China Watches Review – Chinese Homage Watches Guide

Specht & Sohne Land-Dweller Homage Watch

Post author By Bob
Post date August 24, 2025
No Comments on Specht & Sohne Land-Dweller Homage Watch

Last time, I introduced a watch of Specht & Sohne at https://www.bobswatchstore.com/2025/07/06/specht-sohne-tag-heuer-monaco-homage-review/, which is a great homage watch of the Tag Heuer Monaco, at least a lot of people on forums and reddit like this Specht & Sohne and have recommended it, I do not have particular feelings about this brand, for people who want high quality homages, Specht & Sohne is not what they are looking for, their marketing position is low-end and cheap homage watches of many Swiss brands like Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and so on. However, such homage brands like Specht & Sohne have one common feature, which is acting very fast to produce the homages when those Swiss brands published new models. For example, I have already found that the homage of Patek Philippe Cubitus 5821 and the homage of Rolex Land-Dweller in Specht & Sohne collection, while the Pagani Design that has the similar marketing position still has not produced these two watches. For Specht & Sohne, Pagani Design and others like them, their business in the past is more or less related to the fake watches, so whether the cheap homage brands Pagani Design and Specht Sohne, or higher-end Steeldive, Octopus, Sugess, etc., their development path is similar and their creative thinking is limited. There is no future for them.

How about this Specht & Sohne watch? The price is around $97, not expensive, but you know, many homages are only $50 or even much lower. This watch looks similar to the latest Rolex Land-Dweller, seeing from the front, it looks like a good high-end dress watch, but from the back, the movement seems not to match its high-end image. It has a Miyota movement that is completely naked without any decoration. I would rather a solid case back on this watch.

It is a solid stainless steel watch with a Japanese automatic movement, priced at $97, for a Chinese watch with such a price, you can not ask for too much on the finish, we can see slightly polished edge on the case and bracelet, but not too obvious, on some specific corners, I can still feel sharp. The hour markers also lack rounded polishing on the corner. I can not see sunburst reflection on the dial.

My conclusion

For all Chinese homage watches with Japanese automatic movement whose prices range from $50 to $100, please do not expect too much, they must have compromised on the craftsmanship.

Tags Land-Dweller, Miyota 8215, Specht & Sohne

San Martin

San Martin SN0148 Review

On my blog, I have introduced several San Martin watches, in one of my oldest posts about San Martin, I also talked about the background about San Martin, where are their watches made in and other information. I know many Chinese watches now, they can be classified into different types according to their ways of development, most of them chose the same way, which is copying the designs of Swiss watches and Japanese watches, many people call these watches homages, but San Martin is not simply a homage brand, if you have followed this watch for a while, you will know they were famous for making homages in this field, but now they have watches with their own independent designs, and look very nice, especially the new watches San Martin published in spring of 2025, they got a lot of praises and also shows the path forward for homegrown micro watch brands. Today, I will take one to show, on San Martin’s website, the reference is SN0148. Please see pictures below.

What do you think about this watch? Actually I have not seen such a beautiful watch from China for a long time, I have been tired of those homage watches, you know, this San Martin watch’s design is truly eye-catching, it boldly uses clashing colors in its design, which is blue on the bezel and gradient green on the dial. The gradient green on the dial and the blue color on the bezel perfectly match, both go well together and nothing feels forced. The sunburst finish on the gradient green dial has an intentionally rugged look, it is not refined, but I like this finish very much.

The second selling point on the watch lies in its bracelet, which is a five-row stainless steel bracelet with narrow three links on the middle and two wide links on both sides. The middle three-row links have a higher arch design than the links at both sides. All links on the bracelet have nice polished edge to guarantee a good wearing comfort. By the way, the clasp has a micro-adjustment extension.

At last, the watch is equipped with a Japanese Miyota 9015 movement, which has 24 jewels and beats 28,800 times per hour, the central second hand will stop when you pull out the crown to adjust time. The movement has an inaccuracy of about 10 seconds to 30 seconds per day. This movement is good and best option for San Martin watches, it usually does not have issues and very durable.

