Tick-tock, tick-tock. A 'clockaholic' with time on his hands
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Xu Dingji checks the alarm of an alarm clock in his home workshop where he operates an Internet shop for selling the clocks.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
Xu Dingji cleans the glass cover of an alarm clock.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
Xu Dingji lubricates the parts in an alarm clock.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
Xu Dingji holds a xima clock to his ear to listen to its delightful and quiet tick-tocking sound.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
An alarm clock with an artfully sculptured frame produced by Shanghai Clock Factory.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
An alarm clock with a metal sculpture of a woman produced by Shanghai Clock Factory.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
The alarm clocks featuring a face with cartoon chicken pecking at rice grains are the most popular ones in his shop. With every tick, the chicken lowers its head to take a peck.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
A cloisonne-decorated alarm clock produced by Shanghai Clock Factory.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
Piles of Diamond alarm clocks in Xu Dingji's workshop with packages in foreign languages which tell their export history.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
Piles of Diamond alarm clocks in Xu Dingji's workshop with packages in foreign languages which tell their export history.
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
Xu Dingji's workshop
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE -
Xu Dingji's workshop
Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE
Although mobile phones have largely replaced alarm clocks for most people, the vintage mechanical timepieces sold by 64-year-old Xu Dingji have found an enduring group of buyers.
Xu operates a successful clock shop on Alibaba online platform Taobao. He sells vintage alarm clocks he bought as unsold stock from Shanghai Clock Factory, where he once worked.
Some of the clocks he sells evoke childhood memories in the younger generation; others view them as retro heritage from a time when clockmaking was a top craft industry in Shanghai.
The industry took off in Shanghai after the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949. By the late 1950s, Shanghai Clock Factory had become the largest mechanical alarm clock manufacturer in the country.
Over 140 million clocks were made through 1990. Half of them were exported abroad, contributing to a US$152 million business.
As quartz clocks and electronic timepieces took over the market, mechanical alarm clocks faded from popularity in the 1990s, resulting in a high volume of unsold inventory. That was when Xu, a former factory canteen worker, stepped in.
“The inventory started to be sold off at scrap prices,” he said. “I couldn’t bear the thought of that fate for all the beautiful clocks made with such devotion.”
Starting at the turn of the century, Xu spent hundreds of thousands of yuan of his own savings to purchase the factory inventory, which included rarer and more expensive clocks. Over the years he purchased over 100,000 clocks.
Xu rents a warehouse to house the clocks not stored at his home, from where he has been operating his Internet clock shop for over a decade.
Xu lives with his wife in a humble 50-square-meter, two-bedroom apartment in Huangpu District. One of the bedrooms was turned into a workshop with hundreds of clocks tick-tocking the passage of time.
“The sound of ticking clocks doesn’t please everyone,” he said. “To some people, it’s a counting down toward the end of one’s life, but to me, it’s a soothing lullaby.”
Xu’s workshop has packages of clocks and parts piled from floor to ceiling in such a helter-skelter style that removal of one looks like it might trigger a cascade. He does his daily exercise by stretching his legs over a knee-high pile of clocks near the entrance to the room.
Although he claims his eyesight is diminishing, he can still find a specific clock from the map in his mind in a manner of seconds.
The most popular alarm clocks sold by his shop feature a face with cartoon chicken pecking at rice grains against a sketched background of idyllic rural life. With every tick, the chicken lowers its head to take a peck.
These clocks carry the memories of a few generations.
In decades past, they cost about half of a monthly salary. Children who inadvertently broke them suffered punishments from their parents, Xu said.
“A young customer who bought one told me that the purchase was to atone for his childhood naughtiness,” he said. “Other people are just happy to take possession of clocks like the ones they once owned or perhaps wanted to own. I feel happy when I can fulfill those desires.”
Under the Diamond brand, Shanghai Clock Factory once produced a kind of mechanical clock known in Chinese as Xima clocks, which Xu said were comparable to the quality with German and Swiss timepieces.
Xima clocks tick-tocked quietly and quite accurately, and were costlier. Top-of-the-line clocks were priced at 33.8 yuan (US$5), when the monthly salary of most people was 36 yuan. For that reason, the clocks were mainly produced for overseas market, according to Xu.
“Not many people in China are aware of the existence of such clocks, so those who come to me to buy them must be true ‘clockaholics,’” he said.
Xu’s stock also includes clocks with decorated frames of cloisonne and wood or metal sculptures. Some of them were mass produced, while others were handmade.
Most of the clocks from the factory’s inventory were perfectly good and ready for sale, Xu said, but they do need maintenance from time to time.
For every clock ordered, he carefully lubricates the gears and checks the alarms. Rust is scraped off metal parts, and smeared glass is replaced. Since original spare parts are no longer available, he makes do with a bit of ingenuity.
As a canteen worker at the clock factory, Xu was no expert in clock repair. But he learned the basics from old factory masters when purchasing the inventory.
“I don’t even know what some parts are technically called, so I put numbers on them,” he said. “It takes a few hours for me to tackle more complicated mechanical problems.”
Daily work on the clocks has taken a toll on his health. Xu has a deformed right hand from a workplace injury. It’s sometimes painful for him to wind the old clocks or adjust the hands.
“Nothing compares to my joy when a deal is sealed,” he said. “It feels like I am marrying my daughter to a good man.”
Xu reckoned he has sold over 10,000 clocks online, which covered his investment in purchasing them.
But the online world can be cruel. After local media reported his story, some unsavory people started selling vintage clocks under his name, without authorization. Dealing with the digital age can be a bit overwhelming, Xu said.
His biggest wish is to sell all of his 100,000 alarm clocks before he dies.
“I’m just a businessman,” he said. “But I hope my clocks find customers who truly need and appreciate them.”