Articles
Memorigin in the Harvard Business Review Store
A University of Hong Kong teaching case on how a Hong Kong tourbillon brand built an identity of its own.
A tourbillon rewards a closer look. The movement draws the eye first, but what makes someone want to wear the watch? It might be a familiar story, a detail that brings back a memory or the pleasure of seeing a mechanical idea take shape. That question is at the heart of a University of Hong Kong teaching case about Memorigin.
From banking to watchmaking
In Memorigin: Luxury Watches Made in Hong Kong, authors Echo Wen Wan, Baniel Cheung and Marcella Ho trace how William Shum, JP, left banking to establish a Hong Kong brand specialising in tourbillon watches. The case was published in 2023 by the University of Hong Kong’s Asia Case Research Centre and is listed in the Harvard Business Review Store. University of Hong Kong case catalogue · Harvard Business Review Store
Making a specialist brand recognisable
Choosing the tourbillon gave Memorigin a clear speciality. It also raised a harder question: how could a young brand make that mechanism recognisably its own? William Shum, JP, told Forbes in 2013 that Memorigin worked with Hong Kong designers and collectors to develop different styles. That approach gave people several ways into the same watchmaking idea. One collector might notice the mechanics first, while another might see a motif or character they knew well. Forbes interview
Inside our Chai Wan workshop
In 2014, a South China Morning Post reporter visited Memorigin in Chai Wan Industrial City. In a small room, engineers were repairing watches and learning the sequence of work behind a tourbillon from an experienced technician. The scene shows what the business looked like away from the display cabinet. The knowledge needed to work on a movement had to be passed from one person to another, through work at the bench. For a customer choosing a mechanical watch, that expertise matters long after the first fitting. South China Morning Post workshop report
What makes a watch personal?
The case examines how a young Hong Kong brand could earn attention in a market shaped by established names. It considers how culture influences what buyers value, and how design partnerships can give them a personal reason to connect with a watch. Memorigin’s collaborations with Marvel and Star Wars are among the examples. A collector might first recognise a character or a world they grew up with. Looking closer, they can see how that reference becomes part of the dial, alongside a mechanism with a story of its own. University of Hong Kong case catalogue · Memorigin Crossovers
For Memorigin, that meeting of craft and memory is part of the appeal of making watches in Hong Kong. The city is the brand’s home and a source of ideas. The teaching case offers a different way to look at the same object. Beyond asking how a watch works, it asks why it matters to the person who wears it.
A later connection with HKU Business School
The teaching case appeared in 2023. In a separate project, Memorigin created commemorative tourbillons for HKU Business School. One connection invites students to consider how a brand earns a place in a competitive market. The other starts with a design brief: how can a watch carry something that members of a particular community recognise as theirs? Memorigin’s HKU Business School watch archive
