China Watches Review, Chinese Homage Watches Guide

Merkur

Merkur Pierre Paulin Panda Style Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 13, 2022
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Merkur, which is a young Chinese watch brand, now has owned a great reputation abroad. I usually visited their website and found that many people bought their watches, at the same time they left good feedback. About their sales store on aliexpress, they have an almost ninety-eight percent of positive feedback, a lot of other Chinese brands can not achieve such a high rate. Each watch Merkur has produced has their own features that make them different from other Chinese watches, I like them so much, I want to choose one at least from each of their series, now this Pierre Paulin is the second watch I bought from Merkur.

Merkur Pierre Paulin Stainless Steel Case

The watch I bought from Merkur watch company is a sub-brand, which has a name “Pierre Paulin”. I like this watch because it shows the elegance to the maximum, but keeps a little sporty feature and retro flavor. The watch is a chronograph model, the chronograph function works, it uses a Sea-gull TY2901 movement that offers a working chrono. You can push the two buttons on the case to operate the chronograph, when the button at 2 o’clock is pressed down, the central silver second hand will move, if you want to stop the second, press down this button again. When the button at 4 o’clock is pushed, the central second-chronograph hand will be reset to zero, which is precisely at 12 o’clock on the big dial.

I like its white dial, the two black small dials like the two eyes of a Panda, I remember Rolex also has the Panda Daytona, just like this design. Two small dials, one is for small seconds display at 9 o’clock, the 30-minute chronograph counter is positioned at 3 o’clock. The dial has a high readability because it only uses white and black color, all hands and hour markers are in silver tone. The printings of “PIERRE PAULIN” indicates the designer name of the watch. The panda dial has white tachymetre scales on the outermost circle in black.

The Merkur Pierre Paulin is equipped with a Sea-gull TY2901 movement, it is hand-winding and looks like a copy of the Venus 75 movement. Usually this movement is used by most Chinese brand watches that has a chrono feature but with very reasonable prices. The movement has 21 rubines and a frequency of 21,600 times per hour. The Sea-gull TY2901 is a perfect match for this retro-style Pierre Paulin Panda watch. Besides the manual winding movement and panda dial, the third retro element on the watch is shown through its arched acrylic face.

The watch has a black leather band that features fabric textures and white stitching. For this white panda dial version, Merkur also offers one stainless steel bracelet option.

Tags Merkur, Pierre Paullin, Sea-gull, TY2901

Heimdallr

Heimdallr MarineMaster Bronze Diver’s Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 12, 2022
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Diver’s watches can always attract my attention due to their unique design features, they have been very popular in recent ten years, many people are willing to get a diver’s watch when they are going to buy their first watch. Almost each Swiss brand has their own diver’s watch product line, and many micro brands in China also make diving watches, but lots of them are homages of Swiss watches. Heimdallr is one of these Chinese micro brands that provide custom-made watches, other brands like Heimdallr that are doing the same job include Proxima, San Martin, Steeldive, etc., some of them really make good quality homage watches at very reasonable prices, I like the watches made by Heimdallr, because it really offers watch fans a lot of diver’s watches in different styles, on Heimdallr’s official store, you can also find a lot of watch bands in various styles, which gives the wearer a lot of fun to play with the watch.

The Heimdallr watch is made with bronze material, it is the first bronze watch I bought, looks great, some of my friends said that the bronze is easily oxidized, and the watch will look ugly then, that’s right, but you can use ketchup to refurbish, very convenient. The watch is a MarineMaster model from Heimdallr, it is absolutely made for divers, on its black dial, Heimdallr saying “PROFESSIONAL 300m”, does it mean the watch for professional diving and 300m waterproof? I do not think so, few Chinese watches can be water resistant to 300 meters, especially for such a micro brand, this is a great depth under water, I do not think that this Heimdallr watch has passed through the 300m waterproof test. However, the watch is completely water resistant to 10m, you can wear it when swimming.

