Month: May 2022

Merkur

Merkur 304 China Pilot Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 31, 2022
No Comments on Merkur 304 China Pilot Watch Review

Merkur offers a lot of watches with novel designs, different from other watch brands coming from China, Merkur is more willing to use the elements of some old Chinese army watches on the design of their products. Sometimes, I was more attracted by the mysterious symbols and novel designs on a watch, rather than its quality, I know the quality of each brand watch is very close within a certain price range, so whether a watch has an innovative design will be the main factor in my decision to buy. As a new designer watch brand in China, Merkur is the first one to use a lot of elements which you could only find on old Chinese army watches, that’s the main reason why I have bought three watches from them.

This 304 pilot is my third watch bought from Merkur. It is a manual winding watch that sets a vintage dial in a modern case frame. On this watch, there are four design elements I like very much, the red star, “航空”, “304” and blue color. Merkur offers three bracelet options for the watch, stainless steel bracelet, black leather strap and khaki nylon strap, I choose the nylon band on their website.

The dial is most attractive, the sunken digit “304” is in dark black, which is still clearly readable on this black dial. Central hour hand and minute hand are in track style with blue frames. the hour hand is special, it has an exteneded tip, so the entire hand looks like having the same length of the minute hand. All Arabic hour markers and two hands are applied with retro yellow luminescence, they will emit a green lume light in dark conditions. The small subdial at 6 o’clock also looks beautiful, it is a display of small seconds with a small blue hand. There is a very small red star ★ above the Chinese words 航空”, which means Pilot, so I think the design inspiration of this watch must come from those old Chinese pilot watches.

The case is brushed, which forms a high contrast with the polished round bezel. The case has a diameter of 38mm, not including the crown, it is measured to be 12mm in thickness and 45mm in length(including the lugs). The crystal face is arched, it is not sapphire but made with acrylic. The solid case back has brand’s name engravings in Chinese.

Inside the case, Merkur claims that they use a Sea-gull TY2901 movement, which is manual winding. This movement has inherited some features of Swiss Venus175. The khaki nylon strap is a perfect fit for this vintage pilot watch, you can also replace it with a brown leather band, it is very easy to do this, tool not needed. In a word, the Merkur 304 is a very good China Pilot watch full of retro flavor.

Tags Merkur, Nylon, Sea-gull

Heimdallr

Heimdallr Diver’s 200m Left-handed Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 30, 2022
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In this summer, me and my friends will travel to Hainan Island and surf there, besides a surfboard, I also need a cool looking diver’s watch, I have already bought several timepieces, but my friends saw them before, I need to buy another one which they did not see before, so I will surprise them when go surfing on that day, a watch won’t cost too much but can also dive with me in the sea, so I bought this Heimdallr watch, actually I have several Heimdallr timepieces, this time, I chose another Heimdallr diver’s watch because each Heimdallr watch I bought before has been tested by me to have a perfect water resistant performance, so, before the journey, it is good to choose a brand which I have already familiar with.

I choose the regular black one, there are also other color options about this watch, yellow, blue, green and orange, please choose your favorite one. The watch is big and solid made, it is fully made with solid stainless steel, like a rock and has a heavy weight. This watch is different from my other Heimdallr watches, it features the crown on the left case at 8 o’clock.

It is said that this watch is a homage of a Seiko, I do not know which Seiko watch it copies from, I searched online and did not find the Seiko watch that is similar to this Heimdallr. The case is made with 316L stainless steel, it has a diameter of 41mm and about 13mm in thickness. The rotating bezel features a black ceramic insert with luminous material filled in the round dot at 12 o’clock, it is different from the bezel pearl you see on Rolex Submariner. The screw-down case back also has a shark logo engraving, just like the one you see on the black dial.

