No one participated the giveaway I published before, but every giveaway activity I set is real, not a scam, I will choose one winner and send one good watch to him for free. In April, I will choose the following watch as a prize, it is a Escapement Time, with a Seiko VH31 sweeping second quartz movement, sapphire crystal and good quality leather band.
Guangdong is one of the earliest provinces in China to implement reform and opening up, there are three famous cities that have connection with watches, Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen. When mentioning Guangzhou, what watches you will think of? Yes, you are right, replicas watches. While what is connection between Dongguan and watches? You may not know most watches parts including cases and bracelets are made in factories of Dongguan, on my blog, some homage watches reviewed also made in Dongguan. In Shenzhen, this is a place of the future and hope of the development of China watches, because I have seen many creative ideas in watch-making come from watch companies in Shenzhen. In brief, fakes in Guangzhou, watch manufacturing in Dongguan, innovation happens in Shenzhen, movements from several cities in northern China like Tianjin, Dandong and Shanghai.
Back to the watch I am going to introduce today, it is a new watch I just found, totally a Chinese style watch, Chinese words on the dial, but this won’t cause inconvenience for you to read time. Do you know this brand? Beside the date window, four Chinese words “維傑豪兹”, which is Vager Hauers in English, this is a watch brand founded in Shenzhen, on their website, I saw an interesting thing, which is Vager Hauers claims that they are an independent watch maker in China, yes, any of these homage brands in China that has a small workshop can be an independent watch brand. Even their watch company has an address registered in Shenzhen, but all watches are shipped from Yunnan, so I guess their watches were assembled in Yunnan.
The watch has a similar outlook to Lange, but is is completely made for the Chinese, if you know some Chinese characters, you will find this watch is very interesting. The dial completely explains to the world how the Chinese understand time. Especially the white bigger subdial on the left, there are twelve Chinese characters, they are “子”, “丑”, “寅”, “卯”, “辰”, “巳”, “午”, “未”, “申”, “酉”, “戌”, “亥”, each of these Chinese characters is called Shichen in Chinese, which represents a time period during the day, that is two hours in modern times. So, this Shichen subdial is actually a 24-hour display in Chinese way. The offcentre small dial on the lower right is a display of the small seconds. On the following, I will explain all Chinese characters on the dial.
拾貳 – 12
元亨利貞 – Yuan Heng Li Zhen, it is is the classic judgment in the I Ching. Here is the meaning: 元: represents the primal force of creation, the source of all things 亨: signifies smooth development, unobstructed progress, and success. 利: indicates that the situation is favorable, bringing benefit when aligned with the right path. 貞: means steadfastness, integrity, and enduring in the right way. Some people believe that “元”, “亨”, “利”, “貞” indicate the four seasons in a year, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
維傑豪兹 – Vager Hauers, which is the brand name. Besides the date window at 2 o’clock.
叁 – 3
陆 – 6
出離心 – Chu Li Xin, a buddhist concept refers to a deep mental resolve to free oneself from samsara (the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth) and the three poisons (greed, hatred, and delusion). It is not merely about physical withdrawal but a profound shift in perspective—recognizing the suffering and impermanence of worldly pursuits and cultivating a sincere desire for ultimate liberation (nirvana).
At last, I want to say its movement, which is a Japanese Miyota 8219, which has a accuracy of ±5 – ±30 seconds.
Conclusion:
A watch with a strong Chinese I Ching culture. It combines traditional Chinese time display method to show you the 24 hours, this is a great innovation. By the way, some concepts of I Ching and Buddhism transferred through the watch may attract a lot of people who like Chinese culture.
Have you learned some Chinese? Because it will be very useful especially when you are buying something from China. Do you know taobao? You can find everything on this shopping platform, and the price is much cheaper than that on other sites, so, learn some Chinese. I often shop on taobao, there are a lot of watches in different styles, some are very cheap, some have attractive designs, I have an idea, if anyone of you guys who want to buy some Chinese watches, please contact me, I can help you buy on taobao, and I know watches, I can do quality check and then ship to you.
Today, I am going to show you another watch I saw on taobao, does any of you guys like this watch? I like this watch and I have been always looking for such type of watches that have a bit military style. I do not see the brand name, there is a five pointed star logo under 12 and “19 ZUAN” printing on the dial, what does “19 Zuan” mean? It is not a brand name, probably means that the movement in that watch has 19 jewels. This watch comes with two types of bands, one is nylon and the other is a leather strap, it looks a bit like one of the Sea-gull watches I introduced before, which is the 21 Zuan Pilot watch and also the best seller, but this watch is using an automatic movement. I like the nylon band, which matches the dial better, while the black leather strap looks more in line with another model in white dial.
