China Watches Review – Chinese Homage Watches Guide

Shanghai Diamond Watch Review – Model H301 Flying Wheel

Post author By Bob
Post date April 20, 2025
No Comments on Shanghai Diamond Watch Review – Model H301 Flying Wheel

I introduced Shanghai Watch Factory before, so a lot of people thought that there is only one watch factory in Shanghai, this is not true. Today, I will introduce another watch factory in Shanghai, its name is Diamond, which also has some relationship with Shanghai Watch Factory, because for a period of time, it existed as the Shanghai No.4 Watch Factory, in 1986, its name changed to Shanghai Diamond Watch Factory. Young people living in China may not know this brand, after all most of them even not familiar with Shanghai Watch, but their parents who born in the 1950s or 1960s will still remember iconic diamond logo on the dial, and Diamond watches were very popular at that time. Today, some classic Diamond watches are still being produced by Shanghai Watch Factory or other watch company. In this article, I will show you a Diamond watch with gorgeous look and classic designs.

I remember that I did a review on a similar watch made by Sea-gull, Parnis and Sugess also have watch in this style, it seems like many micro brands in China like producing watches with such designs in the beginning of their development. The case is made of solid 316L stainless steel, it is fully polished with naturally curved lugs that can fit your hand in a more comfortable way. The round bezel looks like a perfect fit for the onion-shaped crown. The case is measured to be 42mm in diameter and 14mm in thickness.

The dial looks amazing, there are two fan-shaped indicators and a big opening, but they do not look crowded on the dial. The small hand at 9:30 on the circular sector is pointing at current date, it can be adjusted through the button on the case at 8 o’clock. The week is displayed through the fan-shaped indicator on the upper right. The big opening window shows a flying wheel with two ended fixed on the dial. The blue hands and artistic black arabic hour markers enhance the elegance of the entire watch. The diamond at 12 o’clock is the brand logo, in our life, diamond is a material that is hard, durable, luxury and rare, the company uses diamond as their brand logo, I think they want to convey their brand concept to customers – an emphasis on quality.

The machine inside is a ST25 movement that comes from Sea-gull watch company. Not sure why a watch coming from Shanghai uses a movement made in Tianjin Sea-gull. This movement has a power reserve of 45 hours and a frequency of 21,600 times per hour. I have had the watch for ten days, now it is 10 seconds faster per day, this is not bad, I like this watch.

Tags Diamond Watch, Flying Wheel, Shanghai Watch

Baltany

Baltany S4084 Watch Review – the best Rolex Datejust homage

Post author By Bob
Post date April 13, 2025
No Comments on Baltany S4084 Watch Review – the best Rolex Datejust homage

Rolex homage watches should be the most popular homages, a lot of micro brands are producing homage watches of Rolex Submariner, Daytona and GMT-Master, but there are very few Datejust homages, this Baltany watch I just bought looks like Rolex Datejust, it has a very good quality, in my memory, I remember that Parnis produced Datejust homages before, but the quality can be not compared with this one from Baltany.

I was really shocked by this Baltany watch when receiving it two days ago, it should be the best Datejust Rolex homage has ever created, I do not know which exact Datejust model it re-creates, Baltany said it takes inspiration of the S4084, but I did not find this Datejust watch online, anyone knows the background of this Datejust watch?

Like the other Baltany watches I have bought, the watch was in a brown leather packet in the black box, there are several accessories in that envelope-style paper bag, including manul book, card, screwdriver and cloth. Compared with my other Chinese watches, Baltany has paid more attention in offering a better packaging and more complete accessories for customers.

The Baltany watch is in two tone, the gold tone on the dial is highly in line with the yellow gold color on the case and bracelet. Besides this yellow gold one, Baltany also has two other styles, stainless steel with silver dial and yellow gold with burgundy dial, please check at https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_oDGCm9B.

The case is measured to be 36mm in diameter, crown not included, it is less than 12mm in thickness. The fluted bezel in yellow gold makes the watch look more classic. The solid stainless steel case back has circled brushing, from different angles, you can see the light reflection that looks like sunburst finish.

The crown has a big B logo in sanded finish on the polished face.

The dial has a very simple design and amazing sunburst finish. You will absolutely think the watch deserves the money as soon as you see its dial, which has a better finish than some Chinese homages at the same price. The Baltany logo, number 60 and the lume dot at 12 o’clock are perfectly aligned. There is a lume dot on the top of each hour marker.

