Mineroci

Mineroci is a Beijing-based independent watchmaking project founded by Chang Qu (born 1988) and Zhengyang Pan, two industrial designers who came to watchmaking through obsession rather than training — and whose unconventional path has produced one of the most technically remarkable and genuinely original projects to emerge from China's nascent independent scene. Chang Qu studied design, joined Intel's R&D centre in Beijing in 2010, left the following year to found a virtual reality startup that was successfully acquired, and in 2014 co-founded Roci Design with Pan Zhengyang — a product design and engineering studio that built its reputation working for the Xiaomi ecosystem, accumulating Red Dot and iF Design Awards in the process. Around 2018, Chang Qu began exploring watchmaking as a long-term ambition. His entry point was characteristic of the pair's engineering mindset: rather than sketch dials or cases first, they spent two years developing proprietary software for designing mechanical movements — software capable of computing the complex calculations needed to reposition components for radical symmetry, a task effectively impossible with traditional design methods.

With the software proved, they took the ETA/Unitas 6498 gear train as a starting architecture and redesigned nearly everything else, recruited two watchmakers, and got hands-on themselves with component making, polishing, and assembly. They experimented with over 100 dial designs and more than 50 physical prototypes, exploring stone, meteorite, aventurine, guilloché, and cloisonné enamel. Their signature cloisonné guilloché fish dial — the fish pattern drawn from an M.C. Escher design, rendered in fine gold wire with kiln-fired enamel applied and fired multiple times, yielding only a 20–30% pass rate — encapsulates their approach: demanding, deeply referential, and built on craft relationships with specialist artisans in Beijing and Shanghai.

These efforts culminated in the launch of the RD001 in 2023 under the name Mineroci — a contraction meaning 'Our Roci.' The RD001 is a hand-wound three-hander (convertible to two-hand) built on an in-house calibre running at 3Hz with a 52-hour power reserve, housed in a 42mm case in steel or precious metal and offered in three movement finishes — brushed rhodium, milled Geneva stripes (rhodium), and polished Geneva stripes (unplated, to oxidise naturally over time). Production is limited to approximately one watch per month; the waiting list currently runs 18 to 24 months and new orders have been paused. Pricing ranges from $10,000 to $20,000 depending on dial and case material.

The RD002, submitted to the 2025–26 Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives — where it was named one of 20 semi-finalists from hundreds of global submissions — represents a step of a completely different magnitude. Inspired by a Ferdinand Berthoud and Jean Martin marine chronometer from 1804 that Chang Qu encountered at the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva in 2024, and shaped by the horological thinking of George Daniels, the RD002 is built around a fully symmetrical architecture — one of the rarest and most demanding disciplines in movement design, with Rexhep Rexhepi's RRCC among the handful of precedents — combining a constant-force remontoir d'égalité with deadbeat seconds, both displayed on the dial side via a large central seconds hand that jumps once per second in precise alignment with the markers. The movement uses two barrels with Maltese crosses for torque management, runs at 21,600 vph with 45 jewels and a 38-hour power reserve, and features a visual architecture on both sides of the movement plate drawn from Chinese cultural references — the two barrel cocks suggesting eyes, a central bridge evoking a moustache or upper lip, brass-toned wheels contrasting with the sandblasted and satin-finished 18k gold bridges and plates. The 38.5mm × 9.8mm case will be delivered in platinum with a brown embossed calf leather strap and 18k white gold pin buckle. The RD002 is limited to 21 pieces — numbered 1 to 22, with 14 omitted for cultural reasons — priced at CHF 78,000, with first deliveries scheduled for 2027.