Continuing its efforts to highlight the craftsmanship and quality of Chinese watch manufacturing, Atelier Wen is once again offering a glimpse behind the curtain at another production partner. A few months ago, Atelier Wen showed us an intimate portrait of its dial maker, Master Guillocheur Cheng Yu Cai. Now, the brand has been granted unprecedented access to bring us an in-depth look at the Liaoning Peacock Watch Company in Dandong, China. As one of the top movement producers in the world, the inner workings and forward-looking footing revealed in the brand’s new video demonstrate the impressive capability of Chinese movement manufacturing.

Peacock Watch Company produces more than 1.5 million every year, placing among the top five movement manufacturers in the industry. In this fascinating new video, Atelier Wen provides an exceedingly rare tour of the facility — no one has been allowed to film inside before this — and engages with the men and women who work in and manage it, leaving no question about Peacock’s watchmaking prowess.

Next to its original facility with its enormous gold letters, a new state-of-the-art facility now houses much of Peacock’s production. Split between the two facilities, men and women can be found monitoring the most precise CNC machines in the world, hand-printing date wheels, meticulously assembling movements, stringently testing every caliber, and more. As Peacock Chairman Hou Guilin and CEO Yang Wei shared with Atelier Wen founders Robin Tallendier and Wilfired Buiron, Peacock is committing its money and time to pushing the envelope with new movements and manufacturing techniques, ensuring that it always stays at the forefront of the industry. Make no mistake, Peacock is already using the most advanced technology available — the same machines and techniques that can be found in prestigious Swiss manufactures.

When asked what the next 20 years will bring, Mr. Hou interjects that the company is already looking at least 34 years in the future, to its 100th anniversary. Peacock seeks to continue using the best technology, materials, and talent to push as an industry leader in innovation and as a standard bearer of the art and culture of exceptional watchmaking. One facet of this approach includes top-of-the-line machinery like the Agiecut, one of the most advanced wire EDM (electrical discharge machining) machines in the world, and automatic lathes from Tornos, maker of some of the best Swiss lathes. Another part of this no doubt includes investing in technology like the This starts, of course, with ensuring that Peacock has the best talent. Already, the men and women who work there are passionate watchmakers and technicians, and some have been working in Dandong for Peacock for decades.

What stands out the most in the video is both the care and enthusiasm of the employees and the meticulousness of both their work and the environment in which they do it. Again, stereotypes too often prevail of Chinese manufacturing as unkempt, verging on squalid, but the Peacock shown in the video is on the cutting edge, clean and buzzing with productivity. Anyone who has had the privilege of visiting a movement manufacture would be hard pressed to distinguish between what is seen in the video and what can be found in Switzerland.

Atelier Wen has always used Peacock for its movements, and for its current Perception line uses a customized extra-thin SL1588 movement. This automatic caliber features 32 jewels, 41-hour power reserves at 28,800vph, and is regulated to -/+ 10 seconds per day. Peacock and Atelier Wen worked together to add polished jewel and screw sinks, high-polish anglage, heat-blued screws, and a black rhodium-plated tungsten rotor, while both the plates and the rotor receive circular Côtes de Genève striping.

At center of Atelier Wen’s ethos is a desire to promote the exceptional quality and promise of Chinese watch manufacturing. Long derided as subpar and inferior to Swiss manufacturing, Atelier Wen’s inside look at the Peacock Watch Company’s facility strongly argues against stereotypes by showing a pristine cutting-edge manufacture with eyes on the future. To learn more about Atelier Wen watches and their Peacock movements, please visit the Atelier Wen website. 

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