Tags SN0148

Vakuy Rigas

An interesting Vakuy Rigas watch

Post author By Bob
Post date August 10, 2025
No Comments on An interesting Vakuy Rigas watch

Sometimes I more like shopping on taobao because you will find a lot of items you have not seen before, some watches you might not even heard of will catch your attention, I have bought several watches there, some readers of my blog also asked me to buy watches for them, I like doing this. Today, I found a very interesting watch on taobao, it is made by Vakuy Rigas, which is the brother brand of Parnis, I already talked this before. What does this watch look like, a U-Boat or a Panerai? It looks weird, not even a homage watch I think. Is there anyone interested in this watch?

The watch has a case that looks like that of Panerai Submersible, it is made with 316L stainless steel and measured to be 44mm in diameter, the bezel has stud markers, while the crown refers to the design of U-Boat. The back is see-through crystal. On the dial, the most unique place lies in its small seconds subdial, which is set at 9 o’clock and looks like turbine. I remember that one IWC watch has this design, does this Vakuy Rigas take cues from that design?

The watch is equipped with a ST2555 movement that comes from Sea-gull, Parnis always used Sea-gull movements, seems like their tradition, they also use Sea-gull movement in the Vakuy Rigas. Rather than black rubber band, the watch looks better on the brown leather band.

Tags ST2555, Vakuy Rigas

Lucky Harvey

Lucky Harvey Striking Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date August 3, 2025
No Comments on Lucky Harvey Striking Watch Review

I like to hear people’s opinions about everything, it is interesting. There are many reviews about watches on the internet, they are about the Swiss watches and watches made in other countries, what do you think about Chinese watches? Many people have no good impression about them because of the fakes, they thought there are only fake watches in China, and maybe the only Chinese watch they know is Sea-gull, however, after years of development in watch-making technology, the Sea-gull indeed has become a world famous brand, but there are also other Chinese watches that have great designs, especially in recent three years, we can see the big progress Chinese watch industry has made, some new brands appeared, I did not know them, after seeing the watches made by them, I was shocked by their designs, take the Lucky Harvey as an example, I think it is the first time for you to hear this brand, their watches are very distinctive, you will be attracted and want to buy one at your first glance, but after a deep review, I do not think they are the Chinese watches you should consider to buy.

Lucky Harvey is a young Chinese watch brand, created by a watch company in Guangzhou. They do not have too many watches in their catalog, but it seems like each of their watches has unique design inspiration, some use dragon as a dial decoration, some use snake. The Lucky Harvey watch shown below is a striking watch, every hour the watch will make a striking sound from inside. I was attracted by this feature initially, but later found this is just a small trick the brand uses to sell the watch at a higher price, which is about 1200 US Dollars, will you pay that money for this watch?

I want to know how Lucky Harvey promotes this watch, its guilloché dial or the striking feature as the main selling point? The guilloché dial is not a good fit for a striking watch, while customers who want to buy a watch with guilloché dial will think the striking feature is just a little trick. Judging by my watch preferences, a watch with guilloche dial should have the matching high quality finish on case and bracelet, and the movement should be displayed through a crystal back and has very good decoration. Sold at such a price, I think the finish on this striking watch was compromised, at least, the finish does not have the same quality as that on the Peacock Plumage watch I reviewed before, https://www.bobswatchstore.com/2025/03/02/peacock-plumage-gaze-hand-made-guilloche-tourbillon-watch-review/, that Peacock also has a good-looking guilloche dial.

There are two buttons, one at 2 o’clock is used to adjust the big date set at 12 o’clock, the button at 4 o’clock is used to open or close the sound. The watch has a 40mm case diameter, but the end link of the bracelet is not too flexible and the watch may not fit for people with small wrist.

