my wife is taking a business trip to China next month. I’m going to ask her to look around for some Seagulls but I’m sure she won’t as she is already annoyed at my watch addiction. China is working on building up a brand of true “luxury” watches and having some success. It appears most of them are Hong Kong based and she will be mainland so it probably won’t work out anyway. Probably not a good idea to purchase at this time anyway as I’m sure parts would be a pain in the ass to come by but it’s interesting to see. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fo.../12/the-chinese-made-luxury-watch-market/amp/
Well no much interest in this I see but is anyone familiar with any areas in Shanghai where Seagulls would be readily available. Either that or I can just have my wife pick up a few of those watches that have chairman Mao on the dial
I have an interest in the growing Chinese mechanical watch market. I bought a few models some years ago just to see what they were like in hand. I was quite impressed for about 60 dollars each. I'm not sure if the silence comes from fear or some kind of misplaced loyalty to Swiss makers, given that Omega, Rolex, etc seem to have no trouble charging WAAAAAY more than needed to build and sell watches. Are the Chinese movements as nice as Swiss? No, but they are solid and keep good time. I don't know if Seagull brand is what all are using or how many factories produce them, but they must be hand assembled. Many have display backs, so you can see the kind of workmanship. The cases are very heavy solid stainless, well milled, dials and hands look great, and the bezels are also attractive. They even click solidly like a Seiko bezel. In fact, I'd wager the difference in quality between Seiko/Orient, etc and these watches is very little. I've run these for months, and they keep time within seconds per day. Even the worst were within 30 seconds per day. I'll post a few photos. If you're going to say it's a fake of a SM300, I will point out that there must be 200 Submariner copies made by nearly every brand. Note the sterile dial. It's not meant to fool anyone. And they could make any style they choose. It's a very solid auto...that I wouldn't take under water. I might add that those who constantly deride the quality of Chinese products are deluded. They make some extremely high quality items. Be afraid.
The Chinese have been competing in the high end hi-fi market for a decade and are doing what the Japanese did in the 70’s- providing quality products at low price points. No doubt they are on that trajectory with watches.
^^^ plus one, check out Fiio if you want a high res player been using the M9 for a while - very good. Apologies for the drift.
Solas used a Hangzhou 5000a microrotor movement in their inaugural offering For $500, it was a pretty solid opening shot. I reviewed a model and would have bought one if there had been a white dial option.
For my money, a 'Navitimer Clone' should at least be an actual chronograph. This piece appears to have Day and Date sub-dials masquerading as chronograph registers.
Agreed. I actually removed the photo. Many of the Chinese watches appear to be chronographs but are as you noted usually day/date set buttons. I’m not a breitling fan, so I wouldn’t care for either version.
Finally found a possible source for the parts I need for my Shanghai Watch. Two parts or repair watches,one a 19 jewel the other a 17 jewel. Regulators look to be intact. I put in a bid, we'll see.
There is a load of rubbishy Chinese watches about for sure, but 3 companies in China do seem to be the real deal in terms of quality, innovation and reliability. I am normally based out of Shenyang in China but havent yet explored the local buying opportunities ( Shenyang watch company) preferring to just take pot luck by buying off of AliExpress and I must say some of the Seagull watches and movements have been great but there is a lot of bad practice going on around the Seagull movements by 3rd party operations which do not serve the fine company of Seagull Tianjin well.
I've seen some Chinese-made tourbillons, the real ones, for crazy low money and I'm curious, but not enough to actually spend it.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/land-rover-wins-over-chinese-courtbut-not-car-buyers-11553346001 https://www.motorauthority.com/news...ange-rover-sport-clone-for-the-chinese-market
Haven’t got too much really the one I found of most interest was the one @connieseamaster (see above) said he reviewed with the micro rotor. I really don’t know when I’ll get back to China myself to poke around I can’t imagine it would be anytime soon although tbh I’d be willing to go. I do keep prodding but most of my communications are filtered through my wife who appears to have a built in watch filter as she conveniently “forgets” to follow up on Chinese watch matters on my behalf even when she is in China. I guess it’s part of my punishment for my, and I quote her, “watch hoarding” but I don’t give up on these matters easily and eventually I will have some answers, it’s just taking a lot longer than I expected.
Actually, quite a lot of our clothing is made in the Dominican Republic and in Viet Nam. I remain interested in those Chinese flying tourbillons (and no, an exposed balance does not make it a tourbillon).
Seagull is actually making some nice watches that are not homages. Below is a nice automatic pointer date I picked up new for about 335 USD.