The jubilee-style bracelet is more comfortable to wear, the golden links on the middle are polished, which forms a high contrast with the brushed stainless steel links on the sides. Only the front of the golden links is plated with yellow gold, the side and back are not. I do not think this is a shortcoming of the watch, if the links are fully wrapped with gold, that will greatly increase the cost of the watch, by the way, if the side of the bracelet that contact your skin has been plated with yellow gold, the sweat will also rust the gold and your bracelet will look more ugly.

Conclusion:

Baltany is my first choice when wanting a vintage-style homage watch. This Baltany S4084 is a good option for people who are looking for a Rolex-Datejust-look formal watch. Besides the dial, the NH35 automatic movement is also another selling point of the watch, I have had the watch for three days, now it gains only 4 seconds.

Tags Baltany, Datejust, NH35, Rolex, S4084

Huasuo

Huasuo H002 Gāng Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date April 6, 2025
No Comments on Huasuo H002 Gāng Watch Review

There have been a big development for Chinese watch industry in the past five years, many new brands have pushed the development of China watches to a small climax. These brands include some homage watches such as San Martin, Steeldive, Octopus, Baltany, etc., but what excites me most is some brands are using ideas to make innovations, in this aspect, I am deeply impressed by Ciga Design and Atowak. Today, I will introduce another interesting watch from China, it is made in Dongguan of Guangdong province, the watch reference is H002, like the Vager Hauers watch I reviewed last time, this Huasuo watch also uses certain Chinese character to convey special meaning. By the way, the biggest highlight on the watch is its dial that uses traditional lacquer craft, besides, you can also see different dial materials on other Huasuo watches, including emerald and lazurite.

Another big selling point of the watch is its movement, which is Swiss SW200, this is a real Swiss movement, which has a very similar structure to ETA 2824-2 but is more cost-efficient. The movement has a power reserve of 38 hours, a beat frequency of 28,800 times per hour and 26 jewels. The daily accuracy is within ±12 seconds, few watches in Chinese watches use this high-end automatic movements. During your future wearing, there will be much less or even no issues on the movement.

The red dial looks like a steelmaking furnace, it uses Chinese lacquer craft, hour markers use Chinese character, the “鋼” has two meanings, first, it means “steel” this material, second, it means tough, hard and strong, on this watch, this Chinese character “鋼” refers more to the second meaning. The other Chinese characters as hour markers have their own meaning.

壹 – 1
贰 – 2
叁 – 3
肆 – 4
伍 – 5
陆 – 6
柒 – 7
捌 – 8
玖 – 9
拾 – 10
十一 – 11
十二 – 12

The dial has a lot of styles, I like the red “鋼” and green “森” most. They also accept customization on dial design.

Conclusion:

It is a top quality watch that has a strong Chinese style and a high-end Swiss movement at the same time. After purchasing this watch, you probably won’t have any repairing issues in future, durability, stability and accuracy are all guaranteed. The round case is thin, the lacquer dial increases the elegance and conveys a special Chinese culture.

Tags Huasuo, Lacquer, SW200

Giveaway

April free watch giveaway

Post author By Bob
Post date April 1, 2025
No Comments on April free watch giveaway

No one participated the giveaway I published before, but every giveaway activity I set is real, not a scam, I will choose one winner and send one good watch to him for free. In April, I will choose the following watch as a prize, it is a Escapement Time, with a Seiko VH31 sweeping second quartz movement, sapphire crystal and good quality leather band.

The rules to participate the giveaway:

1.Please share link https://www.bobswatchstore.com/2023/07/07/baltany-explorer-39mm-homage-review/ on any watch forums.

2.Send me an email to me that contains your work, my email address is berrymoon86@gmail.com.

The giveaway will end on April 20.

I will choose one winner and ship the watch, no shipping cost needed to pay.

Vager Hauers

Vager Hauers Watch Review – Yuan Heng Li Zhen Twelve Shichen

Post author By Bob
Post date March 30, 2025
No Comments on Vager Hauers Watch Review – Yuan Heng Li Zhen Twelve Shichen

Guangdong is one of the earliest provinces in China to implement reform and opening up, there are three famous cities that have connection with watches, Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen. When mentioning Guangzhou, what watches you will think of? Yes, you are right, replicas watches. While what is connection between Dongguan and watches? You may not know most watches parts including cases and bracelets are made in factories of Dongguan, on my blog, some homage watches reviewed also made in Dongguan. In Shenzhen, this is a place of the future and hope of the development of China watches, because I have seen many creative ideas in watch-making come from watch companies in Shenzhen. In brief, fakes in Guangzhou, watch manufacturing in Dongguan, innovation happens in Shenzhen, movements from several cities in northern China like Tianjin, Dandong and Shanghai.

