Olevs, which is also a Chinese brand founded in Huizhou of Guangdong, is kind of well-know in watch industry. The digital watches, like this one in golden and black tone, are not the mainstream products of Olevs. I have done very little research about this brand and only checked its website, the watches they make have similar styles to the watches made by Binger, but I think Binger watches have a higher quality. Both Olevs and Binger are like to use a design that opens a window to show the balance wheel on the dial, and many watches created by them are in golden tone and are like using diamonds to make them look more luxury, perhaps Chinese customers like this style more.
The digital watch I just bought from Olevs has a great color combination, which is golden and black. I love all things on the watch except its tiny crown and very thin rubber band. By the way, Olevs makes their watches look luxury, but the box coming with the watch look poor quality, and there is only a watch inside, no other accessories.
The watch has a big size, its case is measured to be 51mm from left to right, the case thickness is 16.4mm, however, the entire watch is only 61.6 grams in weight. I like its case, which is one-piece forged, with resin surrounding the entire dial window to give a full protection of the crystal face. During the shock resistance I made on the watch, the case really protects the crystal very well. The four buttons, which are for light, mode and chrono operation, are hidden in the hole but very convenient to operate. The name of each button is engraved in gray color, which has a high legibility on the black case. The crown is very small in golden tone, I prefer a big rubber crown where you can find on other G-style sports watches.
On the dial, there is LED screen in black to show you the week, date, hours, minutes and seconds. The central golden hour hand and minute hand are indicating the golden hour markers and golden minute ring. Black second hand is ticking around the dial. There is a big OLEVS logo in black on the golden background at 9 o’clock. When you push the light button at 10 o’clock, there will be light on the back of the LED screen, so you will be able to read time in the dark conditions. The light will last for seconds after releasing the button.
The black rubber band is much thinner than the one on the other digital watches I reviewed before, but it is nicely connected to the case, even though I pull the straps hard in opposite directions in the video, the band still stays firmly, not broken. The watch is powered by a quartz battery that is imported from Japan, which can last for years.
This is the best-selling watch on Yelang’s official website, it is a military-watch with quartz movement, few people know Yelang because it is a very young brand created in China, especially their website, which was just launched on Aliexpress in March in 2023. However, in a short period, Yelang has obtained a lot fans, compared with most homage watches I reveiwed on my blog, Yelang watches are not cheap but are sold very well on aliexpress, it seems like the military-style watches that have a strong case design are more popular. Today, I want to show you a good quality Yelang watch which I just received, it has a reference of V1021, this is a big military watch and come with one extra rubber band.
The watch comes in a box that looks a little yellow, on the front, you can see Yelang lettering and brand logo, on one side of the paper box, we can see letters of “H3 Tritium luminous watch”, which indicate the lume system used on the watch. Open the box, we can see the watch laying inside and a brief introduction about the brand on the box. The box is ok and can give enough protection for the watch, but it seems like no Chinese watches are willing to use a wooden box, if I create a watch brand in future, I will consider a more high-end wooden box.
The watch is made with solid 316L stainless steel , it is heavy and has a weight of more than 172 grams. The case is strongly made with a diameter of 42mm, its thickness is measured to be 11.5mm, not sure why it is said to be 14.6mm on the website of Yelang. Such type of case just meets current large watch trend and is not too thick, which is more comfortable for everyday wearing. We can see the streamlined polishing finish on the edge of the case, which forms a high contrast with the brushed finish on the case. The beveled round bezel stands a little high above the case base and has a brushing like the case. Well, every part on the case looks large, including the big case, fat bezel and big onion-shaped crown, these are actually essential elements for a military-style watch.
Yelang offers other dial colors for this watch, but I like the blue one most. The most outstanding place on the dial is it uses a different lume system named H3 Tritium. On the dial, we can clearly see the H3 Tritium tube set on each hour marker, no need to absorb light, these markers will emit a strong lume light in the dark conditions. The central hour hand and minute hand are also set with two lume tubes. Please check the dial lume picture below, the blue lume light emitting from the hour markers and hands is strong, and will be more long lasting. By the way, I do not like the logo on the dial, the head of the wolf is ok, but the wings look weird, I think a feral wolf is more suitable to be used as a logo for this watch if Yelang decides to be a military-themed watch brand in future.
