I do not have too much knowledge about these vintage watches made in China, in old times, every watch, whether made by Shanghai, Beijing or Liaoning, there is a specific story behind, some are military-related. Today, I will show you a vintage watch made by Peacock, actually it was called Liaoning Watch Factory at that time, the watch is Hong Qi, which has been discontinued in production for many years, but I found it is being sold on taobao, I do not know if this is a real Hong Qi watch or just re-produced by somebody, if it is a real Hong Qi watch produced at that time, the watch absolutely has a certain collectible value.
When I firstly see the watch, I was attracted by the unique design of its second hand. It is an airplane second hand, there is a story about the second behind the watch. In 1970, the successful launch of the Dongfanghong-1 satellite made China the fifth country in the world capable of independently developing and launching satellites, in the same year, Liaoning Watch Factory published a Hong Qi special edition watch to commemorate this event, the watch has a large-diameter curved seconds hand with an airplane tip that looks distinctive. The design inspiration for the seconds hand comes from the shape of spacecraft, it symbolizes humanity’s exploration and pursuit of the vast universe.
This watch has a cushion-shaped case that is 40mm in diameter, the case is polished, it does not look old, just like a new watch, but the wine red dial will give you a vintage feel, hour markers and hands look old, a better match for this burgundy dial. I can even see the sharp edge on the markers and hands, there is also burr if you check carefully, so I guess the manufacturer just used the old dial that left from that time, and then reproduced a new case for it. The case looks a little weird if being compared with this dial. I do not know what type of movement inside, it is said to be a manual winding movement made in China, on the dial, it saying SZLIA 21600, but I could not find any information about it online.
