Over the past year, China’s gold market has experienced an unusual dual surge. Gold prices have climbed steadily, repeatedly hitting record highs, while consumer enthusiasm for Chinese-style gold has soared, lifting a number of brands into the spotlight. Lamchiu, founded in Lanzhou, is among them.
Although the brand was established in 2006, its connection to gold goes back further. Before founder Ma Chaoxian was born in 1977, his family was already engaged in gold processing. His childhood unfolded in a workshop, with the sound of his father hammering gold as a constant backdrop.
For many years, Lamchiu kept a low profile, with its business largely confined to Lanzhou. That changed in 2020, when the pandemic pushed the brand into live streaming and its name began to spread nationwide. Ma was not surprised. “I’ve always believed that as long as more people know about Lamchiu, it will inevitably take off,” he said.
Despite having just one physical store, Lamchiu’s annual revenue has multiplied several times. As of November, its annual sales had surpassed RMB 500 million (USD 70 million).
That trajectory has now drawn an investment of more than RMB 100 million (USD 14 million), according to 36Kr, with Dayone Capital as the sole investor. The funding will support product innovation, branding, channel expansion, and the development of a new production base.
Behind that rapid rise lies a constant flood of orders and a chronic shortfall in output. Ma attributes the scarcity to Lamchiu’s commitment to craftsmanship. In an era dominated by industrial mass production, Lamchiu has chosen the opposite route. A complex filigree piece can require months or even up to a year of painstaking work. In addition, 99% of its products are original designs, making speed difficult.
“From zero to one, the amount of energy that goes into true originality is unimaginable. You agonize every day, constantly on edge. You never know what the finished piece will become. In China’s gold and jewelry market today, not a single brand has taken the path that we have,” Ma told 36Kr.
Because Lamchiu works on a custom basis rather than holding large inventories, it does not face the same capital pressures as traditional brands. Dayone Capital founder Chen Feng tried more than ten times to visit before Ma agreed to meet him.
It took more than a year for Ma to warm up. “Every time, what he said was sincere, whether about operations, management, or future planning. Every point aligned perfectly with how I see things,” Chen said.
In Chen’s view, China’s jewelry sector is undergoing major change. The past 20 years were driven by channels and business models. The next phase, he believes, will be defined by culture, products, and originality. China does not lack gold jewelry brands. What it lacks is a global brand built on extreme craftsmanship, cultural authenticity, original design, and technical innovation.
As part of Dayone’s investment, the firm has assembled a team of nearly ten people to support Lamchiu across team-building, brand development, supply chain optimization, and channel strategy. At this inflection point, both sides hope to build a cultural brand rooted in China and recognized worldwide.
36Kr spoke with Ma about Lamchiu’s evolution and his view of the brand’s future.
The following transcript has been edited and consolidated for brevity and clarity.
36Kr: Although Lamchiu only entered the spotlight in recent years, it has been around for nearly 20 years.
Ma Chaoxian (MC): Lamchiu was founded in 2006, when China first allowed individuals to register gold companies.
But our family’s relationship with gold goes much further back. Before 1977, we were already in gold processing. Growing up, I heard the sound of my father hammering gold every day. By the time I was 14, I already knew how to make rings.
36Kr: Over the past two decades, has Lamchiu’s positioning changed with the market?
MC: Never. Completely stable. And it will never change for as long as I live. We will always follow the same path: extreme craftsmanship, original design, and cultural expression.
Gold, to us, is simply a material.
36Kr: Why did a brand like Lamchiu emerge from Lanzhou?
MC: I have no idea.
36Kr: Maybe because there are fewer distractions in Lanzhou?
MC: Possibly.
36Kr: How did you feel when Lamchiu became popular?
MC: It’s bittersweet. I won’t deny that I felt proud. Everyone is human, and at first, the joy outweighed the pain. But gradually, especially this year, our production quotas were nowhere near enough. So many people couldn’t buy our pieces, and complaints started spreading. That’s when I felt the pain of popularity, and I’ve been working hard to solve it.
We rely on limited releases and reservation slots. Custom orders can take up to a year. I know very well: the longer the wait, the higher the expectations, and the more likely people are to nitpick.
Sometimes late at night I think: in China’s gold and jewelry market today, no brand has ever walked the road we are walking. I’ve even looked into century-old brands, and none follow this model.
36Kr: What is Lamchiu’s biggest advantage?
MC: Originality, extreme craftsmanship, and cultural expression.
Many brands take the path of iterative innovation by modifying existing styles. Lamchiu creates from nothing.
36Kr: What craftsmanship barriers set Lamchiu apart?
MC: Far too many.
We integrated gold carving with Chinese jewelry. We combined filigree techniques from around the world with Chinese gold art.
We pioneered the fusion of engraving and micro-setting; the combination of K gold and pure gold; stitching gold pieces using ordinary thread; mixed-string beaded bracelets, the first of their kind in thousands of years; and bead necklaces and bracelets spaced with locking points every ten beads. It’s endless.
