Manchukuo Railway Watch

[Ryoyo]

The case is beat up, but it still runs.

[ghp95134]

Nice .... does it keep accurate time like a "railroad standard watch"?

The kanji are:
哈鐵 [or is it 鐵哈?] 鐵 is the old kanji for iron; today 鉄 is used.
I'm wondering what that means??? Iron that is like a fish's mouth moving??? "Iron with an exhaling sound"?? "Iron like a school of fish"?????

哈 is uncommon in Japanese (meanings given above) and I cannot find any good examples. The nearest I can get is by searching in Chinese.
One example in Chinese was

Only used in 哈喇 (hāla, “a kind of top-quality woollen goods produced in Russia”)

So I wonder if a substitution can be made with iron to mean "top-quality iron/steel"???

Cheers,
-- Guy

[Ryoyo]

Haven't really checked the accuracy, I know that aside from the markings on the back its the same type of watch used by the Japanese National Railway the same time period. Since it was for Manchukuo I would think the markings are Chinese rather than Japanese. I know the Japanese word for railway 鉄道 Tetsudo "Iron road" uses the iron kanji.

[Sporter90]

哈鐵 is Harbin Railway.

Harbine Railway was state owned railway. It's in blue color.

large picture

[Bruce Pennington]

Duplicate

[Bruce Pennington]

The emblem in the middle is that of the South Manchurian Railway, or Mantetsu. It's been a while since I read up on these railways, but I THINK SMR controlled them all at some point, didn't they? At least they cooperated with each other in some fashion. I have recorded a Mantetsu blade that was presented by or to the officials of the Harbin railway.
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[Sporter90]

I've not been deep diving into it. According to the map, the section from Harbin to Xinjing is Manchukuo national railway (state owned). From Xinjing to Dalian is privatized, owned and operated by South Manchurian Railway.