My Visit to the Legendary Seagull Watch Headquarters

As a loyal fan and collector of Seagull watches, I was honored to be invited by Seagull staff to tour their headquarters on November 3rd in the afternoon. I visited the Seagull Watch Museum, the Museum flagship store, and the Seagull watch assembly workshop.

Seagull staff welcomed me into the park, saying they would first take me to visit the Seagull Watch Museum. The Seagull Watch Museum has now become a Tianjin industrial tourism demonstration enterprise and an adolescent education base in Binhai New Area. In 2013, it was named a Tianjin Patriotic Education Base by the municipal party committee and government.

The museum is divided into sections following the timeline of history: Timekeeping China, First Watch China, Treasures of Timekeeping, Road of Innovation, Going Global, Art of Watchmaking, Seagull Brand, Moments of China, and more. It demonstrates the developmental history of China’s horology, especially the progress of Chinese timekeeping and Seagull watches after the founding of New China, showcasing the wisdom, diligence and spirit of struggle and innovation of the Chinese people.

The Timekeeping China exhibition hall displays the ancient origins of timekeeping in China. The renowned Water-powered Astronomical Clock Tower of the Song dynasty, known as the ancestor of clocks worldwide and China's fifth greatest ancient invention, was the earliest timepiece in the world to use an escapement mechanism. Although China once led the world in timekeeping devices historically, it fell behind by over 100 years due to the rapid industrialization of western clockmaking.

As western clocks flooded modern cities like Tianjin and Shanghai, intellectuals lamented China's inability to manufacture watches and only repair them at the time.

The First Watch China hall exhibits many Chinese watch firsts. At 5:45 pm on March 24, 1955, China's first domestically produced watch, the Wuxing (Five-star) watch, was born. As the first homemade watch made by China's working class, it filled a blank in China's industrial development during the early PRC, ending China's history of only being able to repair foreign watches instead of making its own. Afterward, Seagull's predecessor, the Tianjin Watch Factory, went on to successively develop China's first self-designed and manufactured watch Dongfeng, the first watch ST6 for women meeting international standards, the first aviation watch Seagull 1963 D304, and more. The hall displays some specialized tools and notebooks used by the Wuxing research and development team.

Timekeeping Treasures hall exhibits the four small devices used in developing the Wuxing watch, a wedding clock and two other classic pieces, and four 1970s production machines from the Tianjin Watch Factory.

The Road of Innovation hall focuses on the national-level technology center timeline, displaying Seagull's independent intellectual property rights in nearly 100 patents and mastery of watchmaking's three top-level technologies (tourbillon, perpetual calendar, minute repeater) through independent R&D and technological innovation. It also shows Seagull's three overseas IP rights defense victories, further demonstrating Seagull's determination to build and secure a position for domestic brands in the international watch industry.

Going Global hall displays Seagull's independently developed masterpieces incorporating tourbillon, perpetual calendar, minute repeater and other high-end technologies. It also has a wall of famous person watches and commemorative editions for major events, like the Seagull watch once worn by U.S. President Bush, Olympic hurdler Liu Xiang's commemorative watch, 60th national anniversary editions, 2010 World Expo watches, and more.

Seagull Brand hall exhibits the many accolades earned by Seagull: China Time-honored Brand, National Quality Award, China Famous Brand Product, China Well-known Trademark, National Quality Award Nomination, and more.

After visiting the museum, I immediately entered the adjacent Seagull Museum Watch flagship store, where all kinds of themed and styled Seagull watches caught my eye, at various price points. I even tried on Seagull’s most expensive watch, the Seagull Triple Grand Complication, one of the few in the world to integrate tourbillon, perpetual calendar, and minute repeater functions in one watch, priced at more than 1.9 million RMB.

Seagull has also integrated many Chinese intangible cultural heritage elements, producing numerous exquisitely crafted limited edition collectibles with Chinese cultural significance.

Finally, Seagull staff led me on a tour of their watch assembly workshop, where we saw workers diligently assembling timepieces at their workbenches. They were serious and meticulous. It was moving to see their dedication and pride in working for Seagull.

As we departed, I spotted an advertising banner for Seagull’s brand ambassador, Lang Ping, standing in the bushes lining the drive.

Seagull staff mentioned that in recent years many overseas third parties have directly copied the iconic 1963 Seagull design and sold low-price fakes, causing much distress for Seagull collectors struggling to discern real from counterfeit. Seagull watches official website has been initiating lawsuits against these copycats one by one.