Bokey TimeHello everyone, this is Bokey. Watch enthusiasts often ask which domestic mechanical watch movements are of good quality and have stable timekeeping. Today, I’ll talk about this topic with all of you watch lovers.
In fact, China’s watch movement manufacturing has a history of several decades of development. Some well-known high-quality movements include those from Tianjin Seagull, Shanghai, Dandong, and Beijing, among others. Additionally, movements produced in places like Chongqing (known as the Mountain City), Nanning in Guangxi, and Hangzhou in Zhejiang are also of good quality. These regions have done a good job in the commercialization of movements, but there’s no doubt that Tianjin Seagull movements are the best among them.
Tianjin Seagull is a very powerful movement manufacturer worldwide. One out of every four watches in the world uses a movement from Tianjin Seagull. Therefore, when people talk about Tianjin Seagull movements, it’s certain that they are relatively reliable in terms of quality. Moreover, in Guangzhou Zhanxi Watch City, Seagull movements are also widely used in high-end replica watches.
With the popularity of online brands in recent years, most domestic brand watches priced around 2,000 to 3,000 yuan will adopt movements produced in Dandong, Nanning, Hangzhou and other places, and the shipment volume of movements from these places has also increased accordingly. Compared with earlier years, the movement manufacturing in these places has indeed made great progress, with relatively good stability and maturity. Back in the 2000s, the movements from these places were generally considered mediocre and even looked down upon by many watch repairmen, as they were relatively rough in workmanship and usually had a daily error of dozens of seconds. However, up to 2022, the movements from these places are relatively good.
Moreover, for the better-quality movements with a cost of several hundred yuan, watch factories usually choose Tianjin Seagull or Shanghai movements. In addition, with the booming demand for replica watches in recent years, many replica watch factories have gone to Dandong to customize movements or participate in the imitation of Swiss movements in the form of equity investment, which has promoted the development of the entire Dandong movement industry. For example, the most famous Daytona 4130 movement in Guangzhou Zhanxi Watch City is produced in Dandong, with a unit price of more than 2,000 yuan. It indeed has the advantages of relatively high stability and small daily error.
In the early years, when it came to imitations of the 2824 movement, Tianjin Seagull movements have always held a dominant position in the market. However, now the Chongqing Shancheng movements are showing a trend of catching up from behind, and the precision adjustment of movements from some factories is even better than that of Seagull movements.
The 7750 movement is widely used in domestic watches. Initially, Shanghai did a better job in producing it, but the Dandong 7750 has also caught up later, with both workmanship and precision reaching the level of the Shanghai 7750.
In general, the quality of domestic mechanical watch movements is no longer what it used to be. The competition among movement factories in various regions has driven the upgrading of the entire industry, satisfying more watch enthusiasts’ love for mechanical watches. So, if you want to buy a mechanical watch, you don’t need to have too many concerns when choosing movements produced in these places, and you don’t have to keep your eyes only on Swiss movements. It’s already 2022, so be confident, guys!