Back to the watch I am going to introduce today, it is a new watch I just found, totally a Chinese style watch, Chinese words on the dial, but this won’t cause inconvenience for you to read time. Do you know this brand? Beside the date window, four Chinese words “維傑豪兹”, which is Vager Hauers in English, this is a watch brand founded in Shenzhen, on their website, I saw an interesting thing, which is Vager Hauers claims that they are an independent watch maker in China, yes, any of these homage brands in China that has a small workshop can be an independent watch brand. Even their watch company has an address registered in Shenzhen, but all watches are shipped from Yunnan, so I guess their watches were assembled in Yunnan.

The watch has a similar outlook to Lange, but is is completely made for the Chinese, if you know some Chinese characters, you will find this watch is very interesting. The dial completely explains to the world how the Chinese understand time. Especially the white bigger subdial on the left, there are twelve Chinese characters, they are “子”, “丑”, “寅”, “卯”, “辰”, “巳”, “午”, “未”, “申”, “酉”, “戌”, “亥”, each of these Chinese characters is called Shichen in Chinese, which represents a time period during the day, that is two hours in modern times. So, this Shichen subdial is actually a 24-hour display in Chinese way. The offcentre small dial on the lower right is a display of the small seconds. On the following, I will explain all Chinese characters on the dial.

拾貳 – 12

元亨利貞 – Yuan Heng Li Zhen, it is is the classic judgment in the I Ching. Here is the meaning:
元: represents the primal force of creation, the source of all things
亨: signifies smooth development, unobstructed progress, and success.
利: indicates that the situation is favorable, bringing benefit when aligned with the right path.
貞: means steadfastness, integrity, and enduring in the right way.
Some people believe that “元”, “亨”, “利”, “貞” indicate the four seasons in a year, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

維傑豪兹 – Vager Hauers, which is the brand name. Besides the date window at 2 o’clock.

叁 – 3

陆 – 6

出離心 – Chu Li Xin, a buddhist concept refers to a deep mental resolve to free oneself from samsara (the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth) and the three poisons (greed, hatred, and delusion). It is not merely about physical withdrawal but a profound shift in perspective—recognizing the suffering and impermanence of worldly pursuits and cultivating a sincere desire for ultimate liberation (nirvana).

時辰大時 – Double Hours Big Hours, the bigger subdial
子 – Zǐ (23:00~1:00)
丑 – Chǒu (1:00~3:00)
寅 – Yín (3:00~5:00)
卯 – Mǎo (5:00~7:00)
辰 – Chén (7:00~9:00)
巳 – Sì (9:00~11:00)
午 – Wǔ (11:00~13:00)
未 – Wèi (13:00~15:00)
申 – Shēn (15:00~17:00)
酉 – Yǒu (17:00~19:00)
戌 – Xū (19:00~21:00)
亥 – Hài (21:00~23:00)

On the smaller subdial:
十五 – 15
三十 – 30
六十 – 60

At last, I want to say its movement, which is a Japanese Miyota 8219, which has a accuracy of ±5 – ±30 seconds.

Conclusion:

A watch with a strong Chinese I Ching culture. It combines traditional Chinese time display method to show you the 24 hours, this is a great innovation. By the way, some concepts of I Ching and Buddhism transferred through the watch may attract a lot of people who like Chinese culture.

Tags Miyota 8219, Vager Hauers

Sugess

19 Zuan 1963 Pilot Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date March 23, 2025
No Comments on 19 Zuan 1963 Pilot Watch Review

Have you learned some Chinese? Because it will be very useful especially when you are buying something from China. Do you know taobao? You can find everything on this shopping platform, and the price is much cheaper than that on other sites, so, learn some Chinese. I often shop on taobao, there are a lot of watches in different styles, some are very cheap, some have attractive designs, I have an idea, if anyone of you guys who want to buy some Chinese watches, please contact me, I can help you buy on taobao, and I know watches, I can do quality check and then ship to you.

