Cyrille you’ll be happy to know that I tracked down a reproduction of my Seagull 1963 Chinese Air Force watch you’ve coveted since you spotted it on my wrist while we were in Moscow back in 86′.
From the Seagull website:
“The Tianjin Watch Factory became famous throughout China for producing the first Chinese watch in 1961. The factory was assigned to manufacture the first Chinese aviation watch (chronograph) for the Air Force of the People’s Liberation Army. The code of the assignment was “304″.
The factory pre-manufactured three batches of the aviation watch by October 1962. In the end of the year 38 leaders and experts (industrial ministry, air command, and naval equipment supervisors) came together for the appraisal of the watch. After the meeting the Tianjin Watch Factory received permission to begin the mass production of the watch. In 1963 the factory completed and delivered 1400 aviation watches to the Chinese Air Force.”
This is the official remake of the watch as it was created in 1963; a unique and limited classic masterpiece. It has hand winding chronograph movement with 19 jewels and power reserve of over 40 hours. The watch is a special edition and comes with a wooden box and user manual.
The dial says “19 ZUAN”, Chinese for “19 jewels”. The symbols on the lower half spell “China – Tianjin Watch Factory”.
