Sunrex: From Watch Manufacturing to Building Their Own Brand

Welcome to the Micro Collector, a podcast where I talk with the founders and operators behind some of the most exciting microbrands and independent watch companies. I'm your host, Justin Dorfman, and in today's episode, I'm joined by Ray Lin, co-founder of Sunrex. This was a special episode for a few reasons. It was my first in-person interview for the podcast, recorded while I was in Hong Kong.

And Ray was kind enough to welcome me into the Sunrex office and showroom. Sunrex has a fascinating story. The company traces its roots back to Ray's father, who started the business in Taiwan in the 1970s, before later moving to Hong Kong and building a long-running OEM watch manufacturing business. After years of making watches for other brands, Ray and his brother Chi decided to bring Sunrex back as a brand of their own.

In this conversation, Ray shares the family history behind Sunrex, why they chose to focus on solar-powered watches, what collectors may still underappreciate about solar watch technology, and the stories behind the current Sunrex collection. If you enjoy the episode, be sure to subscribe for more conversations with the people behind these incredible watch brands. And with that, please enjoy my conversation with Ray Lin of Sunrex.

All right. Ray, welcome to the Micro Collector Podcast. I'm super excited to have you on today.

Thank you. Thank you, Justin. Yeah, yeah. I'm also very excited.

Awesome. Well, this is a special one. As I was mentioning to you, this is my first in-person interview for the podcast. So I just happened to be in Hong Kong and wanted to meet with a couple of microbrands. And I know we ran into each other at Windup San Francisco.

That's right.

So I'm so happy that we managed to meet and thank you so much for welcoming me into your office, to your showroom, to chat to me.

Thank you, thank you. The pleasure is mine. I'm also very thrilled to be on this show. You have many great guests. So very honored to be one of them.

Absolutely. Well, I guess for those that aren't familiar with you and Sunrex, maybe give us a little bit of a background. I know that there's a longer story. It sounds like your father started the business back in the 70s, right? So maybe you can take us back to the start of the company, and then we can get more into the brand and all the great stuff that you're doing now.

Sure, sure. I'm Ray, for those of you who doesn't know me, co-founder of Sunrex. And our company, Bridgestone Watch, was started by my father back in the 70s in Taiwan, actually. At the time, my father started a digital, stainless steel digital watch business with some of his partners in Taiwan and founded a company actually called Sunrex.

That's all where the story started. And like many other kind of back then, digital watch is kinda like a high tech product, and like other high tech products, they ran into problems with technical issues and pricing, all this. Eventually they have to close that business and my father decided to change the battleground to Hong Kong instead of Taiwan, because back then Hong Kong was a easier place to do export business. So he switch from digital to analog quartz.

So that was also kind of the start of the analog quartz crisis. So that caught on. So we've been mainly doing OEM for others, mainly doing OEM quartz analog. And up till the 90s we moved our factory to Shenzhen as well and really doing many different brands from Asia, from US, from Middle East.

So that's how we started. And 2018, I think first of all, the business landscape is changing. Also, after so many years, we really wanted to create something on our own as well. So that's how we started Sunrex.

Yeah. Very cool. Well, I mean, such an advantage to come from such a rich history of knowing the watch business in and out.

And you know, you and your brother, I think, started Sunrex, the brand that we know it today. Tell me a little bit about that decision to start a brand. What were some of the reasons why, you know, you had a strong history in OEM manufacturing for other brands? What was sort of the interest in starting your own brand?

Yeah, I mean, it's really special journey. I think I came into industry not because I have any interest in watches, to be honest, because of the family heritage.

I also joined the company in 2002. So I've been working over 20 years in the watch business, mainly doing OEM of course. And I think from working with some of these brands and with the industry, I learned a lot about watches, learned a lot about the business, and sort of it's kind of start growing on me about watches, about the watch culture. And also I think doing for others, there's always that kind of constraint limitation, be it the pricing or the creative choices. Sort of like, I remember reading something, there's a oil paint village in Dafen, I think there's a little artist, I think he copied Van Gogh for like twenty years.

