China Watches Review – Chinese Homage Watches Guide

Chinese Watch Ranking(Constantly Updated)

Post author By Bob
Post date September 14, 2025
No Comments on Chinese Watch Ranking(Constantly Updated)

Having seen a lot of Chinese watches and will continue to do reviews on more watches from China, now I think it is the right time to categorize and give a tiered ranking of these Chinese watches, so that you guys can know them better. When doing this job, I will not refer to any ranking guide on the internet, I am just talking my opinion, and this article will be constantly updated.

S(Superior): Sea-gull, Beijing, Shanghai, Peacock

Sea-gull, which is the first Chinese watch most of you guys know, is the most important watch brand in China. At the same time, Sea-gull not only makes watches, but they are also one of the biggest movement manufacturers in the world. From the basic three-hand watches to complicated technologies like tourbillon, perpetual calendar and minute repeater, you can find in Sea-gull collection. The ST2130, which is made according to ETA 2824, is used in many Sea-gull watches and other niche brand watches. Despite any other eye-catching watches on the market, Seagull is and will always be the foundation of Chinese watches.

Beijing watch is also a great brand and has a history as long as Sea-gull. The first tourbillon watch made in China was from Beijing Watch Factory. Besides, Beijing watch also makes complicated watches such as chronograph, minute repeater, perpetual calendar and tourbillon, Beijing Watch has mastered the art of seamlessly blending Chinese cultural motifs into its timepieces.

Like Sea-gull and Beijing Watch, Shanghai Watch also has had a glorious history. Shanghai Watch is also one of the main movement manufacturers in China, their movement is used by a lot of watches, especially the chronograph movement developed by them. There was a time, Shanghai watch was more popular than Sea-gull, those Shanghai watches made in old times still have a high value in the market today.

Shanghai A581 Re-edition — A re-edition of the Shanghai A581, which was very popular in the 1960s and 1970s.

The fourth watch in this tier is Peacock, whose predecessor is Liaoning Watch Factory or Dandong Watch Factory, only make high-end watches, most watches have higher prices than the three mentioned above. Their main research is on tourbillon watches, so they have a full set of tourbillon models. Like Sea-gull, Peacock has strong movement development capabilities.

These four watches in S tier may not be the most popular watches in China, but they are all alike in one way, that is they can research and manufacture movements independently.

Tags Beijing Watch, Peacock, Sea-gull, Shanghai Watch, ST2130, Tourbillon

Sea-gull

Sea-gull 70th Anniversary Rattrapante 1077

Post author By Bob
Post date September 7, 2025
No Comments on Sea-gull 70th Anniversary Rattrapante 1077

Tianjin Watch Factory, which is the predecessor of today’s Sea-gull Watch Company, was founded in 1955, in 2025, it is the 70th anniversary of this watch factory, to celebrate, Sea-gull has published some attractive new models in this year, the one with the most advanced watch-making technology should belong to this split-second chronograph watch, which has a reference 418.13.1077, the split-second chronograph watch, which is also known as double chronograph watch, is a high-end technology in watch-making field, now it finally has been achieved in a Chinese watch. In recent days, I was thinking to make a Chinese watch tire list so that people can know them better, when I did researches, I saw some websites already reviewed this, but they did not include Sea-gull in the first tire, I can not understand, is there any watch better than Sea-gull in China? In my opinion, Seagull deserves a place at the pinnacle of watchmaking in China.

This Sea-gull is the most affordable split-second chronograph watch I have ever seen, it is only sold at $3300, will it be another great challenge to the Swiss watches? I saw it is being sold very well on Sea-gull business website. For this Rattrapante model, Sea-gull only makes this color. Other than the double chronograph function, the watch has a pretty basic design, there is nothing special about it. For a new watch with a break-through function, Sea-gull did nothing wrong, it is better to keep a basic design to avoid mistakes.

