Airport Tribute Kai Tak Airport (Hong Kong) - Day Version

SoRa - Airport Tribute Series

Along with the development of the aviation industry, distances between people had been greatly shortened. A wide variety of business and cultural activities were able to communicate frequently around the world. Since 1903, more and more flights have been successful, leading to more and more people trying to experience the taste of flying. Then in 1914, the first commercial flight took place. The biplane, Benoist XIV, piloted by Tony Jannus carried the world's first passenger from St. Petersburg to Tampa. At that time, the price was 400 US dollars, which is almost equivalent to today's 10,000 US dollars! Since that time, we have officially begun to have air travel and airmail, and the speed of development of the entire aviation industry has also accelerated. Behind all this, besides aviation technology, airports also play an important role.

Airports have over 100 years of history and they are necessary facilities for modern air transportation. To show our respect for airports, we chose a story-telling airport for each place in the world and made it into an Airport Tribute Series artistic watches.

This is the second crossover project with ypluss7880. The dial of each of the Airport Tribute Series is handcrafted and resembles the scene of the selected airport. Only thirty pieces will be produced monthly

No.1 - Kai Tak Airport (Hong Kong)

Although Kai Tak Airport had completed its historic mission in 1988, its uniqueness is still being talked about today. Kai Tak Airport was one of the busiest airports in the world, and its construction in the center of the city had made it one of the most dangerous airports in the world as well. It also had runways extending to the sea, and most importantly, it had witnessed the development of Hong Kong from a fishing village to a world-class city.

History of Kai Tak Airport

At the beginning of the 20th century, Ho Kai and Mr. Au Tak, jointly operated "Kai Tack Land Investment Co., Ltd." to carry out reclamation works on the northern bank of the Kowloon Bay. The reclamation area is named after their joint venture company named Kai Tak Bund. Kai Tak Airport is also named after this.

  • April 1914 Obtained government approval
  • 1916 The reclamation project started and the first phase was completed in 1920
  • February 1924, American Harry Abbott rent a portion of Kai Tak and opened a flying school.
  • January 24, 1925 (Lunar New Year's Day) was the day of the first flight record of Kai Tak, but the flying school was soon closed.
  • 1927 second phase of reclamation completed
  • March 1927, the Royal Air Force's aircraft began to park on the land in Kai Tak.
  • December 1927, the government purchased the land at HK$1,007,250 and began to expand Kai Tak area for use as an airport.
  • 1928, a concrete slipway was built for seaplanes that used the adjoining Kowloon Bay.
  • 1930, the basic airport structure was completed.
  • 1934, Asia first flying institute Far East Flying Training School was opened in Kai Tak.
  • 1935, The first control tower and hangar at Kai Tak were built.
  • 1936, the first domestic airline Imperial Airways operate in Hong Kong
  • 24 March 1936, The first commercial passengers flight 'Dorado' from Penang landed on Kai Tak airport
  • 1939, the first regular runway with a length of 457 meters was completed
  • December 8, 1941, Japanese began the attack to Hong Kong and bombed Kai Tak Airport on that day. Later, the Japanese army expanded Kai Tak Airport and built a second runway. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945.
  • May 1, 1946 The Civil Aviation Department was established
  • 1954, Kai Tak developed into an international airport under the investment of the Lee Family
  • 1958, a new northwest/southeast heading 2529 meter runway was constructed on a promontory into Kowloon Bay.
  • 1962, a passenger terminal building was built.
  • 1970, the runway was extended to 2541m in order to meet the needs of new generation jet aircraft.
  • 1975, the runway was extended to 3,390 meters to meet the long haul operating requirements of the 31 airlines that operated into Hong Kong.
  • 1976, the Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminal was opened.
  • November 11, 1976 Concorde landing at Kai Tak Airport for the first time
  • 1982, Stage 4 development of the passenger terminal building completed
  • 1986, The annual passenger traffic at Kai Tak Airport exceeded 10 million passengers for the first time.
  • 1988, The Stage 5 development of the passenger terminal completed, increasing the capacity to 18 million passengers per annum.
  • 1991, Terminal 2 of the Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminal was commissioned providing an annual air cargo handling capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum. The expansion continue to 1994, and the design capacity of the airport reached 24 million passengers per annum.
  • 1996, Kai Tak Airport reached an important milestone, it handled 29.5 million international passengers, the 3rd place in world passenger traffic. And 1.56 million tonnes of international cargo, making it the world's largest freight volume
  • July 6,1998, at 01:28, after the last aircraft departed for Chek Lap Kok, Kai Tak airport completed it's 73 years of historical mission and was finally retired.

Features

  • The whole series is limited to a production of 30 pieces per month.
  • Handcrafted dial
  • Each watch has an unique serial number.

Dial:

  • Handcrafted three dimensional airport scene

Movement:

  • Japan Time Module (Seiko) Automatic Movement Cal. NH37
  • Manual/Automatic winding
  • 24 jewels
  • 21,600 vibrations per hour
  • more than 41 hours power reserve

Hands:

  • Lumed Hour, Minute, and Second hand
  • Hacking seconds

Case:

  • 44mm diameter
  • 10.8mm thick
  • 316L Stainless Steel
  • Brushed finishing
  • Screw-down 316L Stainless Steel Bottom Cover

Crown:

  • 10mm diameter pumpkin shaped crown

Crystal:

  • Sapphire Crystal with anti-reflection coating

Water Resistant

  • 200m/660ft (20ATM) Water Resistant

Straps:

  • Tooless-strap-changing system
  • 22mm width
  • One set of WWII style genuine leather straps
  • One set of 90/130mm crazy horse genuine leather straps with removable base
  • Military Style Nylon Strap

yplus7880's Inspiration of Design

When I first look at the aerial view of the Kai Tak area, the first thing I notice is the orientation of the runway, it is oriented 134 degrees true north. So I make an adjustment by rotating it 16 degrees clock-wise, so it will align with the 5-11 hour line. By doing so, I can match the visual elements with the hour positions, and make it easier for other city elements to be made.

Then, it is the runway, I shortened the length of the runway so that it is now within the dial's area.

Finally, after finishing the base layout of the whole Kai Tak area, it is about time to deal with scales. As you can see that most buildings will result in smaller than 1mm in length when using real scales. So, I have to simplify the ground plan by grouping buildings into one big block of buildings and align them so that they are now locating on the twelve hour index.

I choose to use the control tower, the passenger terminal building, radar tower, some industrial buildings, a cargo ship and a shipping boat as the hour index.

Regarding the final design. I also included two historical buildings, the Tienchu factory and Wyler Textiles. They were both important manufacturing industries in Hong Kong at that time, both sites have now become residential buildings.

This watch serves as a record of time and represents a part of the global aviation history. And reminded us that many great things are the result of the joint efforts of everyone.

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