Hello Dionne,
Thank you for sending in this vintage Chinese made pocket watch to mearto.com or an appraisal. I shall try to help you with that today.
TITLE:
Gold toned base metal, quartz movement, self-winding, pendant set, savonette, hunting case pocket watch with date, made by the Zuanshi Watch Company, Shanghai, China Circa 1960-1970.
DESCRIPTION:
Case: 50mm diameter, gilt gunmetal case, four leaf, hunting case pocket watch with the outer covers both engine- turned and engraved with Fleur-de-Lys designs on one cover and foliate patterns on the other with a leaping antlered buck on the other. There is a fluted coin shaped pendant with push button placed t the three position (savonette) opposite the case hinge. The inside of the covers have Chinese stick figures.
Dial: White enameled dial with black Roman hours, no minute track, date aperture @4, steel skeletonized modern hands with sweep seconds and the dial marked with the ‘diamond’ logo above and “17 jewels, Shanghai China below”.
Movement: Not shown but thought to be a Chinese battery powered quartz movement. Made and standardized in Shanghai China. There are 17 jewels used in the making of the quartz movement. (This company made pocket watches from 1958-1970)
Condition: The case and dial are in very good condition for being made about 50 years ago. This is an inexpensive /Chinese made pocket watch made to look like those made a good deal earlier when such watches were made in Switzerland for export to the Chinese market.
COMARABLES:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Rare-Gold-Toned-Vintage-Pocket-StopWatch-17-Jewels-Diamond-Shanghai-China-1960s/373409377549?hash=item56f0eeed0d:g:-TYAAOSwq~xf3zjS (offered for $100 Canadian dollars with no buyers.)
https://www.joyjewelers.com/modules/catalog/customizer/step1.php?products_id=80948&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0rSABhDlARIsAJtjfCeKkrj5z4EpUQRFI9G6rmrPfHSiA6dPHNLsOe7LXKCAMwNOkALAFJoaAqqpEALw_wcB
(same watch said to be made in Switzerland retail for $100)
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Vintage-China-Shanghai-Diamond-Brand-Mechanical-Stopwatch-Two-Button-Hand-Timmer/392887510954?hash=item5b79eba7aa:g:AacAAOSwJWtfHsRs (shanghai watch company stopwatch offered for $44.)
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Vintage-China-Shanghai-Diamond-Brand-Mechanical-Stopwatch-One-Button-Hand-Timmer/392923574293?hash=item5b7c11f015:g:WhIAAOSwEXxfSdpf (old for $29 on eBay)
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Rare-Gold-Toned-Vintage-Pocket-StopWatch-17-Jewels-Diamond-Shanghai-China-1960s/373399099484?hash=item56f052185c:g:-TYAAOSwq~xf3zjS (Your example sold for $1.00 on eBay)
HISTORY:
ZuanShi Watch Factory:
Although often overshadowed by the more famous Shanghai Watch Factory, the Shanghai Zuanshi Watch Factory had a long and illustrious history, and made significant contributions to the Chinese watch industry.
In 1932 Koo Hai Zheng opened a clock factory in Shanghai called Tak On Clock Factory. These first clocks were branded Double Arrow. The factory was bombed and destroyed in the 1937 Japanese invasion. However, the following year it was rebuilt and renamed Jin Xing (Gold Star) Industrial Association. Production commenced of alarm clocks bearing the now-famous Diamond brand name. These were exported throughout South East Asia. A small quantity of wristwatches was produced using imported Swiss movements.
After the Communist Revolution, production continued as before. Then in 1955, Jin Xing, along with 200 other horological enterprises within Shanghai, were nationalized to form the Shanghai Clock and Watch Industry Company.
In 1958 the factory produced the first pocket-watches bearing the ZuanShi/Diamond brand. The simple zero jeweled design with pin-lever escapement was copied from the Smiths Empire watch made in Britain, the design of which can be traced back to the Ingersoll Yankee of the late 19th Century. The ZuanShi pocket watch was made until 1970, when the entire production line was transferred to Yangzhou Watch Factory, where production continued under the Hongqi brand name.
Shanghai Stopwatch Factory:
Production of stopwatches, primarily for the military, commenced in 1959 with the Model 593. In 1963 the factory produced China's first 1/100th-second stopwatch; a remarkable achievement and a sign of the rapid technological advances made by the factory. Stopwatches became a core product, and in 1966 the factory was renamed Shanghai Stopwatch Factory.
Throughout this time, Diamond brand alarm clocks continued to be exported as well as high-grade 15 jewel, 8-day mantlepiece clocks.
Another great success for this enterprise was the introduction in 1969 of the SM1A wristwatch, again designated Diamond or ZuanShi. This watch featured a slightly oversized movement with unusually large balance wheel and mainspring. Although a simple design, it was capable of impressive accuracy. In 1972, in line with industry trends, the SM1A was upgraded from 18000 beats per hour to a 21600 bph escapement. By the time production ceased in the mid-1980s, the SM1A had been awarded China's Best Wristwatch 10 times!
In 1978 the production of Diamond/Zuanshi brand stopwatches was transferred to the Shanghai Number 2 Clock Factory, which was then designated Shanghai Stopwatch Factory, while the former Shanghai Stopwatch Factory was designated Shanghai Number 4 Watch Factory and continued production of Diamond brand wristwatches and clocks.
The Shanghai Number 4 Watch Factory was renamed the Shanghai ZuanShi Watch Factory in 1986, finally giving full recognition to the brand it had carried since 1939. 1986 was also the year the factory introduced the SB5Z woman's watch. The following year, ZuanShi entered the electronic era with the launch of the DSZ2 quartz watch. Around this time, ZuanShi began exporting SB1Z and SB5Z movements to Romania for Orex watches. This continued into the early 1990s.
During the 1980s and into the 1990s there were big changes to the Chinese economy. Imports increased against which the watch factories needed to compete. As this was a time when quartz watches were starting to become available in the lowest price bracket, simple hand-winding watches were no longer attractive to customers. At the same time factory enterprises were being gradually corporatized, privatized, rationalized, downsized. Shanghai ZuanShi Watch Factory was one of the victims of this process. After a long period of indifferent sales figures, the factory was closed, the equipment sold off, probably to the Shanghai Watch Factory, and the land sold.
PRICING:
Apparently, the retail value of this watch is in the range of $90-$100. This company’s wristwatches sell in the same price range. Therefore, the fair market value of this pocket watch if offered on the watch market would be in the range of $35-$40. There is a distinct loss of interest in the quartz watches today when compared with when this watch was made, at the start of the quartz era, and there is very little interest in Asian made watches from the early second half of the 20th century. I hope this provides you with some useful information about this watch. There are now watches being made in China that are approaching a high grade level of design and quality, but back in the middle 20th century the chinse product was mostly associated with replications and fakes of more expensive watches.
Thank you for choosing mearto.com for your appraisal.
My best,
David