My Chinese watch family : Sea-Gull

[ab7882]

My Sea-Gull family begins with a gift from a friend..

..a manual wind chronograph. Before this, I have never heard of Sea-Gull nor any other China made watches. I was intrigued by the watch and wondered about the brand and the movement. So the research on internet begins.  What I found out amazed me...Tianjin Sea-Gull is the biggest manufacture of mechanical movements in the world supplying a quarter of the world's production. They manufacture their own movements from the basic movement to complications including tourbillons and minute repeaters!

A business trip to Beijing gives me the opportunity to drop by the Sea-Gull boutique near WangFujing and acquired this..

..model 219.327 with retrograde date, power reserve and open heart; and this..

...model M198S with blued seconds hand. A simple, clean design and looks almost like a certain Swiss brand watch but all original Sea-Gull.

Later I found out that Sea-Gull has a store in Singapore. One fine day I decided to make a quick trip in search of a grail watch (to be included in a later instalment) and also dropped by the Sea-Gull outlet.  It comprise of a small counter in People's Park in Chinatown.  Nevertheless, I managed to get this...

..model 319.322 with dual time complication....and this...

..model M190SK, a beautifully crafted manual wind, skeleton chronograph.

Another trip to Beijing middle of last year resulted in this purchase...

..a special edition for the year of the dragon...and this..

..a limited edition reissue of the first chronograph produced by Sea-Gull for the Chinese air force in 1965.

The Sea-Gull family photo...


The quality of the workmanship of the Sea-Gull watches is just amazing considering the price paid.  The Swiss have good reason to be afraid.  I am considering acquiring my first tourbillon watch which will most probably be a Sea-Gull tourbillon watch in the near future. 

(To be continued..my next watch family instalment)

[JOS2012]

Thanks for introducing these several Seagulls to us, of which I've only seen a few.
You mentioned that the Swiss have much to be afraid of.

Can you share with us on the finishing of the watches, its hard to tell the finishing of the hands and dials without a close up macro shot.

I notice however that some of the models have hour & minute hands that seem a bit too short.

I like the last model made for the air force of all...The 3rd from top looks like a JLC & Longines combined but I find the hands are a bit too short.

Can you pm me the price of the air force model and where you got it, plse.

I know of only 1 place in KL that sells Seagulls and they quote ridiculous prices..I have boycotted them since they conned me over 1 purchase..

You should organise a 1 brand gathering to showcase your various brands.. I'm sure many of us would love to turn up to have a look...
I've initiated 2 single brand gatherings so far, i.e. GS & JLC and the response was encouraging.

[Plankton-IkanBilis]

Interesting...thank you.

[chrisyen]

 Lovely dragon dial...

[meoramri]

Nice poison!

[bezelnut]

Hmm, the Chinese brand.

I always think they compare, if not impose to Longines. As if they have the same aura.

Thanks for sharing btw.

[CKL1213]

I like the JLC Master look alike dial

[ck77]

Had a Seagull 1963 Air Force Reissue before.

http://www.malaysiawatchforum.com/index.php/topic,1913.0.html

Build quality so so, nothing to complain based on its price though.

[sm]

Tastefully design. The chinese will always try harder.

Sm

[sjh314]

i hear this watch before ,is a really nice watch but in malaysia i think not so much ppl will buy but is really a good quality watch

[watchonline]

Very nice watch

[yohannes86]

Hi bro,

Hows the accuracy of Sea Gull watches that you own so far?

[Apac959]

Are they all stil working properly? I bet during our grandparents time it worth a good money to buy one of thosee