The bronze case is measured to be about 44mm in diameter and 15.5mm in thickness, it is brushed. Seeing from the side, the case has a graceful arc, the middle case is forged one-piece bronze with screw-down bronze bezel that features a black insert, the color of bezel markers is the same as bronze.

The dial has every essential detail that makes it a perfect diver’s watch. First, the shark logo you see under 12 o’clock marker has a special meaning to Heimdallr, which means that this brand mainly produces diver’s watches. Second, every hour marker is very big and has white luminous material that looks a little cyan, when at night or in dark conditions, the dial has a super lume light that looks green, it seems like that all diver’s watches made by middle or high-end micro brands in China focus on the usage of superlume on the dial. Both hour hand and minute hand are so special to me, they seem to be wider than the hands of other diving watches I have, so more super lume can be applied on the hands, together with the big hour markers, they all enhance the readability of the dial when at night.

The Heimdallr MarineMaster Bronze watch is equipped with a Japan NH35 automatic movement, its inaccuracy is supposed to be 10 seconds each day, well, the watch still works good since I got it three weeks ago, I have to admit that the watches in my collection that use Japanese movements have fewer issues. The watch has a black rubber band with a bronze pin buckle, it also looks very good on a brown leather strap, if you are interested in this watch and want to know more about this Chinese brand, please contact me.

Tags Bronze, Heimdallr

Guanqin

Guanqin Black Water Ghost Quartz Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 11, 2022
No Comments on Guanqin Black Water Ghost Quartz Watch Review

This watch from Guanqin is a very cheap quartz watch but has a charming outlook.

I seldom introduced quartz watches before, in most cases, I do not think a quartz watch is a real watch, it is like a toy, but sometimes a quartz watch can save you a lot of troubles, you do not need to wind the watch every day, so you won’t find the watch has stopped when waking up in the morning, A quartz watch is also much thinner than an automatic watch, so it gives a better wearing comfort. By the way, a quartz watch is more accurate, you do not need to correct the inaccuracy once in a while.

The Guanqin watch is a very practical quartz watch with a good looking, I think everyone who love a diving-style watch will like this watch too, its outlook is very similar to black Submariner 116610LN, but I can not say it is completely a homage watch of black sub. Its bezel, dial and bracelet have different design from that of Submariner.

This Guanqin watch has a very cheap price, on their official website, it is sold at less than 30 USD. For such a kind of quartz watch that is made with 316L stainless steel, the price is very affordable, but that does not mean its quality is very low, for me, the quality is acceptable, worth the money I paid. The case has a diameter of 40mm and is measured to be only 9mm in thickness, you noticed two different finish on the case, just like its bracelet, the polishing finish on lugs and crown guards, while the other part of the case is brushed, on the stainless steel bracelet, the middle links are polished, which is highly contrast with the brushed links on both sides, I can not imagine that Guangqin will focus on the finish of the case and bracelet even they sell the watch at a very low price, just to give the wearer a better experience.

The black bezel is not ceramic made, the white pearl set at 12 o’clock is not luminous, I think these are two main shortcomings of this watch, I will like it more if Guanqin can use a lume pearl like the black sub on the bezel. Black dial is under protection of a mineral crystal face, it is ok for me, I think a sapphire crystal is just a waste for this kind of quartz watch. Every hour marker and central hands are applied with white luminous material, the green lume light I see from the dial surprises me, it is very strong. The date window opened at 3 o’clock has a white background, very easy to read through the magnifier on the crystal, you can adjust the date by operating the crown.

Guanqin Black Sub with Black Leather Strap

Anyway, I like this Guanqin watch even though it uses a quartz movement, I can not imagine how high quality a watch will be if you only pay less than 30 USD to get it, I am very satisfied with the finish, it is one of my most favorite quartz watch that features a mechanical outlook. Guanqin also offers green, blue and two tone styles for this watch.

Tags Guanqin, Quartz

CIGA Design

CIGA Design Z Series DLC Skeleton Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 10, 2022
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This is my second CIGA Design watch I received several days ago, it looks very cool and is my most favorite tonneau-shaped Chinese watch.