Tags Lucky Harvey, Striking Watch

Vager Hauers

Vager Hauers Paranoia Small Seconds – not bad but too conventional

Post author By Bob
Post date July 27, 2025
No Comments on Vager Hauers Paranoia Small Seconds – not bad but too conventional

I have always been attracted by the small seconds watch, just as the name implies, this type of watches does not have a central second hand, while its second hand is set on a subdial that is usually positioned at 6 o’clock on the main dial. I like such watches, and I have already had several pieces, the most favorite one is the Sea-gull ultra thin which I have shared a review in the past, sometimes such watch has a simple and fresh design that brings me a sense of calm and comfort. I know there are a lot of small seconds watches made in the Switzerland that look more classic, but with more expensive prices, I can not afford, so, sometimes I like browsing on Taobao to seek for the watches I like, in most cases I will get some results and make decision between several good ones. Chinese watches are good alternatives to those Swiss watches, they have similar designs, but the prices are much more affordable, I did not mean fakes here. For Vager Hauers, I knew this brand months ago and have found they made excellent watches, at least their watches have good designs and more creative than most other Chinese watches. I posted reviews on two watches from Vager Hauers, one is the Yuan Heng Li Zhen that has a strong Chinese culture, the other is a clown tourbillon watch, today, the Vager Hauers watch I am going to share here is a small seconds watch that looks more formal and suitable for most men.

Do you like this watch? I think most of you guys will say yes, but I do not like as much as I firstly saw it, the watch looks great, especially the beautiful blued steel hands, which is part of the reasons for many people to buy this watch at their first glance. Honestly, I am starting to feel a bit tired of this watch’s design, too many circles on the dial, after wearing it for several weeks, I feel it does not look as classic as my Sea-gull ultra thin watch, I admit the black and white color combination is always a secret code to make a successful small seconds watch. I am not familiar with Swiss watches, but the circles design on this watch’s dial looks familiar, do any Swiss watches use the same design, Patek Philippe?

Do not go deep into the area of homage field, this is the advice for Vager Hauers. They did very well before, integrated the Chinese culture into the watch designs, hope they can stay on this path, now no Chinese watches have made success in this field, this is a great opportunity for them. If they truly want to position the brand in this direction, they should probably avoid producing this type of watch.

Tags Small Seconds, Vager Hauers

Giveaway

Eutour Watch Giveaway

I almost forget it, now the giveaway for July comes, this time, one Eutour watch will be sent as a prize.

I thought many of you guys may not know this brand, but there have been a hot discussion and many reviews about Eutour on the internet when I did a search. Before introducing the gift watch today, I want to give a short introduction about the brand Eutour.

Absolutely Eutour is a Chinese brand, and it is registered by a company in Guangzhou. When I firstly saw this watch, I thought it was a toy for children, after the second look at the watches on their website, I think some model are worthy of a try. I am not surprised by how high quality the watch is because it does not have, choosing this Eutour watch as a giveaway and give its introduction just because its fresh and simple magnetic design. To be honest, I did not figure out how it work when firstly saw the watch in last month, so today back to this watch again for the second look, I think I figure it out. The watch is powered by a quartz movement inside, which controls the movement of the two balls by two magnetic disks, am I right? For the first time, I read a wrong time, now I know the inner ball tracks minutes, the outer ball tracks hours. In the video below, now the time is 3:00, not 12:15. When you shake the watch, the outer ball moves but will be back to its position after you stop shaking.

The watch has a case diameter of 40mm, it is measured to be 12mm in thickness. The entire watch has a weight of 79 grams. The movement is a Miyota quartz, which is very durable. By the way, there is no crystal on the top. The engraved bezel is fixed, not rotatable.

Now, back to the giveaway, I will send this watch in video for free if you guys do the following things.

1.Leave your comments here and invite three of your friends to leave comments.

2.Share my blog address https://www.bobswatchstore.com/ to watch forums(at least two) and reddit.

This giveaway will end on July 30. One winner will be chosen on July 30, he will get this watch, no need to pay any fee.

