China Watches Review, Chinese Homage Watches Guide

Parnis

Parnis Power Reserve – the ancestor of homage watch in China

Post author By Bob
Post date April 18, 2022
No Comments on Parnis Power Reserve – the ancestor of homage watch in China

It is the first Chinese brand watch I bought, I love its quality, cheap price and real power reserve.

Parnis is the first Chinese watch I bought, I know more about Parnis than other Chinese brand watches like our famous Sea-gull, Shanghai and Beijing. In my memory, the development of Parnis has passed two stages, at the first stage, Parnis mainly copied the design of Rolex, IWC and Panerai, it was a completely homage brand watch made in China, they did not have their own design at that time, by the way, when people talking about Parnis in most watch forums, they only know it is a homage brand coming from Hong Kong. At the second stage, Parnis made some changes and no longer produce homage watches of some brands like Panerai, now you can not find Parnis Panerai homage watches from their online stores, Parnis also developed the watch lines in recent years and added their own designs in these models, that’s a really good thing, at the same time, we also unveiled the mystery of this brand, Parnis is not a Hong Kong brand, it is also not a Swiss brand like they officialy claimed, Parnis is a Chinese watch brand founded in Guangzhou, China.

I am not sure if Parnis is a successful watch brand, but it has sold out a lot of watches in the past years, now the development path of Parnis is being copied by some Chinese watch brands.

This Parnis Power Reserve is a homage watch of IWC Portuguese, I love its design, it looks elegant, perhaps it is the homage watch I love most, certainly the brand must have a name that is good to hear, Parnis is such a brand. The watch I received is silver with white dial and brown leather strap, I like its case design and dial layout, and the watch works very accurate.

The case is made with 316L stainless steel, the case, lugs and round bezel are polished in glossy finish, the case is measured to be 43mm in diameter, not including the crown, it is about 14.5mm thick, because of being equipped with a leather band, the watch is only 93 grams in weight, which has a lightweight wearing feeling.

Parnis Power Reserve Brown Leather Crown

I like the dial, it shows the elegance of such dress watch to the maximum. IWC Portuguese Power Reserve is one of my dream watches, the Parnis Power Reserve fully presents the design essence of Portuguese Power Reserve’s dial. First, the dial has a very nice layout, fan-shaped date display and power reserve display are symmetrically positioned on each half part of the dial, on the upper right, the power reserve display features a small blue hand that is indicating the remaining energy, while on the top left, it is the date display. By the way, the date can be adjusted by pushing the button at 8 o’clock on the case. Every hand you see on the white dial has a blue color, which is the same color as those Arabic numeral hour markers. The window opened at 6 o’clock allows you to see the working balance wheel, which has two ends fixed by blue screws on the dial. The power reserve you see on the dial is real, that’s a big selling point of this Parnis watch, you know, many other Chinese homage watches also have power reserve feature, but not working.

From the crystal back, I see the automatic movement in this watch, the auto rotor and movement plates have beautiful decoration like “fish scales”, the movement actually is a Sea-gull ST2505, which is 38 jeweled and has a 42-hour power reserve, its beat frequency is 21,600 times per hour. The ST2505 really has a beautiful decoration and works very stable. I saw many other Chinese watches whose prices are close to this Parnis or even slightly higher, but their movements’ decoration and stability are not as good as this Parnis watch’s.

At last, I choose a brown leather strap for the watch, also you can find more combinations of dial and strap color on their store. At Parnis official store, there are many models in different series, including Pilot, Pirate, Royal, Commander, Thunder and Navigation.

Tags Parnis, Power Reserve

Pagani Design

Pagani Design “Autavia” – a quality homage watch with affordable price

Post author By Bob
Post date April 14, 2022
No Comments on Pagani Design “Autavia” – a quality homage watch with affordable price

This Pagani Design watch is totally a homage of Tag Autavia, but it has a very good finish on case and bracelet, much worth.