The history of CIGA Design is very young, but this brand has made a lot of amazing models which we are very pround of, some CIGA Design watches even received important awards from abroad, many people are talking this Chinese brand now. I like CIGA Design, this is the second watch I bought from them, the first one is the X Series Gorilla model. This CIGA Design watch has a full black outlook, I love it, the design of its case and dial is a highlight of the entire watch. I think every one who likes sports style watches will choose it.

The case is made with 316L stainless steel, its surface has a thick DLC black coating, which not only increases the hardness of the case, but also enhances its corrosion resistance. The case has a width of 40.8mm, not including the crown, its height is 48mm, case thickness is 12.3mm, the DLC coating is thick and black color can last a long time, so that the entire watch can keep a cool black outlook for a long time.

The arc-shaped crystal is sapphire that is highly scratch-resistant and is perfectly installed. Under the sapphire crystal, it is the skeleton dial, where you can the golden balance wheel and gears and other machine parts, it looks like skeleton is a big feature of al. most all popular CIGA Design watches. The red color usage on central hands makes the dial more readable. There are white hour markers and minutes scales on the beveled inner bezel, together with the skeletonized dial structure, they give the entire dial a three-dimensional visual effect.

CIGA Design claims that they use a Sea-gull automatic movement in this watch, I am not sure if they use a real Sea-gull, I do not know the model of the movement, maybe it is a basic Sea-gull movement, which has a beating frequency of 21,600 times per hour and 40-hour power reserve, well, maybe the watch can not work 40 hours continuously after being fully winded, I tested it, about 32 hours, that’s ok, I suggest you wind it every morning.

The CIGA Design watch has a black rubber band, which feels very soft, the rubber band also suitable to wear in hot summer, it does not have a bad smell and also dust proof. By the way, the watch comes with one pair of black leather straps, which is free. Besides this DLC black version, CIGA Design also offers three stainless steel models with rubber straps in different colors, there are black, red and blue.

Tags CIGA Design, DLC, Rubber, Sea-gull

Binger

Binger “Moon Phase” Mesh Bracelet Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 9, 2022
No Comments on Binger “Moon Phase” Mesh Bracelet Watch Review

I like this Binger watch, I bought it one week ago, the watch has a very good finish on case and bracelet, which looks much better than that of other Chinese watches at same price level.

You may know little about Binger, I gave a brief introduction of it in my another post at https://www.bobswatchstore.com/2022/04/06/binger-double-tourbillon-moon-phase-watch-review/. The Binger watch I am going to review today, three things I need to explain, first, it does not have date function, the black numbers from 1 to 31 you see on the dial, they are just decoration, there is no window or a small hand to show current date. Second, about the moon phase, it is fake, actually it is a day and night indicator, which rotate automatically. Third, on the lower blue part of the dial, there is a big opening window, it is not a tourbillon decice, so do not believe the word “TOURBILLON” on its left.

It is a fake tourbillon with false moon phase, whatever, that does not mean it is not a good watch, actually all watches made by Binger have a high quality, including this one, Binger also has their own designs, those homage brands can not be compared with Binger.

The Binger has a silver case that is made with 316L stainless steel and is fully polished, the case has a diameter of 42mm and is measured to be 15mm in thickness, actually it is a bit thick for such a dress watch. I always think that Binger has two big advantages, their superior case finish and sapphire crystal. Its case is really manufactured so well when I received the watch, I owned a lot of Chinese watches, only Binger’s case finish never let me disappointed. The round case of this Binger is polished so smooth like a mirror, I do care about the finish more than the function of a watch, this Binger gives me a very good impression at first glance. The sapphire crystal has always been a big selling point since the establishment of Binger, at the earliest stage of development, Binger advertised their watches with saying of the hardest and highly scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, and it succeeded. The crystal of this Binger is a domed sapphire with great transparency.