Today, I am going to show you another watch I saw on taobao, does any of you guys like this watch? I like this watch and I have been always looking for such type of watches that have a bit military style. I do not see the brand name, there is a five pointed star logo under 12 and “19 ZUAN” printing on the dial, what does “19 Zuan” mean? It is not a brand name, probably means that the movement in that watch has 19 jewels. This watch comes with two types of bands, one is nylon and the other is a leather strap, it looks a bit like one of the Sea-gull watches I introduced before, which is the 21 Zuan Pilot watch and also the best seller, but this watch is using an automatic movement. I like the nylon band, which matches the dial better, while the black leather strap looks more in line with another model in white dial.

Besides its nylon band, my all attention is on the dial. It is not hard to know the function of each small dial, the one at 6 o’clock is for display of small seconds, the power reserve indicator is set between 10 and 11, the small dial at 2 o’clock is date display. Each small hand is blued steel, and the central hour hand and minute hand also have blued steel edge. I like the five pointed star design at 12 o’clock, it is tridimensional with a small red star on the center, the hour markers are also polished very well with smooth edge, you can not find metal burr. The date can be adjusted through the button on the case. When you winding the watch, the small hand on the power reserve indicator will also move.

The watch is powered by a ST1780 movement, which is developed by Sea-gull company, but this movement has a 28 jewels, not 19. This movement owns a stability that has been accepted by a lot of watch fans who love to buy homage watches.

Conclusion:

For watch fans who often buy homage watches made in China, this vintage pilot-style watch is a great choice, it has a bit military style of those Chinese watches made in old times, the Sea-gull machine offers a durable stability. The most important thing is that this watch is on sale under 60 USD at https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256807622682382.html

Tags 1963, ST1780

Merkur

Merkur The Rectangular Green Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date March 16, 2025
No Comments on Merkur The Rectangular Green Watch Review

This is a world of Swiss watches and Japanese watches, what will the watch world be after ten years, can you imagine? The importance of Swiss watch industry will still be there? Or there will be many custom-made watch models to fulfill different needs of the customers? We do not know, but more brands that offer custom-made watches will appear, in future, people won’t care if the brand is famous or luxury that much like before, but they do care if the brand can make the watch for them according to their personal requirements, because this adds more playable elements on the watch. There are already some Chinese brands that are doing such work, most of them are creating homage watches, Merkur is the one of them that is doing better in this field, today, I am going to introduce another Merkur watch, it is a mens automatic watch in rectangular shape, I like it very much, because of my small wrist, this watch fits me very well. I have to say, the case design is the most important place on such square watch, because it needs to show the elegance to the max while maintaining a great wearing comfort at the same time, Merkur does better on this rectangular watch than the Cartier did on the Tank, I like this Merkur watch, the case has a more arched shape that can fit your wrist in a more comfortable way. This green one is a great choice for both men and women. The green dial has a sanded square part on the center, those small square markers at 12, 3, 6 and 9 addes extra elegance to the entire watch. The green leather band is perfectly in line with the green dial. By the way, Merkur said that they use a Japanese automatic movement in this watch, there is no second hand and the watch keeps an accurate time so far. Besides, there are a lot of other styles and dial color Merkur has offered for this watch, different dial style combined with different color of leather band, there must be one you like.

Tags Merkur

Atowak

Atowak Cosmofleet Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date March 9, 2025
No Comments on Atowak Cosmofleet Watch Review

Atowak, I can not find too much information about this brand, but there are already many reviews about their watches on the internet, and I am also deeply attracted by the designs that are unique and bold. I did a search about the trademark Atowak, and found it was registered by a company in Shenzhen, this watch company was founded in 2019, and now is under control of another big company, which is the well-known Peacock watch company, I gave a review on a Peacock watch in last week, Peacock is one of the big watch companies in China.

There are two hot Atowak watches, one is Cobra that takes inspiration from the snake cobra, the other is this Cosmofleet, which is inspired by the space ship. Two watches have received a high recognition in watch fans.

The geometric case looks like the cabin of a space ship, it is crafted from high-grade titanium in matt finish, which is light and durable, the size is 39mmx46.5mm and is measured to be 15.7mm in thickness. The case has a weight of only 67.2 grams. The crown on the top can be rotated to adjust the positions of the three hands on the dial. The crystal is highly transparent and is accurately cut to fit the case, through the domed front crystal, we can clearly see the innovative dial structure, three hands look like three battleships sitting in the space ship, ready for the command to travel in space. I do not know how to describe the joint construction, but is is a magic and looks amazing. It is easy to read the time, look at the first picture, the time is 11:55. On the second picture below, it is about 11:32. The hour number is on the hand, while its tip points to minute scales. The hours and mintues are also lumed. This watch comes with two types of bands, one is nylon, the other is blue leather strap.