Besides its nylon band, my all attention is on the dial. It is not hard to know the function of each small dial, the one at 6 o’clock is for display of small seconds, the power reserve indicator is set between 10 and 11, the small dial at 2 o’clock is date display. Each small hand is blued steel, and the central hour hand and minute hand also have blued steel edge. I like the five pointed star design at 12 o’clock, it is tridimensional with a small red star on the center, the hour markers are also polished very well with smooth edge, you can not find metal burr. The date can be adjusted through the button on the case. When you winding the watch, the small hand on the power reserve indicator will also move.
The watch is powered by a ST1780 movement, which is developed by Sea-gull company, but this movement has a 28 jewels, not 19. This movement owns a stability that has been accepted by a lot of watch fans who love to buy homage watches.
Conclusion:
For watch fans who often buy homage watches made in China, this vintage pilot-style watch is a great choice, it has a bit military style of those Chinese watches made in old times, the Sea-gull machine offers a durable stability. The most important thing is that this watch is on sale under 60 USD at https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256807622682382.html
This is a world of Swiss watches and Japanese watches, what will the watch world be after ten years, can you imagine? The importance of Swiss watch industry will still be there? Or there will be many custom-made watch models to fulfill different needs of the customers? We do not know, but more brands that offer custom-made watches will appear, in future, people won’t care if the brand is famous or luxury that much like before, but they do care if the brand can make the watch for them according to their personal requirements, because this adds more playable elements on the watch. There are already some Chinese brands that are doing such work, most of them are creating homage watches, Merkur is the one of them that is doing better in this field, today, I am going to introduce another Merkur watch, it is a mens automatic watch in rectangular shape, I like it very much, because of my small wrist, this watch fits me very well. I have to say, the case design is the most important place on such square watch, because it needs to show the elegance to the max while maintaining a great wearing comfort at the same time, Merkur does better on this rectangular watch than the Cartier did on the Tank, I like this Merkur watch, the case has a more arched shape that can fit your wrist in a more comfortable way. This green one is a great choice for both men and women. The green dial has a sanded square part on the center, those small square markers at 12, 3, 6 and 9 addes extra elegance to the entire watch. The green leather band is perfectly in line with the green dial. By the way, Merkur said that they use a Japanese automatic movement in this watch, there is no second hand and the watch keeps an accurate time so far. Besides, there are a lot of other styles and dial color Merkur has offered for this watch, different dial style combined with different color of leather band, there must be one you like.
Atowak, I can not find too much information about this brand, but there are already many reviews about their watches on the internet, and I am also deeply attracted by the designs that are unique and bold. I did a search about the trademark Atowak, and found it was registered by a company in Shenzhen, this watch company was founded in 2019, and now is under control of another big company, which is the well-known Peacock watch company, I gave a review on a Peacock watch in last week, Peacock is one of the big watch companies in China.
There are two hot Atowak watches, one is Cobra that takes inspiration from the snake cobra, the other is this Cosmofleet, which is inspired by the space ship. Two watches have received a high recognition in watch fans.
The geometric case looks like the cabin of a space ship, it is crafted from high-grade titanium in matt finish, which is light and durable, the size is 39mmx46.5mm and is measured to be 15.7mm in thickness. The case has a weight of only 67.2 grams. The crown on the top can be rotated to adjust the positions of the three hands on the dial. The crystal is highly transparent and is accurately cut to fit the case, through the domed front crystal, we can clearly see the innovative dial structure, three hands look like three battleships sitting in the space ship, ready for the command to travel in space. I do not know how to describe the joint construction, but is is a magic and looks amazing. It is easy to read the time, look at the first picture, the time is 11:55. On the second picture below, it is about 11:32. The hour number is on the hand, while its tip points to minute scales. The hours and mintues are also lumed. This watch comes with two types of bands, one is nylon, the other is blue leather strap.
The watch is equipped with Japanese Miyota 9029 automatic movement, which has 24 jewels, beats 28,800 times per hour and 42 hours of power reserve. The movement offers accuracy of -10 to +30 seconds per day. The watch also has a red color option. Well, it is a good innovation for Chinese watch has made, but the price of the watch is too expensive. Do you think it is worth to spend $3000 on such a watch?
Any way, I see the big progress of Chinese watches have made since 2020, not just copying the Swiss designs in the past, some brands are using their own ideas to create new timepieces, and I found these brands are coming from Shenzhen in China, not those traditional watch companies like Sea-gull or Shanghai. Certainly, these new brands are doing the right things and hope they can also focus on the quality at the same time.