The watch is powered by a quartz movement, Yelang claims it is Swiss 715LI-HH6 quartz, never heard of it, not sure how long will it last, maybe two or three years. The stainless steel band looks good on the watch, with the press button, you can easily open the clasp. This watch also comes with one extra black rubber band, but there is no Yelang logo on the buckle of the rubber band.
My advice:
This Yelang is one of the few military-style watches that use H3 Tritium lume system, if you want to try a new wearing experience, then this Yelang watch is very suitable for military watch fans. Robust designed case, strong dial lume and 100m water resistance, I think some will be crazy about it.
Before I review the two watches, I want to give a brief introduction of Vakuy Rigas first, indeed I reviewed several Vakuy Rigas watches on my blog before, but a lot of people do not know the background of this brand, I doubted its relationship with Parnis and thought that both are created by the same company, I was not sure about this before, but after receiving this Vakuy Rigas Paul Newman homage watch, I am very sure that Parnis and Vakuy Rigas are run by the same company the shipper has the same address and contact phone number. By the way, the box of this Vakuy Rigas watch is the same as the one of the Parnis Pepsi GMT I reviewed two weeks ago. Check the box and accessories coming with this Vakuy Rigas below:
Both watches have the same finish on the case, brushing on the front and polishing on two sides. While the Pagani Design has a larger than case than the Vakuy Rigas, check the pictures below, the case of the Pagani Design is measured to be 39.8mm in diameter, almost 40mm, but the case of the Vakuy Rigas is only 38mm in diameter. About case thickness, if including case back and crystal, the Pagani Design is 13mm, while the Vakuy Rigas is up to 15.4mm in thickness. Why the Vakuy Rigas is much thicker if it has a smaller case? Because the crystal and movement of the Vakuy Rigas watch add the thickness. I have already checked the crystal on the Vakuy Rigas, it is very thick and too high above the bezel. And the mechanical chronograph movement inside also increases the thickness of the entire watch.
Both watches have brand logo on the crown, each chrono pusher has screw to lock, seeing from the pictures, the screw on the chrono pusher of the Pagani Design watch is in unlock status.
The case diameter of the PaganiThe case thickness of the Pagani.The case thickness of the Vakuy.The case thickenss of the Vakuy.
Conclusion:
When I hold the two watches in hand and you will see the Pagani Design is larger. Pagani Design also looks more fashionable, it is a watch that has a more modern case design and modern finish on the bracelet, while with a panda white dial with a little vintage flavor.
The case size and design of the Vakuy Rigas are closer to that of genuine Rolex Daytona Paul Newman, it has a strong vintage flavor emitting from its case, dial and bracelet.
Crystal:
Pagani Design claims that they use a sapphire crystal on the watch, I did not test. This Vakuy Rigas uses a Acrylic face, we can also call it Plexi Plastic Crystal. As far as I know, the old Daytona Paul Newman impossible to use a sapphire crystal, the plexi plastic crystal on the Vakuy Rigas enhances the vintage flavor of the entire watch.
Dial:
Both watches have a cream white dial, the color is correct. The white match-head markers on the small dials are also correct. I have taken a very close look at the dial on both watches, and I found that the small dials on the Vakuy Rigas have more refined CD patterns. The lume markers next to each stainless steel hour marker, Vakuy Rigas makes them correct, in round shape and correct cyan color. Pagani Design makes them in square shape, and they also look too orange. By the way, the dial lume on both watches is weak even after absorbing enough light under the sun. The central second-chronograph hand on the Vakuy Rigas has a white tip, which is the same as genuine Daytona Paul Newman.
Dial lume on the Pagani.
Functions:
Both watches have hours, minutes, seconds, chronograph functions, while the Pagani Design also has a 24-hour display. Because the movement is different, the Pagani Design is powered by a quartz, while the Vakuy Rigas is equipped with a mechanical chronograph movement, the display of the small dials is not the same, their functions are also not the same. The Pagani Design first, you can see the step-by-step moving small second hand on the subdial at 6 o’clock, the 9:00 subdial is a 60-minute chronograph counter, the 3:00 subdial is for 24-hour display. Then let’s see the dial of the Vakuy Rigas, the display of the small dials is the same as that on genuine Rolex Daytona Paul Newman. A smoothly moving small second hand is on the subdial at 9 o’clock, the other two subdials are 30-minute chronograph counter and 12-hour chronograph counter. Both watches have a real chronograph function, you can start, stop and reset the chronograph by pushing the two buttons on the case.
