Watch deal highlights timeless quality of cloisonne

In a nondescript small village an hour's drive from downtown Beijing, the Xiong family is bringing a craft that has been passed down through generations into the 21st Century.

Xiong Songtao, 39, is the family' s latest master of the 800-year-old art of cloisonne enamel. His ancestors created many treasures - vases and pots for the Qing Court in the Forbidden City - and now his finely detailed dials are dazzling modern watch buyers.

His first cloisonne enamel dial sold for 800,000 yuan at Beijing Poly Autumn Auction in 2012. At just 33 millimeters in diameter, it featured 10 different of flowers outlined with gold wire of 0.04 millimeter in diameter - thinner than a human hair.

The dial, named "Butterflies in Love" , first appeared at the Basel Watch Fair in 2007, where jewelers and watchmakers formed a new appreciation of the ancient Chinese craft.

Xiong invited a representative from a famous watch brand to his exhibition stall and introduced his unique dials. But the representative glanced at the watch and thought it was a fake because the enamel was so perfect with no flaws visible to the naked eye. Xiong split one of his dials in half to prove it was real.

The representative signed a contract with Xiong on the spot.

Xiong grew up with little enthusiasm for enamel. "As a kid, I didn't like it much," he recalls. Born in the filigree factory, Xiong had watched adults make enamel wares, so he was familiar with every procedure of the technique.

He chose to major in international trade in college, hoping to help the family with the export business.

After graduation, he became a customs broker, but was soon summoned by his father back to the factory to learn the craft.

"I couldn't go against my father' s wishes as only 10 people in the world know this craft thoroughly and if I didn't inherit it, I would regret it when the craft was lost," says Xiong.

The cloisonne technique has more than 50 procedures, including modeling, filigree, glazing, coating and fusing. A skilled worker can take half a year to make a small vase.

After Xiong took over the family factory, he was bothered with two issues: the lack of apprentices and the fake products on the market. He feared for the survival of his family business.

In 2000, Xiong saw an enamel watch from Swiss watch maker Ulysse Nardin on an auction catalogue and he was intrigued.

"Making the dial is almost the same as making other enamel wares, but it demands more precise work. I believed I could make one. What's more, it would help raise appreciation of the traditional craftsmanship," says Xiong.

Over the next five years, Xiong dedicated himself to honing his cloisonne skills. "I'm sure my technical quality surpasses the Swiss equivalents," says Xiong.

Many hours at the grinder and using the welding gun have loosened his finger skin and erased his fingerprints.

Through trial and error, he finally mastered the design of wires as fine as 0.04 millimeters.

His years of hard work paid off when Xiong became a master craftsman and was appointed to make dials for leading German and Swiss timepiece brands.

But these top brands refuse to credit Xiong's work or even label it "Made in China" and Xiong is forbidden from naming the brands due to confidentiality agreements.

"But I've nothing to regret. This is the first step for Xiong's Enamel to go international."

The cooperation between German brands Glashutte and Meissen Couture has set a good example. "The Glashutte enamel watches name Meissen on the dials. These two brands prove the quality of each other."

Xiong also makes bespoke cloisonne jewelry, which he sells through personal orders, contracts and exhibitions.

"There are many fake enamel products in the market. I'm worried rivals may steal our ideas and counterfeit them," he says. "So first I want a bigger voice in the industry and market and then raise people's awareness of this old craft via Xiong' s Enamel." Endi