Sea-Gull

History

The Tianjin Watch Factory was founded in January 1955, and that same year the first Chinese wristwatch was completed: the "Wuxing" (Five Stars). In 1961 the government commissioned Project 304 to equip air force pilots with a precision chronograph, which took shape in 1963 as the D304 aviation chronograph, held to be the first aeronautical chronograph of Chinese manufacture. The brand went through several names — Wuxing, Wuyi, Dongfeng (East Wind) — before settling on "Sea-Gull" around 1973-1974. The Tianjin Seagull corporation was formed in 1992 and, after a brief detour, refocused on mechanical watchmaking in 1997; it listed on the stock market in 2000. Through the 2000s it developed high complication of its own: its first tourbillon in 2005 and, in 2009, the ST9250 calibre, which brings tourbillon, minute repeater and perpetual calendar together in a single piece. In 2010 it moved production to new premises near Tianjin airport, and in recent years it has launched anniversary editions and its first official global direct-sale store.

Iconic models

• Sea-Gull 1963 (Aviation Chronograph)

  A reissue of the 1963 military chronograph; its affordable hand-wound column-wheel chronograph made it the house flagship

• Wuxing / Five Stars (1955)

  The first wristwatch made in China; the founding piece of the country's watchmaking

• D304 (military chronograph, 1963)

  China's first aviation chronograph and the direct ancestor of the ST19 movement that still drives the 1963

• ST19 movement

  A hand-wound column-wheel chronograph derived and refined from the Swiss Venus 175 calibre; the heart of the 1963 line

• ST9250 (triple complication, 2009)

  Combines tourbillon, minute repeater and perpetual calendar, proving Sea-Gull's own high-watchmaking capability