Free China Journal Issue # 60, October 2, 1993

Here is an issue of the Free China Journal, Issue # 60, October 2, 1993 that I found somewhere recently.

Leads with this story of a hijacking of an Tu-152 from Mainland China to the ROC.

And there is a cartoon making fun of Mainland China losing the 2000 Olympic bid to Sydney.

Of course, China has since held the Olympics Games - in 2008 to be precise.

And here is the rest of the newspaper for lovers of history to peruse at leisure.

PTS Resources Catalog 2014-15 Chinese Movements

New catalog of Chinese (mostly) movements available on the PTS Resources website.

PTS Resources Catalog 2014-15 (opens PDF)

IT-663N Talking Electronic Watch

IT663N iTaiTek, a cheap Chinese talking watch which tells time in Russian. 

These talking watches first appeared in Russia in the early 1990s and were much ridiculed but simultaneously developed a cult status and a devoted, if rather small, following. This one is a current version.

The watch is really cheap, RUB 150 which is about US$3 and that's a retail price.

Basically I bought it to hear it talk... and also because I am generally into cheap affordable watches.

Hear it talk and tell time in Russian in this mobile phone video.

Curious alarm signals -- what sounds like a cuckoo, a cock crowing and a Russian folk song playing. I understand you can also make it tell the time every hour on the hour.

I haven't checked any other functions; in fact, haven't even set it properly but everything appears to work.

The case back.

A talking watch is useful for partially sighted or when telling time in the dark.

Montana... a digital watch

A cheap Chinese electronic watch called for some reason "Montana".

Quite some history behind this watch, in a previous incarnation it was made in Hong Kong when Hong Kong was one of the pioneers and centers of electronic watch design, almost on a par with Japan in the late 1970s and the 1980. This watch was well known in the USSR.

But this version is a cheap Chinese version, whilst retaining the functionality of the original though, especially its famed "melodies" or simple tunes.

You can buy them say in Moscow for RUB 150 which is about USD 3 or 4.

The post Soviet Electronika-77 watch is said to be a clone of the Hong Kong predecessor of this watch lacking only its "hourly chime" and being more honest with the number of the melodies, see below.

Lots of things that are bad (cheap) about this watch: for starters, the bracelet is very poor, too small, made of like tin foil and dropping its push bars easily.  The buttons are not very responsive on this particular specimen. Other than that everything works. 

The number of "melodies" is not 16 as stated but 7 or 8.

AviaDarts 2014 Show

AviaDarts 2014, an aerial gunnery show
Su-25 in a ground attack

More here in a Jalopnik post

PTS Resources Catalogs 2012 and 2013

PTS Resources Limited is a Hong Kong-based supplier of watch movements. The company offers Chinese movements -- pretty much everything from hand-winding movements, to automatics, skeletons and to movements with various complications, including tourbillon movements, as well as movements from other countries.

More information about PTS Resources is on the Chinese Watch Industry Wiki website, including a recent review and an explanation of their caliber designations.

PTS Resources-supplied movements are used by many watchmaking companies around the world, and here in Russia I have certainly seen their movements in watches made by some Russian companies (usually the cheaper ones, the cal. 2650S skeleton is, you can say, ubiquitous). 

PTS Resources Limited website.

Two catalogs can be viewed from the company website:

PTS Resources 2012-13 Catalog

PTS Resources 2013-14 Catalog