After checking the details and functions displayed on the dial, I must say the Vakuy Rigas is much closer to genuine Daytona Paul Newman.
Bracelet:
Both watches are made with solid stainless steel. The bracelet of the Pagani Design looks more modern because it uses two different finishes, polishing on the middle links and brushing on two sides. The bracelet of the Vakuy Rigas is entirely brushed, just like the bracelet on real Daytona Paul Newman. Well, for a vintage watch, I prefer the bracelet of the Vakuy Rigas.
The case back of the two watches is also different, on the Pagani Design, there is a racing car pattern, while the case back is empty on the Vakuy Rigas.
Movement:
The Pagani Design is powered by a quartz movement. The Vakuy Rigas watch is driven by a Chinese chronograph movement, which is automatic, I can feel the swinging auto rotor inside when I shake the watch slightly, not a manual winding, it is an automatic movement, I am very sure. On the website of Vakuy, they say it is a Dandong 7750 from China.
Videos:
Buying advice:
Both watches have an acceptable quality, especially the Pagani Design, it is unbelievable that the watch is sold at less than $80 but has such a good quality, with a quartz movement, it is also very convenient for the user. If you do not have enough budget, this Pagani Design, which has been added with several modern elements, will be a good choice. However, if you are looking for a very good homage of the Rolex Daytona Paul Newman watch with very strong vintage flavors, then this Vakuy Rigas will be the best one, it looks very close in every detail, as far as I know, there are few homages of Daytona Paul Newman, Vakuy Rigas should be the best one in the market.
I did not introduce digital watches on my blog before, just one week ago, I did some searches on aliexpress and found those digital watches made in China are being sold very well, they are popular. I have one G-Shock watch which I bought several years ago, it is a basic model and I love to wear every day, especially in the summer, very convenient to wear than the other watches in my collection. In the past, I never thought I will buy these digital watches, they are toys and look like being specially made for the students and young people, however, actually you can see many people wearing them in the street and gym. There are no watches that fit sports clothes better than these digital watches. So, I will introduce some digital watches from time to time on my blog, to tell you the quality of them, to help you find good quality ones.
Skmei is a famous brand in this field, their watches are very popular on the internet, it is one of the best-selling digital watch brands, although not as famous as Casio G-shock, Skmei still has their biggest advantage, which is price. As far as I know, Skmei is founded in Zhaoqing of Guangdong Province in China. Zhaoqing is a very beautiful place in Guangdong, I went there before, some canyons are really natural oxygen bars, I think I will settle there when getting old. Now comes to the watch, you can see the following pictures I took.
The Skmei watch arrived in a good condition, it is under double protection, the outside is a paper box, while the watch is put inside a black iron box, so it is very safe and I like this package. There are a warranty card and a user manual coming with the watch, but I did not see purchase date and model number on the card, these information are empty. As far as I know from their page, the reference should be 1988, which can also be found on the watch.
The watch uses two colors, green and black, they also offers a lot of other colors. The case is made with ABS, this material has many advantages, such as corrosion and heat resistant, highly stretchy and also has a certain hardness, the green band is made with TPU that has a very strong ductility, look at one of the videos I show below, I did a test on the band.
The case of the watch is measured to be 51.2mm in height and 45.4mm in width, it is only 13.8mm in thickness, the entire watch has a weight of 47.8 grams. The green band is perfectly integrated with the case and looks very nice on the watch. The length of the band can guarantee it fits the wrist size from 175mm to 240mm. I do not know the movement inside, it is absolutely a quartz battery, but I do not know where it is made from, the battery in my G-Shock has worked for almost 5 years.
The functions of the watch include hours, minutes, seconds, week, month, date, alarm and dual time. These functions can be easily adjusted through the four buttons on the case. I think there is no need to talk how to adjust these functions in this article, there are instructions on the user manual, I did not read them, it is very easy.
