BCHH
80
The Horological Masterpieces of Beijing
Dear friends,
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Beijing & Tianjin, and could not miss stopping by Beijing Watch and Sea-Gull in those respective cities. As requested on another thread, I am now posting photos of my visits here. Hopefully this will give many of you an eye into watch production and horological culture in China.
These photos represent only about half of all taken and have been substantially downsized for efficient web delivery and are meant merely as a general overview of the places visited. Anyone desiring more detailed or higher-resolution photos or shots from a different angle can contact me directly for them.
And now, on to the festivities...
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Our story begins in Beijing, capital for six centuries of the most populous nation on the globe and one of the world's great ancient cultures. Beijing, or Northern Capital in Chinese, is an ancient city, a citadel exuding both the faded majesty and trappings of Imperial China as well as brimming with the modernity and confidence of New China.
This message has been edited by BCHH on 2013-01-25 04:25:49
The Horological Masterpieces of Beijing
Dear friends, Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Beijing & Tianjin, and could not miss stopping by Beijing Watch and Sea-Gull in those respective cities. As requested on another thread, I am now posting photos of my visits here. Hopefully this w...
Some of Beijing's oldest timekeepers
Sundial inside the Imperial Palace Hall of Clocks & Watches The drum (first picture) & bell (second picture) towers of old Beijing - these towers used to dominate the Beijing skyline during the Imperial era, and were the basis of timekeeping in th...
The Road to Beijing Watch Factory
While on the highway, we can see the Swallow Mountains that surround Changping village, home of China's greatest watchmakers. These Swallow Mountains take their name from Zhu Di, the Swallow Prince, who ultimately became Emperor Yongle and built the Forbi...
Thanks for the introduction...
...you had fabulous weather in BJ with blue sky, which is often not the case. ( i spent a lot of time up there pre-Olympics...) Can you share some picturs of the factory and the way the timepieces are made? thanks, Stefan
Thanks a lot for your pictures and report.
But I think that you reduced them a bit too much. I would love to visit the hall of clock and watches... And now... we would like to know what is inside tge Beijing watch building... Fx
My pleasure...
I will post the next series of photos in larger resolution. Photos were not permitted in the Hall of Clocks and Watches, but it contained many exceptional pieces from the Imperial collection, including many manufactured by Chinese artisans in Suzhou and G...
Inside the Beijing Watch manufactory
A 10:1 gas-operated model of the TB-04 movement developed by Beijing in 2009 - a double-axis tourbillon constructed from titanium A piece unique that took their artisans a year to engrave by hand The butterfly tourbillon with enamel tourbillon carriage - ...
Photos of my trophy
Description of the double-axis tourb in Chinese - if translations are needed, PM me Came to collect this after two months of waiting - a guilloche enamel dial dress watch Bespoke engraving of my family seal on the movement 3/4 plate ...
lovely watch and especially nice...
lovely watch and especially nice with the family engraving. it makes it a keeper for generations. if you could translate the details of the tourbillon i would greatly appreciate it. i look forward to still more pics of movements if you have them. best Gra...
Thank you
The enamel watch will be an heirloom for generations, especially since enamel never diminishes. I will do a translation of the double-axis tourbillon caption and post it here.
Close-up with the watches
Close-up of the finissage - some anglage on the 3 /4 plate Another special engraving for a series of 12 zodiac animal cloisonne dials The prototype pieces of the enamel tourbillon carriage - this watch sold at auction for 1 million RMB The aforementioned ...
i do like their sapphire...
i do like their sapphire dialled twin tourbillon, but probably out of my price bracket. i'm sure some will say its a knock off of some swiss brands crystal watches, but i think its original and very nice. best Graham On 27 Jan 2013 21:07, "www watchprosit...
Some special dial treatments and movements
One of Beijing Watch's specialties is exotic dials - here we have one cased in 18k rose gold with a lapis lazuli dial finished by hand Tourbillon movement on the left; SB18 handwinding movement on the right Two tourbillons. A bit of background - Beijing W...
stunning....
stunning. On 27 Jan 2013 21:35, "www watchprosite" *Alert from:* www:watchprosite > *Posted By:* BCHH (registered) on January 27th, 2013 - 13:35 > > *Title: Some special dial treatments and movements > * > > *
Some exceptional pieces
Tourbillon movement close-up The mother of pearl dial version Staff demonstrates the flyback date on the tourbillon - something they are rather proud of in terms of the quality of execution Minute repeater tourbillon - sounds fantastic Even better, a minu...
The Beijing 62 day power reserve watch
I challenged Beijing Watch to produce a watch like the Lange 31 with the month-long power reserve - they responded that they were confident of producing one with double that, 62 days! I asked if the escapement would supply constant force and if there woul...
i have just spent over...
i have just spent over an hour looking through their website. they make some stunning pieces, but i am just a poor man so will probably stick with my Beihai for now. to have a 62 day power reserve would be fabulous. it would, i assume, be handwind. best G...
It would indeed
The watch would presumably come with a winding key like the Lange 31. Or perhaps they would come up with an indigenous and ingenious solution!
following the thread we had...
following the thread we had the other day started by Ed, there was some criticism of BWAF copying some of the big brands parts and sadly i found a prime example on one of their tourbillons. the example was the bulbous skeleton hands with lume tips used by...