And then he decided to make his own original painting. Sort of that kind of idea. Like really wanna put our own kind of thinking into, because after we've done so many different projects, and really that passion turned into that creative fire, I guess. Yeah. So especially we see a lot of things that we want to do as well.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, I can definitely see the interest in building something of your own, sort of breaking free of the creative choices that you have to rely on customers for, and being able to sort of paint your own painting, as you said.

What was the sort of original idea for Sunrex, the brand? And I guess what gap did you see in the market that you saw this opportunity to fill? Because I know from what I know about the brand, it takes inspiration from various different areas, but there's also this solar powered angle that you guys have, right? So maybe you can tell us a little bit about what you were seeing in the landscape and what inspired you to start this solar powered watch.

I think first of all, a lot of brand right now kind of also a trend, but at the same time, the vintage element of watches is big now. At the same time, it's also what we enjoy. I think looking back the history of watches, I think there's a lot of great things from the vintage era and sizes, speed, or some of the original different types of like sports watch, divers, military watch, pilot watch, these kind of things. I think there's a lot of good history. So we really want to create a product that's like kind of pay respect to those history at the same time.

When you talk about gaps, I don't necessarily think gaps is kind of like, we see that watch as, like of course nowadays people wear it for fashion or for the looks or just for collection. At the same time, we see it as a tool as well. So that's where originally started. So we want the watch to be functional in some ways. So that's kind of also our take on the watches. And that's why the choice of solar really came from the idea of, I think back in the days when we're doing OEM, we already encountered some project using those kinetic movements from Seiko. So the rechargeable quartz concept really kind of clicked with me and my brother, because it's kind of got the best of the both worlds in a way. Like you got the accuracy of a quartz, but then there's a way to recharge a battery, so there's no need to worry about battery changing and all that.

So that really kept in our mind. And obviously now Seiko discontinued that product, unfortunately. And their solar movement, I think it's kind of like a replacement for that. I think it has still had that good rechargeable concept. But I think now with the modern battery technology, everything is even better. The power reserve is like five to six months. So yeah. So we want to watch to be, of course, unique looking, everybody does.

And but at the same time it's something that you really want to wear every day and can wear every day without hassle. So that's kind of the concept.

And was it just a coincidence you mentioned the Sunrex brand, the name existed before.

Yeah, yeah. I actually, I knew that you had a business before Sunrex. I didn't know that the brand name came along. Is it just a coincidence that it has Sun in the name or—

Yes, I think it's just kind of coincidence.

We actually don't want to limit ourselves only solar. Yeah. But at the same time, this is the kind of the movement choice we want to use now. Yeah. We hope to expand those options in the future too. I know a lot of our fans and customer supporter, they always ask us, are we gonna make a mechanical watch and things like that? We definitely are considering too, but we wanna do it right too. Also going back a little bit to about the gap thing, I think also, from doing a lot of OEM, we just feel like some of the things in terms of the kind of engineering part of the watch and the material we choose, we try to be a little bit more kind of durable, durability and also reliability, all this we want to put into that account. Like if when we're doing an OEM project, maybe like I said, with the price constraint, other constraints, sometimes we might not be able to choose the best of the quality material or structure.

So in Sunrex we have that freedom. Like one example would be a lot of the quartz watch they use plastic holder.

Mm-hmm.

Well all our watches we use a metal holder.

Mm-hmm.

So it one is to give that weight feel. Yeah. It feels a lot better that way. And also in the long term you have less kind of when the plastic gets old, like the dial might shift a little bit. Yeah. And those kind of problem then we wanna make sure it's durable that way. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of learnings that you're taking from your experience in manufacturing for others, and like the things that work, the things that are worth maybe saving some money on, but other things that like might be less expensive, but in terms of quality, just aren't worth the trade-off, right? And you've seen all those different choices made by your customers. Maybe in some cases you would have made the same choices, maybe in other cases you wouldn't. But now that you have your own brand, you can make the choices that you actually want to make, right?

