It was not until my friend Perry gave the site of A Chinese Military Forum where I found some old photos of Shanghai Military watches that I began to collect information about Chinese military watches. And i was very excited to saw those cool military watches(shown as below), well, made in China.
I have a vague memory that Chinese people were proud to own Shanghai watches and bicycles when I was a very little girl. And I am sure, like many Chinese families, there must be an old Shanghai watch stopped at a forgotten corner of my house or my grandfather still wears one but I do not pay attention to. As for Shanghai military watches, I will,I certainly will talk with my great uncle, an old military man since 1947. He must know something about that.The following information and pictures are mainly collected from http://www.chinesewristwatch.com/ and other Watch forums as I have very little knowledge about military watches. If you are interested in Vintage Shanghai watches, micmicmor.blogspot.com/ is highly recommended.
Special version of A-623, in memory of China exploded its first nuclear device in 1964
Well, according the info collected, the first Chinese Military watch-Shang Hai A623 was made in 1965 by Shanghai Wristwatch Factory, powered by a movement called 623 which was based on Shanghai 581 movement and Rolex Date/shock resistance watch movement. Shanghai A623 was also the first wristwatch made in China with date function.
As far as I known of, A623 has two versions. The first version features golden carving “上海” (Shanghai) on the dial and the second version has black and white “上海” (Shanghai) printed on the dial. The date is displayed in red Arabic numerals. Premier Minister
Produced in very small number, A623 was only given to those High Ranking government & military Leaders that then. The first Premier Minister of PRC also had a second-version A623 and worn it until he passed away. That is why A623 also called “Premier Minister Watch.”
In 1969,Shanghai Wristwatch produced the 114 watches with 29 Jewels SS2 and 24 Jewels SS4 movements. The 114 could be divided into three versions according to the case back : the trial version with 6 digits series number,the early version with 7 digits and late version with 8 digits serial number. On the dial of the early version 29J 114, it did not has the “Shanghai” logo it. Different than 29J 114, early version of 24J 114 had “Shanghai” logo on the dial and later version 24J 114 had “Torch” logo on the dial and the crown. Also on the rotor of SS2 29J which manufactured in 1967 had engraving “29 zhan, 29占” instead of “29 zuan, 29 钻.” 1970 version of 24J had “滚珠自动 gunzhu zidong” instead of “全自动 quanzidong (automatic)” on the rotor.Totally 30,000 pieces 114 was made before the production was stopped in 1977.
In my humble opinion, the 114 military watches carries some clear design features of Rolex Sea Dwellers watches and Blancpain diving watches. But Iparticular love those Chinese elements: home-made movements, Chinese characters, Chinese red and many more.
Since wristwatch was regarded as luxury items at that time, only division commanders (or higher ranking officers) were qualified to purchase SS2 and regimental commanders (or higher ranking officers) were allowed to purchase SS4. But not all of the SS2 and SS4 movements were used in military watches. For example, there were SS4H, SS4H-K (19J mechanical watch), SS4B (19J mechanical watch with date), and SS2C (29J Automatic wristwatch with date)..
In 1978, Shanghai watch factory began to produced model 1220 military watches which could be divided in to regular version and military version. Military version had “军用 (military use)” on the dial and was was used in the Third Indochina War
Jinsheng Clock Manufacture Factory was another Chinese Watch-making power that provided special military watches. Capable to produce Diamond band mechanical stop watch, it manufactured special military watch models included 1/100seconds (model 501), 1/50seconds (model 502) and 1/5seconds (model 503) total 10 model series. 1964, the factory supplied MS1S and MS2S dual stop watches to the Navy. In 1968, the factory changed its name to “Shanghai Stopwatch Factory” and successfully manufactured 511-516 special made stop watch models for the Department of Homeland Defense in China.
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