The dial has an unique design, which is divided into two parts by a silver metal with numbers 1-31. The upper part is silver with a small dial to display 24 hours and the day/night, it looks like an eye. The 24-hour display works automatically and does not need you to adjust, so does the day/night indicator. The lower part of the dial has a beautiful blue color, it has a big opending window to show you a working balance wheel that has its two ends fixed on the dial by screws, so that it can work stable and the movement can offer a more accurate time. The hands and hour markers are cut so well and each gives me a strong three-dimensional sense, the perfect craftmanship of this Binger watch is shown through these small details.

The heart of the watch is beaten by a Chinese automatic movement that is in golden color, you can see the beautiful decoration on movement auto rotor through the crystal back. This Chinese automatic movement is good and has a low cost, by the way, its inaccuracy is within my acceptable range, which is about 15 to 30 seconds faster each day. The watch features a mesh stainless steel bracelet, but it has black and brown leather stap options, the dial also has several choices. Binger never opened a store and they only sell watches online.

Tags Binger

STEELDIVE

STEELDIVE SD1953 – the most solid quality black Sub homage

Post author By Bob
Post date April 27, 2022
No Comments on STEELDIVE SD1953 – the most solid quality black Sub homage

This STEELDIVE is a top quality diver’s watch, it is a popular homage of black Sub with individual design.

STEELDIVE is a custom-made watch brand coming from China, it was established in Guangzhou in 2008, yes, the brand history is very young, but almost a 15-year development history already means a lot for a homage watch brand. STEELDIVE is completely a Chinese watch brand, not from Italy or Australia, like the letters “DIVE” claim in its name, most watches STEELDIVE has made are diver’s models, and all of them are homages of Rolex Submariner, Omega Seamaster, Seiko Tuna, Zenith Pilot, Bell Ross, etc. Til now, STEELDIVE has developed three production lines, they are Military, Green Marine and Army Engineer, each has their own logo design that looks unique and professional. There are a few custom-made watch brands created in China that developed from a small workshop to a big watch company, and received good reputation in this field, the most popular ones among these brands are Heimdallr, San Martin and STEELDIVE, I hope they can provide us with more quality homage watches, and release some watches with their own designs in future.

The STEELDIVE watch is strong and solid made, it is a robust monster. The watch looks like a homage of black Submariner from Rolex, its outlook, dial and bezel all refer the design of Submariner 116610LN, yes, many custom-made homage brands in China have produced this similar model because Submariner is too popular. A homage watch does not mean it has a low quality, this STEELDIVE SD1953 I received is a perfect diver’s watch for men with fine quality.

The case of this STEELDIVE watch is made with 316L stainless steel, it has a diameter of 41mm, not including the crown, the case thickness is about 13.5mm. The entire case has a fine brushing finish, two sides of the case, including the crown guards, are smoothly polished. The bezel uses a black ceramic insert, each marker engraved on the black bezel has the same depth and is filled with Swiss BGW9 SuperLuminova, the lume light you see in dark conditions is blue. There is no pearl set on the triangle mark at 12 o’clock. Both crown and case back have the iconic STEELDIVE logo, which is a combination design of diver gear-mask, flippers and oxygen tanks.

STEELDIVE also uses Swiss BGW9 SuperLuminova on the hour marker, hour hand and minute hand, the lume light is blue, which is the same as that of bezel markers. Brand name STEELDIVE and its logo are printed in white on the black dial. The inner bezel ring is empty and has no engravings. STEELDIVE claims that the watch is 300m waterproof, but I do not think the watch has such a deep water resistance even the crown and case back has a screw-down construction, do not worry, you won’t have any problem when wearing it in a swimming pool.

The engine inside is a Japanese NH35 automatic movement, which has a beating frequency of 21,600 times per hour, date function and hack mechanism. The power reserve capacity is good and can last about 32 hours after being fully wound. I have this watch for almost two months, every week I wore it to the beach and the watch has a great water resistant performance, two of my friends also want to buy one, by the way, the watch now 3 minutes faster each week, but that’s not a problem to me. STEELDIVE sells this watch on their official store, besides the black one, STEELDIVE also offers blue dial and green dial options for this watch, and you can choose a black rubber band with it.