Pagani Design, a Chinese watch brand that was created ten years ago, now has a very good reputation among watch fans all over the world. Pagani Design is totally a homage watch brand, their office is located in Guangzhou, China, most of their watches are homages of Rolex, Omega, Tag Heuer and other Swiss brands, you can see most of them are homages of Daytona Panda, GMT-Master Batman, Tudor Black Bay, Omega Seamaster, etc., they copy the designs, replaced with their “PAGANI DESIGN” name and logo, but it seems like many people have positive feedbacks on their watches, and I also very satisfied with this “Tag Heuer Autavia” homage received from Pagani Design.

My first impressive on this watch is it has a very case finish, much better than that of the other watches I bought at the same price level. Some Chinese watches at this price point must have compromise in case and bracelet finish, but this Pagani Design watch doesn’t, even sold at less than 100 USD, the watch still has a top workmanship on case and bracelet. The case is 44mm in diameter, it is a little thick, up to 15mm, the entire watch has a weight of about 173 grams(with steel bracelet). Each corner of the case is processed carefully by the watch master, they feel very smooth without scratch feeling. The glossy polish on case edge and brushing on the front forms a high contrast, which not only gives me a good visual enjoyment, but also brings the workmanship of the case to a new high level.

The blue dial has a texture that is very close to that of Tag Heuer Autavia. Pagani Design presents the dial in a three-dimensional manner, each silver hour marker is precisely cut by machine to keep them in the same size and shape, hour hand, minute hand and the small arrow tip of second hand are filled with white luminous material, the lume light is strong and also lasts for a long time. Basically I am happy with the dial, but the logo is printed, if they can place a 3D silver logo at 12 o’clock, that will be better.

The Pagani Design “Autavia” homage uses a Japanese NH35 automatic movement, I see it through the crystal back. I think you also noticed the words “JAPAN MOVT” on its dial. Whether it is a Seiko NH35 or a Chinese HangZhou movement, it is acceptable for me, after all I do not care too much about the movement inside as long as its daily error is within a certain range, for such a Chinese watch with a vintage dial look, I more care about the fun available in changing the band, I changed a brown leather strap on, it looks really good.

About the water resistance, I wouldn’t expect it to be able to 100m waterproof like Pagani Design has claimed, for a Chinese watch under 100 USD, it will be ok for me if I can wear it when swimming in the pool. Besides the blue, Pagani Design also offers many other color options for this watch.

Pagani Design Watch with Brown Leather Strap

Tags Pagani Design

Merkur

Merkur Red Star – a tribute to the classic Chinese army watch

Post author By Bob
Post date April 13, 2022
No Comments on Merkur Red Star – a tribute to the classic Chinese army watch

For people who are looking for an affordable watch with classic Chinese army elements, this Merkur is a good choice.

Merkur is also a very young custom-made watch brand in Beijing, China, it was founded in 2020, yes, it is very young, and many watch custom-made Chinese watch brands like Merkur have been established in recent years, they offer customers a lot of other choices which they can not get from traditional Chinese watch brands like Sea-gull, Shanghai and Beijing, the competition between these custom brands and traditional big three is a good thing for the development of China’s watch industry. Now Merkur owns several brands, including Merkur, Pierre Paulin, Fod, Seizenn, Red Army, etc., their watches are being widely talked in a lot of watch forums.

The Merkur watch reproduces the design of Chinese army watches manufactured in the 1970s, the case is 38mm in diameter and only 12mm thick, the entire case is delicately brushed, while the round bezel is smoothly polished, that makes a high contrast. On the solid case back, there are engravings of Chinese words “中國製”, which will be “Zhong Guo Zhi” in Pin Yin, means “Made in China”.

The dial protected by the arched mineral crystal face looks a little yellow, it has a classic style of those army watches made in the 1970s. If you know little about Chinese army watches in the old times, you will know three elements on this dial are essential for those army watches, they are the Red Star, “19占防水錶(19 Jeweled Waterproof)” and “中國製(Made in China)”, they look attractive to me and placed a certain role in helping me decide to buy this watch. Hour markers, hour hand and minute hand are made with 316L stainless steel, and then being plated with gold, they all use 3D cutting technology and have an angular clean-cut shape.