Yeah, exactly. And that was a great example.

Are there things on the branding side that are new learnings for you? Because I know you guys come from a lot of experience in manufacturing, but when you build your own brand, beyond your advantage is the manufacturing and all that experience, but I'm sure there were a lot of learnings in how do you build a brand, how do you build an audience, like, you know, how do you get the word out there about the new releases and stuff like that? What were some of the sort of hardest parts to learn, you know, on the brand side?

For sure, for sure.

It's actually learning every day. Yeah, it's you're exactly right. Other than, other than the manufacturing, everything is new to us actually. Marketing part, how to build brand awareness, or even social media, you know, making good content, all these are like new learning curve. And I guess it's just bit by bit. Like we even at the beginning of the brand we're just creating products. We, I didn't even know exactly what a microbrand was to start with. So it's also when we try to promote it, learning the community, what's going on, what, who is actually interested in this kind of product, then we slowly, slowly learn the market, learn the business in terms of branding. And I think also very grateful that along the way we've met so many help from other brand owners or other people in the industry.

It's really quite special and also feel different too from the OEM. Because OEM, of course, is a lot of great help also, but overall it's a more competitive environment and a much larger space. And in microbrand and or branding, like I feel like people are helping out each other, and I definitely very appreciative and grateful for that.

Yeah. Yeah, it's one thing I've noticed and that I really love about the microbrand segment of the watch industry is that— And I've spoken to many founders who've brought this up, right? That microbrands almost don't see each other as competition. It's almost like the tide lifts all boats, right? This new segment of new brands that are doing things differently, direct to consumer. If you can help each other out and share learnings, everybody benefits, right?

And it's a very different world from, like you said, the OEM world, but also even I would say the traditional brand world, right? Many things are different. The view on competition, but also microbrands tend to be much more open with what's coming, right? And sort of even including their audience in the design of the product or making some decisions. And I think that's completely different from the traditional world where you might keep things secret and stealth until it's finally released.

Right.

So that's a really interesting point and sort of observation from the manufacturing side to the brand.

I want to double click a little bit on the solar angle. So I've been very intrigued with solar. I actually don't have a solar watch yet. I think I'm gonna probably get one. I mean, I was mentioning I love the one on your wrist, and the various different models that you have here. Can you tell us a little bit about how solar technology works, right? And then maybe a little bit about the benefits that maybe the average collector, you know, there's always this debate between quartz and automatic, and like you know, some people are very against quartz and they're like, I only go mechanical, I only go automatic. Others make the other argument where, you know, obviously quartz has a ton of benefits in terms of, you know, the accuracy and the maintenance and all that stuff, right? Solar brings a kind of a whole new angle and it seems like it has benefits even beyond quartz, right? That, you know, if you're arguing sort of accuracy and maintenance and all that stuff.

So maybe tell us a little bit how it works. Like where does the sun get absorbed in the watch and sort of where does it get stored and how that mechanism works? And then again, maybe some of the benefits that the average collector who hasn't looked too deep into solar yet might not know about this technology.

I think in a way, that question about quartz and automatic quartz, I feel like it's a little bit underrated in kind of the microbrand section. I think I don't think one is better than the other. Of course automatic mechanical has a lot of heritage, other workmanship, of course that's really much appreciated. At the same time, as a tool, like I said at the angle earlier, we want the watch to be like a working tool. So I feel like quartz also have a big advantage on that sense, with the timekeeping being a lot more accurate.

So that could be like a big difference. And in terms of how it works, the solar power movement is very much like a quartz movement. It's the kind of have a quartz crystal inside and it's drived by electricity and gives that nice pulse which keeps the time really accurately. With the solar, particularly the one we're using from the Seiko, they have the solar cell basically sit on top of the movement, and the light basically shines through the dial to absorb from the panel, and the panel would charge a lithium battery inside. So there's other ways too, like I know the Citizen Eco-Drive, they have their panel like kind of high at the rim of the— in the inner ring of the watch.