Tags STEELDIVE

Starking

Starking diamond watch – the black pearl on your wrist

Post author By Bob
Post date April 25, 2022
No Comments on Starking diamond watch – the black pearl on your wrist

This Starking is a classic automatic watch with unique design and luxury temperament, with a top rated reliable Japanese movement, while sold at a very cheap price.

Starking is a Chinese watch brand and not young, according to their brand story, they entered the watch market in 1993, well, that’s a long time ago, I got some memories of this brand, they must advertise their watches when I was a child. Starking was founded in Shenzhen, Guangdong, it had some great moments in its history, they often opened watch exhibitions in Hong Kong, but this brand is not as popular as our old big threes of Beijing Watch, Shanghai Watch and Sea-gull. The quality of Starking is just fine, and most of their watches are very affordable, ok quality and cheap price, I think this is the biggest advantage of Starking. By the way, many best sellers on Starking’s official store are ladies watches, which are really attractive.

The Starking watch I am going to introduce today is a stainless steel model with black dial, which looks very common, but its unique dial design makes it different. The watch is made with solid 316L stainless steel, it has a case diameter of 41.5mm and is 11.8mm thick, which is a size just matches current big watch trend. The case finish is exquisite, both brushing and polishing are used to create a high-end visual effect, every side of the case, including every corner of the lugs, they are smoothly processed to make sure the watch have a comfortable wearing feeling. The screw-in crown has an engraved snowflake Starking logo.

I like its black dial, which looks unique and has an asymmetrical aesthetic. Among all watches I have seen before, this Starking is the first watch that features a small-second subdial between 4:00 and 6:00, under a low price, the watch has such a creative dial design, I think it already worths your money. Another silver small dial that is positioned at 9 o’clock is for 24-hour display, the small hand on that subdial is not showing the time in the second time zone, it is just a display of current time in a format of 24-hour. The dial has an multi-layer structure that looks obvious, the circle on the center is sunken and has white minutes from 5 to 60, the outer circle has silver hour markers and diamonds set at 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock and 6 o’clock. “STARKING” and brand logo are three-diemensional, not printed, this is another place I like on its dial, you know, many Chinese watches that are sold at such price have their logo and brand name printed on the dial to save the cost.

The movement I see from the crystal back is golden and has beautiful decoration. Starking uses a Miyota 82S7 automatic movement in this watch, it is a very regular automatic movement made in Japan, Miyota 82S7 has a beating frequency of 21,600 times per hour and 21 jewels, the power reserve is great, the watch can work about 35 hours every time when I gave it a full winding, about accuracy, I have this watch for almost three months, now it will be 3 or 4 minutes faster every two weeks, well, this is acceptable for me. At last, Starking offers four different styles for this watch, there are two tone model and full black model to choose.

Tags Diamond, Miyota 82S7, Starking

Sea-gull

Sea-gull Ultra-thin – the most elegant Chinese dress watch for men

Post author By Bob
Post date April 21, 2022
No Comments on Sea-gull Ultra-thin – the most elegant Chinese dress watch for men

This Sea-gull ultra-thin is a combination of elegance of quality, it is the best dress watch I like among my Chinese watches collection.

Sea-gull is the most famous Chinese watch brand, it was established in 1955 in Tianjin of China, during the sixty-six years of development, Sea-gull has laid a solid foundation for the watch-making industry of China and also made a huge contribution, Sea-gull is one of the few watch companies in China that can develop movements by themselves, they are also one of the biggest movement manufacturers in the world, many luxury brands now also buy movements from Sea-gull. I always think Sea-gull is the boss among so many Chinese watch brands, it is the only watch manufacturer in China that owns watchmaking techniques of tourbillon, perpetual calendar and minute repeater. If you want to buy a Chinese watch, I will recommend Sea-gull first.

