The manufacture
Hangzhou Watch Company Limited
Meridian Calibre is a shareholder in Hangzhou Watch Company Limited, the manufacture that builds our calibres. It is one of a small number of Chinese houses that design and produce mechanical movements at scale, and one of fewer still that produce tourbillons in series.
1972 to now
Since 1972
The factory was established in Hangzhou in 1972, with export rights from the start. Its first watches were sold under the Xihu — West Lake — name, and were awarded the top national prize for quality. The present management has led it since 2005 and rebuilt the business around movement manufacture for other brands rather than finished watches. It marked its fiftieth year in 2022 and employs around seven hundred people.
Nine movement series have come out of it. Tooling, plates and bridges, going trains, tourbillon cages and finishing are all done in one building, which is why a calibre can be varied — skeletonised, engraved, replated, refitted — without leaving the factory, and why the range runs as wide as it does.
Developed in-house
The open-balance calibre
1 Series
Released for the fiftieth anniversary, this is the manufacture’s own design: a fully open-worked movement with the balance left exposed on the dial side, so the escapement is visible without cutting a window for it.
Two-layer thin-bridge construction, with the going train and escapement arranged on the central axis under a wide multi-form bridge framework and relief skeleton engraving.
| Diameter | Ø31 mm, and shaped forms |
| Height | 4.45 mm · 6.5 mm with the automatic module |
| Jewels | 21 |
| Frequency | 28,800 vph (4 Hz) |
| Power reserve | 72 h or more |
See the 1 Series in the catalogue
The 7 Series is the other clean-sheet design — 30 mm, 28,800 vph, 80 hours — and the volume choice where the balance does not need to show.
Hong Kong
What this side adds
Meridian Calibre takes these calibres to overseas markets. The manufacture builds them; we specify, sell and service them.
Overseas dealership
Long experience placing Hong Kong watchmaking into European, American and Asian markets — quoting, contracting and after-sales in English, on your working day.
Specification
We match calibres to the case you are building, supply the fitting drawings, and take the variant questions the catalogue does not answer back to the factory.
Workshop and service
Our own watchmakers in Hong Kong finish, inspect and pack every movement before it ships, and handle warranty work, adjustment and upgrades afterwards.