In Peace Country, far to Canada’s west, aspen woodlands divide fields of rapeseed and grassy acres of grazing cattle dotted with hay bales. Peace River, a town of 7,000, stands where the Peace and Smoky rivers meet. During the long northern winters, the river valley traps low-hanging clouds that veil the pick-up trucks travelling the muddy highway.

Six years ago, Peace River resident Ron Good decided he needed a new watch. There was nothing wrong with the garden-variety Timex he wore — it was serviceable and kept good time. “But it bored me,” Mr Good says. He wanted something unique, and spent hours researching watches on the internet (obsessive compulsive disorder “can be a skill set”, he says), when he came across an online forum about Chinese mechanical watches.

He was aware of the reputation Chinese goods have for being poorly produced, but the vintage watches he encountered in forums apparently still functioned 50 years after they had been made. “And some were really quite charming,” he says. They were also cheap: the average vintage Chinese watch cost around $20, whereas he could spend $5,000 or $10,000 on a Rolex. “If I did that, I would be one of a million people with a Rolex,” he says. But for the same amount of money, he could develop a substantial collection of vintage Chinese watches — “and that had not been done in the western world”. (A Hong Kong-based collector supports this claim.)