Qin Gan

Qin Gan (pronounced Chin-Gan) is an independent master watchmaker from the mountainous megacity of Chongqing in southwestern China, and one of the most compelling proofs that world-class hand-finished watchmaking now flourishes far beyond Switzerland. Born in 1970 as the son of a respected local watchmaker, he grew up surrounded by the craft, tinkering with his father's tools to build little clockwork contraptions as a boy. But the Quartz Crisis that devastated Western watchmaking in the 1970s hit the Qin family too, and his father — seeing no future in mechanical watches — steered his son away from the trade. When his father died before Qin Gan turned 18, he was forced to drop out of art college and work for a living, first as an art editor at a newspaper, later in video advertising. For roughly three decades he worked jobs to make ends meet while never abandoning his private passion: restoring antique watches and experimenting with precision clockwork. From 2004 he became an active figure on horological forums — distinguished from other enthusiasts by the fact that he was building original timepieces, with self-made complications spanning miniature painting, micro-carving, retrograde displays, petite sonnerie, and mechanical automata. In 2012 he was appointed head watchmaker at the Poly Hong Kong auction house, overseeing its watches and antique timepieces, and in 2017 — after a scrapped venture with investors that nonetheless brought him into contact with industry figures like Dominique Renaud — he registered the brand bearing his own name.

After more than 30 years of restoration work and dozens of experimental complicated pieces, Qin Gan made a deliberately humble choice for his first commercial watch: a simple, classically rooted three-hander executed to the highest level of hand finishing. The Pastorale I, released in 2021 in stainless steel, took its Chinese name (田园) from a modern Chinese poem about choosing a reclusive, minimalistic life in the countryside, while 'Pastorale' also nods to Beethoven's Sixth Symphony — which is why the first series numbered exactly six pieces. Its grained sterling silver dial carries finely engraved Roman numerals filled with black vitreous enamel, read by handmade lance-shaped, heat-blued hands. The movement is based on the architecture of the vintage hand-wound Longines 30L, with components newly made and then meticulously finished by Qin Gan himself — German silver bridges and plates, gold chatons, anglage, perlage, and Côtes de Genève. The six pre-order slots sold out almost instantly, largely to collectors he had never met.

The Pastorale II (2024) elevates the formula into precious metal: a 38.5mm × 9.5mm case in 18k white or rose gold with a stepped bezel, notched lugs, and scalloped case sides, its caseback engraving filled with cinnabar lacquer ('Chinese red') as a quiet marker of cultural heritage — and the logo rendered in Chinese characters rather than English, a deliberate statement that fine watchmaking transcends language. The dial showcases 18K gold champlevé craftsmanship with enamel-filled engraved indices, a technique whose revival in silvered and gold dials drew astonished praise from collectors. The in-house Cal. 1810 comprises 143 parts with a traditional lever escapement, an 18-screw balance, gold chatons, and roughly 36 hours of power reserve; the mainplate and gear train are entirely handmade, with silky Côtes de Genève and crisp inner and outer anglage. Launched around USD 46,000 and later listed at USD 65,000, production is capped at roughly 15 pieces per year with the order book filled years in advance. Coverage from Hodinkee, Monochrome, Quill & Pad, and Time+Tide has cemented his reputation, with admirers calling him China's answer to Philippe Dufour; his site's Prototypes section documents the earlier one-off automata and complications that preceded the Pastorale era.