I’m proud to say Lamchiu is like the “Whampoa Military Academy” of gold jewelry. We’re not just passing on culture, design, and originality. We’re preserving foundational craftsmanship.
36Kr: What’s your current gross margin?
MC: Very low, about 40%. Complex pieces with gemstones sell for over RMB 2,000 (USD 280) per gram. Simpler ones sell for RMB 1,500–1,800 (USD 210–252). But with gold plus tax now near RMB 1,100 (USD 154) per gram, you’d need an average price above RMB 2,300 (USD 322) to reach a 50% gross margin.
I don’t have high demands for margin. We need enough to cover our work, and a large portion goes into R&D and craftsmanship reserves. We focus on making good products, and leave the pricing up to customers to consider.
36Kr: Is R&D expensive?
MC: For example, a ring weighing ten grams priced at RMB 20,000 (USD 2,800) can cost more than RMB 500,000 (USD 70,000) to develop. Yes, you heard that right. Over RMB 500,000. Just refining the details can take a year, to redo it again and again.
36Kr: What’s the most difficult piece you’ve worked on recently?
MC: A snake head piece. 98% was done, except one small filigree patch on the head. That tiny component took nearly a year and still didn’t look right. The master working on it cried for half an afternoon and trembled when he saw me. I couldn’t breathe when I saw him.
36Kr: All the filigree is handmade?
MC: All of it. There is cast filigree on the market, as thin as 0.5 millimeters, but put it next to handmade filigree and the difference is obvious.
Every Lamchiu piece has “breath.” The rhythm of a master’s breath as they hammer and shape the metal transfers into the work. That’s why handmade works can be art, while machine-made products are just goods.
I haven’t seen any machine that can create something with the soul, charm, and life of true craftsmanship. If you visit our workshop, you’ll see people, not machines. Tweezers, tiny hammers, and quiet concentration.
36Kr: Does Lamchiu face tension between handcrafted work and scale?
MC: Yes. They are like fire and water. They can never truly coexist. If you force them together, you lose your original intention.
36Kr: Is capacity limited because it’s hard to train skilled artisans?
MC: One, skilled masters take years to develop. Two, Lamchiu’s standards are simply too high. Even if we had more artisans, our demands slow them down. If we lowered the bar by 20%, capacity would double instantly. But instead, our standards rise every year.
36Kr: How many new masters do you need each year?
MC: It doesn’t matter. Even adding 100 per year isn’t enough. Attention on Lamchiu is rising fast. Customers spend millions of RMB in seconds. But we take months to make each piece.
36Kr: Are many of your artisans young?
MC: They have to be, otherwise precision can’t be guaranteed.
36Kr: But few young people want to do this kind of work.
MC: Not few, it’s far too few. That’s why I always say what Lamchiu has today is scarce. These skills are hard to find anywhere in the world, and every piece is irreplaceable.
36Kr: Does every product take a year to deliver?
MC: Right now, yes. We’re trying to shorten that, but it’s difficult because orders keep flowing in.
36Kr: This has nothing to do with industrial production.
MC: It’s completely different. Industrial products are goods. Ours are works of art that offer emotional satisfaction.
36Kr: Do you ever impose your own taste on the team?
MC: I dislike autocratic decision-making, essentially the idea that you must like what I like too. Who says one’s taste is representative of everyone’s? Good designers need freedom, you can’t raise flying birds in a chicken coop.
If six out of ten people say something is bad, it’s bad. Simple as that.
Take a snake-shaped hairpin made this year for instance. The snake originally held a coin in its mouth. I thought it looked tacky and asked the designers to replace it. They drew countless versions, but nothing looked better than the coin. In the end, I compromised. Some things just work that way. One detail too many or too few ruins it.
36Kr: Aren’t you concerned that design styles might become inconsistent?
MC: Does that matter? Lamchiu is a brand of synthesis. Style isn’t the key. As long as the cultural values are consistent, the works will feel unified.
That’s why people say Lamchiu’s designs look different every year. But they can still immediately recognize a Lamchiu piece.
36Kr: Big brands like Chow Tai Fook are all doing ancient gold, and so are many smaller brands. What makes good ancient gold different from average?
MC: If you buy a Lamchiu piece, or even just look at one, you’ll see the difference.
To break it down, first look at originality. Many brands do iterative innovation. For example, take a vajra and add a frame, and that makes it new. I respect that, it’s still an innovation. But Lamchiu creates from nothing.
Take our qipao-shaped gold pendants. We didn’t just make the silhouette, we layered techniques, integrating engraving and micro-setting in a way never seen before. Or our faceless Buddha head, decorated with turquoise and south-red agate. The combination and design are one of a kind.
It’s actually easy to tell good from bad. Is it truly original or just modified? Are there never-before-seen breakthroughs in craftsmanship?
