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Well, not completely C…
Sometime during my intensive preliminary education about Chinese watches, I remembered I had bought a vintage Chinese watch long before any of this madness had started. It was in a junk lot I bought for the bands. It is scratched up and dirty, but I kept it because it runs and keeps excellent time – and then forgot about it.
The sticker on the back says Made in China, but, although it is difficult to read, I think A WO Watch Co Hong Kong is stamped on the inside of the caseback. The unmarked movement looks like an SN-2.
In a short time I have looked at a good number of pictures of Chinese watches, and I try to make note of details. Every time I saw a Seagull automatic, I noticed the caseback was not like the one on the Seagull I had purchased (Part 1):
The only times I saw the “G” caseback were on a well-known auction site, where I saw two listings of Seagulls with different ETA automatic movements, both at asking prices more than 20 times higher than what I had paid. I was suspicious.
Then I saw this one from a seller in Canada:
There was no movement pic in the listing, but I had to know what should be inside this version, so I bought it. (I know, I should have asked here – I’m the type who would wander for hours rather than ask for directions.) I paid a little more than I normally would for something like this, but I told myself that no matter what is inside it is a good-looking wearable watch in very good condition. I should have been more patient.
Between the time I paid for the watch and the time I received it, I found this thread: http://forums.watchuseek.com/f72/sea-gull-using-eta-262183.html. I also found pictures on Taobao and elsewhere of watches with the “G” caseback. The movement photos when present always looked like gold-plated ETAs of differing calibres. Sometimes the rotor was engraved “Sea-Gull”. In fact, I saw enough examples to conclude that you should expect to find a gold-plated ETA-marked movement in a Seagull automatic with the “G” caseback.
When my Seagull arrived I was happy to see it looked better than the seller’s pictures. It has quick-set date, hacks and hand-winds. It was time to see what is inside…
What I found was surprising:
It looks like an ETA 2824-1, but not the colour I expected. It appears my conclusion was a bit hasty.
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Originally Posted by saskwatch