So for Seiko ones, they're still sitting on top. So that's why our dial material is a bit more limiting, but we also find different ways to get through, because our idea is we want our watch to look just like very unique, cool-looking, vintage-inspired watch without really seeing the panel or knowing that it's there. So a lot like the Seiko Speedtimer, I think that's the closest comparison for, because these are all chronographs. Our model right now, everything is with the chrono function. And we do the cutouts on the subdial so that that part is where the solar panel exposed. So yeah, and in terms of the normal everyday use, under the sunlight, probably like two to three hours if it's really bright, already fully charged.

Wow. Yeah.

And you said that lasts like five months.

Five or six. Five to six months. Yeah. Yeah, it is.

So and the only thing is I always tell my customer, very careful not to put the watch inside a drawer or leave it in the box. Because once that power reserve is gone and you leave the battery without any charging, you could lower the voltage too low that the battery would just die.

Interesting.

Won't recharge again. But the good news is not just sunlight, like even here, fluorescent light, yeah, charges too, just slower. That's all. Like fluorescent light, probably sixty, seventy hours of charging time. So but it's once, as long as out there, it's always kinda working, and the battery lasts at least 10 years from the manufacturing guarantee.

Yeah. Yeah. So it sounds like you've got the benefits of accuracy that quartz has, you've got the power reserve that outlasts any, yeah, any other category of watch, right? Five months power reserve is pretty amazing. You've got like no maintenance, right? In terms of, you know, obviously quartz you have to change batteries, mechanical watches you have to get service. So this is no maintenance. There's just some rules of use in terms of keeping it exposed to some sort of light, right? Versus putting it in a drawer in a box so that it— interesting.

So it sounds like a really, really great option. I know you have some watches in front of us here. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about the collection itself, maybe starting with the one that you have on the wrist, but then maybe highlighting some of the other most popular models that you have in the collection. I know you went to Windup San Francisco. So what are some of the ones that seem to grab the attention of folks when they start learning about the brand and looking at the collection?

Yeah, yeah. A brief overview is that all our watches are chronographs right now, and they're all some kind of vintage inspired sports watch. Yeah, so we want to do, like we have originally, we have a collection with kind of vintage divers. So this piece is called Banana Reef. So it is kind of inspired from like those 30s diver watch, like those skin divers.

So we wanted to choose design from that era is to kinda show our customer or whoever would like our watch, like kind of how the watches were like in those era, at the same time with like the modern touch we put in, and obviously with solar, and it's a complete different vibe and feel, especially using it. So this black is also a DLC coating, so it's anti-scratch. And the function with the chrono is a one-fifth of a second chrono. So it's really nice and elegant. Very similar to the Speedtimer movement. So this is really unique because it's kind of like dress and sports. I feel like it could be any occasion. All the watch comes with two straps. We have this really unique, cool white strap.

This I want to highlight this strap a little bit. Obviously it's— the body is a very high quality nylon strap. The white you're seeing, this is a material from DuPont. Tyvek. And it's— they use it on the portable protective gear.

Wow, okay.

We bought a roll from them, actually three from DuPont, and just send it to our strap factory, ask them to cut it and laminate it on the nylon.

So this material is kind of wrinkle by nature. So you look at it, it is like that. But it just makes it more unique and yeah, it's got an interesting texture too. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Kind of like those bands you wear in the parties and stuff too. Like similar to those materials, like a non-tearable paper kind of feel. But also obviously you can print stuff on it too. So it makes it more fun. So this kind of like a second strap, it comes with our every watch.

And the second diver collection we have is this one, it's called the Anemone City, and it's kind of like a fifties kind of divers, the orange dot, orange hands, obviously very 50s looking kind of diver watch. Then one of the highlight I think other than the Banana Reef I have, the more kind of people really like, is our racer type of sports watch. This is— we released it last year and it is meant to be a respect to like vintage TAG Heuer, even kind of like Daytona kind of thing. Yeah. But you can see this size it's 37mm. It's much smaller than usual.

