Parnis Open Heart Chronometer with Sea-Gull ST 2505 Power Reserve and Tourbillon Cage

Parnis 2505

by Tom Adelstein


This is a Parnis Chronometer, which implies the precision and accuracy of a marine chronometer.

The manufacturer refers to this particular model as an Open-Heart - a very popular copy of a vintage timepiece. It has an actual Tourbillion cage over the balance mechanism which accounts for the style, but it's not a true Tourbillion. It's doubtful that Sea-Gull would sell it's Tourbillion movement sans their own cases.

None-the-less extraordinary value exists in the watch and you can see numerous variations of this timepiece on this link:  Parnis 2505.

Often, Parnis watches with Sea-Gull movements resemble the design of Sea-Gull's timepieces. For example, the 2505 (to the right) resembles both Sea-Gull's model ST8004ZA and 219.327   The 8004 is a tourbillon. The latter model is almost identical to the Parnis.

There's a close resemblance between Parnis and Sea-Gull. That doesn't discount the 2505.

Sea-Gull ST8004

The Parnis watch has plenty of value on it's own.

To achieve its the accuracy of a chronometer, this Parnis uses a tier 1 Sea-Gull Tianjin movement - ST 25. The last two digits of this movement (2505) indicates the configuration of a 1) power reserve indicator, 2) sweep second hand and 3) a date indicator.

Watch out the Chinese are Coming

We're beginning to see the moniker "Chinese Made". It's an obvious knock on the Swiss who outsource their "Swiss Made" watches to Chinese Watch Factories. When ETA finally deserted their long-time clients in a move considered as unfair trade, heads turned to Sea-Gull. Sea-Gull has picked up the slack.

Many people put Chinese watches in a lower class than Swiss ones. While that maybe generally true if you through in makers like Curren, Gor, Sinobi, (and similar brands),  Parnis watches with Sea-Gull movements have world-class appeal. They provide a way to purchase a high-end quality timepiece otherwise unavailable at this price point.

Seagull 219.327

This Open-Heart model has several unique features, which include self-winding automatic movement, a 316L marine grade brushed stainless steel case, Sieko Hardlex* crystal front and back, leather band with tang buckle, a 43 mm diameter popular mid-size case, 14 mm case thickness and water resistance to the 3 atmospheres.

*Hardlex(tm) is a scratch proof fused crystal providing the clarity and flexibility of mineral glass and the scratch resistance of sapphire.

*Sea-Gull finished the movement with perlage, colimaçon and the use of blue screws, which are indicative of hand finishing of bridges and weighs to indicating the company's top tier movements. It has a 25 jewel movement and jewels in the weight.



If you want additional information on the Sea-Gull tier 1 movements click here and move down the page to the subtitle "Quality of Sea-Gull Movements".

Parnis 2505 Back