The first video is a show of the watch.
The second video shows the toughness of the watch, I hit the table hard with the watch from all sides, including the two case sides and the front, after several repeated strong knocks, the black frame on the front fell down. This does not mean that the quality is bad, because I used too much strength, you can hear the loud knocking sound in the video. The band is strong, its construction connected with the case is also very strong, I pull the straps hard with both hands, it not broke.
The third video is a waterproof test. Put the watch in a glass bottle filled with water, then shake the glass bottle with a great strength. The result is water does not get into the watch. I do not have a professional equipment to test the water resistance, I think I will need one in future.
In my memory, I heard this brand many years ago, not sure if it is operated by a watch company, but I found it is a brand registered under the name of somebody. I did some searches on google and found most Escapement Time watches are homages of Seiko, and use quartz movement. Today, I want to introduce one diving-style watch from Escapement Time, this is the best-selling watch on their website, from its appearance, is it another homage watch of Seiko?
The watch does not look that big like other diver’s watches, but its case is thick. The watch has a thick case that is measured to be 39mm in diameter, it looks thick, but only 11mm in thickness. The Escapement Time watch is also sold less than $100, the brand offers two options for the strap, a green nylon band and black rubber band.
The watch is 39mm, this is not a popular size, now many watch fans asked for larger sizes such as 40mm, 41mm and 43mm for a diver’s watch. Because the wide design of bezel, there are no extra case parts you can see except the four lugs, the crown is set at 4 o’clock, through it, you can set time and date. The solid case back is screwed down like the crown.
The black dial has the most classic feature which a diver’s watch usually has, that’s the strong dial lume and high readability. Hour markers are big and applied with white lume material, hour hand and minute hand have wide design that can be applied with more lume material, the dial has a very strong green lume light in dark conditions. The date window has a silver frame with black font in white background, anyway, the date window looks a little small.
I like both rubber band and nylon strap on this watch. it comes with a sandblasted pin buckle, by the way, the movement inside is a Miyota 2S60 quartz that has more than 10 years of service life. This is a 1 sec tick movement, not sweeping quartz, it is very accurate and convenient.
I introduced a lot of Parnis watches before, whether it is the homage of the IWC Portuguese Power Reserve, or the homage of Starbucks Submariner, I love them all. For those homage watches made in China, I have two most favorite ones, they are Parnis and Pagani Design. Both made some same watches, like the homage of Rolex GMT Master and this Daytona homage, in future, I will write some posts comparing the same watches made by them. Parnis has an old history, it might be the first homage watch brand in China, Pagani Design is a new brand but seems to be more popular than Parnis now, especially in Reddit, a lot of watch fans are discussing. Today, I want to share a new Parnis watch, it looks like a Daytona, the famous Panda Daytona we usually call, the watch is also the favorite one to be copied in replica watch industry.
The watch has a finish which most people can accept after all its price is less than $80. The Parnis has a very similar appearance to the Panda Daytona, unfortunately its bezel is not black ceramic made, the chrono buttons looks slightly different, and the watch is powered by a quartz movement, so about the functions, there will be different, however, for such a low price, I think a quartz movement is an optimal solution for this type of homage watch that needs a chrono function.
Let us see its dial first, it is white with three small dials with a black circle for each. They have real functions, the small dial at 6 o’clock has a small second hand that is ticking around the dial, the small dial at 9 o’clock is a 60-minute chronograph counter, while the subdial at 3 o’clock is an hour display in 24-hour format. The bracelet has two different finishes on the links, the middle links are polished, the links on both sides are brushed, you can see the high contrast effect, very obvious. The press-style buckle is very easy to open, with Parnis engraving.
I like this quartz watch, not only due to its close outlook to the Daytona, but the quartz movement also saves you a lot of inconvenience, the watch usually does not need repairing service within one year.
