SugessSeagull 1963 40MM Sapphire Crystal ST1901 Movement Men's Chronograph Watch 1963 SU1963S40

If this Sub- £200 watch was made in the UK or Switzerland it would probably retail in excess of £2000. The Sugess 1963 Chronograph Watch with the Sea-Gull ST-1901 calibre, really does represent amazing value for money. It is very much in the style of 1960’s watches and were originally produced by the Chinese for their Air Force Pilots. The ST-1901 movement derives from the Swiss Venus Calibre, all the tooling and Licences for which were purchased by the Chinese at the beginning of the 1960’s.This model has a 40mm diameter, Domed Sapphire Crystal Watch Glass and an Exhibition Back. The latter allows you to admire the beautiful and intricate movement. The case is highly polished Stainless Steel which has been finished to a High Standard. It comes with a Green NATO style strap as well as a Leather Strap.The dial is in a Champagne colour with two printed black sub-dials and a printed outer dial. The Print Quality is excellent. The Minute, Hour and sub-dial hands have been blued as have some of the screws in the movement. I’m not sure, but it is likely the blueing has been achieved with an Anodising process rather than the Real blueing which is achieved using Heat (Annealing) and is quite a skilled process. That said, the appearance is Great. The 5-minute indices are a combination of gold-coloured Batons and Arabic numerals, which have been applied to the watch dial giving it a sense of depth and quality. The Red Chronograph sweep second hand goes nicely with the applied Red Chinese Star which itself has a gold-coloured perimeter. It does not have a Date Complication which is my preference. It should also be noted that this Sugess 1963 version does not have any illumination or a Swan-Neck Regulator adjuster.The Sub-dial at 3-o-clock is the 30-minute Chronograph which is started/stopped with the Piston style Push-Piece at 2-o-clock. Once stopped the Piston Style Push-Piece at 4-o-clock can be pressed to reset the Chronograph. The Red Chronograph Sweep Second hand is very smooth running. The Chronograph Start, Stop and Fly-Back are very snappy and positive, which is probably due to the Column Wheel mechanism, which generally is only found in the more expensive Chronograph Watch movements.The Sub-dial at 9-o-clock shows the running seconds, noting that the ST-1901 movement is fully manual, requiring it to be hand wound daily and is non-hacking. Basically, this means the running seconds Sub-dial does not stop when the crown is pulled out to the Hand setting position unlike a Hacking movement.My biggest concern was the Production Quality Control of the Case, Dial and Movement. I can honestly say, the Quality of this watch exceeded all my expectations. Even its accuracy has surprised me, gaining about 2 seconds a day, which is Chronometer territory.One slight regret, that being the Sugess version I purchased, didn’t have the Swan Neck Regulator. Had I known about the Swan Neck version, I would have gone for that instead. It’s a very simple addition to the watch movement, which makes adjusting the watches time keeping accuracy through its Hairspring adjustment screw, very precise.You do need to be aware that future Servicing of this watch may prove to be a challenge in the UK as spares are not readily available and costs of such a Service and Parts could be in excess of the watches current retail price.Despite this, I still believe this is a Fabulous Sub-£200 watch, which IMHO would shame some of the more expensive Swiss Watch Brands.

I cant believe how nice this watch is for the money. I bought it out of curiosity and iv put it on a good quality mesh bracelet and it is great. No negatives at all.

This is a very nice watch and money aside for a moment, your getting a bit of history in design here and a coloum wheel chronograph and sapphire glass. Very nicely finished and 2 strap choices. The movement is nicely finished through the see through back case and although I've not put this on my timegrapher I think it's at about +5-10 seconds a day. I will update on this. At this price point I don't think this can be beaten tbh , I'm something of a collector and this is a very impressive piece of production and design 😄

The watch is fantastic value for money, the mechanical movement in this watch keeps time far better than anything else in this price range. The style is timeless and fits any occasion.

The watch got to me within the prescribed time and I’m very happy with it early days but it seems to keep good time it looks to be a good quality product

Real quality watch you can feel the smoothness of the movement when winding the watch.

Buy this, for the money you won't be disappointed

Superb movement very accurate watch you won't buy a chronograph watch that's better than this