Not at all surprising. Most (if not all) factories historically close during this time and use the perennial reason of the threat of raids. Raids do not just happen during CNY, they happen all year round, although the raids during this time are bigger because the local authorities want to impress their visitors from the Central Government. A lot of customers don't catch on that most employees of the factories are, um, Chinese and have to celebrate Chinese New Year (although people in China usually use the terms Lunar New Year or Spring Festival). They usually go home to their provinces which can take a day or two to reach and the same time going back. Not sure how the current pandemic is going to affect this journey home though as nothing compares to the crush of people in bus and train stations and that makes the threat of catching something all the more likely.
Also, it makes no sense to buy a watch during CNY because even the couriers are on vacation, so even if the watch is on hand, there is no way to ship to you going out of China or even Hong Kong (which couriers sometimes use). So buying a watch in M2M will be everyone's best bet for the meantime.
