![]() Effectively, then, the ST19 is a Swiss legacy machine whose production was sustained in China. Today ETA and Sellita run that show, but neither makes a replica of a vintage movement or has an older movement design still in production like SeaGull does with the ST19. That this workhorse movement is still made by SeaGull in China today is rather fascinating in its own right, because nothing like an affordable column-wheel chronograph survived for very long in Switzerland. Apparently China was importing Venus 175s, which are famous chronograph movements from Switzerland, and in the 1960s the Chinese company SeaGull began build identical movements under licenses in their Chinese plants. To understand more fully the accomplishment of this SeaGull movement, a little history may help. But it’s not quite like clicking an ultra-high end column-wheel chronograph, of course, with the main difference being that the pushers have a few millimeters of play before they actuate – so a little less “crisp” as we watch nerds like to say. The feel of the chronograph pushers is quite nice, and has that definitive click that column-wheel chronograph mechanisms are famous for. ![]() Again, hour-measuring is accomplished by the 12-hour rotating bi-directional bezel, should you choose to set it. Two-register chronographs like this one are more legible than those without, simply due to the lack of a third sundial for tallying the hours. That’s helpful because this is a manually wound movement, and you can expect to be setting the time now and again, as one does with any manually-wound watch. The crown here does not screw down, and there’s no date, so setting the time is a simple affair. I own a different Hemel with this configuration, and it’s very useful. The Functions of The Hemel AirfoilĪ 12-hour bezel on a two-register chronograph is heaven-sent because it gives you a way to measure elapsed hours (set it to the hour hand when starting your chronograph), and it can also be used to track a second time zone. Rather than boring you with verbiage on the dial details, please enjoy the following photographs at your leisure and study them for yourself. The airfoil may be his best work yet in this regard, as the watch feels inevitable, given, and “just right.” The more I learn about design, the more understand that it boils down to proportions, materials, and colors. Marvin Menke, who founded Hemel after a career as a freelance branding and graphic designer in New York City, is an exceptional designer. At 42mm across, you’d think these watches would feel huge, but the stout lugs and impressive 13.4mm thick case make the Airfoil feel distinctly like a 40mm watch on my wrist. The Design of The Hemel Airfoilġ970s British Military chronographs provide the template for the Airfoil. Quietly and slowly, brands like Hemel are showing us the world as it really is: diverse, complex, and vastly interconnected. I’ll go a step further and suggest that Vintage Nationalism and single-origin myths about watchmaking rely on (and perhaps bolster) a backward-looking xenophobia. That isn’t snappy Euro-centric marketing, but it’s the truth. As such, the Airfoil is a American-designed 21st Century interpretation of a 1970s British pilot’s chronograph, built around a Chinese movement that’s based on the Swiss Venus Cal 175 from the 1940s which China imported until the 1960s when SeaGull licensed and started making the same exact movement in Chinese plants, where it is still made today. Instead of forcing some Vintage Nationalism into the brand, with Hemel we just get the facts, and the facts spell out a far more accurate – and, frankly, inspiring – picture of today’s globalized, interlocking, collaborative, international industries. Hemels’ marketing materials and watch dials are refreshingly bereft of these shaky claims of single-origin manufacturing, which I’ve dubbed “Vintage Nationalism.” Like all of Hemel’s watches, the Airfoil foregoes superfluous – and often dubious – claims to being “Swiss Made,” or “Assembled in America,” or whatever Euro-centric claim so many smaller watch brands feel they can get away with. SeaGull ST1901 Mechanical Hand-Wound Column Wheel Chronographįor $499 US, Hemel is offering their new Air Foil chronograph that houses the well regarded Seagull ST1901 mechanical column wheel chronograph movement from China.
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