Shenzhen Sept 3rd 2023 - a VCM collector's meet
Photos are mine unless otherwise credited.
I'm enjoying myself more than I could describe on this trip, and was fortunate yesterday to meet with Joel Chan of the early and inspirational MicMicMor Vintage Watch vintage Chinese watch website, and today with Joel and a crew of some very dedicated vintage Chinese mechanical watch collectors, all assembled for this lunch meeting in Shenzhen.
Starting from the foreground, then left to right: Eric Heise (HK), Ed Tse (HKED watches/HK), Boey Chern Yue (Singapore), some old guy from Canada, Joel Chan (Shenzhen) and Daniel Csontos (Hungary).
Joel was kind enough to gift us all watches, in a game where some got a great watch and some got a very rare great watch (Joel had already gifted me the rare watch in Beijing when we first met, so I got the less rare piece, this time). The rare piece was the 1984 Sea-Gull Antarctic Expedition watch, and the not-so-rare but still terrific watch was a mint condition green translucent dial Sea-Gull, all with the celebrated ST5 hand wind movements. I won't show the Antarctic watch here, but here's the green dial beauty...
Joel was kind enough to gift us all watches, in a game where some got a great watch and some got a very rare great watch (Joel had already gifted me the rare watch in Beijing when we first met, so I got the less rare piece, this time). The rare piece was the 1984 Sea-Gull Antarctic Expedition watch, and the not-so-rare but still terrific watch was a mint condition green translucent dial Sea-Gull, all with the celebrated ST5 hand wind movements. I won't show the Antarctic watch here, but here's the green dial beauty...
Here's the run-down of VCMs at the table:
Joel brought a very rare Heping *and* a very rare DongFangHong (photos by Boey because mine were terrible):
Joel also brought this collection of rare 24 and 29 jewel military divers...
...including two red flame 29 jewel pieces and very rare white dial version . Daniel provided this photo of Joel's SS2 29 jewel Model 114 diver.
Daniel took this next photo, and gave me permission to use it, because my photo-fu was so bad today...
And here's the very, very rare white dial version...
These Chinese divers were commissioned for the military in 1969 and built for the military in the 1970s. The 29 jewel SS2 type and 24 jewel SS4 type were all built by Shanghai under the model/code name 114.
Many more details here: https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/what-was-the-first-chinese-made-dive-watch.5208779/#post-52058525
Many more details here: https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/what-was-the-first-chinese-made-dive-watch.5208779/#post-52058525
Joel also brought, in order:
1) a rare Jilin large case watch (needing some repair) containing the hard to find large style Tongji movement built only bu Jilin. I have a Jilin-built Meihualu in the same large case, and working--but it doesn't have the reverse dial, nor the large red Shizhi [test run] characters, and mine is much more common.
,
2) a rare Shanghai Zuanshi (Diamond) containing Shanghai's thinnest movement, the SBS (with the almost illegible shizhi characters above, seen on the caseback, because it was only produced as a test watch)...
2) a rare Shanghai Zuanshi (Diamond) containing Shanghai's thinnest movement, the SBS (with the almost illegible shizhi characters above, seen on the caseback, because it was only produced as a test watch)...
3) A Shanghai 585001, another ultra-rare trial produced watch from the era of the DongFangHong and HePing (rare enough not to come out of the plastic)...
4) Edit: Daniel Csontos was kind enough to inform me on this next white dial piece. The model is called Beihai 北海 or (roughly) "northern Sea".
And Joel Chan advised it's a 1958 model, and the factory name is Beijing Dongcheng District Clock Factory or 北京 东城区 钟表厂
The logo is the Miaoying Temple pagoda: details here: https://govt.chinadaily.com.cn/s/202204/13/WS62569414498e6a12c1229e2a/the-white-stupa-of-the-miaoying-temple-beijing.html
and...
5) a Wuyi dive style watch from Tianjin Watch Factory (pre-Sea-Gull).
Eric Heise brought a rare "sitting panda" Xiongmao (rarer then the Xiongmao watches with a standing Panda logo...
...and a very cool Hongqi (Red Flag) brand watch from Liaoning Watch Factory.
Daniel Csontos brought his very rare shiying dian zi (quartz electronic) military diver!! First I've sen in the flesh.
...a lovely 51 (Wuyi) watch from Tianjin (also pre-Sea-Gull, but also predating the WuYi written logo watches from Tianjin),
...a vintage Liaoning beauty with a hard-to-find dial from the company that is now Peacock...
...a Shanghai 30th Anniversary model from 1985 (very hard to find in great shape, like this one)...
...a Meihualu pocket watch from Jilin, also containing Jilin's large HJ1A Tongji movement and a really crisp case back!...
...and an *original* 22-jewel Captain chronograph, from Fenglei Instruments Factory in Xian. These were an offshoot for a military 304 chrono projects, but they share no Sea-Gull/Venus DNA at all.
But wait--there are more surprises...
Joel also brought a super rare Jilin *almost* pocket watch that he stated took a while to understand.
Turns out, it was built as a component of a missile firing timer (photo provided by Joel, from a friend of his...)...
Last. for today, but certainly not least, Joel gifted me a hard-to-find book containing photos and descriptions of some of China's most historic clocks and watches.
So...what a day. re-meeting Joel, Eric, Boey and Ed, and meeting Daniel for the first time was more special than I can communicate. And: I know I missed a couple of the rarities on the table. I'll update this if I can find photos of them. There was a another Tianjin watch that I recall, for example, but....
I know I'm fortunate, for good friends, good enough health, and for an interest that came later in life (I was almost 60 when I found this niche world of fascinating history) and that allows me to know that, even today, at 72, my best days are ahead of me, not behind me. I'm truly blessed.