The Merkur watch uses a Chinese Hangzhou SL07 manual winding movement, which has a beat rate of 21,600. Considering the price, this movement is a good enough, and the watch still works very accurate since I received it two months ago. The watch came with a spring stainless steel bracelet that has a certain flexibility, but I love the nylon band more, it looks better on this watch, the nylon band is also a good presentation of the military essence of this Merkur Red Star watch.

Merkur not only makes such type of retro Chinese army watches, but their pilot’s watches and diver’s watches are also very attractive with unique designs.

Tags Merkur, Red Star

Heimdallr

Heimdallr Diver’s 200m Black – the big monster in deep ocean

Post author By Bob
Post date April 9, 2022
No Comments on Heimdallr Diver’s 200m Black – the big monster in deep ocean

This Heimdallr diver’s watch is very big and heavy, it is a real moster.

Heimdallr is a Chinese homage watch brand, it has a very young watch-making history and most of their watches are diving styles. At first, the owner of Heimdallr only had a very small room to make homages of some vintage Seiko Prospex models, becuase of the solid quality and durable dial lume, the first batch of watches he customized received a lot of good feedback from his clients, with more and more need for such types of homages, he registered “Heimdallr” brand and decided to use a Shark logo on the watches’ dial. Now, watches coming from Heimdallr can be divided into seven sereis, they are Tuna Can, Turtle Diver, SKX007, Sub, 62 Mas, MM300 and Promaster, most of them are homages of Seiko Prospex, Omega Seamaster and Rolex Submariner.

Maybe some people do not like such homage watches and think they copied the design of other watches, but sometimes it is exactly these homage brands like Heimdallr to you a chance to own a watch that has been discontinued in production.

The watch reviewed here is a Moster Diver’s model from Heimdallr, it is really big and thick, for people who have a thin wrist, I do not suggest you buy it. The cas is 41.6mm in diameter(without crown), if the crown included, it is about 47.7mm, it looks big but its case is not too thick, which is only about 13.6mm, the case thickness is very acceptable for such a strong and big solid diver’s watch. The bezel is uni-directional rotating and features diving scales filled with black coating, like most diver’s watches, there is a lumed pearl set at 12 o’clock for the wearer to read time easily when under water.

The black dial has a very simple design, Heimdallr’s shark logo is at 12 o’clock in white color, each hour marker and hands are applied with C3 SuperLuminova, the dial will have a strong green lume light in dark conditions, which will last for several hours. The design of hour markers is very interesting, they are like the tooth of a tiger shark, when you are looking the dial, it is like a tiger shark swimming towards you. To resist great pressure under water, the watch uses thick sapphire crystal above the dial.

The Heimdallr Monster is equipped with a Japanese NH36A automatic movement, which beats 21,600 times per hour and has 24 jewels, this Japanese movement is better than the Chinese movements used in most fake watches, because NH36A has a power reserve of 41 hours. By the way, the NH36A supplies the watch Day and Date functions. There are totally three big selling points on this Heimdallr Monster watch, the first one is this Japanese movement, the other two are its solid case quality and strong dial lume.

I worn this watch when swimming in the pool, it is ok, but the brand said it is 200m water resistant, I do not know if it is true, I have not dived with it. About this watch, Heimdallr also offers many other dial options.

Tags Heimdallr, NH36A, Shark

Guanqin

Guanqin Tonneau-shaped Watch – the skeleton beauty of mechanical watch

Post author By Bob
Post date April 8, 2022
No Comments on Guanqin Tonneau-shaped Watch – the skeleton beauty of mechanical watch

My first thought on this watch is its cheap price, perhaps it is the most cost-efficient mechanical watch with an acceptable quality.

Guanqin is a common watch brand founded in Guangzhou, China. On the internet, you may see some description about this brand, saying it is a Hong Kong brand founded in 1989, that’s not true, Guanqin does not have that long history, it is a young Chinese brand established in 2011. A lot of Chinese brands like Guanqin have made up such a fake historical story to convince customers, in most times, it works, especially in China. However, if you are able to do some research on the internet, you will know its true face.

