The 1963 Seagull Chronograph (or ‘Project 304’ as it is known in China, which I encourage you to read about in Li Wei's fascinating historical piece found here) is perhaps one of the most iconic and recognizable watches ever to come from China. As Li Wei stated, "Because the 304's production quantity was so small, and because it was a daily-wear watch, original pieces are not easily found today. The Seagull watch factory and watch enthusiasts have been duplicating this watch in a variety of versions in recent years, attempting to satisfy the desires of 304 enthusiasts."

Back in 2011, China made waves when they completed their first manned deep-sea Pacific Ocean dive to 5,057 meters (16,591 feet) with the submersible named Jiaolong. Read more about the milestone dive here. In 2015 the Shenzhen-based watch brand Golgen teamed up with the Jiaolong crew to create a dive watch with the submersible's namesake. An instant success, the Golgen Jiaolong 6112 won a silver prize at the 2nd China Horologe Design Competition in 2015.

EC, or the Ebohr Complication series, represents the top-of-the-line from the Shenzhen-based Chinese watch brand. EC pieces can range from around $600 up to around $15,000 for the amazing Orbital Tourbillon that we got our hands on here. I've had my eye on this piece, Experience N°2, for some time since seeing it in a shop here in Guangzhou. I was happy to get to spend a bit more time appreciating it during a visit with the company last week.

Here's a fun fact: if you take a portion of black paint and add equal parts of every color in the spectrum, the end result will be white. If you then start adding equal parts of each color back into the white paint, the end result will again be black.

Greyhours is a Hong Kong-based watch brand whose philosophy is that the "truth never resides in the extremes," and instead lives somewhere in the grey area between the polar opposites of black and white. Of course, this colorful metaphor could be extended into any aspect of life—politics, religion, etc—but since we only talk about watches here, let's talk about some black, white, grey, and colorful areas of the watch world.