The Sea-gull watch I am going to review here has a classic Bauhaus style, with an ultra-thin case design, the watch reveals the superior watch-making craftsmanship of Sea-gull. I received this watch in a Sea-gull box, there is also a manual book in Chinese comes with in the box, I immediately decided to use this Sea-gull watch as my first dress watch choice when I opened the package, I love it very much.

The watch has a reference of 819.17.6004, its case has a diameter of 39mm and is measured to be only 8mm in thickness, the silver case is fully polished and made with 316L stainless steel, round bezel, angular lugs with smooth corners, the case has a classic Bauhaus design style. The crown has a “S” logo in sanded finish, which looks very nice, the crown is very small but I found no inconvenience when rotating it to adjust time. The case back has engraving info about waterproof depth, model number and case material, the case back is screwed down and integrated with the case seamlessly.

The dial is white in matte, the dial looks familiar and has somewhat a similar design with Nomos. Each hour marker, including the numbers 3, 9 and 12, uses black and has a big size, with the central hour and minute hand, it is very easy to read time, just need a glance. A sunken small dial at 6 o’clock features a small seconds hand, also in blue color, this blue color used on the watch highlights the entire watch.

The movement uses Sea-gull in-house ST17, which is manual winding and has a beat frequency of 21,600 times per hour. The thickness of movement is about 3.22mm, so it achieves an ultra-thin case that is only 8mm. I have this watch for more than 11 days since I received it, the watch still works very accurate, only 4 seconds faster each day. By the way, the watch can work about 40 hours continuously once giving it a full winding. The Sea-gull Ultra-thin is my first hand-winding mechanical watch.

I chose a black leather band for this watch, the band feels a little stiff at the first time, but it became soft and comfortable to wear in next days. For this watch, Sea-gull also offers a stainless steel bracelet option. Besides, if you are interested in other Sea-gull watches, please check their official site, there you can find a lot of styles, including dress, military, diving or tourbillon.

Tags Sea-gull, ST17

San Martin

San Martin SN004 200m – a high-end custom-made diver’s watch

Post author By Bob
Post date April 20, 2022
No Comments on San Martin SN004 200m – a high-end custom-made diver’s watch

This San Martin is a top quality diver’s watch with several retro design elements.

San Martin is a very young Chinese custom-made watch brand, which was founded by Liao Jiaming in 2016. From a small workshop to a watch company, the development of San Martin brand is very fast, certainly, this must be attributed to the efforts which Liao Jiaming made in watchmaking field. Among so many custom-made watch brands in China, San Martin is the most high-end one, although their watches are still homages of Swiss brands such as Rolex, Tudor, Omega, Zenith, IWC, etc., they really have a very good quality, even much better than some other Chinese homage watches I introduced before. As a high-end custom-made watch brand, San Martin offers a great flexibility for the customers to customize the watches they want, besides, San Martin provides the wearers with a lot of bands made with different types of materials and in various styles, this will bring a lot of fun to the wearer. San Martin never opened a physical store, they only sell watches online.

The San Martin SN004 200m I received is a homage of Tudor Black Bay, it is a very good diving-style watch with retro combinations. The case is made with solid 316L stainless steel, which is fully brushed, except the polished streamlined case edge with glossy face. The case has a diameter of 38mm and is measured to be 13mm in thickness, the size is not big or too small, very suitable for most men. The weight of the entire watch is about 140 grams. The uni-directional rotating bezel features a black ceramic insert, I like ceramic bezel, but I will be more happy with the watch if it uses a metal bezel insert that will enhance the retro temperament.

The crystal uses sapphire, which is arch-shaped and features AR Coating, this sapphire crystal is very hard and highly scratch resistant, it is an important feature that brings this San Martin watch to a new quality level. Certainly, if San Martin chose to use a mineral or even a acrylic face on this watch and reduce its price, I will also accept it, afte all the retro element means a lot to a vintage watch. On the black dial, hour markers and hands are applied with C3 SuperLuminova that looks a bit yellowish, just like the yellow fill on bezel markers, handset is not the style on Tudor Black Bay, it uses iconic Mercedes hands on Rolex Submariner. At 12 o’clock, “San Martin” letters are printed.