The dial design looks similar to the dial of the D304 Pilot watch I have reviewed before, you can read that review here at https://www.bobswatchstore.com/2022/06/02/sea-gull-21-zuan-d304-pilot-chrono-watch-review/. This watch paid a tribute to the first military pilot chrono watch which Tianjin Watch Factory made. The watch is made with solid titanium, its case is measured to be 42.5mm in diameter and 16mm in thickness. Well, actually I would rather it made with stainless steel. Stainless steel case, white black and black leather band always seem to be a more classic combination for this watch. Two small dials are slightly sunken, the one at 9 o’clock features a steel hand and runs as for regular seconds, the small dial at 3 o’clock with a blue hand is a 30-minute chronograph counter. There are two chronograph hands on the center, one in blue, the other is in silver, which is in line with the tone of those hour markers, the two big hands usually overlap unless you start the chronograph.

Through the crystal back, we can see a hand-wound movement, which is the newly developed ST1961 from Sea-gull. It is excited to see the working of the machine, this movement has 27 jewels, 39 hours power reserve and a 21,600 bph. How about its stability? It needs to be tested, the most direct way is to use its chronograph function often, although I do not suggest.

Tags 1077, Rattrapante, Sea-gull

Thorn

Thorn Submariner T023 Review

Post author By Bob
Post date August 31, 2025
No Comments on Thorn Submariner T023 Review

I’ve always had a special feeling for vintage watches, when some brands release retro-style watches in the market, I always find myself taking a second look. I like vintage Rolex Submariner very much, but there are no brands that specilize in manufacturing homages of vintage Rolex Submariner, Baltany makes some, like the S4084 and 1926 Oyster I introduced before, but they do not have the Submariner-style homage watches that can attract me. I have a project, if someone is interested in, we can cooperate. We can design several Submariner-style watches, and offer several band options for each watch to provide the wearer with more fun, this is a great idea, I think.

Today, when I browse the taobao website and found this Thorn watch, whose reference is T023. About Thorn, it is the first time for me to introduce this brand, like most other homage brands coming from China, Thorn makes homages of Rolex, Blancpain and Tudor, this Thorn shown below is a great Tudor homage. Like other Chinese watches, the watch parts are probably made in Dongguan city of Guangdong province, no need to take a deep look at the background of this brand, there are too many micro brands like Thorn in China.

T023 has three dial colors for you to choose, brown, black and blue, I chose this one in blue, the dial style looks like a Tudor Black Bay, but its dial has the printing of “SUBMARINER”, has Rolex even published a vintage Submariner like this? However, the color looks nice on this watch.

The leather box is nice, it looks better than the one from Baltany.

That pillow inside can be taken out.

This Submariner style watch looks great.

The blue bezel is made with aluminum and has been slightly brushed, it looks vintage style. The bezel is uni-directional rotating.

The blue dial has the same background color as the blue on the bezel. The hour markers are slightly raised from the dial, because they are filled with yellow luminous material.

The crystal is made with sapphire, well, this is a feature on modern watches, I would like it with a plexi. But the sapphire crystal is domed and has rounded finish no the edge, it is good.

On the edge of the case, you can see polished finish.

The case has been measured by me, it has a diameter of 40mm, a thickness of 12.3mm. Actually for a diving-style watch, not too thick. You know, the sapphire crystal rises about 2mm above the bezel.

The watch comes with a vintage riveted bracelet, the clasp is very clean and polished on one side. On back side, there is engraving of “Thorn Watch Co”. On the buckle, there is THORN logo.

Inside, the watch has a PT5000 automatic movement, which is made in China and a great alternative to the Swiss ETA 2824-2. Together with NH35, both are used in low-end Chinese homage watches. The PT5000 has 38-hour power reserve and 28,800 bph, the manufacturer of this movement claims that PT5000 has an accuracy rating of +/- 12 seconds per day.

Tags T023, Thorn

Specht & Sohne

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
1 Comment 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

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories