Another HaiShi (sea lion) brand watch from Shanghai #3 Wristwatch Factory

AlbertaTime

The dial on this is not as pristine as the one in an earlier post (https://www.watchcrunch.com/AlbertaTime/posts/1969-1973-shanghai-3-haishi-sea-lion-brand-2595) but the caseback is worth the price of admission, and so is the terrific 3S1 (SS1 but built by Shanghai #3) movement. 

This dates to about 1975, if I read the date code correctly (K1)

#shanghai #amchpr #history #collecting #general
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Aurelian
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Vintage Chinese watches consistently have great casebacks, and they made beautiful patterned dials.

I have wanted to know, and you are the one to ask, why handsets on Chinese vintage watches seem so standardized. Even to this day, but more in the 1960's and 70's, they are polished and shorter than you would expect from other manufacturers, often with the red tipped second hand. The shortness of the handset lets one evaluate the genuineness of Swiss vintage watches sold by Chinese resellers, for example. It is as though they do not seem short to the sellers. The handsets rarely reach the chapter ring. These handsets seem to be consistent no matter which factory is producing the watches. Was there only one handset manufacturer?

AlbertaTime
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Aurelian

Vintage Chinese watches consistently have great casebacks, and they made beautiful patterned dials.

I have wanted to know, and you are the one to ask, why handsets on Chinese vintage watches seem so standardized. Even to this day, but more in the 1960's and 70's, they are polished and shorter than you would expect from other manufacturers, often with the red tipped second hand. The shortness of the handset lets one evaluate the genuineness of Swiss vintage watches sold by Chinese resellers, for example. It is as though they do not seem short to the sellers. The handsets rarely reach the chapter ring. These handsets seem to be consistent no matter which factory is producing the watches. Was there only one handset manufacturer?

I have no definitive  answer as to the aesthetic of shorter hands except to note that there are many exceptions--but the observation is still very valid. I'm so used to it myself on Chinese watches now that i don't think about it and it doesn't look off to me now.  But...I have thought about it in the past and found an old Watchuseek post where I wrote "I recall that the hand length was more connected to reducing weight (and therefore work) on the rotation mechanism."

I don't know the source--but it makes more sense to me than any savings in steel use.

I don't think it's a culturally derived aesthetic because then I'd expect to see it in clocks, and I don't. That's the best I have, and I'm sorry it's nowhere near authoritative.