The watch is equipped with Japanese Miyota 9029 automatic movement, which has 24 jewels, beats 28,800 times per hour and 42 hours of power reserve. The movement offers accuracy of -10 to +30 seconds per day. The watch also has a red color option. Well, it is a good innovation for Chinese watch has made, but the price of the watch is too expensive. Do you think it is worth to spend $3000 on such a watch?

Any way, I see the big progress of Chinese watches have made since 2020, not just copying the Swiss designs in the past, some brands are using their own ideas to create new timepieces, and I found these brands are coming from Shenzhen in China, not those traditional watch companies like Sea-gull or Shanghai. Certainly, these new brands are doing the right things and hope they can also focus on the quality at the same time.

Tags Atowak, Cosmofleet

Giveaway

Free Watch Giveaway in March

Post author By Bob
Post date March 4, 2025
No Comments on Free Watch Giveaway in March

No one participated in previous two giveaway activities, let’s do the third one in this month, I will publish the giveaway in each month, every time the prize will be different.

Rules for the giveaway in March:

1.Share the url link of any article on my blog to two watch forums.

2.Please send a email message to show the above mentioned work you did. My email address is berrymoon86@gmail.com.

Prize:

One winner will be chosen. The prize is the following Casio watch.

Please note: the giveaway will end on March 15.

Tags Giveaway

Peacock

Peacock Plumage Gaze Hand-Made Guilloché Tourbillon Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date March 2, 2025
No Comments on Peacock Plumage Gaze Hand-Made Guilloché Tourbillon Watch Review

Peacock, which is a watch brand created in Dandong of Liaoning in China, has been in watch industry for a long time, however, this watch company is not well known outside, even most Chinese people do not know this brand. Peacock indeed has a very long watch-making history in China, their watches were more popular than Sea-gull during a period in the past, and Peacock also has made a big contribution for the development of the entire Chinese watch industry. There are a few factories in China that can make movements, there is a certain connection between them and those watch makers that sell fakes, we know the replicas watches coming from China are popular all over the world, what movements inside them? It is not hard to find that most are made in China, some are from Japan. That is the contribution these movement factories have made, because a lot of companies that sold fakes before now have created their own watch brands, so that is a great contribution these watch factories have made, including Peacock.

Let us talk about this Peacock watch, which is a new arrival from this company, the watch is a little bit like the Royal Oak 15400 from Audemars Piguet, but it does not copy the designs of any Swiss watch, it is completely independently designed by Peacock and draws the inspiration from the animal Peacock, several watch parts reflect this.

The watch is made with 904L stainless steel, which is more corrosion resistant, few Chinese brands decide to use this type of stainless steel in their watches because its higher cost. The case has a diameter of 40mm and is measured to be only in 9.8mm in thickness, its case has a special diamond shape that looks like a feature on the peacock. The chamfering on the sides of the diamond makes it highly contrast with the brushing finish on the case base. There are six screws on the bezel, each screw is in hexagon-shape and has an unique pattern on that looks like the Ocelli on the feature of the peacock.

The dial has three color options, white, light blue and salmon. The dial is the biggest highlight, it uses Guilloché craftmanship and the entire dial looks like the spreading tail features of a peacock. The Guilloché dial is completely hand-made. The round window opened at 6 o’clock is like the eye of a peacock, and the rotating tourbillon device is like its eyeball.

The design of wide-at-the-top and narrow-at-the-end on the bracelet makes it look more seamless integration with the case. On the edge of the bracelet, there is top quality chamfering and polishing, I have not found such high quality polishing finish on the bracelet of other Chinese watches, this greatly guarantees the wearing comfort.

The watch is equipped with a hand-winding tourbillon movement that is developed by Peacock. From the crystal back, there is Côtes de Genève. Tourbillon movement is more accurate, but I would rather it had been equipped with an automatic movement and then do a good decoration on the plate and auto rotor, just they did that on the dial, that will catch more attention. This movement ruins such a great idea, is it okay to say it this way?

Tags Peacock, Tourbillon

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