I like this dial design, everything looks big, big hour markers, wide hour hand and minute hand, it is very easy to read the time, the watch is equipped with an automatic movement, the central second hand sweeps around the dial with a red tip, which is very eye-catching and also enhances the readability. I think the Seiko watch which this Heimdallr copies from must have a great depth of water resistance, or it does not need to use such a design on the dial, every element has only one purpose, to increase readability of the entire dial. The shark logo of Heimdallr, I like it very much when I firstly know this brand, now I think Heimdallr should change a logo, it does not look official. By the way, the lume light on the dial is strong green.

The watch uses a Japanese automatic movement, which is NH36A. There are four big selling points on this watch, the stable Japan movement, strong dial lume, 200m water resistance and ceramic bezel. Heimdallr can add another selling point to this watch if they could offer one nato band for free.

Tags Heimdallr, NH36A

Guanqin

Guanqin Green Sub Homage Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 26, 2022
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Guanqin is a Chinese brand that produces cheap mechanical and quartz watches, with acceptable quality. There are a lot of brands here in China like Guanqin, but not as famous as it, because these brands can not offer a great quality while still keeping the same configuration as Guanqin at the same time. Actually Guanqin is a big watch company, they have a great collection of watches, whose prices range from 20 USD to even 300 USD, so customers will find a lot of choices when browsing their website. Actually there are not many Chinese brands like Guanqin that has such a large collection and occupies a great market share of the low-end watches.

Today, the Guanqin watch I am going to introduce is a homage watch of green Submariner of Rolex, actually this Guanqin is not really a homage, it just looks similar to the green hulk. Before, I bought the black one, and my teammate saw my watch, he like it and bought this green one, now he and me usually exchanged watches to wear.

The watch comes in a box with a Guanqin bag, they also sent me one extra battery and a cloth. The watch is fully made with stainless steel, it has a considerable weight, the case is absolutely solid stainless steel made, but I doubt the bracelet, perhaps it it not solid stainless steel made, it is hollow because I feel the bracelet is a little thin, the crown is not screwed down, so I guess the watch is not 50m water resistant as Guanqin claims, and I suggest you do not wear it when swimming, do not rinse the watch with water. The finish on the case and bracelet is just ok, not that good on watches from big brands, but the polishing on each case corner is also smooth, not hurt your wrist. The green bezel insert is not ceramic made, but also stainless steel.

The green dial has some similar designs to the dial of green sub, such as the hour markers and benz hands. Each hour marker is filled with white luminous material, so are the hands, they will have a green lume light in dark conditions. The green color is different when you compare this watch and the green sub. The watch also uses a magnifier lens on the crystal to show the date more clear.

The watch uses a quartz movement, many Chinese brand watches now use similar designs to Swiss watches and install a quartz movement inside, they are very popular. In the word, the watch can keep time accurate, with a battery, no need to worry that it will stop suddenly, at a low cost, you can not buy such a beautiful watch from other places, by the way, Guanqin offers four color options for this watch.

Tags Guanqin, Quartz

CIGA Design

CIGA Design Z011 Black Skeleton Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 25, 2022
No Comments on CIGA Design Z011 Black Skeleton Watch Review

CIGA Design, this Chinese brand has won a lot of awards from abroad, but not well known among watch fans, people usually pay more attention to these big-size diver’s watches other than such young brands like CIGA Design. At the beginning of their development, CIGA Design chose a different way which you can not find on most other Chinese watches, this is a brand that really has their own design ideas, not like some other Chinese custom-made watch brands that just copied the designs of Swiss watches at their early development stage. This CIGA Design watch is the one that has won German Red Dot Design Award, it has a stylish black hollow design both on the front and back, a very cool watch.

The square case is in size of 40mm*40mm, there are two color options for this watch, black and silver. The watch is not only suitable for men, girls who love big watches can also choose it, the case is not too thick, only 11.5mm. The case is made with 316L stainless steel and then is DLC processed with black coating, the case has a very fine matte finish. The crown on the right side has diamond texture, which is more convenient for you to hold by fingers and rotate.

The crystal uses sapphire, which is 1.2mm thick and is highly scratch resistant, the sapphire crystal face is precisely cut so that it can perfectly fit into the inner case frame and guarantee a good water resistance. Do not be afraid of wearing it when swimming because of its thin case and hollow design, I have tested it, there were no issues when I am with it in a swimming pool.