In the past months, I have introduced a lot of homage watches made in China, I like them, although they are just copies of these Swiss watches, sometimes these homage watches are good for you to collect if you do not want to pay a lot on Swiss watches, I saw some homage watches with very good quality, that’s an important reason to choose them, homage watches made today have much better finish than before, especially Pagani Design, they have a very nice finish but also can be sold at cheap prices at the same time. Another reason why so many choose homage watches is that they have similar appearance to Swiss watches, reproducing the elegant Swiss design and sell at much lower prices. Back to our today’s topic, the watch I am going to review is a watch from Fiyta, about Fiyta, I did not pay too much attention to this brand before, but it is said to be one of the most powerful watch companies in China, they do not develop movements, but the watches they make are full of creativity and their design aesthetics is very close to that of Swiss watches. This Fiyta watch is a new model they published, from the Deep Space production line, the watch has a creative design, and also uses a certain Chinese element.
The Fiyta Deep Space Skywalker Watch has two models available, one is made with stainless steel named White Tiger, the other is black one named Green Dragon. Actually both are made with 316L stainless steel, the black one just has DLC coating on the outside. I like the black model. The Fiyta Deep Space Skywalker Watch won the 2023 MUSE Design Awards, that’s nice, as far as I know, this is the second Chinese brand that wins a design award from abroad, the first one is Ciga Design. The Fiyta Skywalker Watch Green Dargon is powered by a quartz movement, and the watch design got inspiration from the starship, I am deeply attracted by its unique shape.
The watch comes in a fashionable box, with one extra pair of black rubber band inside. The watch has a very angular case that is fully brushed, it is about 44mm in diameter and 11.8mm in thickness, for a quartz watch, it is a little thick, but it is exactly the special bezel that adds the case thickness. The design of the bezel is like the porthole of the starship. The case back has a big engraving looks like a starship.
The dial has a very unique design, through the sapphire crystal face that is surrounded by the porthole-shaped bezel, you can see the special construction of the dial, like the inside of a starship, there are only hour hand and minute hand, no central second hand, the rotating structure on the center is simulating the artificial gravity system. There is a symbol of green dragon’s head at 6 o’clock.
The watch has two bands options, both are rubber bands, one with green dragon image, the other is totally black, I like the latter more.
In recent years, many brands have appeared in Chinese market to do custom-made work, like the brands San Martin, Proxima, Octopus, STEELDIVE I introduced before, all of them seem to come from the same city in China and customize watches according to the designs of Swiss watches or Japanese watches. Many homage watches they created are beautiful with good prices, I have bought several pieces, however, I think too many brands do a repeated work in this field, that’s not good for the development of China watch industry, and sometimes customers also do not know which one to choose when facing too many options with similar designs. But among those custom-made brands, I think Merkur does a better job than others because they have more excellent watches with their own designs, that’s the right development route which every Chinese watch brand should choose.
Never heard of Baltany before, it seems to have some connection to Proxima and San Martin because their watches’ designs are similar, while still not proved. The Baltany watch I am reviewing is a good military style watch powered by a quartz movement, it has several styles that all look really wonderful, I chose the one with black nylon band. The case is made with 316L stainless steel, not titanium even though it looks not like stainless steel because of its darker matte finish. I like the matte finish on the case, I have a lot of stainless steel watches in polished, it is very nice to try another one that has a different finish on the stainless steel case. And the black nylon band also matches well with this matte case and black dial.
The dial has a very good readability, there are four colors on the dial, the black background, red color on the tip of the central second hand, yellow lume color applied on the arrow-shaped markers and hands, white numeral hour markers. It is powered by a Seiko VK61 quartz movement that offers the watch hours, minutes, small seconds and chronograph functions. The subdial at 6 o’clock has a ticking small second, it will keep moving as long as the battery has power. The small dial at 12 o’clock is a 60-minute chronograph counter. At night, the dial will emit two strong lume light, one is blue on these numeral hour markers, the other is green, both are very strong but I have not tested if they will last for a long time. The dial lume is really a big advantage of those custom-made watch brands in China. The watch looks like on this nato band, well, there are too many band choices for such a military watch, a distressed brown leather band or a black calfskin leather band will also look nice, Baltany gives you choices to select your most favorite band because custom-made watch brand is doing such work.
