I'm thinking about dipping my toes into Chinese watches and I am looking for inexpensive Chinese watches that come highly recommended and will add a little excitement to my collection? I've read a lot about Seagull but I'm looking for other options.
Depends what you're after. New or used/old.
A problem learned the hard way with old/vintage , unlike Russkies that usually the seller gets serviced Chinese seem to be sold as is.
There are still many nos ST5 Seagull on ebay, prices keep on rising though. Date free is easier to live with imo. Very nice well made watch.
Shanghai have many re-issues of their earlier models that are worth a look too.
Beijing are almost too good to be true for the finish/cost , any you like worth getting sooner than later
On ebay, put "seagull watch" in the search bar. You'll see tons of options(sea-gull included). Prices have been increasing, but so has the value of quite a few offerings. Sapphire crystals and Miyota auto movements have been creeping into their cases of late. Take your time. It's easy to go off the rails with these. Here are a few of my "hoard-o-asians" HAH!
Do you guys know of any higher-end Chinese manufacturers? A thread prompted me to remember Maison Celadon, and those tourbillons from the Beijing Watch Factory - unfortunately their website seems to be offline. There's also Memorigin and Jiusko. But of course it feels like there's probably at least a few AHCI candidates out there that are worth mentioning, and that I don't know anything about.
There are a number of Chinese AHCI candidates but like most AHCI candidates, online presence is going to be scarce, and even more so for the Chinese ones. I've heard that some are active on Wechat.
Sea-Gull produce over a wide price range and the pricier ones are definitely "high end" in their specifications and materials e.g. dual-tourbillon, dual-axis tourbillon, minute repeater, perpetual calendar, microrotor with solid gold rotor, and combinations thereof...
For the 1963, Long Island Watches do indeed carry that. There is also a Dutch store that ships them quite cheap: watchunique.com . I just received my 1963 in the mail yesterday, which I bought from WUS old-timer HKEd, and his version is said to be truest to the original 1963 military watch. In any case, the watch I received is impeccable and super nice, and quite a steal for a column-wheel manual chronograph. You can contact him through the forum to arrange a sale if you'd like
If I can be so bold, also check the 2017 project here. This year we will work on a field watch. You can still join and participate. Previous project watches were well received.
This is a legitimate question and not designed to offend anybody.
Why would one buy a Chinese watch? I have a really nice collection of Swiss and German watches and I simply can't come up with a reason why Chinese watches would attract anyone.
Clearly, I am just not getting it and would love to hear opinions.
Because, clearly, you are curious. And it won't cost much to satisfy your curiosity.
For more reasons, just read this forum. Some people are drawn to value-for-money, or the opportunity for complications that would be out of reach if made elsewhere. Others appreciate the simple quality of vintage Chinese watches. Or the history. Or styles that are simply not made elsewhere (like 'real' open-hearts).
The biggest mistake would be to think that 'Chinese' only means 'cheap' and therefore buying the cheapest you can find will tell you what Chinese watches are all about. It won't.
What genres of watches are you interested it? Maybe somebody here can suggest some options.
My favourites are all from Parnis. I happen to be wearing my favourite as I write this and am on the point of posting to the What Are You Wearing Today thread, with a photo, though as the crop is quite a small file I'll add it here too. The strap is a dark red Moratello, or do I mean Morellato? I think I do.
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