The bracelet is a rivet style and made with solid 316L stainless steel, every link is brushed and there is a embossed “SAN MARTIN” logo on the outer face of the buckle. The solid case back is screwed down, it is empty and has nothing on it, no brand logo or water resistance information, very clean. Inside the case back, it uses a Japanese NH35 automatic movement, which beats 21,600 times per hous, the auto rotor is bi-directional winding and has a high winding efficiency. Considering its good finish, high-end feature and reasonable price, this movement is already good enough.

The San Martin SN004 200m is a great quality homage of “Tudor Black Bay”, I love it very much.

Tags San Martin

Proxima

Proxima Diver’s Watch – the unicorn hidden in the deep sea

Post author By Bob
Post date April 19, 2022
No Comments on Proxima Diver’s Watch – the unicorn hidden in the deep sea

This Proxima watch is a strong and robust diving-style model, while keeping a vintage outlook.

Proxima is another custom-made watch brand in China, most of watches they made are diving-style watches, as a fan of diver’s watch, I bought one Proxima watch several weeks ago, now it still works fine. Like San Martin and Steeldive, Proxima is also a very young Chinese brand, which may be founded in a small workshop in Dongguan or Zhongshan of Guangdong, I found many niche brands like Proxima or Steeldive online, they were created in Guangdong of China and are likely to produce diver’s watches at the beginning of their development, because there is a great amount of need for such kind of diver’s watches overseas. Proxima is not an independent watch manufacturer, many parts needed for this watch are not made by themselves, such as the movement, dial, handset, etc., perhaps they only produced the case and bracelet on this watch, and then assembled these parts together. Well, I already saw many good reviews about Proxima here in China and overseas, it is a good choice if you are looking for a diving-style watch.

The Proxima watch has a model number of PX1683, it is big and heavy if with a stainless steel bracelet. The case is 44mm in diameter, not including the crown, it has a thickness of 15.8mm(crystal included). The case is fully brushed, the matte finish on bezel and case is nicely done by a machine, view from the two sides, both have streamlined design and are polished with glossy surface, which is a high contrast with its front brushing finish. By the way, the curved lugs let the watch fit my wrist perfectly, its smoothly polished corners also make the watch comfortable to wear. If you want to buy a custom-made band for this watch, please remember its lug width, which is 20mm.

The dial is under protection of a sapphire crystal that features Swiss standard anti-reflective coating inside. This V3 edition of Proxima watch has improved the dial by using genuine C3 SuperLuminova on hour markers and hands, so the dial lume will be stronger and last longer in dark conditions. By the way, every hour marker, hour hand and minute hand have golden frame, which adds some vintage look to the dial. The printings “PROXIMA”, “SCUBA MASTER” and “PROFESSIONAL 300m” are also in golden tone. The red color use on the central second hand is very eye-catching, it also enhances the readability of the entire dial. Now for every diver’s watch brand in the market, they seem to be very focused on the use of strong lume on the dial.

The solid case back has unique engravings, looks like two ghost fishes. Inside, there is a Japanese automatic movement, which is NH35, the movement is fine for me, I have no need to change another better Japanese or Swiss ETA movement, during these weeks, the watch can keep time accurately, I wind the watch each day, its inaccuracy can be controlled within three mintues each week. Low-end Japanese or Chinese movements can also keep an precise time as long as the shipper adjust it fine before sending.

The Proxima Scuba Master can be equipped with a stainless steel bracelet or a black rubber band, the buckle fitted on the rubber band has a matte finished unicorn logo, which is also the brand’s logo of Proxima. Among my diver’s watches collection, I like this Proxima most and I usually wear it when swimming.

Tags Diver's Watch, Proxima, Rubber

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