H-SPOT - Chinese Watches

Chinese Watches

A-Z A complete listing of all watches shown in alphabetical order.

Mechanical Watches powered by a traditional, mechanical movement.

Quartz Watches with battery-powered quartz movements.

Electric/Electronic Battery-powered watches with electro-mechanical, electric or electronic movements.

British Watches made in Great Britain.

Chinese Watches made in China.

Russian Watches made in the Soviet Union or modern-day Russia.

Japanese Watches made in Japan.

American Watches made in the USA or by/for American companies.

Military/Space Military and Space related watches including homage and commemorative pieces.

Pilot/Aviator Watches intended for pilots or with some aviation connection.

Sport/Diver Watches associated with a sport or a particular sporting event or personality.

Pocket Pocket watches.

Movements For those interested in what makes watches tick! A selection of watch movement pictures.

Links A selection of links to the interesting websites of other collectors.

Alpha direct read:
Alpha watches are made in China to an impressively high standard given their modest price. This one (which cost about £20 including delivery from Hong Kong) is reminiscent of the "direct read" digital watches of the 1960's/1970's. The watch is powered by a mechanical, 21 jewel automatic movement.

Alpha Jump Hour:
Perhaps not a true "jump hour" as such, what they've done here is replace the hour and minute hands with dials that are numbered anti-clockwise. As the dials rotate clockwise, the time can then be read off against an index mark printed on the viewing window - an interesting addition to any collection I think. The watch is powered by a mechanical, 21 jewel automatic movement.

Alpha "Reverso" / Reversata:
OK, so whilst this isn't a true JLC-type Reverso, it's a double-sided watch that can be worn one side up or the other. To reduce the overall thickness of the final watch, the rotors at the bottoms of two automatic movements are removed. Thickness is further reduced by relocating the second hand from the centre position of one movement to a subdial located at 6 O'Clock and then removing the second hand of the other movement but exposing the balance wheel to serve the function of a second hand instead. The two movements are then fused together to form a double-sided, hand-winding watch with hands independently adjustable on each side giving dual time zone functionality. Alternatively, the hands on each side can of course be set to the same time and you can then just wear the watch whichever way up you like.

Alpha Skeleton:
Another little marvel from the Chinese Alpha stable. This time a 17 jewel manual wind skeleton watch in a "tank" style.