Anyway, some of us do not read a brand’s stories, we do more care about their watches’ quality and design, as well as if it worths my money I spent. For this Guanqin watch I just received, I did not spend too mcuh, it is just a special addition to my current watch collection, I love to wear it after being tired of my sweep-second models with clean and round dial design.

This Guanqin watch has a tonneau-shaped case that is made with stainless steel, the case is measured to be 40mm in width, 47mm in height and 13mm in thickness, it has a slightly curved shape, you can observe this from its side and case back, this makes the watch sit my wrist more comfortable, the case has ten screws fixed, in silver tone and star shape, two “buttons” up and under the crown, they can not be pushed, just two metal pieces protecting the crown. The case uses two different polishing methods, the frontal side is brushed, while the edge around the case is mirror polished, which feels very smooth.

Through the skeleton dial and crystal back, you can see working machine parts of the movement. I immediately felt it worth the money when I saw this openwork of the dial. these brackets have a little help to keep the movement more stable, the red color usage on the central hands enhance the readability of the watch, on the hour hand and minute hand, there are two arrows and two bars having been applied with white lume material, the lume light is not as strong as that of diver’s watches. Have you noticed those white trapezoidal hour markers around, they are not luminous at night, I think the watch manufacturer can use lume material on these markers, this will absolutely give the Guanqin watch a new wearing feeling.

The case back has a round crystal window, the movement inside has a skeleton auto rotor, without brand’s logo. This is a very common automatic movement manufactured in China, and mostly used by Chinese brand watches priced at 80 USD or 90 USD like this Guanqin. I have no worries about this Chinese movement and no complains, the shipper adjusted the movement excellent before sending to me, so the watch still works accurate since I received, yes, you may say they can choose a Japanese movement, but that means more money it would cost.

At last, the Guanqin watch comes with a black rubber band in a box, one pair of black leather straps and one screw driver offered for free.

Tags Guanqin, Rubber, Skeleton

CIGA Design

CIGA Design X Series Gorilla – a mechanical elf beating on your wrist

Post author By Bob
Post date April 7, 2022
No Comments on CIGA Design X Series Gorilla – a mechanical elf beating on your wrist

CIGA Design is one of the few watch brands in China that has not copied the design of any other watches, it is totally a brand that is created by a Chinese designer, whose name is Zhang Jianmin.

I like this brand, their watches are not knockoffs of some Swiss watches, they have their own design with many young and innovation elements. CIGA Design is a very young Chinese brand that was established in 2012, their first watch was launched in 2013 and won Red Dot Design Award(https://www.red-dot.org/project/ciga-design-009-series-6992), that’s crazy and I also saw they choose a development road that is completely different from other Chinese brand watches. In 2021, the Blue Planet watch from CIGA Design won Challenge Watch Prize(https://www.gphg.org/horlogerie/en/gphg-2021-prizes/challenge-watch-prize-2021-ciga-design-blue-planet), it is the first time for a Chinese watch to win a GPHG award, very inspirational. During the development in the past few years, a series of award-winning records show that their watch design has been recognized. So today, let’s see how the quality of their watches is.

This CIGA Design watch is a Gorilla model from X Series, I got this black/orange one in an iron box like a container, with one gorilla-shaped pillow for the watch. The container-style watch box has a big gorilla image, a big “X” letter crossing the entire box, “CIGADesign” logo is on one side of the box. The watch is cool and the gorilla watch pillow is so cute.

The case has an unique design, the entire case system is divided into two parts, inner case and outer case frame, I firstly saw such case structure on a mechanical watch. The more interesting thing is each corner of the case is equipped with an independent spring suspension device, whose design inspiration comes from car’s suspension system, this adds more fun to a mechanical watch, maybe also have a protection for the inner case. With the spring in four corners, the inner case can move when you push it with your fingers.

