Sea-gull must be your first choice if you want to know the background and development history of Chinese watches, for most people, the Chinese brand they are most familiar with is Sea-gull, which is formerly known as Tianjin Watch Factory. Now, Sea-gull has grown to be a very big watch company, they have a very full watch series, and their movements are now being used in watches of many big brands in the world. So, if you are considering a very good quality Chinese watch as a start, I recommend Sea-gull.
I like the military watch made by Sea-gull, some of the elements on these watches look unique, I like the mysterious symbols. This watch is a special edition from Sea-gull, it is made to pay tribute to those military watches produced for the Chinese Army by Tianjin Watch Factory, the watch has a military green color, it comes in a green box, which looks very special. On the case and dial, there are also several elements related to the Chinese Army, each of them has unique meaning, which is attractive to me.
The case is made with solid 316L stainless steel, it has a diameter of 43mm and is measured to be 13mm in thickness. The case is brushed with angular crown guards, on the left case side, there is a piece of metal attached, and it is engraved with “陸軍1號”, which means Army No. 1 in English. Two crown guards look special, they are in ladder-shaped. The case back has special engravings, with a big five star on the center. Looking from the pictures, the screw-in back absolutely adds thickness of the entire case, but it makes the watch look stronger and more reliable.
The dial is green, which is in line with the green color on the nylon band. The dial has every necessary detail that makes the watch become a good military watch. Simple design, big hour markers, wide hands and strong lume. The slender second hand on the center has a red tip and a five star in silver on the end, both hour hand and minute hand are in sword-shaped, they have a wide design so that can be applied with more luminous material on the stem. There is a medal in the shape of a coin at 6 o’clock, I do not know what special meaning it has, the Chinese words under the medal are “五四式”.
The Sea-gull watch is equipped with an in-house automatic movement, which is ST2500. This movement beats at 21,600VPH and has a power reserve of 45h to 48h, the accuracy of ST2500 is ok for me, I have worn it for six weeks, the watch is about 18 seconds faster each day, for a basic automatic movement Sea-gull, such accuracy is normal. By the way, the green army green nylon band also meets the military theme the watch wants to present.
Not only this green, the watch also has black and sand color options on Sea-gull’s website, and the one in sand color looks more interesting.
