Chinese watch timeline

This timeline lists milestones in Chinese watchmaking in chronological order. In order to provide historical and technological context, the timeline also includes some major events in Chinese history and in the watch industry around the world.

1950s

The birth of an industry : China's first watch was produced in 1955, and by the end of the decade its first eight watch factories had been established. During these first five years the industry is small and fragile, heavily dependent upon imported designs, parts and production machinery.

1955

China's first watch, the WuXing is produced.
Nanjing Watch Factory established.

1957

Watches worldwide : The world's first electric watch, the balance wheel-based 500 Model, is released by Hamilton, USA.
Tianjin WuYi Watch Factory established.

1958

Chinese history : Great Leap Forward begins
Beijing Watch Factory established.
Guangzhou Watch Factory established.
Jilin Watch Factory established.
Liaoning Watch Factory established.
Shanghai Watch Factory established.
Qingdao Watch Factory established.
Production of A581 watches begins at Shanghai Watch Factory .
Production of BS1 movements begins at Beijing Watch Factory .

1959

Production of SN1 movement begins at Nanjing Watch Factory .

1960s

The early years : During the 1960s, the pioneering Chinese watch factories began to produce new designs derived from foreign ones, and by the middle of the decade produced the first 100% Chinese designed and built wristwatch, followed by at least one other such design by the end of the decade. A few new factories are established, and total production increases steadily, but the decade is marked more by the development and refinement of technical capabilities than the expansion of production.

1960

Chinese history : Sino-Soviet split begins.
Watches worldwide : The world's first fully electronic watch, the tuning fork-based Accutron, is released by Bulova, USA.

1961

Chinese history : Great Leap Forward ends.
Production of BS2 movements begins at Beijing Watch Factory .
The People's Liberation Army Air Force asks the Ministry of Light Indusry to produce a mechanical chronograph for its pilots. This is designated " Project 304 ", and the work is undertaken at Tianjin Watch Factory , using imported tooling from the Swiss watch company Venus.

1962

Production of BS1 movements ends at Beijing Watch Factory . 3,726 were made in total.

1963

Fenglei Instruments Factory established.

1965

Production of SG3 movement begins at Guangzhou Watch Factory .
Tianjin Watch Factory develops the ST4, China's first electronic watch movement, based on the tuning fork paradigm pioneered by Bulova.

1966

Chinese history : Cultural Revolution begins.
China's first 100% natively designed and built watch, the DongFeng is released by Tianjin Watch Factory .
Production of A581 watches ends at Shanghai Watch Factory .
Production of SS1 movement begins at Shanghai Watch Factory .

1967

Liaocheng Watch Factory established.
Production of SB5 movements begins at Beijing Watch Factory .
Shanghai Watch Factory and the Shanghai Metal Watch Strap Factory develop China's first electronic balance wheel watch. This design would later evolve into the SD2 .

1968

Production of SN2 movements begins at Nanjing Watch Factory .
Production of BS2 movements ends at Beijing Watch Factory .

1969

Chinese history : Cultural Revolution is declared over.
Watches worldwide : The world's first quartz wristwatch, the Astron, is released by Seiko, Japan.
Watches worldwide : The world's first, second and third automatic chronographs are released; exactly which came first depends on who you ask (either the Caliber 11 by Heuer, Breitling and Buren, the El Primero by Zenith or the 6139 by Seiko).
Hongqi Watch Factory established.
Nanchang Watch Factory established.
Chinese Standard Movement project begins.
Production of SM1A movements beings at Shanghai ZuanShi Watch Factory .

1970s

The golden Tongji years : With the experience of the 60s having demonstrated that China's new watchmaking industry was now able to design and build its own timepieces, in the 1970s the government focused on consolidation of the industry and ramping up production. In 1971 the design for the Chinese Standard Movement , or Tongji, was completed, and the rest of the decade is defined by the mass production of this movement. Most existing factories ceased manufacture of their older movements, and many new factories were constructed in almost every province of the country, with the total factory count eventually exceeding 100. National watch production increased many times over as tens of millions of Tongjis were built each year. This decade represents the glory days of the vintage Chinese mechanical watch industry. The 1970s also saw early development work on Chinese designed quartz movements, with the first quartz watches reaching market in 1979.

1970

Hefei Watch Factory established.
Hengyang Watch Factory established.
Nanning Watch Factory established.

1971

Zhengzhou Watch Factory established.
Chinese Standard Movement blueprints finalised.

