Watches Report — Supplier Profile — Sample Pages: Sourcing Watches from China

Supplier Profile: Fujian Wideplus Precision Instruments Co. Ltd

Fujian Wideplus Precision Instruments Co. Ltd is a large, Hong Kong-owned company established in 1991 to produce quartz analog timepieces, including watch and clock movements. Total sales for all products amounted to US$20 million in the year covered, and watch sales — all exported — reached US$4 million, with export sales growing 200 percent in 2004 and Europe and the US as the main markets. OEM work takes up 100 percent of export business, and the company is ISO 9001:2000 certified. Fujian Wideplus began increasing watch output in 2003, the same year it started assembling watch movements.

Quartz movements are the main product, at about 80 percent of total sales in 2004, so the company offers mostly quartz analog watches — it does not make mechanical watches — with classic models the majority of watch output. Making movements in-house lets it price watches as much as 30 percent below other makers in the province, and its range is low-end only. The company invests heavily in R&D — as much as US$3 million a year, mainly to develop or improve movements — with a 15-member R&D team producing watch samples in 10 to 35 days. Cases use alloy, stainless steel and plastic; straps use PVC and PU. The 30,000 square metre Fuzhou factory employs more than 1,200 workers, with six watch assembly lines, a 35-member QC team inspecting to AQL 1.0 and 1.5 using timing machines imported from Germany and Japan, and capacity due to rise by 20 to 50 percent within 12 months, including a new 20,000 square metre property.

What a Full Profile Adds

The sample shows the profile template at work: company background and markets first, then products with price ranges, then manufacturing and research capability, then outlook. Across all 67 profiles that single template is the point — every manufacturer is examined on the same points, so a buyer can line profiles up and compare export shares, OEM and ODM mix, design capacity, quality systems and price positioning without translating between formats. Details such as a production checklist — lines, research and quality control staff, machinery and processes — turn a profile from a description into an audit summary.

Profiles also connect back to the rest of the report. A supplier's prices can be checked against the product gallery's 182 models and the industry overview's price trends, and its outlook against the supplier survey. When the three agree, a buyer has a supplier worth sampling; when they disagree, the profile has done its other job — showing where to ask harder questions before an order is placed.