This watch is a retro pilot watch made in China, it is a great timepiece produced by Sea-gull to pay tribute to those old Chinese pilot watches made by Tianjin Watch factory before. We know the predecessor of Sea-gull is Tianjin Watch Factory, which has made a great contribution to Chinese watch industry. On this watch, I do not see the brand name Sea-gull but only Chinese words “中国” and “天津手表厂”, so I am sure this watch is an anniversary edition which Sea-gull unveiled to show respect to Tianjin Watch Factory. This is completely a vintage pilot watch with retro designs which you only see on some Chinese pilot watches made in old times, I like the mysterious letterings and symbol on the dial, they drive my interest to learn those military watches which Tianjin Watch Factory made for Chinese Army.
The Sea-gull watch is made with 316L stainless steel, the case is polished and has a diameter of 38mm, it is measured to be 13mm in thickness. The crown is screw-down, it tightly fits the case, both pushers can be pressed to operate the chronograph function. The lugs are naturally curved and bent well with the main case, they allow the case to fit your wrist more comfortably. On the case back, on the sunken center, there is a sculpture that consists of one 5-pointed star, one plane in the middle of one pair of wings and “中国.1963”, the sculpture is polished in a sanded background. On the outer edge, the reference of the watch “819.17.1963” is engraved.
The dial is the soul of the entire watch, it is white, but not that pure white, this white dial looks a bit old. The color usage highlights the watch, especially its red second-chronograph hand and the blue color on other hands. There are two small dials, which are positioned at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock separately, both dials have their own purpose and are in blue color, the small dial at 9 o’clock is small seconds display, the subdial at 3 o’clock is a 30-minute chronograph counter. All hour markers are in yellow gold, the five-pointed star at 12 o’clock also has a yellow gold frame, but has red filling. The printings “21 ZUAN” under the five-pointed star means “21 Jewels” of the movement. Any way, there are too many things worth talking about the dial, the color usage also greatly enhances the dial readability.
The movement inside is ST1901 that is independently developed by Sea-gull, it is a very famous manual winding movement that features 21 jewesl, 45-hour power reserve and 21,600bph. The watch comes with a black leather band, I was lucky, because Sea-gull sent me a military green nato band for free. The watch is not cheap, which is almost 700 USD on their store, but if you are really interested in a watch that was specially offered for the Chinese Air Force, this Sea-gull will be a good start. By the way, I found many brands are copying the designs of this Sea-gull pilot watch, but none of them can recover the flavor of this Sea-gull.
