Horological Meandering

AlbertaTime
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Tianjin Sea-Gull ST7 automatic (1970s--quite rare)

An EMS package arrived yesterday morning from a newer Taobao contact and I am now the very proud owner of a quite rare Tianjin Sea-Gull 28 jewel day/date auto ST7 from roughly 1975 or so, and obviously strongly influenced in appearance by the ever (and justifiably) popular Rolex date-just models, although the the clear "made in China" labelling, prominent Sea-Gull logo and hanzi lettering and date clearly show this was not an attempt to produce a fake .

The Sea-Gull ST7 quick-set day-date automatic movement was a largely unrecognized high point in 1970s PRC watch engineering, a first class movement with micrometer regulation...that could not find a market: At the time this watch was produced, the Chinese either couldn't afford it or, if they could, were more interested in the growing influx of cheaper or flashier, and often quartz, watches from outside China--and (since PRC China had been essentially closed to westerners) export market customers were not aware of the high capacity for quality PRC Chinese manufacturers offered and so would not venture the higher price required to make large-scale production of the ST7 possible.

Consequently, fewer than 3500 of these prototypical beauties were made. This example runs less than three seconds out per day, more than 30 years after it was built and with no known regulating. Unfortunately, the movement is no longer produced.



The dial is marked "29 Jewels" but--as is actually correct with these pieces--the rotor is marked "Tianjin ST7 28 Zuan" and the movement itself is also marked with the Sea-Gull logo and "ST7 28 Zuan". The movement is easily capable of chronometer-like performance, and it's very solid and robust. From the Chinese Watch Industry Wiki: "The movement design showed some ETA/Eterna inspiration, and the micrometer regulator suggests the kind of accuracy that was expected of it."

I decided to take these first 3 photos at work yesterday just so I could show the thing. It would have been here in Alberta at the AMCH/PR much sooner but there was an early screw-up with the shipment and it got returned to China...but: 2nd time lucky, and my patience has been rewarded. 





I've now worn it over 30 hours and--as I note above--it's keeping time within 3 seconds per day, and since the thing started ticking as soon as I picked out of the box, I haven't had to wind it.

These next shots were taken later last evening...they maybe aren't so much better, but they do show the movement etching more clearly:





Tianjin/Sea-Gull has grown substantially since those early days and is now manufacturing at least 1/4 of the world's mechanical and automatic watch movements, providing complete movements and ebauches to manufacturers around the world, including Switzerland.
This message has been edited by AlbertaTime on 2009-09-11 23:45:11 This message has been edited by AlbertaTime on 2009-09-11 23:47:15

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