Any experience with the seagull st19?

fret_wimp2

I have an opportunity to obtain a version of watch I've been after for a while. This one has the seagull st19 chrono movement.

I've never had a Chinese movement and based purely on the cheap "made in China" toys in the 80s I'm a bit reluctant.

Does anyone have experience of this movement, what is reliability is like, it's quirks and if it's overall good or bad?

It certainly looks pretty!

thelizardking1

I've had 2 watches with this movement and they were both total sh*te!

The column wheel snapped off on one and the other only worked when held at a certain angle.

There are zero reasons to ever want to own a Chinese watch. I would suggest buying anything else at all.

Out of curiousity is the watch in question a Seagull 1963?

fret_wimp2

No, it's a precista, one of Eddie's reproductions.

thelizardking1

Not sure if the watch in question has a display back or not but the ST19 looks super cheap. Chintzy would be the perfect word to describe it.

Just my 2 cents.

If you're getting it for a reasonable price and it's something you really want then go for it.

I'm sure you'll hear from plenty of people who have had watches with ST19 movements that have been perfectly reliable.

Thirdfox

I've got a 1963 reissue with the ST19. From what I understand this watch is not affiliated to Sea-gull (at least the Tianjin based one) and should be considered "a watch that uses the ST19" rather than a Sea-gull ST19 watch - kinda like a non-Swatch company using the ETA2824.

It's good as a timekeeper - and to my eyes the aesthetics are nice through the caseback display. Not many places you can get a column wheel movement in a watch for less than 200 euro.

On the negatives side the movement can be hit and miss in terms of chrono operation (in my sample) - the time recording is fine but sometimes the pusher starting the chrono hand will add a minute on to the elapsed time if you failed to click the reset button firmly.

Winding is very smooth - just as a manual wind watch should be.

I own plenty of Chinese watches, Soviets, Russians, Japanese and Swiss too - and I'd say the feeling of the pushers is more akin to the "mushy" Valjoux 7500 rather than the clicky Omega Cal 1861 (the other two mechanical chrono movements I've have/had).

For the price I'd be happy to get another - make sure it's from a place that has reputable customer service or good QA testing - plenty of reports of people enjoying their 1963s without any issue whatsoever but you've also got lizard's unfortunate experience above.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but I probably wouldn't say that the movement looks cheap:


For non-watch aficionados all the gears probably looks cool to them... to watch enthusiasts the history of the Venus 175 probably appeals too.

Trigger Happy

I have the Seagull 1963 too and have no issues with it. The movement does exactly what I want from it and is nice and smooth sweep.
Agree what was said above about the chrono buttons not been that smooth. Certainly when compared to IWC and Omega chronos it is no where near as smooth. But the seagul is a fraction of the price of those. Even some of my landeron movements have a nicer click to it on the chrono but to be honest its not a big issue for me. Certainly not at that price.

fret_wimp2

thanks for the replies. I pulled out of the purchase in the end. Watch is nice, but its not the one i really want, which is a Sinn, and a few years away for me right now. Ill put the "savings" towards that.

Thirdfox

Indeed - I totted up all my watch savings over the past and discovered if I just bought 1 watch to wear with the total I'd be able to get a fancy minute repeater wristwatch probably (a Chinese one not a 6 figure Swiss one ). If you know what you want then saving towards it makes it all the sweeter when you get it finally.

Still variety is the spice of life - and (keeping in mind everyone's discretionary spending budget is different) a ST19 movement watch can be like a Vostok - cheap enough that there's no reason not to buy an example - 200 euro would probably be a personal upper limit on "don't think too much" fun spending for me (my wife may set that limit much lower however! )