I have been actively collecting Vintage Chinese Mechanical watches. In the late 1970s/early 1980s, Tianjin Watch Factory developed a watch of a higher grade than the ST5. This was the Sea-Gull ST7 -automatic. The movement was a sophisticated design, and the micrometer regulator suggests the kind of accuracy that was expected of it.
In the mid-late 1970s, Tianjin Sea-Gull worked very hard to enter the export market with contemporary western styling and state of the art technical quality, producing the ST7 automatic day/date model which contained Sea-Gull's most sophisticated movement until the modern tourbillons--a first class movement with micrometer regulation.
The watch's styling was superficially similar to the Rolex Datejust, and some collector said it is modeled after Titoni's Cosmo King bezel, but Sea-Gull was far from the only watch manufacturer to make a similar model in those days. In any case, the branding is clear and with the Chinese/hanzi day and noticeable "Made in China" and this was certainly no attempt at a fake but rather a pride to produce a watch equal to the Swiss.
Unfortunately at this time 'Red China' was under the Cultural Revolution and it was a closed country to the rest of the world, and nothing was known of their watch industry. It now seems unreasonable that a foreign watch buyer might have chosen a Sea-Gull over the nearest equivalent from Tissot or Titoni, or Enicar. On the other hand, how many ordinary people in China could have afforded such a watch? The ST7 was an excellent watch without a market.
Sea-Gull watches were sold in parts of Asia, and in 1977-78 some were sold in Britain. However, unlike the Soviet Union, the Chinese watch industry lacked a coordinated approach to exports, and Sea-Gull did not become a household name outside of China.
Unfortunately, fewer than 3500 of these beauties were ever made because the ST7 was launched at a bad timing and it has failed in the market: the Mainland Chinese either couldn't afford it or, if they could, were more interested in the recent influx of cheaper or flashier, and often quartz, watches (this was exactly the same period when China was first re-opening to the west, and western products, after years of isolation--and even the mighty Swiss were seeing their mechanical market thrashed by quartz competition)
Making matter worse, export market customers were not yet aware of the high capacity for quality and technical sophistication of Chinese manufacturers (which is likely the reason the dial states 29 jewels but the movement is actually 28: Sea-Gull probably modified existing 29 jewel ST5 automatic dials for the first ST7 prototype run--which turned out to be the only run produced.) One technical issue which Seagull cannot fixed during that time was the inability to make the Day Date dics jump at the same time.
Nevertheless, it is an interesting watch and it looks like no money was spared in the development and construction. It showed that Seagull watch wanted to compete with Swiss watches and not hold back. Personally, I think they did a good job. It does not have the finish of a comparable Swiss movement, but that’s just a bit of polishing. As usual, this movement is more pragmatic and not out to dazzle with polished and ornately brushed bridges and parts – this is made to work well and to last.
As mentioned earlier, the launch timing was wrong. By the early 1980s, the mechanical watch market was declining, quartz digital watches, especially multi-function models, were reaching the peak of popularity, and a new demand for very thin quartz analogue watches was emerging. At the same time, economic policy in China was changing, leading towards more international trade, both import and export. This was a tough time for the Chinese watch industry. Simple hand-winding watches still had their uses (for example China's first South Pole expedition in 1985 was equipped with Sea-Gull ST5 watches) but on the general market they were simply not competitive. Tianjin Watch Factory met the challenges of the 1980s by developing the quartz calibres ST9 and ST11 , which were reliable and successful at least on the domestic market.
Their other response to quartz competition was slightly controversial, although by no means unique in the Chinese watch industry. Mechanical watches were still competitive against quartz on some markets so long as they were self-winding and not too expensive e.g. Seiko 5. The calibre ST6D was based on the woman's watch calibre ST6, but with an over sized dial plate supporting a calendar mechanism big enough for a man-sized watch. An auto-winding module was installed with a large diameter rotor. The result was low-cost and of reasonable quality, albeit somewhat fragile.
In spite of the factory being given self-management of their export program in 1988, Sea-Gull watches remained obscure on most markets. However the factory realized that there was a ready market for cheap automatic movement for foreign watch assemblers, particularly in Hong Kong. As the 'quartz revolution' peaked, the 'mechanical renaissance' began, with mechanical watches slowly gaining popularity in the developed world, this time not in the mainstream, but as a niche market. This was fertile ground for the makers of counterfeits of famous brands like Rolex and Omega. Sadly a large proportion of ST6D movements have found their way into fakes over the years.
