Chapter 560 The Birth of the First Electronic Watch

Chapter 560 The Birth of the First Electronic Watch

Chapter 560 The Birth of the First Electronic Watch

With the successful acquisition of Nikkatsu and the possible partnership with Toyota, this trip to Japan can be considered a very successful one;

Then, Yang Wendong and others visited Aichi Prefecture for a few days and gained a greater understanding of modern industry. The automobile industry, no matter what era it is, is a representative of a country's industry;

However, it is impossible for Hong Kong to develop such an industry. Relatively speaking, the electronics industry, which is no smaller than the automobile industry, has greater potential;
On February 2, Yang Wendong returned to Tokyo again, and Fang Xianming from Changxing Finance also rushed to Tokyo;

Yang Wendong said: "You negotiate with Changxing Industry, Honor Electronics or Changxing Shipping to raise funds from them, and then use their connections to cooperate with Japanese banks to obtain enough funds to buy Sony's shares."

Changxing Group's several manufacturing businesses have markets around the world, with Japan being a top priority. Although its scale is not as large as that of the United States, it is close to the United States and has a similar culture, so the profits in the long run are considerable;

However, these funds, whether in the United States, Europe or Japan, are basically not remitted back to Hong Kong. The first reason is that they need to pay taxes when leaving the country, and the second is that there are many industries suitable for investment in the local area.

Japan has developed rapidly in the past few decades, and there are many future giant companies. Traditional industries are basically divided up by conglomerates, but there are still some emerging industries. Among them, the most famous one in the future will be Sony.

Perhaps the post-00s may not have heard much about Sony, but in the 80s to 2000s, Sony could be said to be one of the global technology trendsetters. The entire Japanese electronics industry was extremely developed, far surpassing Europe and the United States, until it was defeated by a joint effort of Apple, Samsung and several domestic electronics giants.

"Sony? Okay." Fang Xianming nodded in agreement;
Although he is not from the electronics industry, he knows the name of Japan's Sony Corporation. In recent years, Sony has accounted for a considerable portion of the imported electrical appliances in Hong Kong.

Yang Wendong added: "There are several others, such as Toshiba, Hitachi, and Sharp. You can also buy some."

"Mr. Yang, do we need to get anything else?" Fang Xianming asked.

Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "Let's not consider this issue for now. Just buy the stocks first. If any shareholder is willing to sell their shares, we can discuss it."

Normal countries still take precautions against overseas capital controlling or acquiring their core industries. This was the case in the mainland, Europe, America, and even Asian countries in the past.
The same is true for Japan. They can even reject Wall Street in the United States. Otherwise, South Korea would not have had the opportunity to develop. It can only be said that, relatively speaking, Japan may be a little bit tougher than South Korea.
Fang Xianming agreed, "I understand, Mr. Yang."

"By the way, send someone to South Korea to check the specific situation of several major Korean financial groups." Yang Wendong suddenly said, "Don't do anything yet, wait until all the information is available."

The time has come to 1970, and it is only a dozen years away from the explosion of the future electronics industry. Many future electronics giants will gradually emerge;
South Korea's Samsung Electronics is naturally a future leader. No matter how much they give up to Wall Street for development, they are definitely capable. The Americans will not want a dog without teeth.

If you have the opportunity, you may be able to get a piece of the pie first. Even if you can't keep it or can only keep a small part of it, you can still make a considerable profit. For example, if history doesn't change much, then if you sell Samsung stock before the Asian financial crisis in 1997, there will definitely be no problems or risks.

Fang Xianming didn't think much about it and agreed, "Okay, Mr. Yang."

After arranging the business in Japan, Yang Wendong returned to Hong Kong.

Soon it was March 3st;
Yang Wendong came to North Point, Hong Kong. At this moment, there are large factory buildings here. Countless workers are shuttling between the roads. Various cars, construction vehicles and even minibuses are everywhere, and there are also all kinds of service shops.

"The economy in North Point is really good." Bai Yushan said with a smile while holding her little daughter.

Yang Wendong said: "Of course, North Point used to be the industrial center of Hong Kong. When plastic flowers were selling well, this place was very prosperous. Now there is RCA and several electronics factories of Honor Electronics. Their income is higher, which naturally drives the surrounding economy."

Entering the global electronics era, Hong Kong naturally cannot fall behind, so Honor Electronics and the Hong Kong government negotiated beforehand to build North Point of Hong Kong Island into a professional electronics industrial zone;
In addition to Honor Electronics and RCA, a large number of small electronics and home appliance factories also joined in. For example, Universal Electronics, the largest radio factory in Hong Kong today, can produce up to 50 radios a month, as well as a large number of other electrical appliances.
As an emerging technology industry, the electronics industry naturally has higher requirements for employees, especially in terms of literacy. These high requirements naturally lead to higher incomes for employees, ultimately driving the economic development of the entire surrounding area.