And on top of the just another motor sports watch, we want to make the design a little bit more interesting with more detail. So the two models we are making for the racer, like we are paying tribute to two also vintage F1 drivers. Yeah. The white one is to Jackie Stewart, the black one is to Ayrton Senna.

Yep.

So we kind of work the details around that, including the dial, design, the color, the back is like helmet pattern of the two drivers. The Jackie Stewart we have the race car running on the running second. The black one we have the go-kart running. So this kind of details in the design, I think it's really appreciated from our audience, so that we are really happy that people pick it up, like little Easter egg here and there. So that it's been fun. And this movement also solar, but the chrono function is like 1/20 second.

Okay.

So that's really fun too. So yeah, yeah.

Very cool. And I love how that little car goes around.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like really enjoy this design. And the strap is a very high quality FKM rubber. You notice all our strap, we try to be very unique, different. Like these are not just sourced from the market. We build them all ourselves. It's all custom design. So hopefully to make that unique look.

Yeah. Very cool.

Yeah, I mean coming in, I was a big fan of the Banana Reef. I love cushion cases. I love how this one is— like you said, it sort of gives tribute to that sort of era of watches, but at the same time it's solar. The strap looks really, really comfortable. I was gonna ask you, is there a story behind these? I saw that some of your straps have that little band.

Right, right, right, right. Yes. I guess it's just a different way to interpret the stitching. You know, stitching on the side is quite popular. Yeah. And kinda there's no like particular function for this, but it's just make it look unique. Yeah. We've just thought it looks really cool. And you mentioned about band, like the fixer on the band. We have like three fixer. So that we consider sometimes, in you know the loop.

Annoying, it moves around, it's rare to watch. So we have three, so make sure it's secure on your wrist. Very nice that way. So yeah, so we try to put little details like that to hopefully increase, you know, enhance the kind of wearing experience that. Yeah. Yeah. And I love the wire lugs on that too. It makes it— it really gives it that sort of original— yes, feel. Yeah.

But I have to say, after looking at the— I'm an F1 fan, so after, and I love Senna, so after I saw that at the Windup San Francisco, and you had I think a little model car next to it so that you could see the colors translate from the cars to the watches. Yeah. Those are really cool too. What's this one over here? This color looks really interesting.

So this is the piece, a special edition. We did only 10 piece from a collaboration last year. We met some gentleman in Melbourne, Australia.

And there's a lot of good racing community there. And so we met a guy from a car show called ArtNeun.

Okay.

So they— their car show, they feature mostly Porsche in their car show. So it's the third time they did it last year.

And they want to do some collaboration, so we kind of brainstorm. So we took the kind of the Ayrton Senna piece and then we took it apart and then added this green Cerakote paint. This Cerakote is from Oregon, it's a US-based company. They're more kind of famous for outdoor gears and stuff. So we applied this Cerakote paint, kind of ceramic paint, actually add to their kind of hardness of the case as well. So a little bit of a functionality, but I think mainly just the look. That's really add to it.

And because in that car show last year, which you can see at the back, it featured a— I think 1973. Don't quote me on that. Yeah. And Porsche RS 911 stock car comes with this Viper Green color.

Wow.

So that's kind of the crown jewel of their show. So yeah. So we took that inspiration and created this piece. So the case obviously change color and the wheels, I mean the running second in terms of the race car, it have the rim of the Porsche there. Yeah. So also all the hands are a little bit different, dial change a little bit, so that we created this piece.

That's very cool. I love how the color of the green sort of translates into the band as well.

Like yeah, yeah. It has a little this gradient effect. Yeah, which is great. Yeah, yeah.

And we only made ten pieces and it's sold out within a month.

Wow.

So yeah. So we didn't know what to expect.

Yeah, yeah. Very cool. So we've got some sort of vintage dive, we've got some racing watches. You mentioned a little bit, but sort of looking ahead at what's coming next from Sunrex. Sounds like there might be some potential new movements in terms of types of movements and stuff like that. But what else is out there in your mind, in your brother's mind, in terms of what you aspire to bring to the collection?

