Seagull 1963 - Quality Control

Hard to come up with anything new to say about the Seagull 1963 - it's a really affordable mechanical chronograph that you can get in any size from dozens of competing manufacturers on AliExpress. I really like mine.

(Out of all the available combinations, I went for a 40mm bronze case and a domed acrylic crystal. Sapphire Seagulls tend to use cheap flat crystals, which require a much higher and more closed-off case shape.)

But inquiring minds want to know - what don't you get for $200? Hobbyist watch reviews tend to be broadly positive... after all, unless you're a professional reviewer, this is something you bought with your own money, for your own collection. With the financial damage already done and the commitment already made, of course every human being wants to believe that they made a wise and discerning choice. But most prospective Seagull buyers have probably heard enough fluff about the price (very cheap) and the movement (designed in Europe), so I think it will be a useful public service to go over all the tiny things that are wrong with mine.

For reference, I ordered from the "LEON-7 Store", one of many, many AliExpress vendors that installs legitimate Seagull movements into whatever case and dial combination you want.

Dial Blemishes

The matte champagne dial is one of the Seagull's big selling points, and the printing on the retro design is quite sharp. So it's really annoying that there are two fairly obvious wet spots on mine!!! They fade a little in sunlight, but get really obvious under diffuse lighting.

To my eye, they look like the spit flecks that habitually appear on anything left on my desk unshielded (I'm a very talkative person), but I imagine any number of things could have gone wrong here.

Zero Alignment

Look, it's a $200 mechanical chronograph. Nobody is out there promising that it always snaps exactly back to 12. But since this is probably everybody's first mechanical chronograph, I thought I would try to show what the "normal" range on mine is. Here are four different pushes of the reset button after four different time measurements.

On a really unlucky draw, it can be about 0.8 seconds off. Some times seem good for getting a perfect reset (35 seconds has been lucky for me), but my results aren't very scientific there.

One of the biggest surprises of this watch was how fast the mechanical reset is - super satisfying, but given the insane speed that the handset whips around at, I'm not too surprised that the final alignment is rarely perfect.

Minute Alignment

The chronograph minute hand is off by exactly this much. I noticed it as soon as I unboxed it, but I do a lot of proofreading in my day job. A normal person might never care, but would a normal person be this deep in a post like this?

To my surprise, the minute hand jumps in discrete one-minute intervals between 58 and 60 seconds (you can see the exact mechanism that does it through the display caseback). It's a really cool feature, but it does make the tiny misalignment more noticeable.

Also: yes, you can run it past 30 minutes. I was always too afraid to ask anyone this question, so now you know the answer.

Caseback

If this was all sealed behind a solid caseback then I would be blissfully unaware of everything described here, but the intricate ST1901 movement is one of the biggest selling features of this watch, so let's comment on it...

If you go for a dark bronze case (which, I should make clear, has no kind of historical legitimacy on this thing, I just like the look) - the white plastic movement holder makes a jarringly ugly colour contrast. This is such a minor thing to complain about, but it caught my eye right away.

Looking at a lot of Seagull listings, you'll notice a huge amount of variety between the different display case backs, even though the dials and case dimensions are very standardized. I thought this wide-open design with an unusually wide crystal would maximize my enjoyment of the movement, but the details around the edges are really not worth looking at.

A couple other things are visibly shoddy here: there are some pieces of fine metal dust on the inside of the caseback (hopefully nothing important!), and my movement also has a big fingerprint on one of the bridges. What happens when you have a $100 movement and you're competing with a dozen other factories to cut your additional costs as low as possible? Right. I'm sure if I knew anything about maintaining a watch movement, I would find that various other corners were cut here, although the accuracy out of the box is actually quite good (about 10s/day fast).

Verdict

Do all these nitpicks mean that I don't recommend the Seagull 1963?

No! It's still a $200 mechanical chronograph!

For the price, there's nothing else like it... at least, nothing else using a different movement. The pushers have a unique heavy feeling, and it works great for timing car trips and tea bags. I love the look of the thick domed crystal with the retro design, and the anti-reflective coating is also a real winner on something this cheap. I haven't wanted to wear anything else for the whole last week since it came in the mail.

But the issues are sure noticeable to me... so I think this makes a really fun opportunity to illustrate all the little annoyances that make the difference between a $200 watch and a $1,000 watch.

Until we meet again... or until I mistakenly push the reset button while the chronograph is running and the entire thing explodes into a fine cloud of twisted gears...