Shijiazhuang Brothers...

I already have a watch from Shijiazhuang, a military ( 军用 ) use Taihang, but I haven't had a civilian Taihang. Now I do, and I was also lucky enough to also snag a slightly smaller but still/ 男表/male form Shijiazhuang built SanYu or "Three Fish". Both are in exceptional shape.

A quick Taihang story, and I'll quote Linus1908, a WUS member: "Taihang" (a mountain name in Hubei province, China) and "Honglian" (red lotus in english) were both famous brands in Shijiangzhuang, because the warranty period was four years. One day, the manufacturer took an advertisement to attract consumers:They threw their watches from an airplane. Threw 70 watches in four times, only 8 watches were broken, the others still did work. After that, the sales of their watches were significant increases. This is the first time that throwing watches out of plane in China."

The Taihang ( sorry, my rubber ball won't budge the caseback for a movement shot) is 35mm w/o crown. The SanYu is 31mm w/o crown. Both have (IMHO) beautifully done casebacks (on the SanYu, note the shared "eye" section for the three fish...that's smart!) and the SanYu also has a very nice almost parchment-like dial.

As well, although I'm rotten at lume shots, the Taihang actually has small lumed dots by the indices and lumed hands as well...and, yup, it all glows just fine although I really can't say for how long.

Here's the photos, the civilian Taihang first...





...followed by the first glimpse of the SanYu as we see both signed crowns...



...and now the SanYu...





SanYu movement...The movement is ZJS...the tag for Shijiazhuang Wristwatch Factory (石家庄手表厂)



...and, finally, the two Shijiazhuang brothers, together and resting comfortably in scenic northern Alberta.



Astonishingly affordable: 100 RMB apiece or roughly $15 CDN, which isn't bad for an ultra-reliable, in house, Grade One, vintage Chinese standard (or Tonji) 17 jewel mechanical watch with full stainless case, signed crown and acrylic crystal. Both are shockproof, water resistant and anti-magnetic. These weren't built as throwaways.

There's simply nothing bad I can say about the craftsmanship of the Shijiazhuang cases and dials; I think they're among the best built of the best of the vintage Chinese standard movement pieces and easily equal to better known Shanghai or Beijing standard watches, for example. The story above notes that they're durable, but they also have well polished and very cleanly finished cases.

By the way, accepted standards for domestic Chinese wristwatches assume a wristwatch will survive 1 meter deep water for 1 minute without a leak, so not waterproof, but what the Chinese refer to with a phrase (if I recall correctly) meaning similar to "daily living but not shower, bath or swimming")



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2010 06:06AM by AlbertaTime.