Well, as I mentioned earlier, we're doing different kinds of sports watch. Originally we have a pilot watch too. It's kind of like a very vintage and classical Flieger kind of design. And we are now coming up with— it was going to launch last year, but we didn't like the prototype and everything.

So hopefully this year we're gonna launch another pilot watch. So it's gonna be completely different. And it's going to be our first non-chronograph watch. Actually some people might saw it last year in— we brought a prototype. So some people might— I saw it. I kinda posed a story earlier too. But I think that a lot of details we decided to change it. So hopefully within this year we could launch that officially. It would be quite interesting.

I think 'cause some of our customers mentioned wanting to have a non-chronograph also, because I think there's another little trend, like people want to see a more clear on the dial design and everything. So we kinda try to answer to that need. Other than the pilot, we are trying to do more collaboration too, because we've done so well with the collaboration with car shows. So we are looking ahead maybe with other brand as well. So this could be interesting because we want to kind of bring different inspiration from each other and create something people really enjoy.

Yeah. Very cool.

Well, I'm a big fan. I'm definitely a tool watch kind of guy, and I'm definitely in that sort of 50s to 70s era in terms of, you know, design, and definitely like the 70s, that sort of cushion case and those sort of designs. You know, I traditionally love dive watches. I've gone through my racing phase as well with the chronographs recently. That's been something that I've really been diving deep into. And now I'm kind of entering my pilot phase. Right. So you guys are covering the entire collection. And, you know, back to the point I made earlier, I'm not one of those collectors that has a strong view on quartz versus automatic versus manual wind versus digital. I have actually all in my collection. What I don't have yet is a solar. So there's a lot here that I find really exciting and interesting. So I definitely know that I'm gonna be picking up a Sunrex watch.

But for others that are listening and watching and they want to learn more about the brand, where the best places that they can go to learn, to follow, and any shows that you're gonna be at in the near future that if they wanted to try the watches on in person and see them in person, that they can meet you and maybe try those watches as well.

Yes. I think the best way to reach us is definitely through our Instagram. If you just type Sunrex Watch on IG search, we are there. I look at the message and everything every day. So anybody interested, they can DM me, ask me about questions. We have not just me, our other colleague also help looking out for the message.

So that's really one way to reach us. Also we have our online store on Shopify. Also you can search it on Google, Sunrex Watch, you should be able find it. All our watches are sold through online and they basically ship to everywhere in the world, I hope. But some places, if there's a problem, of course you could talk to us on email and everything. In terms of upcoming show, the next show we're going probably will be Hong Kong actually.

Hong Kong Fair. Yeah, yep.

So I'm very proud to say we're gonna have a revamp microbrand section in Hong Kong this year. Actually they started last year officially, but I feel like a lot of things haven't been done good enough yet. So this year I've been lucky enough to be in a position to give a lot of advice to the organizer too. So we have a really good revamp section with lots of interesting brand lining up as well. So that's gonna be my next show. And then I'm also going to Toronto Timepiece show in— also in September. And of course I wouldn't miss Windup New York this year as well. So that is— we went last year and it was great and met a lot of great people and I'm looking forward to go there again. And finally at the end of the year, November, there's gonna be like the SSS, which a really good show too.

I would say the best microbrand show in Asia right now. The Prague one, I don't know if many people know about that. It's also quite good. I've been there twice already, so probably go there again. So that's kind of the rest of a year lineup.

Great. Well, lots of opportunities to meet you, check out the watches. I'm gonna be at Spring Sprang Sprung and I'll be at New York. So we'll see each other there, Windup New York.

Cool.

I wasn't necessarily thinking about the Hong Kong one, but now that I know that there's a microbrand segment and this is my home city, my family lives here. So I'll always take an opportunity to come in. So maybe I'll see you there as well. But thank you so much for taking the time, welcoming me in today to show me the watches and chatting with us, and very excited to see what's coming next for Sunrex. So thanks again for your time.

Thank you, Justin. Thank you. Pleasure is my— thank you.