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.
