What does it mean?

Bazza, lest you mistakenly think I know what I'm talking about, let me preface this comment by saying that I'm guessing. That said, it looks like the above should be read left-to-right, top-to-bottom, and that it is the name of a foreign (to China) company. Not too sure about the top compound... maybe Fidelity?

I decided against getting the watch winder in the end and got a Chinese combination lock instead. :)

洋行.. besides meaning foreign firm, I think 洋行 is an old old term for 银行.

hi Bazza, Great question. The characters you wrote are correct: 谦信 (qiānxìn) looks like its the name of the shop, the meaning is: 谦 humble 信 trustworthy 洋行 (yángháng) is a type of store in Shanghai, circa 50 years ago, that sold foreign imported items.

yes it's the name of a foreign company. 谦,means modest, while 信 means faithful. 谦信 is not a phrase here. We often put single characters together to give 'complex meaning' when it comes to names in China. As you can see, the rule is also being followed by poeple's names.

very interesting!

I just saw it whilst browsing Chinese watches on ebay. Is it worth buying do you think? :) This is the other side:

IMHO Alex Ross and Co. doesn´t sound very chinese so maybe you shouldn´t trust this thing too much ;-)

Might be from Hongkong or 1930s Shanghai.

I think it is worthy :)

Please, somebody else embarrass themselves before someone who knows what they're talking about chimes in.

What about these then? ;)

I've just bought the second one. :)

the first one is a poem wrote by Libai who live in Tang dynasty.The second one compound word (四个字的词语)that means may have a good pregress in your study.

Does the second one say 学案进步?

学业进步

hello ,everyone,i'm new here,i live in shanghai now,anyone in shanghai now?and what yy5925809 says is right

Is there a transcript of the poem somewhere? Are the smaller characters on the left, some kind of signature?

“朝辞白帝彩云间”，首句写诗人的回想，点出开船的时间是早晨，地点是白帝城。“彩云间”是写白帝城的高。彩云缭绕与诗人遇赦的喜悦之情十分和谐。 “千里江陵一日还”，次句写诗人的意愿，形容船行之速，千里江陵只要一天即可到达。诗人用夸张的手法，写了长江一泻千里之势，同时也抒发了诗人“归心似箭”的心情。 第三、四句形象地描绘轻舟快驶的情形。“两岸猿声啼不住，轻舟已过万重山”，两岸猿猴的叫声还没停止，可那轻快的小船已经驶过了千山万岭。这两句诗人先写猿声，继写轻舟，用一个“已”字把“啼不住”和“过万重山”联结起来，借猿声回响衬托轻舟的快捷，这种修辞手法是十分巧妙的。诗人急欲东归的心情，洋溢于诗的明快的节奏之中

It's only £7 at the moment.