The dial is totally skeletonized, you can see all movement components through the front and back, to get a better anti-shock performance, CIGA Design adopts a new and flexible way to fix the movement inside the case, I do not know how they do this, I just received the watch and have not disassembled it. Three central hands are also hollow, with striking red color on. The hollow dial design of the CIGA Design watch offers you more fun than other mechanical watches in my collection, I can even see the running gears when rotating the crown.

The black steel mesh bracelet is a perfect match for this watch, it looks better on the watch than the leather or rubber band. The band also has a quick replacement system, the quick switch spring bar is easy for you to operate to replace the band without tool need. The movement inside is from Sea-gull, CIGA Design does not claim exact movement model on their website, but say it has a 21,600 bph, 19 jewels and power reserve over 40 hours, which Sea-gull movement it should be? Besides this black model, the silver one is also very popular.

Tags CIGA Design

STEELDIVE

STEELDIVE 1000m – the king of deep sea diving

Post author By Bob
Post date May 24, 2022
No Comments on STEELDIVE 1000m – the king of deep sea diving

As its name states, STEELDIVE is a brand mainly produces diver’s watches, they are one of the earliest custom-made watch brands in China, now STEELDIVE has earned a high reputation all over the world, when people talking about dive watches, one of the models must be from STEELDIVE. We know diving watches have been the mainstream in recent years, you can find a lot of niche dive watch brands in various forums, most of them come from China and have three common features, big case, strong dial lume and cheap price. Just like this diver’s watch from STEELDIVE, it is a big watch and looks strong, not everyone likes such watch.

This is the biggest watch I have ever seen, the case of the STEELDIVE is 46mm in diameter, not including the crown, I heard that the biggest Panerai Submersible has a 47mm case, but I haven’t been fortunate to see that Panerai. The STEELDIVE also has a very thick case, which is nearly 14mm. The watch is fully made with 316L stainless steel, because it has a big case, the watch feels very heavy, about 210 grams. Actually, I was not firstly attracted by the watch’s big size, but by its water resistant depth, STEELDIVE claims that the watch is 1000m waterproof, this is a big depth, I have never heard that a Chinese watch can dive to 1000 meters under water, however, please see the strong solid case and thick sapphire crystal, plus the screw-in crown and case back, perhaps this STEELDIVE has a breakthrough diving record, which is 100m at least. The black bezel is not ceramic made, each marker on the bezel is applied with luminous material, they will emit a green lume light in dark places.

Black dial has a simple design, just like the big hour markers, the sword-shaped hour hand and minute hand are also wide so that they can be applied with more luminous material, so at night or in deep sea, you can still read the time clearly. Different from other diver’s watches, this STEELDIVE has a white second hand that is fully coated with luminous material, so you will see that the whole second hand emits a lume light in dark conditions. By the way, seeing from the lume picture below, the dial has a blue lume light, while the bezel markers have a green lume light. One thing I can not understand, the logo on the dial is different from the logo on the case back.

For such a big and heavy case head, this steel bracelet is a perfect fit, I do not think a rubber band or a nylon band is a good match for this watch, it will not hold the heavy case on your wrist in a comfortable way. The watch is equipped with a Japan NH35 automatic movement, which has 24 jewels, 41-hour power reserve and 21,600 bph. I believe in Japanese movements, they usually have fewer issues than movements made in China, most Japan automatic movement are very durable. I just received this watch three days ago, now it is about 5 seconds faster each day.

Buying advice:

It is too big and heavy, not a few people will like this watch. If you are looking for a diving-style watch that can be worn regularly in your daily life, this is not the right one.

Well, if you have a large wrist size and need a watch that can give your friends a big shock when surfing or doing diving activities with them in the summer, then this STEELDIVE will be a good option, not expensive and use a very stable movement. Besides this black, STEELDIVE also offers green and blue dial colors for this watch.