1972

Watches worldwide : The world's first digital watch, the LED-based Pulsar, is released by Hamilton, USA.
Hangzhou Watch Factory established.
Production of Baoshihua watches begins at Shanghai No. 2 Watch Factory , the first watches using the new Chinese Standard Movement .
Shanghai Watch Factory construct China's first quartz watch movement. It is a "proof of concept" prototype, powered by 4 external AA batteries and not suitable for production in watches.

1973

Suzhou Watch Factory established.
Shijiazhuang City Watch Factory established.
Export approval for the ST5 movement is granted, and Sea-Gull branded ST5 watches are the first exported Chinese watches.

1974

Dalian Watch Factory established.
Production of SG3 movement ends at Guangzhou Watch Factory .
The Shanghai Ballpoint Pen Factory completes the SD2 movement, a refinement of 7 years of electronic balance wheel watch movement design. These are briefly mass produced for XiangYang brand watches.
Beijing Watch Factory begin development on a prototype quartz watch movement, designated ZBS1. Very little is known about this movement.

1975

Hanzhong Watch Factory established.
Harbin Watch Factory established.
Production of SS1 movement ends at Shanghai Watch Factory .

1976

Chinese history : Mao Zedong dies.
Fuzhou Watch Factory established.

1977

Tianjin Second Watch Factory established.

1978

Chinese history : Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms begin.
Shanghai No. 5 Watch Factory established.
Tianjin Watch Factory begins development of their first quartz movement, the DST3
Suzhou Watch Factory begins development of their first quartz movement, the SZD , which went on to be used in Dengyue brand watches in the 1980s.

1979

Shanghai No. 2 Watch Factory begin production of quartz Baoshihua branded watches, using the DSE and DHSE movements. These are the first mass produced Chinese quartz watches available at public markets (prototypes of the DSE were used in a limited number of Jinxing brand watches early in the 70s).
Tianjin Watch Factory begins development of their second quartz movement, the DST5 .

1980s

The winds of change : The 1980s were a time of great change for the Chinese watch industry. Economic reforms saw a greater focus on import and export, in contrast to the 1970s focus on domestic production for the domestic market. Quartz movements had begun to displace mechanical movements in the global market, and the 80s saw many Chinese watch factories producing watches with high quality, jewelled quartz movements of their own design; Many other factories, however, continued to turn out mechanical Tongjis. The later half of the decade saw the establishment of several large Chinese-foreign joint venture watch manufacturers in the country's newly established Special Economic Zones, especially in Guangdong. These companies typically used cheap quartz movements manufactured elsewhere in Asia, and annual output was prodigious, quickly outgrowing the indigenous Chinese industry which had been birthed in the 1950s. Due to these joint ventures, China's total watch output grew substantially throughout in the 1980s, even though by the end of the decade many of the factories established in the previous decade were beginning to struggle and output was dropping.

1982

Production of the B movement begins at Shanghai Watch Factory and Shanghai ZuanShi Watch Factory .
Yantai Watch Factory develops the DYT1 and DYT2 quartz movements.

1983

Shanghai Watch Factory develops the DSE3 quartz movement.

1984

Chinese history : China dispatches its first Antarctic expedition, which successfully establishes the Great Wall research station in early 1985. The expedition members wear Sea-Gull ST5 watches, with specially engraved casebacks.

1985

ZhuHai Gree Rossini Watch Industry Ltd is founded in the recently established Zhuhai Special Economic Zone. It is the first joint foreign venture in the Chinese watch industry, and the harbinger of dramatic growths in watch production in provinces with SEZs.
The China Horologe Association (CHA) is founded in Beijing.

1986

Tianjin Watch Factory develops the ST11 quartz movement.

1987

Shenzhen Fiyta Watch Company is founded in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.
Owing to the recent creation of several major joint foreign ventures (including Rossini and Fitya) in its multiple SEZs, Guangdong becomes the Chinese province with both the highest and the fastest growing level of watch production in the China.

1988

The first China Watch & Clock Fair is held in Shenzhen, organised by the China Horolge Association. The event occurs annually hereafter.
Winning Metal Products Manufacturing Company Limited launches the Tian Wang brand.

1989

Tianjin Watch Factory develops the ST14 quartz movement.

1990s

Collapse : By the 1990s, much of the Chinese watch industry had shifted to developing and producing quartz movements, but ultimately the industry did not fare well against international competition. Output continued to decline in many provinces across the country, and by the middle of the decade both the most productive and well established vintage factories as well as the new joint ventures were slowing down. In 1997, the industry collapsed dramatically, with output dropping by 40% to 295 million watches, compared to 480 million in 1996. Many of the factories opened in the 1970s to mass produce Tongjis began to close down, manually wound mechanical watches having become obsolete. In 1999, the watch factories of Shanghai, which had consistently been the highest producing factories in the country, began to be variously closed down, reoorganised and sold off.

