Category: Peacock

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Peacock

Hong Qi Vintage Watch

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.

Hong Qi Red Watch
Hong Qi Watch
Hong Qi Airplane
Hong Qi Dial
Hong Qi Vintage
Hong Qi Bracelet
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Peacock

Peacock PCG0201 1950 Chrono Watch Review

In my post that introduced the first Peacock watch, I did gave a short introduction of Peacock, which is a very famous watch brand in China, its predecessor is Liaoning Watch Factory that was established in 1957 in Dandong City, Peacock is one of the China’s earliest important watch manufacturers that could research and develop movements by themselves, the other threes are Shanghai, Sea-gull and Beijing. In all Chinese watches, Peacock watches are much more expensive because Peacock only makes high-end mechanical watches, you may know little about Peacock watches, but I guess a lot of watch fans have worn the watches with the movements made by Peacock, you know what I am saying.

This Peacock watch looks similar to one Sea-gull watch I introduced before, it is D304 Pilot watch, both watches’ design has paid a tribute to the Chinese military watches made in the 50s. This Peacock watch comes from the Perfection Classic 1950 series, the official chose the number 1950 because it is a highly significant year in China’s military history, in 1950, The Chinese People’s Volunteers crossed the Yalu River to participate in the “War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea”, so this Peacock watch paid a tribute to this military activity.

There are two models, one has a white dial, the other has a salmon color dial, both watches are powered by Peacock PAX8610 movement, which is a hand-winding mechanical movement.

The watch comes with a green box, which is the most high-end watch box I have ever seen in all China watches. Its watch case is made with 316L stainless steel, it is measured to be only in 38.5mm in diameter, not big, but the thin polished bezel just accentuates the big dial, which is covered by a sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating.

On the white dial, the Arabic hour markers are engraved, there is a certain depth you can see, very impressive, it is said that each number is hand-engraved by a watch master. All hands are stainless steel and are maintained in the same blue color. There are two sunken small dials, one is at 3 o’clock acting as a 30-minute chronograph counter, the other is at 9 o’clock, which displays the smooth moving of a small second hand. The dial contains two parts, the outermost tachymeter and center white dial.

Through the crystal back, we can see the hand-winding movement, which epitomizes horological artistry in its purest mechanical form. A man should have at least one watch with such a movement in his collection. The movement beats 21,600 times per hous and has a power reserve of 38 hours.

Peacock watch and box
Peacock Perfection Classic 1950
Peacock 1950 Wrist Shot
Peacock 1950 Movement
Peacock Salmon Dial
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Peacock

Peacock Plumage Gaze Hand-Made Guilloché Tourbillon Watch Review

Peacock, which is a watch brand created in Dandong of Liaoning in China, has been in watch industry for a long time, however, this watch company is not well known outside, even most Chinese people do not know this brand. Peacock indeed has a very long watch-making history in China, their watches were more popular than Sea-gull during a period in the past, and Peacock also has made a big contribution for the development of the entire Chinese watch industry. There are a few factories in China that can make movements, there is a certain connection between them and those watch makers that sell fakes, we know the replicas watches coming from China are popular all over the world, what movements inside them? It is not hard to find that most are made in China, some are from Japan. That is the contribution these movement factories have made, because a lot of companies that sold fakes before now have created their own watch brands, so that is a great contribution these watch factories have made, including Peacock.

Let us talk about this Peacock watch, which is a new arrival from this company, the watch is a little bit like the Royal Oak 15400 from Audemars Piguet, but it does not copy the designs of any Swiss watch, it is completely independently designed by Peacock and draws the inspiration from the animal Peacock, several watch parts reflect this.

The watch is made with 904L stainless steel, which is more corrosion resistant, few Chinese brands decide to use this type of stainless steel in their watches because its higher cost. The case has a diameter of 40mm and is measured to be only in 9.8mm in thickness, its case has a special diamond shape that looks like a feature on the peacock. The chamfering on the sides of the diamond makes it highly contrast with the brushing finish on the case base. There are six screws on the bezel, each screw is in hexagon-shape and has an unique pattern on that looks like the Ocelli on the feature of the peacock.

The dial has three color options, white, light blue and salmon. The dial is the biggest highlight, it uses Guilloché craftmanship and the entire dial looks like the spreading tail features of a peacock. The Guilloché dial is completely hand-made. The round window opened at 6 o’clock is like the eye of a peacock, and the rotating tourbillon device is like its eyeball.

The design of wide-at-the-top and narrow-at-the-end on the bracelet makes it look more seamless integration with the case. On the edge of the bracelet, there is top quality chamfering and polishing, I have not found such high quality polishing finish on the bracelet of other Chinese watches, this greatly guarantees the wearing comfort.

The watch is equipped with a hand-winding tourbillon movement that is developed by Peacock. From the crystal back, there is Côtes de Genève. Tourbillon movement is more accurate, but I would rather it had been equipped with an automatic movement and then do a good decoration on the plate and auto rotor, just they did that on the dial, that will catch more attention. This movement ruins such a great idea, is it okay to say it this way?

Peacock Watch Box
Peacock Tourbillon Watch
Peacock Tourbillon
Peacock Guilloché
Peacock Tourbillon Movement
Peacock Clasp
Peacock Wrist Shot