Tags STEELDIVE

Sea-gull

Sea-gull Ocean Star 200m Blue Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 23, 2022
No Comments on Sea-gull Ocean Star 200m Blue Watch Review

I will introduce more Sea-gull watches on my blog in future, Sea-gull is a brand we Chinese are very proud of, it not only has produced many classic watches, but is also one of the biggest movement manufacturers in the world. Among all Chinese watch brands you can find online, the first I recommend is Sea-gull, certainly, Sea-gull can make watches with high-end watch-making technologies, on some Sea-gull watches, you can even find Chinese elements, that’s one of the reasons why I like Sea-gull so much. Today, I want to share a reivew on a Sea-gull diver’s watch, which comes from Ocean Star series of Sea-gull, it is beautiful.

I choose the blue one, it seems to be a more popular color on the choice of a diver’s watch, the blue also reflects the ocean theme which the Sea-gull watch wants to present. The Sea-gull Ocean Star is made of 316L stainless steel, the case has a diameter up to 44mm, which is a very big-size watch, even bigger than the Submariner from Rolex, it does not matter, many fans of diving watches like big watches, the case is also thick, which is almost 13mm. The case is brushed, the arched lugs have polished edge, the side of the case has a different finish from other watches, which is also brushed. On the crown face, there is a delicate Sea-gull logo. The blue bezel is metallic, not ceramic, it is uni-directional rotating with a triangle mark that is filled with luminous material at 12 o’clock. I think I will like it more if the watch has used a blue ceramic bezel insert.

The dial has a blue color that is like the deep blue in the sea. You can see printings of Sea-gull logo and “SEA-GULL”, there is a three-dimensional five-pointed star at 6 o’clock. The blue dial has a very good readability, first, hands and hour markers are applied with luminous coating, the strong green lume light will help you read the time in dark conditions, second, the central second hand has a red tip, which is beautiful and also enhances the dial readability, third, the date window at 3 o’clock has a 2.5x magnifier, you will see the date clearly just at a glance. In a word, this is a classic dial design for diver’s watch.

Sea-gull installs a ST2130 automatic movement in the watch, the movement has a 42-hour power reserve, 28 jewels and 28,800 bph, ST2130 is a very mature movement of Sea-gull, it is very accurate, I received the watch about ten days ago, the watch still keeps a great time and only one minute faster, that’s ok for me, I usually do not adjust it as long as there are no big errors, it is not good to open the case back so often. By the way, Sea-gull sent me a blue nylon strap and one screw driver for free. The watch also available in black and green color.

Buying advice:

A top quality diver’s watch, not like other homage watches, this one made by Sea-gull has their own designs. As the biggest watch brand in China, as it says 200m water resistant, I think it can do that.

Tags Ocean Star, Sea-gull, ST2130

Starking

Starking green sports watch – a green aurora in the night sky

Post author By Bob
Post date May 20, 2022
No Comments on Starking green sports watch – a green aurora in the night sky

Starking is a very famous brand in China, it has been in watch industry for a long time, in the past several years, Starking has gotten a high recognition among watch fans in China, many of their best-selling models are for ladies, the ladies watches from Starking are really beautiful and look luxury, if you want to buy a gift for your girls, it is really a good idea to choose a Starking lady watch. Starking also makes mens watches, some of them have their own design features and are very attractive to me. Take this green one for example, it is a perfect combination of mechanical and sports.

It will be a good brand as long as their most watches have individual designs, Starking is such type of Chinese watch, I appreciate their development ideas, not just copying the designs of Swiss watches like other custom-made brands in China. This Starking watch uses green color that catches your eyes and bold skeleton design on the dial, it is a good timepiece for young people.

The case is made with 316L stainless steel, its surface has pvd black coating that is thick that could prevent fading after long time of wearing. The case has a diameter of 43mm, which is a common size for most sports mechanical watches, nowadays people also love big watches. Starking sells this watch at a cheap price, but they focus on the finish of every detail, the brushing on the case, bezel and every corner feels delicate, the green color usage on the crown hights the entire black case, the snowflake Starking logo finish on the crown is also very nice, not roughly finished on some other Cheap Chinese watches.

