Tongji watches were produced in every Chinese province (except Hainan, which didn’t become a province until 1988). One of the provinces whose watch output doesn’t get much attention from Western collectors is Hunan. There were a surprising number of factories in this southern Chinese province. A few months ago I found an article with a list of Hunan’s mechanical watch factories and brands with pictures of some examples. Its author said it was incomplete. The list (translated):

Changsha Watch Factory1, Changzhen (Long March) brand, Changsha brand2
Yiyang Watch Factory, Lanhua (orchid) brand
Yueyang Watch Factory, Yueyang brand
Xiangtan Watch Factory3, Yinhe (Galaxy) brand
Shaoyang Watch Factory, Baoqing brand
Liling Watch Factory, Xiangdong brand, Xianhe (crane) brand
Zhuzhou Watch Factory, Yinyan brand4
Chenzhou Watch Factory, Bin Lu (deer?) brand, Chenzhou brand
Hengyang Watch Factory, Furong/Lotus brand, Nanyue brand, Yanfeng brand5

1The factory name on the casebacks in the pictures is 长沙钟表厂 (Changsha Clock and Watch Factory).
2My list also has a Youyi brand, but I’ve never seen one.
3On my list, the factory name is 湘潭市仪器厂 (Xiangtan City Instruments Factory), but name on the caseback in the picture is 湘潭手表厂 (Xiangtan Watch Factory).
4My list also has a Yinjian (silver arrow) brand, but I’ve never seen one.
5I’ve seen a picture of a Shigu brand watch from Hengyang too.

Of course, most of these watch brands are rare. According to the article:

Due to various reasons, only the Furong brand line watch produced by the Hengyang Watch Factory was approved for batch production.

I don’t necessarily believe that. While Hengyang’s upgraded SN2 and SN3 watches are easily found, Changsha Clock and Watch Factory, in Hunan’s capital city, made watches with SS1 and standard movements, and, while not common, tongji Changsha brand models aren’t exactly rare either.

More recently, I found an article written by a worker from Wuhan who went to Changsha late in 1976 to learn how to build machinery to manufacture tongji movements. It’s an absolutely fascinating account of life in a provincial setting at a very interesting time – shortly after the death of Mao Zedong and during the fall of the Gang of Four. More relevant to this post, it describes in some detail the challenges of designing precise equipment to manufacture standard watch movements. Even though the author consistently called the factory Hunan Watch Factory and said it was 20 km away from the city, I can’t imagine it would be anything but Changsha Clock and Watch Factory, especially considering the fact they were manufacturing movements.

(On an aside, it appears possible that Wuhan Watch Factory wasn’t making tongjis at this time. If that’s true, it’s quite impressive that, reportedly, Wuhan brand watches were given a Grade 1 rating in 1980. By 1983, however, they were downgraded to Grade 2. No Hunan-made watch brands appear in the 1983 grade and price list.)

Another article said the television factory in Shaoshan moved to Changsha and merged with Changsha Clock and Watch Factory in 1984. It’s possible mechanical watch production slowed considerably or even stopped at this time. I’ve never seen a Changsha-made watch that looks like it was designed in the second half of the 1980s.

My new Changsha brand watch has an attractive textured dial.







The movement is unsigned. It may or may not be original to the watch. I’ve seen other Changsha-made movements signed with the CS logo on the bridge and under the balance.




A number of years ago, I saw a Yinyan brand watch on Taobao. I tried to buy it, but someone else grabbed it before the agent I hired got around to it. Since then I’ve seen a small handful for sale, but they were expensive and/or not in good condition. My patience was finally rewarded.



Yinyan watches were manufactured by the watch factory in Zhuzhou, a relatively short distance south of Changsha. Literally translated, the brand name is silver swallow. It’s an affectionate term for an airplane. The choice of brand name could have been related to the Chinese aviation industry’s presence in Zhuzhou since the early 1950s, but I don’t know how significant it was. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information about Zhuzhou Watch Factory.







The movement’s finishing and the inscription under the balance, M82, is consistent with the movements inside my Songshan and Shaolin brand watches from Luoyang.