1990

Jilin Watch Factory develops the DSJ2 quartz movement.

1991

Qingdao Watch Factory develops the D3SQ quartz movement.
The Everbright brand, which would later become Ebohr , is is launched in 1991 in Shenzhen.

1992

Tianjin Watch Factory becomes becomes Tianjin Sea-Gull Corporation, a State Owned Enterprise. The new Sea-Gull decides to produce only quartz watches, apparently turning their back on their mechanical heritage.

1993

Tianjin Sea-Gull Corporation develops the ST14 quartz movement, which is used in Sea-Gull branded watches (this was the first time Sea-Gull had been used as a brand name since the ST5).
Shanghai ZuanShi Watch Factory develops the DSZ4 double calendar quartz movement.

1995

Work begins on China's first tourbillon watch by master watchmaker Xu Yaonan at Beijing Watch Factory , however it never enters production.

1997

Chinese history : Deng Xiaoping dies.
Chinese history : Sovereignty of Hong Kong is transferred from the UK to China.
Tianjin Sea-Gull reverses their 1992 decision to manufacture only quartz watches, and returns to manufacturing only mechanical watches.
Tianjin Sea-Gull develop the ST16 as a new general-purpose base calibre.
Total Chinese watch production decreases to 295 million, down 40% from 480 million in 1996.

1999

Shanghai Watch Factory is reborn as a public company.

2000s

Rebirth , or Luxury and mushrooms : At the dawn of the new century, the Chinese watch industry which had flourished through the 60s and 70s lay largely in ruins. The closures of vintage factories which had started in the 90s continued into the next decade, with only a minority surviving. Quartz watches produced by relative newcomers such as Rossini and Fiyta had become the most popular and successful Chinese made watches for the average Chinese consumer. The surviving vintage factories turned to OEM work and the "big three" of Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin (now Sea-Gull) also began to target the higher-end, luxury and watch enthusiast markets. The "naughties" thus saw the appearance of Chinese mechanical chronographs, perpetual calendars, minute repeaters and tourbillons. At the same time, the rise of global online shopping via channels like eBay gave birth to a thriving market of very affordable "no name" mechanical watches, of varying standards of quality, assembled mostly using entry-level movements from surviving vintage factories such as Sea-Gull, Guangzhou and Huangzhou. These watches became popularly known as "mushrooms" amongst Western enthusiasts, due to the tendency for new brands to spring up overnight.

2000

Tianjin Sea-Gull corporation is floated on the stock market.

2001

Tianjin Sea-Gull develops the ST17 movement, as a minor improvement on the ST16 .
Tianjin Sea-Gull develops the ST18 movement, a clone of the ETA 2892.

2003

Tianjin Sea-Gull release the ST19 mechanical chronograph, an updated version of the movement they manufactured for PLA Project 304 in in the 1960s as Tianjin Watch Factory.
Production of the ST25 movement begins at Tianjin Sea-Gull.
The Everbright brand is renamed Ebohr .

2004

Beijing Watch Factory becomes a private company.
Beijing Watch Factory's TB01-2 tourbillon enters production.

2005

Production of the ST36 movement begins at Tianjin Sea-Gull, a clone of the ETA 6497.

2006

Production of the ST21 movement begins at Tianjin Sea-Gull. It it intended to replace the now aging ST16 . The new movement is a "reengineered" version of the ETA 2824.
Production of the ST80 tourbillon movement begins at Tianjin Sea-Gull.

2008

Chinese history : Taikonaut Zhai Zhigang completes China's first spacewalk as part of the Shenzhou 7 mission. Zhai wore a watch produced by Fiyta especially for the mission.
Production of the ST18 movement ends at Tianjin-Seagull.
Beijing Watch Factory makes their first appearance at the Basel International Watch Fair, Switzerland, displaying a fully engraved version of their TB01-2 tourbillon.
At BaselWorld 2008, Tianjin Sea-Gull is accused by an independent brand of patent violation in the design of their double tourbillon. Upon examining the watches in question and design documents provided by Sea-Gull, a former IWC watchmaker acting as a neutral third party declared "absolutely no similarity between the two systems".

2010s

2010

Tianjin Sea-Gull move to a large and highly modernised new factory in the Tianjin Airport Industrial Park, nextdoor to an Airbus assembly facility.

2011

Guangzhou Watch Factory becomes Guangzhou Wuyang ("Guangzhou Five Goat") Watch Co. Ltd. The new company is 78% owned by the parent company of Rossini.