The dial is skeleton, there are red jewels and blue screws on the dial, with black frames, to fix all machine parts on the dial to bring shock absorption effect. Hour hand, minute hand and round hour markers are applied with luminous material, they will emit green lume light in dark conditions, the central seconds hand is green, which is exactly in line with the green color on the outermost edge of the dial. There is a Starking snowflake logo in golden color at 3 o’clock.

Inside there is a Chinese automatic movement, this is a very common movement used by a lot of Chinese watches, you can see some modifications have been made by Starking, a lot of screws fixed tightly to offer a high stability. The watch is equipped with a black and green rubber band that is made with natural rubber material imported from Malaysia. The green color on the rubber band exactly echoes with the green used on the dial, any way, I like the green on the watch, it conveys a sense of young and bright. Starking also offers golden and red choices on this watch.

Tags Rubber, Starking

San Martin

San Martin 39mm Vintage Explorer 1016 Homage Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 18, 2022
No Comments on San Martin 39mm Vintage Explorer 1016 Homage Watch Review

Now, San Martin has become a high-end custom made watch brand in China, they have a successful development model, many brands now learn the way but none of them have been as successful as San Martin. If you have ever visited the official website of San Martin, you will know many of their watches are homages of Rolex, while San Martin watches are still sold very well abroad, it seems like a lot of watch fans in the world still like this brand. By the way, if you do not like the name “San Martin”, you can ask them to leave it empty or print another name on the dial, after all, San Martin is a custom made brand, they can do this job for you.

I like San Martin, I have always been on their website to search something interesting, sometimes I saw specific models which I did not see before, so I will search on google and find all details about them, to find the original model behind the homage watch. This San Martin watch is exactly such type of watch I have not seen before, I know it is a homage watch of Rolex when I first saw this watch on San Martin website, but I did not know which exactly Rolex model, I googled and found there is an old Rolex Explorer whose reference is 1016, yes, this San Martin watch is very similar to it. The Explorer 1016 has some features which can not be found on modern Rolex, let’s see if the San Martin has kept these features, this is a very interesting learning process.

The San Martin Explorer homage is made with 316L stainless steel, the case and bracelet are fully brushed, round and smooth bezel is polished, which forms a sharp contrast with the brushed finish on case and bracelet. The case has a diameter of 39mm, not including the crown, it is bigger than the vintage Rolex Explorer 1016, which is only 36mm, however, the 39mm is a more popular size for men. The case is 12.5mm in thickness, including the crystal, which is arched, so it makes the entire case thicker, by the way, San Martin used a sapphire crystal, it is an upgradation from the plexiglass on the vintage Explorer 1016. The lug width is about 20mm, now you can buy one nato band for this watch after knowing this data.

The black dial is very simple, it does not have a window to show the date, all you can see from the dial are hands and hour markers. Certainly, the retro yellow luminous material applied on hour markers and hands is the most eye-catching place of the watch, the San Martin recreates the classic 3-6-9 dial design of Explorer 1016. At night, you will see a strong green lume light emitting from the dial.

Inside the case, it is a Japan Epson YN55 automatic movement, which has 22 jewels and 40-hour power reserve, it is the first time for me to know this movement, it has a beat frequency of 21,600 times per hour. It is said that the inaccuracy of this movement is between 25 seconds to 35 seconds per day, this accuracy rate is acceptable to me, I did not spend too much for the watch, so I can not expect too much, the watch now is about 2 minutes faster after wearing it two weeks. Now, San Martin sells this watch at 35% discount off.

Tags 1016, Epson, Explorer, San Martin, YN55

Proxima

Proxima Scuba Master 300m Meteorolite Diver’s Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 17, 2022
No Comments on Proxima Scuba Master 300m Meteorolite Diver’s Watch Review

Only the word “big” can be used to describe this watch, every diver’s watch coming from Proxima has this feature. As one of the most popular custom-made Chinese brands, Proxima mainly produces diving watches, most of them are homages of Seiko Tuna, which look very big and robust, several years ago, many people like such type of diving watches, I do not know now, but a lot of Chinese brands like Proxima have appeared in our watch market in recent years. This watch I bought from Proxima has a stainless steel bracelet, I changed one blue rubber band one and it looks nice.