Hruodland, have you ever bought watches from this brand? I just found it and it looks like other brands I reviewed before such as San Martin, Proxima and Heimdallr, Hruodland also makes homage watches like them, many of them are diver’s watches with strong dial lume, absolutely I do respect these homage brands, although they directly copy the designs of Swiss watches, their quality is usually super. My friend in China did some research and found this brand shipped their watches from Dongguan city in Guangdong province of China, some of these brands I mentioned above like San Marin and Heimdallr also make their watches in Dongguan, so some people may think these Chinese homage brands are operated by the same company, sometime I guess so, but I will ask my friend to do more research on their background, after all there are too many such homage watches come from this city, some of them have the connection, but not all of them operated by the same company. I will write an article about them in future. About San Martin, Proxima, Heimdallr, Rdunae and other brands from Dongguan, there is one common ground behind them, I guess they all earned money by selling fake watches before. By the way, there are several websites online selling watches from these homage brands, like WRWatches and WatchDives, they are also not the company of these brands, they are just sales agent.
This Hruodland has a special shape that looks like an old TV, I remembered the first television my dad bought is like the case shape of this watch. I never thought I will buy such a watch in this unique shape, but I was deeply attracted by this beauty when my friend found it on Taobao and sent me, even it is a digital quartz watch, I still decided to buy, the beautiful blue dial, well-finished case and bracelet, practical functions, it is the most distinctive digital watch in my collection. I know it is a homage watch, but I am not sure which watch it copies from.
The watch has a heavy weight even it is only 39mm in diameter, both the case and bracelet are made with solid 316L stainless steel, they have fine brushing, which is in high contrast with the polishing finish on the bezel. The blue dial is the place I like most on the watch, besides, the finish of the stainless steel bracelet can also beat many watches, the edge of each link on the bracelet is polished round and smooth to guarantee a super wearing comfort, and among all my homage watches, the bracelet finish on this Hruodland watch is the best, I think this is one of the reasons why it is sold at a little higher price than other digital watches.
The blue dial is beautiful and has a very reasonable layout design that does not look crowded even it has a lot of elements to arrange. Under different light condition, the blue color looks different, the three small dials have their own roles. Small-second subdial is at 6 o’clock, the other two subdials at 9 and 12 are for chronograph display. Two separated windows at 3 o’clock, one for week display, the other is for displaying of date. “HRUODLAND” lettering is on top of the window. The fixed central second hand will start to move when you push the chronograph button at 2 o’clock, this is a watch with working chronograph, the font of week and date is also aligned exactly in the middle of each window. By the way, the central second hand has two wings that look like a airplane.
The watch is driven by a Citizen 0S00 quartz chronograph movement, it is said to have a serice life of about 3 years. Hruodland does not offer an extra band for this watch, I still have not configured out which other type of bands will fit it well except this steel bracelet.
This is my second Vakuy Rigas watch bought from China, the first one is a vintage Rolex Daytona Paul Newman homage, this one is a quartz watch, but I do not know which brand it copies from, it seems like it has some features of Glashutte. Whatever it looks like, the watch will become one of the dress watches in my big collection that have combined several functions in one piece. I like its polishing case, round smooth bezel and classic dial design, the watch also has a 40mm case, this is a very popular size for all types of watches, it is a trendy watch size, on this Vakuy Rigas, with 40mm case and thin bezel, the dial will look very large, and eveything arranged on the dial will look more comfortable, I think this is a necessary characteristic for all casual watches. I do not like the watch with a too crowded dial, if with so many functions and small dials, it even affects me affect me reading time from the dial. In my collection, for such type of watches, I like Parnis most, because it is a homage brand and most watches made by them have similar designs to those Swiss watches.
I chose the white dial version, the watch is powered by a Seiko VH64 quartz movement, and I noticed that the dial is printed “SWEEP SECOND” “QUARTZ”, I did not know what is the meaning, but I found the central second hand is not ticking but smooth sweeping the dial, so I know what this quartz movement has done, it is a great movement and the watch is exactly what I am looking for. With a quartz engine inside, but doing the things like a mechanical watch. There are two small dials, each with a small hand, one small dial at 3 o’clock is for date display, the other at 9 o’clock is for week display, and the crystal above the white dial is a arc-shaped mineral crystal. The watch comes with a brown leather strap that is made with genuine calfskin leather, it feels very soft and durable to use, not like other cheap watches that come with a band with bad smell, there is no smell on this band, I would like to change this band with a genuine alligator leather band, it will make the watch look more luxury.
