside.
Note: Before checking the Import Tariff, You should use your country’s HS code, Check the HS code for your products first. Not China’s HS code. such as:
Navigating import regulations and understanding customs duties will help brands avoid potential delays and unforeseen expenses.
4) Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Sourcing Watches from China
While sourcing products from China, it’s possible to encounter fraudulent activities, just as you might anywhere else. It’s a common risk in global trade, so always proceed with caution.
How to Spot & Avoid Scams?
1） Conducting Factory Visits Before Placing Order
In-person visits to supplier factories offer valuable insights into their production capabilities and ethical practices.
Visiting a supplier’s factory allows you to get in touch with the owner of the factory to see the owner’s business philosophy, their attitude to facing problems, and their level of quality so that when you meet a hard situation, you’ll be able to know if this supplier can handle it with you.
cnc millingVisiting factories, check their production environment, and employee status, but also to be able to understand your product more, for the growth of your brand is more favorable.
2) Sign an NDA
If you have your brand design, then be sure to sign a non-disclosure agreement(NDA) with your supplier to ensure that you have exclusive ownership of your product design.
Educating oneself on common scams and fraudulent practices can prevent brands from falling victim to unscrupulous suppliers.
3) Using Escrow Services and Secure Payment Methods
If you are shipping by sea, then make sure you have marine insurance.
Before each payment, be sure to repeatedly confirm the bank account information with your watch supplier, it is best to confirm in a variety of ways, there are many many cases that many scammers will steal the supplier’s mail account and password to modify the supplier’s bank account, and then let you be fooled!
Make sure that the payment account is a formal company, let the supplier put the payment method on the PI, or go online Alibaba, Alibaba has trade assurance orders, to protect your rights and money!
Implementing secure payment methods, such as escrow services, provides an added layer of protection for financial transactions.
5) Trademarks
Protecting your brand’s intellectual property is essential to prevent counterfeiting and unauthorized use of your designs. We highlight the importance of registering trademarks and patents to secure legal protection for your brand and products
Importance of Trademarks in Watchmaking:
Trademarks are distinctive symbols, names, or slogans used to identify and differentiate products or services. In the wristwatch industry, trademarks serve several critical functions:
- Brand Recognition: Trademarks allow consumers to easily identify and connect with their favorite watch brands, fostering brand loyalty and trust.
- Quality Assurance: They signify a commitment to quality and craftsmanship, assuring consumers of the watch’s authenticity and reliability.
- Legal Protection: Trademarks provide legal grounds for watch brands to take action against counterfeiting and unauthorized use of their marks.
Examples of famous watch brand trademarks, Several watch brands have iconic trademarks that have become synonymous with their identity. Here are a few notable examples:
- Rolex Crown: The Rolex Crown logo is one of the most recognizable symbols in the watch industry, representing precision, luxury, and exclusivity.
- Omega’s Seamaster Logo: Omega’s trademarked Seamaster logo, with its wave design, is closely associated with the brand’s maritime heritage and innovation.
- TAG Heuer’s Shield: TAG Heuer’s shield emblem symbolizes performance, innovation, and avant-garde design.
- Swatch Group Brands: The Swatch Group owns multiple brands, each with its distinct trademark. For example, the Swatch brand itself is known for its colorful designs, while Breguet features intricate guilloché patterns.
Common Trademark Infringement Scenarios in the Industry:
Despite the protective measures in place, the wristwatch industry faces various trademark infringement challenges:
- Counterfeiting: Counterfeit watches often bear copied or altered trademarks, deceiving consumers into believing they are purchasing genuine products.
- Unauthorized Reselling: Some retailers may sell watches without proper authorization, infringing on the brand’s trademark rights.
- Parallel Imports: Parallel imports involve the sale of authentic watches in a region where the brand’s official distributor did not intend for them to be sold. This can raise trademark issues.
- Online Infringement: The internet has facilitated the sale of watches with counterfeit trademarks on various online platforms.
Protecting your brand’s trademark rights or not use other’s design is essential in preserving its reputation and market position. It involves not only obtaining trademark registrations but also actively monitoring the market for potential infringements and taking legal actions when necessary. In the next section, we will explore strategies for registering and enforcing trademarks to prevent and address intellectual property infringement issues effectively.
Final
In summary, China’s rising prominence in the global watch market offers compelling opportunities for sourcing timepieces. Advantages include diverse styles and competitive pricing. Key considerations encompass understanding the Chinese watch landscape, effective supplier selection, quality assurance, and logistics management. Building strong supplier relationships, guarding against scams, and protecting intellectual property rights are crucial. Brands must actively monitor the market for trademark infringements.
By following these strategies, Whether it’s a name brand watch, a niche watch brand, or a starter watch brand, you will be able to find the right supplier and develop together with your supplier
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