Tags Eutour

Sea-gull

Sea-gull 70th Anniversary 3415 Green Watch

Post author By Bob
Post date July 13, 2025
No Comments on Sea-gull 70th Anniversary 3415 Green Watch

Tianjin Watch Factory, which is the precursor of Sea-gull Watch Company, was founded in 1955, now it is the 70th anniversary of this big watch factory in China, Sea-gull has published some watches to celebrate this special event, among all models, I like this one with green dial, this model 3415 also has the azure dial color that also looks great.

I like this watch for two things, first, its manual winding movement. I am a big fan of this movement, whenever a watch with it pops up online, I always click to take a closer look, and now Sea-gull rarely makes the watches with manual winding movement, most of the watches they produce are with automatic movement. This Sea-gull watch has a ST2680 movement, I did not find too much information about this movement on the internet, it is claimed to have 18 jewels and beats 21,600 times per hour, it does not have a regulator, there are weights on the balance wheel. Through the crystal back, we can see a big plate that features golden engravings of Sea-gull logo, a movement with simple designs and decoration, the base plate has fish-scale finish, and the plates on top have Geneva Stripes.

The second thing I like on this watch is its dial, which has an aqua color and unique snow patterns. The sword-shaped hour hand and minute hand are polished very well and have a tri-dimensional look, on the end of the central second hand, there is a Sea-gull logo. Do you like the blue or green below? The green one also looks very good on the matching green nylon band. By the way, the watch has a diameter of 41mm and is measured to be 9.9mm thick. The green one with hand-winding movement also has a vintage feel.

Tags 3415, Sea-gull, ST2680

Specht & Sohne

Specht & Sohne Tag Heuer Monaco Homage Review

Post author By Bob
Post date July 6, 2025
No Comments on Specht & Sohne Tag Heuer Monaco Homage Review

I have been looking for a good homage watch of Tag Heuer Monaco in the market for some time, but it is hard to find because none of these micro brands I reviewed have made this square watch. Several days ago, when I did searches of watches on Taobao, I found Specht & Sohne, I did some background research on this brand, it is a watch company whose registered address is in Shenzhen, but the watches are shipped from Guangzhou. Almost all their watches are powered by quartz, most are Patek Philippe homage watches.

Tag Heuer Monaco is my dream watch and I think it is the most classic square watch in the world. If there is a super clone of this Tag Heuer watch, I will buy one, but in replica watch industry, no factories are making a super clone of this watch. Before Specht & Sohne, I found another Chinese brand is making a homage watch of this Tag Heuer, it is Prototype, but they make that watch at a very high price, I can not afford. This Specht & Sohne with a quartz movement is perfect to cure my obsession.

When I received the watch, the first impression is it is heavy. Its big case is made with solid stainless steel. The case is thick, with a quartz movement, I do not know why its case is so thick, which is about 15mm. From left to right, if the crown included, the case is 43.3mm. From top to bottom, it is 39.6mm. The case is brushed, with polishing finish on the edge, the two chronograph pushers have the same finish. One big reason to explain the heavy weight of the watch is that the stainless steel case back is very thick.

The dial looks great, its quality is beyond my expectation, the watch is less than $70, and I can see a great sunburst finish on the dial. The color usage on the dial is also like that of the Tag Heuer Monaco. There are two vertical stripes in blue and orange on the right half of the dial. The orange color on the dial is exactly in line with the color of the stitching on the blue leather band. The two small dials have real functions, the one at 9 o’clock is 60-minute chrono counter, the other at 3 o’clock is for 24-hour display. Both central hour hand and minute hand have sharp edges.

My conclusion:

Few choices of Tag Heuer Monaco homage models, around $60 or $70, this Specht & Sohne should be the best one. To compare with Pagani Design watches, and I do admit that Pagani Design watches have better case finish. But they did not make this watch.