Bai Yushan asked with a smile: "Do you already have a lot of properties nearby?"

The basic logic within the Changxing Group is that industrial parks or some large-scale infrastructure can be built normally, but real estate companies will definitely build layouts nearby. Anyway, if they don’t do it, others will do it. It is better to save money for themselves than to save money for others.

Yang Wendong nodded and said, "Of course, but in the North Point, the industry is still the main industry, and Changxing Real Estate has accumulated a lot of industrial land here in advance." In fact, hoarding industrial land has the highest cost-effectiveness because the nature of the land makes it very cheap. In this way, the largest land can be obtained at the lowest cost;

Many small real estate companies that do not have much capital in this era also like to hoard industrial land, as the income from industrial land itself is relatively stable;
Of course, this market is relatively small, so it is enough to stockpile appropriately in the industrial area. Changxing Real Estate generally does not eat too much. There are too many suitable locations in the whole of Hong Kong. There is no need to carry a sheep blanket. It is better to separate a hundred sheep and get a little from each one.

When the few of them arrived at the Honor Group's R&D headquarters building in North Point, Wang Zhiqun was already waiting at the door.

"Are all the things made?" Yang Wendong asked.

Wang Zhiqun replied: "Yes, our first generation electronic watch H1 has been completed and is now upstairs. Mr. Yang, Mrs. Yang, you can go up and take a look now."

"Okay, let's go," Yang Wendong nodded and said.

More than a year ago, Yang Wendong asked Honor Electronics to research electronic watches. This thing is in high demand because everyone needs to tell time, but mechanical watches are too expensive and most people can't afford them. However, electronic watches can be mass-produced in the future and the price can be cheap enough for everyone to afford.
However, electronic products that were simple in the past are difficult to develop in this era. It took more than a year and millions of dollars of investment to achieve results today.

After the group arrived at the third floor, as soon as they entered the door, they saw a huge table with a large number of round plastic pieces that were larger than coins. In the middle of the plastic pieces, there was a rectangular screen with time numbers on it, including hours and minutes, but no seconds.

Yang Wendong picked up a few and started looking at them. Then he asked, "How accurate are these electronic watches?"

In the past, no one would have thought about this question. How could a watch be inaccurate? Everyone’s cell phone has the same time.

But before the Internet, the time on any mechanical or electronic product was adjusted by itself, and its time was also calculated internally. There was no such thing as online calibration.

Even today's mechanical watches need to be recalibrated every once in a while, usually by comparing the news time on TV. If you were born in the 70s, you may still remember this: you often check your watch against CCTV.
Wang Zhiqun replied: "It will be off by two minutes a day, which is basically the limit we can do, and these two minutes are just a range. We cannot control whether it is faster or slower, it is completely random.
In addition, if a power outage occurs, the time will also need to be reset and start from zero."

"Two minutes a day? That's enough for most people." Yang Wendong nodded.

Unless you are engaged in some special profession, it is enough to know the time roughly. A few minutes difference is usually fine. The technology of the time cannot be accurate.
Even for agents, a watch is the best thing to have and they have to check the time before taking action.

"Yes, it is enough for ordinary people." Wang Zhiqun also replied.

Yang Wendong asked again: "How much is the cost? Have you calculated it?"

Wang Zhiqun replied: "In terms of cost, the core is the liquid crystal and the internal transistors, which cost about HK$630."

"630? This is much more expensive than ordinary mechanical watches?" Yang Wendong asked in surprise.

Wang Zhiqun said: "Yes, it is mainly because the R&D cost is too high and the production equipment is also relatively expensive. If you want to maintain the accuracy of seconds, the material requirements are also very high. In theory, if the cost is recovered, the subsequent cost will be sharply reduced;

Moreover, the market is just beginning, and we are not sure how many people will accept electronic watches, so we can only go for high prices at the beginning.”

"What if the early costs are not included?" Yang Wendong asked in return.

When electronic products first came out, they were indeed ridiculously expensive. For example, arcade machines, calculators, and computers in the past were extremely expensive.
Yang Wendong is not very clear about the history of electronic watches, but it seems that they replaced mechanical watches after the mid-70s, which means that the price was still quite expensive in the early days;
However, the core of the electronics industry is the cost reduction caused by technological iteration. As long as enough time is given, the price of chips can really drop to almost the price of sand.

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket
I looked up the information and found that the first electronic watch was ridiculously expensive, but why can't I find it?
(End of this chapter)