An unlikely incident prompted Lin Lin, Creative Director of Jellymon Studio, to collaborate with the old Shanghai Watch Company--once a proletariation status symbol--and the advertising agency, Wieden + Kennedy.

This incident involved a Chinese rapper of Shanghainese origin who came into Lin Lin's studio to ask her to opine on what watches he should purchase--among the choices were various Rolexes and Casio by A Bathing Ape limited editions. Lin Lin thought none of those choices particularly suitable, and provoked by this suggested that something with a historical link to China and Shanghai should be produced but done with an updated context.

Thus started the fruitful, if not, sometimes frustrating project of contacting and collaborating with the Shanghai Watch Company, a rather storied but dusty state-owned enterprise. Once worn by high-ranking politicians like Zhou Enlai, the Shanghai Watch company had become a moribund enterprise, barely producing any watches in its own factories and subcontracting out its products to other firms; the company's only consistent products were commemorative watches for various Chinese governmental departments. Its corporate decay became so extensive that the CEO spent most of his time playing computer games in his office.

Perhaps it was that slight aura of decadence that lured Lin Lin to seek a partnership with the Shanghai Watch Company, but more importantly it was the iconic generational nature of the vintage Shanghai watches. She had the archives opened up and used those designs for the inspiration of the limited editions. Moreover, she persuaded the factory to repair the old machines and tools in order to manufacture the watches. Utilizing the vintage Shanghai Watch Company logo--a graphically dramatic combination of the characters Shanghai--the watches feature bold Chinese numerals and various graphics such as an outline of a gun, inspired by the old television show, Shanghai Tan.
Released in 2010 in editions of 500 for each style, the watches were sold at emporiums of hip like The Source in Shanghai and Colette in Paris. Perennially chic boutique Opening Ceremony in New York had also requested a number of watches, but by that time, the watches had already sold out.

Heritage brands collaborating with young agencies are nothing or even necessarily interesting today, but for a state-owned monolith such as Shanghai Watch Company, this cooperation stands out as being particularly noteworthy; Chinese state-owned companies are usually conservative and reluctant to embrace these kinds of endeavors, but when they do, it seems the results are always compelling, and sometimes even interesting..★