Tags Monaco, Quartz, Specht & Sohne, Tag Heuer

Prototype

Prototype Zeta Starmaker Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date June 29, 2025
2 Comments on Prototype Zeta Starmaker Watch Review

I did not know there was such a brand watch before, but many years ago I have learned this word from Panerai because they made outstanding prototype watches in its history. Yesterday, when I did searches about if there are any good homage watches of Tag Heuer Monaco made in China, I found this brand Prototype, on their website, they claimed this is a brand whose headquarters is in Germany, I feel this is a fake claim, just like some brands in China created a false story about their Swiss watch background. Does anyone know the background of Prototype? I found it is just a brand registered by somebody in Guangzhou of China, the watches are also shipped out from Guangzhou.

The watches from Prototype look more high-end than the other homage watches, the quality is at the same level as Farasute, even better than the latter. Most watches from them refer to the design of Rolex, Patek Philippe and Omega, take this watch as an example, its design is similar to that of Omega Speedmaster. I guess Prototype is just a watch brand operated by somebody in a private customization workshop.

The biggest selling point on this watch is its movement, which is a SL4510. This movement was developed by Liaoning Watch Factory, now it is called Peacock, this should be the best chrono movement made in China. Most of you guys may know this movement because it has been popular all over the world because this movement is being widely used in high-end fakes, it has another name, which is Dandong 4130, so you know what I am talking about. Both Farasute and Prototype customize high-end watches, but the movement of Farasute is not as good as the SL4510 used by Prototype. This SL4510 has a power reserve of nearly 60 hours and is extremely stable. However, the movement does not have decoration on the plate and auto rotor, it does not look beautiful, if you care, tell them to use a solid case back when they make the watch for you.

The finish of the watch is super, especially its case and bracelet that have been well polished on the edge, it feels very comfortable to wear, with a working chrono feature, but the watch is not thick, which is only around 12.3mm. By the way, one extra pair of rubber band with buckle will be shipped with the watch.

Tags Prototype, SL4510

Sugess

Sugess S451 Jump Hour Review

Post author By Bob
Post date June 22, 2025
No Comments on Sugess S451 Jump Hour Review

Having written reviews about Chinese watches for some time, I have also done their reserches at the same time, now I have a basic analysis about these brands, they can be divided into four groups, one, traditional watch makers that can also develop movements independently, including Sea-gull, Shanghai, Beijing and Peacock. Second, Tianwang, Fiyta, Rossini, Rarone, Lobinni, these brands are usually more liked by young people, and are listed on top ten watches made in China. Third, micro brands, including San Martin, Steeldive, Sugess, Farasute, Baltany, Pagani Design, Octopus, etc., too many, some are high quality, some just position their watches in low-end market, some have walked out the homage field and published watches with their own designs such as San Martin, so in this group, you may see various brands with different quality, if you want to buy a quality one, please follow my guide. The fourth group has very special watches that have integrated traditional Chinese culture into watch designs, currently I found two brands, they are Vager Hauers and Huasuo, such brands will have a bright future.

Today, I will bring you another Sugess watch, I have reviewed several timepieces from them on my blog, I like their quality, among so many homage watches made in China, Sugess should have a quality that can rank top three. And most people think their Submariner hulk homage is the best one. In the past, I did a review on a Day-Date Rolex homage watch made by Sugess, and my opinion about Sugess is that their quality is worth the price.

Is this watch shown below the cheapest one from Sugess, I found it is being sold at less than $90, with a Sea-gull automatic movement, considering the finish that is better than most watches at this price level, it is a very good watch for people who like this type of watch with only one central hand, the watch also has a little vintage flavor. There are three dial colors for this watch, blue, grey and salmon, every color will work perfectly. Besides its design, I am also attracted by its dial finish, especially the finish on the center of the dial, it is a turbine-pattern finishing, which stands in high contrast with the circled brushing around with minute numbers on. Both small seconds hand and central minute hand are made of steel in blue color. Where is the hour hand? It is displayed in the window set under “SUGESS”, it is a Jump Hour design.

The movement inside is a ST1721 from Sea-gull watch company, it beats 21,600 times per hour, the power reserve is about 40 hours, a very basic movement, the accuracy is acceptable. Well, there is a disadvantage on the watch, the case lacks proper chamfering, edges feel sharp and uncomfortable.

Tags Jump Hour, S451, Sugess

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