Tianjin Seagull Watch Group () is a watchmaking company located in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

, China. Founded in 1955, it is the world's largest manufacturer of mechanical watch movements, producing one quarter of total global production by volume.

History

The company was originally formed as Tianjin Watch Factory in January 1955 with four craftsmen on order of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, sli ...

government. In 1990, the Tianjin Watch Factory was awarded the status of a national company, and in 1992, the Tianjin Seagull Corporation was founded. That same year, the decision was made to discontinue the production of mechanical watches in favour of quartz watches; five years later it came to a complete reversal of this decision. It has since produced exclusively mechanical movements and

watches A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached b ...

. In 2000, Tianjin Seagull Watch Group went public, and in 2003 a representative office in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

was opened. In 2010, the company moved to new production and administration facilities near Tianjin Airport. Tianjin Seagull has recently gained substantial expertise in the manufacture of advanced

tourbillon In horology, a tourbillon (; " whirlwind") is an addition to the mechanics of a watch escapement to increase accuracy. It was developed around 1795 and patented by the Swiss-French watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet on June 26, 1801. In a tourbi ...

s including a multi-axial orbital tourbillon movement.

Brands

The following brand names were used for watches produced by Tianjin Seagull.

Movements

Movements used at both SeagullHK and tjSeagull. TY code used at SeagullHK. ST code used at tjSeagull. * TY6XXX = ST6 (mechanical/auto, ladies sized movement) * TY2130 = ST21 (auto, 2130/ETA 2824) (incorrectly referred to as ST24) * TY25XX = ST25 (auto, regular & open heart) * TY2661 = ST18 (auto, 1812/ETA 2892) (incorrectly referred to as ST26) * TY27XX = ST17 (mechanical/auto, non-hacking, upgrade of ST16) * TY28XX = ST16 (mechanical/auto, many variants including skeleton) * TY29XX = ST19 (mechanical/auto chronograph) * TY3100 = ST31 (mechanical, 3 dials inline w/ open heart) * TY36XX = ST36 (mechanical, Unitas 6497/98) * TY80XX = ST80 (mechanical/auto, carousel tourbillon, carousel skeleton tourbillon) * TY82XX = ST82 (mechanical/auto, flying/bridged tourbillon) * TY8080 = ST80 (mechanical, dual carousel tourbillon) * TY84XX = ST84 (mechanical carousel tourbillon, ladies) * TY9000 = ST90 (mechanical quarter repeater) * TY9100 = ST91 (mechanical minute repeater) Movements unique to tjSeagull/USSeagull website * 2100 = ST21 (auto, 2100/ETA 2836) * 2241 = ST22 (pair of auto ST6 on same plate) * 2590 = ST2590 (auto, perpetual calendar with moonphase) * 2800 = ST28 (mechanical alarm) * 9000 = ST90 (mechanical, repeater)

Gallery

Image:Chronograph movement.jpg, ST19 Chronograph Movement produced by Tianjin Seagull Watch Group Image:Sea-Gull M199S Chronograph.jpg, ''Seagull'' branded Wristwatch Image:Sea-gull-m182sk.jpg, Modern Seagull M182SKchouprojects.com
'Sea-Gull M182SK Review'
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References

External links