No one participated in previous two giveaway activities, let’s do the third one in this month, I will publish the giveaway in each month, every time the prize will be different.
Rules for the giveaway in March:
1.Share the url link of any article on my blog to two watch forums.
2.Please send a email message to show the above mentioned work you did. My email address is berrymoon86@gmail.com.
Prize:
One winner will be chosen. The prize is the following Casio watch.
Peacock, which is a watch brand created in Dandong of Liaoning in China, has been in watch industry for a long time, however, this watch company is not well known outside, even most Chinese people do not know this brand. Peacock indeed has a very long watch-making history in China, their watches were more popular than Sea-gull during a period in the past, and Peacock also has made a big contribution for the development of the entire Chinese watch industry. There are a few factories in China that can make movements, there is a certain connection between them and those watch makers that sell fakes, we know the replicas watches coming from China are popular all over the world, what movements inside them? It is not hard to find that most are made in China, some are from Japan. That is the contribution these movement factories have made, because a lot of companies that sold fakes before now have created their own watch brands, so that is a great contribution these watch factories have made, including Peacock.
Let us talk about this Peacock watch, which is a new arrival from this company, the watch is a little bit like the Royal Oak 15400 from Audemars Piguet, but it does not copy the designs of any Swiss watch, it is completely independently designed by Peacock and draws the inspiration from the animal Peacock, several watch parts reflect this.
The watch is made with 904L stainless steel, which is more corrosion resistant, few Chinese brands decide to use this type of stainless steel in their watches because its higher cost. The case has a diameter of 40mm and is measured to be only in 9.8mm in thickness, its case has a special diamond shape that looks like a feature on the peacock. The chamfering on the sides of the diamond makes it highly contrast with the brushing finish on the case base. There are six screws on the bezel, each screw is in hexagon-shape and has an unique pattern on that looks like the Ocelli on the feature of the peacock.
The dial has three color options, white, light blue and salmon. The dial is the biggest highlight, it uses Guilloché craftmanship and the entire dial looks like the spreading tail features of a peacock. The Guilloché dial is completely hand-made. The round window opened at 6 o’clock is like the eye of a peacock, and the rotating tourbillon device is like its eyeball.
The design of wide-at-the-top and narrow-at-the-end on the bracelet makes it look more seamless integration with the case. On the edge of the bracelet, there is top quality chamfering and polishing, I have not found such high quality polishing finish on the bracelet of other Chinese watches, this greatly guarantees the wearing comfort.
The watch is equipped with a hand-winding tourbillon movement that is developed by Peacock. From the crystal back, there is Côtes de Genève. Tourbillon movement is more accurate, but I would rather it had been equipped with an automatic movement and then do a good decoration on the plate and auto rotor, just they did that on the dial, that will catch more attention. This movement ruins such a great idea, is it okay to say it this way?
Berny is a Chinese watch brand founded by a company in Shenzhen of China, I posted one review about the Berny watch on my blog, it is a diving-style watch, on their website, they said this is a diver’s watch, and according to its dial design, it is indeed. Today, I want to introduce another Berny watch that is a new arrival from this watch company, this is also a diver’s watch and looks more attractive than the previous one. I know why Berny wants to design and produce this diver’s watch, because the first orange diving-style watch they designed has received a high recognition among watch fans, so they put emphasis on the design of diver’s watch, then this watch came out, with a more outstanding dial design. In the past, there is one development rule in the beginning of these micro brand homage watches, which is they will get a lot of attention as long as they make diver’s watches with strong lume, this rule still works, but some micro brands have started to focus on creating innovative designs.
The watch is not cheap, it is sold at around 150 US Dollars, but comes with a very common box, can not say ugly, but is it not good for this watch. Besides, the band for this watch also has a rubber strap option, I do not know why they did not send me one extra rubber band, which won’t cost too much.
This Berny watch is fully made with 316L stainless steel, the polished round bezel makes the watch looks bigger, and the polishing finish on the bezel forms a contrast with the brushing on both sides of the case. Two crowns are big, one for inner bezel rotation, the other is for time and date adjustment. The case is thick, which is almost 13.5mm, and this exactly explains why this watch feels very heavy that is up to 192 grams. The sapphire crystal is slightly under the bezel, I think this is better for protection.
The dial has all elements combined in different colors, there are orange, white, blue, black and grey, too many colors, but they do not interfere with your reading time from the dial. In dark place, the strong lume color in blue and orange enhances the entire dial beauty of the watch.
