Back in 2011, China made waves when they completed their first manned deep-sea Pacific Ocean dive to 5,057 meters (16,591 feet) with the submersible named Jiaolong. Read more about the milestone dive here. In 2015 the Shenzhen-based watch brand Golgen teamed up with the Jiaolong crew to create a dive watch with the submersible's namesake. An instant success, the Golgen Jiaolong 6112 won a silver prize at the 2nd China Horologe Design Competition in 2015.

EC, or the Ebohr Complication series, represents the top-of-the-line from the Shenzhen-based Chinese watch brand. EC pieces can range from around $600 up to around $15,000 for the amazing Orbital Tourbillon that we got our hands on here. I've had my eye on this piece, Experience N°2, for some time since seeing it in a shop here in Guangzhou. I was happy to get to spend a bit more time appreciating it during a visit with the company last week.

Here's a fun fact: if you take a portion of black paint and add equal parts of every color in the spectrum, the end result will be white. If you then start adding equal parts of each color back into the white paint, the end result will again be black.

Greyhours is a Hong Kong-based watch brand whose philosophy is that the "truth never resides in the extremes," and instead lives somewhere in the grey area between the polar opposites of black and white. Of course, this colorful metaphor could be extended into any aspect of life—politics, religion, etc—but since we only talk about watches here, let's talk about some black, white, grey, and colorful areas of the watch world.

So exactly what is the definition of a pilot's watch, or an aviation watch? No, really...I'm asking, because it seems to be pretty wide open. Chronographs seem to be a popular feature for pilots, and were a mandatory addition for the Chinese Air Force when they commissioned their official pilot's watch from the Tianjin watch factory back in the early 60s. One of the earliest known wristwatches made specifically for a pilot was by Louis Cartier for his friend Alberto Santos-Dumont, who was...one of the earliest pilots. Apparently, the famous and flamboyant Santos caused a bit of a stir by wearing his watch on his wrist instead of in his pocket, which triggered some of the first wristwatch craze among the general public.