Under the protection of outer case frame, the entire watch looks very big, it is measured to be 44mm in width and 44mm in height, the case is not thick, only 11.8mm. There are orange metal pieces on both sides. The crown on the right has a big “C” logo, the left has a “Gorilla” image, both pieces are fixed by silver “X” screws. The matte black finish on case eactly meets the “Gorilla” theme of CIGA Design Series X.

Black dial is hollow, with all machine parts clearly in front of my eyes. The big “X” support on the dial looks like a standing Gorilla, in dark condition, the “X” support is luminous, so are hour hand and minute hand. The central second hand is in striking orange color, which matches the orange color on the case. The use of this “X” support on the dial not only gives me a strong visual impact, but it also makes the movement work more stable.

Through the crystal back, the movement has a skeleton auto rotor that is engraved with “CIGA DESIGN CUSTOMIZED MOVEMENT CO-01”, I think this information is redundant, “CIGA DESIGN CO-01” will be enough. The watch comes with a black rubber band that features breathable grids, which is very comfortable to wear in summer, they also offer one pair of black nylon band for free, you can change by yourself.

Overall, CIGA Design is a Chinese watch brand that is full of many creative and innovative designs, for this Series X Gorilla that looks fashion and sporty, I think a lot of young people will love it.

Tags CIGA Design, Gorilla

Binger

Binger “Double Tourbillon” Moon Phase Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date April 6, 2022
No Comments on Binger “Double Tourbillon” Moon Phase Watch Review

Is this watch using double tourbillon? I do not think so.

Binger is not a Swiss watch brand, it is totally a Chinese brand. In their brand story you may read somewhere on the internet, it is said that Binger was founded in 1853 and its headquarter is located at Le Locle of Switzerland, these are not true, they made up the story, actually many watch brands in China like Binger has such a fake backstory, as a Chinese, I feel embarrassed when reading such a fake story because they are cheating customers.

I did some research online and found that Binger was owned by a e-commerce company in China, besides Binger watches, I know they are selling a lot of other luxury goods, don’t be surprised, this is normal for most e-commerce companies in China. Ok, now you have a brief understanding of Binger’s background, let’s see this watch from them. We more care about a watch’s quality.

It is from “Hao Yue” series of Binger, the watch comes with a stainless steel bracelet, while they shipped one extra black leather band to me, many thanks. After wearing the watch for several days, I am satisfied with its quality, the case polishing, bracelet finish and dial design are all good.

The Binger watch is completely made with stainless steel, the polishing on the stainless steel case and bracelet is very good, when I received the package and get the watch in my hand, I said “Wow”, it worth the money I spent. The case has a diameter of 42mm and thickness of 13mm, not very thick for me, it is acceptable for most people.

Besides the top quality finish on case and bracelet, this Binger watch also has a good sapphire crystal face, which is highly scratch resistant, their salesperson said that they did an experiment on the sapphire crystal on every Binger watch, use a knife to scratch on the surface and there won’t be any scratches, well, to prove that, I did not do that on my watch.

The blue dial looks amazing, I know you noticed the double opening windows, but I was attracted by its sun-ray texture on the dial, it looks unique and indeed adds scores to the entire watch. The two opening windows on the dial, one is placed between 4:00 and 5:00, the other is positioned between 7:00 and 8:00, both are not tourbillon devices but are displays of double balance wheel. Each balance wheel has one support fixed on the dial with blue screws, this enhance the stability of the entire movement. Under 12 o’clock, date and moon phase are displayed, the small silver hand is indicating current date, the moon phase rotates once a month.

Now I understand the reason for high price of this watch, the following elements are all necessary:
Top-level case and bracelet finish
Double balance wheel movement
Date and moon phase functions
Highly scratch-resistant sapphire crystal

Binger Double Tourbillon Blue Dial with Black Leather Strap

Overall, this is a good watch, but I think this Chinese watch should’t use “Swiss” to advertise, if watches’ quality is good, everyone will know. By the way, Binger only sell watches on the internet, they do not have stores in any countries.

Tags Binger, Moon Phase, Tourbillon

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