The bracelet does not have highlight designs, there is no brand logo on the buckle, if they have sent me one rubber band, I think I will change the rubber strap on the watch. Behind the case back, it is a Miyota movement, I think it is Miyota 8215, this movement is widely used in such type of Chinese watches with the same price point. You do not need to worry too much about its stability, this type of Japanese movements leaves their reputation to their high durability and low cost.
Conclusion:
It is a good watch, I think some of you guys will like it. The finish on the case and bracelet is acceptable, the box is a bit cheap, while the dial is too colorful. If you are considering to buy the first watch from Berny, I recommend the yellow one I reviewed before, https://www.bobswatchstore.com/2023/08/17/berny-200m-yellow-divers-watch/
CIGA Design, there are still a lot of people who do not know this brand, and it indeed seems to be not as popular as these homage watches like Steeldive, Sugess or even Pagani Design, the rule in the watch world is that cheap things are more welcomed than those watches that look high end. Originally I did not want to introduce this CIGA Design, it is an art, and due to the limitation of my poor English, I can not describe this timepiece well enough, so here I just give a basic introduction with my poor words.
The first Series U Blue Planet came to us in 2021, is that correct? I remembered that this watch won the Challenge Watch Prize at the 2021 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve(GPHG), this is the first time for a Chinese watch to win such an important award. Many brands in China are just copying the designs of Swiss watches, few or even no brands are just doing the creative works like CIGA Design, this world prize which CIGA Design has won will inspire more brands in China to create innovations.
Inspired by the traditional timer sundial used in old China, CIGA Design created this timepiece, it breaks the traditional time display of using hour hand, minute hand and second hand, CIGA Design used their asynchronous technology and the unique dial design of simulating the rotation of the earth to tell you the time at one point. The navigational indicator on the earth can point at hours and minutes at the same time. On the center of the dial, it is one part of the earth, and it can rotate with the rotation of the disc with minute scales. The most outer disc with hour markers is fixed. On the first picture, the time is about 4:47.
On basis of the first generation, the Blue Planet II has made the following improvements:
1.the arc height of the crystal is increased, it looks fuller.
2.the sculpture on the earth is higher and looks more tri-dimensional.
3.the case is recycled titanium.
4.the movement stability is enhanced.
5.the markers are longer and lumed. Readability is enhanced.
6.using new package, with a book inside detailing the message of “Only One Earth” in different languages.
Ebohr, maybe you guys abroad have not heard of this brand, even many people in China are not familiar with it, what do I think of Ebohr? What level is it at? In the entire pyramid level of Chinese watches, Ebohr has a higher position than most micro brands, but must be under the big threes that include Sea-gull, Beijing and Shanghai, those watches like Tianwang, Fiyta and Peacock also have a higher grade than Ebohr, so among so many Chinese brands, the audience Ebohr is really targeting at are those who can not spend too much but need ok quality watches. However, along with more and more creative micro brand watches in the market, people have more choices and do not think it is necessary to consider buying from Ebohr, which is a traditional watch maker in China.
Today, I want to introduce a golden watch from Ebohr, I just bought it two days ago, price is not cheap, I spent 1280 Chinese Yuan, which is about $180, at this price, most of you guys may not consider this watch, but will buy from San Martin, Sugess or other high quality micro brand watches. However, I like this Ebohr watch since I first saw it, its case has a very prominent shape that is extremely popular in nowadays watch trends, in such a yellow gold tone, I don’t even think it is too bright, but it looks very elegant.
The watch comes with a good box, which is much better than the box of most other Chinese watches I have seen. Everything included, including card, manual book and links remover. The case has a 40mm diameter and is measured to be 11mm in thickness. Brushed case with bright polished bezel, just like the same finish on the bracelet, middle links are polished and links on two sides are brushed. The entire case has a very strong angular sense, a bit sharp on very case corner, but I do not care this too much, I just like its case and the seamless connection with the bracelet.
The dial is in golden tone and features sunburst finish, bar-shaped hour markers are long and applied with white lume material just like hour hand and minute hand. The date window set at 3 o’clock with golden frame, insider, there is black date font in white background, very easy to read.The engine inside is a Japanese movement, which I think is a Miyota 8215, this Japanese movement is widely used in the watches made in China, I remember that some Tianwang watches also use this movement. It is said this movement has an inaccuracy of about 20 seconds to 40 seconds per day, while compared with its accuracy, our buyers are more concerned about its stability, which usually has no repairing issues in future.
My conclusion:
If Ebohr continues to upgrade this watch in the following aspects, I think we do not care spending more money to get it.
1.Uses a tridimensional brand logo on the dial. 2.Do a better polishing on the case and bracelet, ensure more smooth chamfering. 3.Use a golden Miyota 8215 movement.
