It is such a pleasure to have a great conversation with someone who really knows his way around watches and "chew the fat". Al showed me some of the cool pieces he is working on including a poor Omega Seamaster Chrono which had been butchered in a previous "repair" elsewhere. Thankfully it is on its way back to its former glory under Al's care.

I had gone from a drive in a truck so I did not have my camera with me today. However, I did take some pics when I got home.

These goodies found there way back home again...


The vintage G had the battery die. Since I like to wear it swimming I had Al do the battery change and give it a pressure test.

M306S is now regulated to 6 positions and all checked out... ST5s all on straps...


The rare and cool vintage Sea-Gull ST7 auto was checked out and regulated...


Revue Thommen was checked out. All is good with this one...


Now this was quite the transformation... I had this Radiomir homage which I had transplanted a real 6497 into...




Look what Al did to it! The whole Archer treatment!


I had a whack of 6497s but this was the only one which came with some interesting decoration on the plate...


The quality of the case, dial, hands, and caseback is really good. This pic was in fairly dim lighting. There is very good lume on the numerals and hands...


I love the look of this one. Kind of like a pocketwatch look for your wrist.


Here it is beside the Archer Aero 45 I already own. BTW... The Archer Aero is kind of my lucky trucking watch... I passed my MTO roadtest wearing it and my recent company roadtest which I passed...


Note the nice blued screws and other niceties which come with a purpose built Archer watch... Even a "plain jane" 6497 is still a nice movement though...


I am pretty smitten with the result of this project...





Thanks for the awesome company and conversaiton Al.

Congrats on passing your driving tests. Cool!

Glad there's clean bill of health for all the herd.
That project watch turned out really nice. Mov't looks good.

Al does do some great work.

cheers.

I really need to take some group shots... The divers, dress watches, chronos, Chinese watches... Kind of an interesting dynamic; especially after having such a focussed Seiko dive watch collection at one time.

Now I need some sort of atomic/solar watch for the road!

nt

Sweet!

Your herd changed over time but it always is full of great pieces



*Never a waste of time to look at a watch*

I love that simplicity of those dial choices....VERY nice

It was made in the 1970s... A fairly "high end" sort of watch. Completely "in-house" running at 28800 bph, hack, handwind, day/date complication with quickset on both. All stainless steel construction on the case and caseback.

Kind of a weird watch in that the first crown position hacks the second hand and sets the time while the furthest/second setting is the day/date quick set.

The watch had the world against it. China was not participating in external markets much at that time so little chance of the watch selling outside of China. Then we have to bear in mind that this was during the "quartz crisis" AND... it was primarily being marketed in China where wages were low and people could not afford the price of the watch.

In the end I have heard numbers under 3000 total produced. While this is not rare like the 300 Yellow Monsters which were produced it is still one of the rarer Sea-Gulls.

Here is the link to the Chinese Watch Wiki to learn more about Sea-Gull:
http://www.tractionink.com/watch_wiki/index.php?title=Tianjin_Seagull

...And... what the Chinese Watch Wiki has to say about the ST7:

"In the late 1970s/early 1980s, Tianjin Watch Factory developed a watch of a higher grade than the ST5. This was the Sea-Gull ST7 day/date automatic. The movement was a sophisticated design, and the micrometer regulator suggests the kind of accuracy that was expected of it. Unfortunately at this time 'Red China' was a closed country to the rest of the world, and nothing was known of their watch industry. It now seems unreasonable that a foreign watch buyer might have chosen a Sea-Gull over the nearest equivalent from Tissot or Titoni. On the other hand, how many ordinary people in China could have afforded such a watch? The ST7 was an excellent watch without a market."

ST7s are out there. They are creeping up in price though.

The Yellow Monster is a variant dial colour, but the ST7 is a unique base movement design and unique auto-winding design, as well as a day/date dial not found on other vintage Sea-Gulls. It's a pity that the prices are skyrocketting and dodgy mash-ups appearing. You're lucky to have that 100% authentic example.

The Yellow Monster which is really no different from a Blue Monster except for the very limited production run. I owned a Yellow Monster at one time and while nice it just did not "earn its keep" in my collection. Same 7S36 as the Blue Monster and other than the Sapphire crystal with cyclops it did not have anything making it that much different from any other Monster.

Now, the original 1963 I owned for awhile... That was pretty rare!