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AlbertaTime
- Master of Time
- Posts: 4590
- Joined: October 13th 2010, 10:00pm
- Location: Peace River, Alberta
- Contact:
The first teaser of the AMCHPR 2023 China Tour...
I actually got to hold this beauty...
This is the only existing original with the dove on the dial in China (the owner said "in China" but I presume he meant the world) of what would become Shanghai Watch Factory's very first prototype Heping (Peace) wristwatches. The dove on the dial was not seen again until Shanghai's also very rare 30 year anniversary 1985/86 Heping re-issue.
Very few Heping watches were produced at all as they were not marketed, but instead were built (partly by hand) and used as prototypes to perfect the tooling for full production of watches, and both models were built very closely together.
From the Chinese Watch Wiki:
"From the Wiki: "With external sources of movements disappearing after the revolution, the Shanghai Light Industry Bureau and the Shanghai Watch Industry Association organized 58 enterprises to participate in a project to develop an entirely Chinese-made watch. Trial production occurred between 1955 and 1957 until the quality was adequate to justify full production. The 17 jewel, centre second design was based on the Swiss AS 1187, and these first trial watches bore the names He Ping (Peace) and Dong Fang Hong (The East is Red)."
The characters below the handwritten style Heping (和平) and the halfwreath/garland) are: 17 zuan (jewels) in a handwritten style, and Zhongguo Shanghai.
The owner has both rarities, both from 1956, and both in the same spectacular condition. Photos of both (and more rare pieces) will follow in an article about my visit to see him.
This is the only existing original with the dove on the dial in China (the owner said "in China" but I presume he meant the world) of what would become Shanghai Watch Factory's very first prototype Heping (Peace) wristwatches. The dove on the dial was not seen again until Shanghai's also very rare 30 year anniversary 1985/86 Heping re-issue.
Very few Heping watches were produced at all as they were not marketed, but instead were built (partly by hand) and used as prototypes to perfect the tooling for full production of watches, and both models were built very closely together.
From the Chinese Watch Wiki:
"From the Wiki: "With external sources of movements disappearing after the revolution, the Shanghai Light Industry Bureau and the Shanghai Watch Industry Association organized 58 enterprises to participate in a project to develop an entirely Chinese-made watch. Trial production occurred between 1955 and 1957 until the quality was adequate to justify full production. The 17 jewel, centre second design was based on the Swiss AS 1187, and these first trial watches bore the names He Ping (Peace) and Dong Fang Hong (The East is Red)."
The characters below the handwritten style Heping (和平) and the halfwreath/garland) are: 17 zuan (jewels) in a handwritten style, and Zhongguo Shanghai.
The owner has both rarities, both from 1956, and both in the same spectacular condition. Photos of both (and more rare pieces) will follow in an article about my visit to see him.
Curator: Alberta Museum of Chinese Horology in Peace River
"That stone buddha deserves all the birdshit it gets. I wave my skinny arms like a tall flower in the wind." Ikkyu
"That stone buddha deserves all the birdshit it gets. I wave my skinny arms like a tall flower in the wind." Ikkyu
2023 3flushes Media.^^^
