Red Star

Founded no public date · China

Red Star is the name under which reissues of the 1963 aviation chronograph — and a few automatics — are sold outside China, all of them on Tianjin movements. The name comes from the red star the military watch carries below twelve.

History

The house publishes no founding date, no founder and no address, and none is invented here: what can be said is what it fits and where the piece it reproduces comes from. The original chronograph is the D304 the Chinese air force commissioned in 1961 and took delivery of in 1963, built at the Tianjin watch factory with the tooling of the Swiss Venus 175 calibre. The dials of that series carry a red star below twelve, and that is the nickname collectors used to tell the variant apart. Under the Red Star name, reissues of that watch are distributed outside China — on the hand-wound column-wheel ST1901, a direct descendant of the Venus — alongside automatics running the ST1716, also from Tianjin. It is the same movement works that drives Sea-Gull, so the two names cross on Amazon listings and it pays to read the calibre before the brand.

Iconic models

  • 1963 "Red Star" Chronograph

    The reissue of the air force chronograph, hand-wound ST1901 and the star below twelve.

  • Bull Head

    A chronograph with crown and pushers on top of the case, on the same ST1901.

  • ST1716 automatic

    The other half of the catalogue: steel automatics on a Tianjin movement, 5 ATM.

Worth knowing

The ST1901 inside its chronographs descends from the Swiss Venus 175, whose production tooling China bought in the early sixties: a Chinese column-wheel chronograph beats with mid-century Swiss mechanics.

Red Star at Reserva de Marcha

See all 3 in the catalogue →
RED Star Automatic Watches for Men 40mm Seagull ST1716 Movement 5ATM Mechanical Watch Digital Clock Hands Calend

RED Star Automatic Watches for Men 40mm Seagull ST1716 Movement 5ATM Mechanical Watch Digital Clock Hands Calend

RED Star Automatic Watches for Men 40mm Seagull ST1716 Movement 5ATM Mechanical Watch Digital Clock Hands Calend

RED Star Automatic Watches for Men 40mm Seagull ST1716 Movement 5ATM Mechanical Watch Digital Clock Hands Calend

RED Star Automatic Watches for Men 40mm Seagull ST1716 Movement 5ATM Mechanical Watch Digital Clock Hands Calend

RED Star Automatic Watches for Men 40mm Seagull ST1716 Movement 5ATM Mechanical Watch Digital Clock Hands Calend

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