The story of the legendary Seagull 1963 watch



Founded in 1955 out of a dream, the Seagull watch legacy was born. With a small budget they started in Tianjin, the oldest industrial centre in China.

After years of repairing watches himself, he had a dream of building his own watches. Resulting in the creation of the Tianjin Watch Factory, it would be the first Chinese watch that was succesfully exported.

 

 

Back in the day, it was originally called “WuXing” (five stars). This was a reference to the 100 day period it took to produce just one watch due to the intense manual labour needed. 

During Mao’s rise of power, the name was changed to Dong Feng (East Wind) to reflect the political movement and the strong changes the company brought to China.

 

 

In 1961 the factory acquired the task of the creation of an official aviation watch for the Chinese air force pilots. This lead to the creation of the “Project” watches due to their confidential nature. Pilots referred to them as “project 304”, listing every item of the army as confidential, was common under Mao’s regime.

1963 marked the beginning for the, now famous, factory. They had created 30 prototypes and the official “project 304” was finished. Because of it’s creation in 1963, the watches are nowadays known as the “1963’s”.

The Seagull is a bird which travels great distances, referencing it’s first global export strategy for China.

 

The history is according to us, as important as the watch itself. History gives the watch it’s unique nature and meaning to the owner. You are wearing a piece of history!