In our carved filigree collection, for example, you can see the fine “fur” on the surface that’s layered with a gold carving tool, giving it actual depth. In thousands of years of gold jewelry history, this method has never existed.
From these details alone, you can tell whether a brand has genuine technical reserves, whether it can lead the industry, and whether the founder truly loves the craft.
36Kr: So engraving and filigree are craft concepts, while “ancient gold” is a marketing term?
MC: I really dislike the term “ancient gold.” It’s been overused to the point of meaninglessness. Everything is being labeled ancient gold. I’m actually opposed to the word “ancient.” Why can’t modern people outdo ancient artisans?
Engraving and filigree are just technical terms. What matters is how beautifully you use them, and how they support your originality and cultural expression. They should not be sales tools or excuses to inflate prices.
Take engraving tools: a single tool can carve patterns, but to finish one Lamchiu floral motif, we use three to ten tools, changing at each curve. These are strict requirements.
You can’t just have someone wrap a wire and solder it and call it filigree. That’s pretending, and you end up misleading consumers.
36Kr: How are you different from Laopu Gold?
MC: Our styles are different, our core cultural values and brand slogan differ, and our design direction is entirely separate. Their store expansion pace is far faster. We foresee opening at most one store per year.
There’s no real competition. We should be friends in the same industry. If someone beats me, it means they are better, and I genuinely offer my blessing.
36Kr: Some believe ancient gold is a short-term trend. What’s your view of its long-term outlook?
MC: It depends on how the brand operates. If you don’t take products, service, store experience, and channels seriously, you’ll fall once the trend fades. But in any category, not just ancient gold, if you outperform others in these areas, you’ll thrive even without a trend.
And I don’t think the current popularity is necessarily a good thing. I’ve seen too many companies expand wildly during booms, only to collapse later. Some brands overprice and mislead consumers. That will eventually backfire.
When a boom comes, instead of letting profit swell, let your capabilities grow. When the boom passes, you’ll still be strong. I agree that some peers may see declining performance after the trend cools.
36Kr: Is the ancient gold boom related to rising gold prices?
MC: I don’t think so. Roughly 90% of traditional brands are suffering because of rising gold prices. Many stores have closed, because higher prices suppress consumption.
Customers have been waiting far too long for great products. There just weren’t any before.
36Kr: Are buyers of ancient gold the same demographic as luxury jewelry buyers?
MC: Very much so. Previously it was mostly luxury buyers. Now, many customers who used to buy foreign luxury watches buy from Lamchiu as well, or buy both.
We likely have one of the highest proportions of male customers in our category. They are typically people who travel, own yachts, collect watches or antiques, or work in finance.
36Kr: Lamchiu’s live stream breakthrough happened during the pandemic in 2020. Do you feel you entered online channels too late?
MC: I have thought before what it might have been like if we had gone online earlier. But over the years, I’ve grown more humble as a designer. I’ve come to feel I was born for this work, so it feels like a kind of mission. And whenever we reached a key moment, things naturally fell into place.
So I now believe that early success isn’t always good. Doing what you are meant to do, and letting the rest unfold, is the best outcome, both for me and for the brand.
36Kr: The industry is growing so fast. Does that make you want to move faster too?
MC: Those who want to come, will. I never rush. Lamchiu will grow at a pace suited to its capacity. If you keep staring at the scale of others, you’ll never be happy.
36Kr: So why raise capital now?
MC: Lamchiu isn’t capital-intensive. We collect deposits and deliver the goods a year later. Unlike traditional brands, we don’t need to stock inventory, so we barely have capital pressure.
This round wasn’t about the money. We admire Western management systems in manufacturing, capacity building, and training. Chen Dong has deep expertise in these areas, and we want to integrate those resources.
36Kr: How long did it take for Dayone to invest?
MC: Nearly a year.
36Kr: What held you back initially?
MC: I was reluctant to raise capital. I thought it meant losing freedom, being pushed to grow fast and chase money. So when investors approached me, I refused to meet them.
But Chen reached out more than ten times. Even when his wife was giving birth, he was still talking to me and trying to persuade me.
Over time, I realized his comments were extremely objective. He analyzed Lamchiu’s strengths and weaknesses, and explained why capital and modern management are necessary.
So from rejection to admiration, it took almost a year. As Chen joked, pursuing me was harder than wooing his wife.
36Kr: What convinced you?
MC: Not one thing, but everything, bit by bit. His sincerity. His persistence. Every conversation was genuine. Everything he said about operations, management, and planning made sense to me.
36Kr: What advice from Chen has helped you the most?
MC: He helped clarify our cultural identity.
36Kr: What do you think about competing with global luxury brands?
MC: We have deep respect for the world’s luxury houses. We’ve learned a lot from them, in terms of management, structure, and store design. We don’t see them as competitors. They are our teachers.
KrASIA Connection features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Li Xiaoxia for 36Kr.