The Tianjin Seagull Watch Group was founded in 1955 and is currently the world’s biggest watch movement factory for mechanical watches worldwide. It produces a quarter of ALL watch movements globally!
In January 1955, the People’s republic of China government ordered 4 watch specialists to produce a national watch in China for the People’s liberation army. That watch is currently known as the Seagull 1963 (due to being produced from 1955 to 1963). Their first strategic move was to buy the Swiss Venus 175 patents and specialized production machinery and produce the Seagull 1963 movement in China itself.
The Tianjin Seagull Watch Group (天津海鸥) produced a variety of watch brands over the years.
From 1955 to 1958 they produced a brand called WuXing, from 1958 to 1966 the brand WuYi was launched, from 1966 to 1974 Dong Feng and from 1974 to current times their watch brand is called ‘Seagull’.
In 1990 the Chinese government awarded the watch movement and watch factory the status of national company. This had a few big implications, they were now one of the biggest companies in China specializing in the Seagull automatic movement and they got financial support from the central government to expand further, faster and bigger in a short amount of time.
In 2000 the Seagull Tianjin Watch Group went public on the stock exchange and got an even bigger push to grow.
The Sea-gull watch brand is the watch groups in-house watch brand using Seagull movements.
Seagull watch movements are made in many different shapes and forms. The watch group makes automatic self-winding movements, tourbillon and chronograph movements and is known for its high quality and affordability.
The watch factory is also mastering more complex watch movements with features such as perpetual calendars, minute repeater, a moonphase, visible power reserve and retrograde dates.
If you are a watch lover and have a big collection yourself, the odds are pretty high that you have a Seagull watch movement in one of your pieces. If you don’t, we highly recommend you checking out the newly launched Seagull 1963 moonphase edition which combines the iconic Seagull hand winding chronograph movement with a moonphase feature.