page_title: Chinese standard movement
hierarchical_section_title: Chinese standard movement
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of the Chinese 'Unified Movement' calibre found in many inexpensive mechanical watches.
context_page_description: The Chinese Standard Movement, also commonly known as the "Tongji" movement, is a mechanical watch movement that was developed in the People's Republic of China during its fourth Five-Year Plan in the 1970s. It was designed by engineers from several early Chinese watch factories as part of a Ministry of Light Industry initiative to consolidate the industry, and with a few exceptions it became mandatory for all factories to discontinue the production of their own movements and to mass-produce the standard movement. Because of this, the production of the standard movement defines an entire era in the history of Chinese watchmaking. Once the most commonly produced mechanical/automatic watch movements in China, the numbers produced and their quality have since declined significantly; today the movement lives on typically in simple automatic and skeletonized variants, usually installed in cheaply produced watches made in China as well.
context_section_description: The Chinese Standard Movement, also commonly known as the "Tongji" (Chinese: 统机, "unified") movement, is a mechanical watch movement that was developed in the People's Republic of China during its fourth Five-Year Plan in the 1970s.  It was designed by engineers from several early Chinese watch factories as part of a Ministry of Light Industry initiative to consolidate the industry, and with a few exceptions it became mandatory for all factories to discontinue the production of their own movements and to mass-produce the standard movement. Because of this, the production of the standard movement defines an entire era in the history of Chinese watchmaking. Once the most commonly produced mechanical/automatic watch movements in China, the numbers produced and their quality (at least for a majority of produced movements) have since declined significantly; today the movement lives on typically in simple (even crude) automatic and skeletonized (i.e. using hollowed-out parts and segments such that the inner workings are more visible) variants, usually installed in cheaply produced watches made in China as well.
caption: A typical lower-quality skeletonized variant of the Chinese Standard Movement, frequently found today in cheap mechanical watches mass-produced and marketed by a large number of brand names. Note the rough finishing of the movement. The white plastic spacer ring designed to hold and stabilize the movement in its case is clearly visible around the movement. (photo 2008)
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