A seagull spreading its wings in the broad blue sky

(JIN Magazine)
Updated: 2012-11-28

The first watch in China was made in Tianjin

In January 1957, Yang Keneng, the legal person of the former North China Clock Factory, convened four workers, Sun Wenjun, Jiang Zhenyin, Wang Cimin, and Zhang Shuwen, trying to imitate the Swiss Sindacal, a five-diamond movement watch. At 17:45, 24th March, China's first independently made 15-diamond watch was completed and was labeled "Five-star". By the end of 1957, 200 watches had been produced.

To meet the demand of the domestic market, on the basis of the "five-star" watch, the factory started production of "May 1st" watch, which later became famous nationwide. Mass production began by October 1958. In September 1966, "May, 1st" was changed into "East Wind".

In 1973, "Seagull", the label for the "East Wind" watch, was approved by the then prime minister Li Xiaonian, and "Seagull" became the first Chinese watch brand that entered the international market.

On 8th March 1975, a women's watch, "Seagull ST6" was developed, which became the first Chinese-made women's watch that could meet International Clock & Watch Expo, the Seagull electronic quartz watch won the gold medal and was awarded the accolades, "Chinese Top Brand" and "Chinese Top Label".

Tianjin Seagull Watch Group is comprised of over 20 watch and lock manufactures, including Tianjin Sino-Euro Watch, Tianjin ISA Company and Tianjin Fujinon Company. It has established 12 holding companies in Dalian, Yantai, Shijiazhuang, Hongkong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Sweden. The sales volume has been growing every year, reaching 230 million yuan in 2005. In the same year, the total output reached 1.706 billion yuan.

There are seven categories of mechanic automatic watch movements, over 50 varieties and more than 200 designs. Tourbillon is one of the three classic watches in the world, representing the highest level of art and craft, but has been dominated by Sweden for many years. The skilful craftsmen of the company spent a whole year studying, and finally produced their own Tourbillon movements, which have been exported to Japan, Germany, Russia and Hong Kong.

On 24th March 2005, in memory of the 50th anniversary of China’s first watch, the company produced 50 Tourbillon 18k gold rose watches. The Seagull skeleton rose gold watch was sold at auction for 58,000 yuan at Beijing Guardian Auctions and the No.1 gold watch was sent to Liu Xiang, the hurdles world champion.

After 50 years of operation, the company has become an enterprise with the most comprehensive varieties of movements in China, and has been ranked the first in the industry. Furthermore, the fully automatic thin Tourbillon watch and the biretrograde calendar movement have been ranked top in the world. The business has expanded to famous companies in the US, Germany, Denmark, Japan and Korea, and the processing and making of precision mechanics has become a new profit growing point.