Proxima Meteorite with Blue Rubber Strap

The Proxima watch has a case whose diameter is 44mm and case thickness is 15.6mm. The watch is fully made of stainless steel and is equipped with a stainless steel bracelet, it feels heavy on hand, so I replace the steel bracelet with a blue rubber band, and the watch feels more comfortable to wear. The case is fully brushed with a crown positioned at 4 o’clock, the bezel features a black ceramic insert with diving scales, the big triangle is white, while looks a bit cyan when in weak light conditions because it has been applied with luminous material, like the hour markers and hands on the dial.

The dial is under protection of a sapphire crystal, the dial uses meteorolite material that has unique textures, there are round and square hour markers, each of them is big and filled with luminous coating, the hour hand and minute hand also have a wide design so that can be applied with enough C3 Superlume, Proxima uses a red embellishment on the tip of the second hand, which highlights the entire dial and also increases the readability. This dial has a classic design of diver’s watch, but it also looks unique because of its meteorolite texture.

The Proxima Scuba Master is equipped with a Japanese NH35, which is a very common automatic movement, not a high-end one, but has been widely used by such type of custom-made Chinese watch brands, the movement is very affordable and has a considerable accuracy, we know that Japanese automatic movements usually have fewer issues. I have had the watch for almost four weeks, it still keeps a great time, but now it is 3 minutes faster, that’s ok, it is very easy to be adjusted in a jewelry store.

This Proxima watch is ok, I usually wear it when going to a beach with my friends, there were no problems when I swim with it in the sea, the rubber band is a perfect match for this watch, Proxima does not offer free rubber straps for the watch, so just ask them if they can customize one rubber band for the watch when you placing the order.

Tags Meteorolite, Proxima, Scuba Master

Parnis

Parnis Commander 47mm Military Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 16, 2022
No Comments on Parnis Commander 47mm Military Watch Review

Parnis Watch with Extra Black Leather Strap

The Commander is a series of Parnis, we know Parnis is one of the earliest watch brands in China that make homage watches, but the Commander is not homage watch and it has their own design features, look at this Parnis Commander watch, it is a very big military watch, I like its style.

The black case, not ceramic made, is made with 316L stainless steel and has pvd black coating, the case has a diameter of 47mm and is measured to be about 14mm in thickness. The entire case, including the bezel, is black and has brushing finish, two crown guards are also very big protecting the crown that features a letter “P”. The crown is big and has flutes, so it is very easy for you to rotate to adjust time and date.

The watch has a big dial with large numeral hour markers at 3, 6, 9 and 12. The black dial has a simple design but its readability is enhanced by the big hour markers and white minutes scales. The markers of 3, 6, 9 and 12 are applied with brown luminous material, so are the hands, they will emit a strong green lume light in dark conditions. Because the lume is so strong, it can illuminate the entire dial. White printings “PARNIS” is in the central circle, the words “21 Jewels” and “Automatic”, I do not like its font, which seems not to match the tough style which this Parnis Commander military watch wants to present.

From the crystal back, you can see the movement and read some information about it, the movement comes from Japan and is a Miyota automatic movement, I can not believe it will use a Miyota movement because the watch’s price is very reasonable, few Chinese watches at this price level will choose a Japanese Miyota movement, which is more stable but has a higher cost. The installation of a Miyota movement in this Parnis makes the watch have fewer issues in future.

The brown leather band looks old, just like the ASSO leather band used on some Panerai watches. I like the band, the back side that contacts your skin uses leather material that is sofer to wear, the band features a pvd blackened pin buckle. At last, Parnis also offers stainless steel bracelet option for this watch.

Tags Commander, Parnis, PVD

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