Categories
Skmei

Skmei 1988 Dual Time Digital Watch Review

Skmei Paper Box
Skmei Watch in Box
Skmei Black Box
Skmei Logo on Black Iron Box

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 1988 in Box
Skmei Watch with Accessories
Skmei 1988

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.

Skmei 1988 Dual Time

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.

Skmei 1988 Case
Skmei 1988 Case 2

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.

Skmei 1988 Green Band
Skmei 1988 Buckle
Skmei 1988 Case Back

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.

Skmei 1988 Wrist Shot

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.

Categories
Pagani Design Parnis

Pepsi GMT Homage Review: Pagani Design vs Parnis

Pepsi GMT-Master is a very popular model from Rolex, a lot of people like this watch, and there are some small watch companies in China that copy the designs of this GMT-Master and make homages, among them, there are quality homages and cheap homages, today, I will introduce two good versions among these cheap homages, the two watches come from Pagani Design and Parnis, the homage watch they make is a Pepsi GMT-Master with Jubilee Bracelet. For Pagani Design and Parnis, it is interesting to make a comparison review about their watch, because Parnis is a very old brand created in China and has been in this industry for many years, while Pagani Design is a new homage brand and seems to be more popular. Well, today, let’s check this Pepsi GMT homage and see which one you love most.

Box and Accessories:

Pagani Design Box with Screwdriver
Pagani Design Blue Cloth
Parnis Orange Plastic Box
Parnis GMT Watch in Box
Parnis GMT with Nylon Band

The pictures above show the boxes and accessories of Pagani Design and Parnis. Pagani Design has a small hard box for the watch, with one screwdriver and blue cloth. The Parnis comes with a watch, screwdrivers and one extra nylon band in the box. The Parnis box is orange and made with plastic, just like the black plastic box of the Steeldive SD1953, which I introduced in the review of black Submariner homage.

Box watches do not have warranty card and user manual book, that’s strange. Well, I think the orange plastic box of Parnis gives a better protection for the watch.

Case:

Pagani Design GMT in Box
Pagani Design GMT-Master Pepsi Homage
Pagani Design GMT-Master Blue Red
Pagani Design GMT Crown
Pagani Design GMT Case
Pagani Design GMT Case Diameter
Pagani Design GMT Case Thickness
Pagani Design GMT Weight

The pictures above show the Pepsi GMT watch from Pagani Design. The case is made with stainless steel, the brand does not tell us if it is 316L. On Pagani Design official store, they say the watch has a case diameter of 40mm, but I measured the case several times, the diameter is not 40mm, it is always 41mm or more than 41mm. The case thickness is about 13.6mm. The entire watch is 145.8 grams.

Next, let us see the specification of the case on the Parnis. About the case material, Parnis claims it is 316L stainless steel on their official website. The case was supposed to be 40mm in diameter and 13mm in thickness, but I measured it to be 40.5mm in diameter and 13.4mm in thickness. The entire watch has a weight of 149.9 grams.

Conclusion: Both the Pagani Design and Parnis do not have a correct case size if you compare them with Rolex GMT-Master II Pepsi, but the Parnis is closer to the case size of Rolex Pepsi GMT. Well, the most important thing for our watch fans lies in the case finish. I indeed compared the case finish on both watches. Any way, when I received the two watches, the Pagani Design impressed me a lot and I though it also has a better finish. However, the truth is both watches have a very similar case finish. I held two watches in hand and found the lug shape is more correct on the Parnis watch, the end links also fit the case head better on the Parnis, while the gap between the end link and lug on the Pagani Design is noticeable(you can find this flaw on the bezel comparison below).

Parnis Blue Red GMT
Parnis Blue Red Pepsi
Parnis GMT Case
Parnis GMT Crown
Parnis GMT Case Diameter
Parnis Pepsi Case Thickness
Parnis GMT Weight

Bezel:

Both watches have blue and red bezel, not ceramic made but is aluminum. Actually you can ask them to replace a ceramic bezel if you like ceramic better. The aluminum bezel is ok, and I asked them, they do not offer ceramic option for the red bezel. If taking the Rolex GMT-Master as a reference, the bezel shape looks more correct on the Parnis, the edge around the bezel tooth is slightly slope and looks more natural, while the bezel just stands straightforward on the case of the Pagani Design.

Conclusion: abouthe bezel, I like the Parnis watch better.

Pagani Design Pepsi GMT Homage
Pagani Design GMT Bezel
Parnis GMT Black Dial
Parnis GMT Bezel

Lume:

Pagani Design Pepsi Lume
Parnis GMT Lume

About the lume, the first picture is from the Pagani Design, the second is lume from the Parnis. Which one do you like?

Bracelet:

Pagani Design GMT Buckle
The bracelet and clasp of the Pagani Design
Parnis GMT Bracelet
Parnis GMT Clasp
The bracelet and clasp of the Parnis

Actually no difference on the bracelet and clasp, the finish on the bracelet is very similar on both watches. Each watch has a Jubilee bracelet, the spacing between each link on the bracelet of the Parnis looks a little larger than that on the bracelet of the Pagani Design, but not very noticeable. The bracelet is a big longer on the Parnis. However, the use experience when you opening and closing the clasp feels better on the Pagani Design. I think the closure on the clasp of the Parnis is a little loose.

Movement:

Pagani Design GMT Movement

The picture above shows the movement of the Pagani Design, which uses a NH34 automatic movement. The NH34 is a very practical movement that offers the watch hours, minutes, seconds, gmt and date functions, the movement beats 21,600BPH and has 41 hours power reserve and 24 jewels, it also has the important hacking feature.

About the movement inside the Parnis, I am not very sure, it is said to be a Mingzhu DG5833 automatic movement, which is made in China, the movement beats 21,600BPH, it has 22 jewels, 40-hour power reserve and hacking mechanism.

Conclusion: in my opinion, the NH34 movement in the Pagani Design is better than the Chinese movement in the Parnis.

Buying advice:

Both are good choices for people who are looking for Pepsi GMT homage watch that is around $100 but less than $120.

The Pagani Design Pepsi GMT has a more durable and reliable movement from Japan, it also has a see-through crystal back, compared with the solid case back, more watch fans like the crystal back nowadays. The Pagani Design Pepsi GMT is sold at $119, not very expensive but still higher than the Parnis. I suggest you choose the Pagani Design watch, which is more durable and will have fewer issues because of its Japan movement. If you do not want this Pepsi GMT, Pagani Design also offers Batman and Sprite GMT on their website.

The Parnis GMT watch looks great, it not only has a closer outlook and bezel design to the Rolex GMT-Master II Pepsi, but is also sold at a much cheaper price, which is only $86, besides, this Parnis watch comes with a better protection box, it has a longer bracelet, which is more convenient for people who have a large wrist. For guys who do not want to spend more than $100 on a Chinese homage watch, please buy this Parnis.

Here come the videos of the two watches:

Categories
Cronos San Martin STEELDIVE

Black Submariner Homage Review: Cronos L6015 vs San Martin SN0017 vs Steeldive SD1953

Currently I only talks about Chinese watches on my blog, the three watches discussed in this article, including Cronos, San Martin and Steeldive, are exactly made in China. In one of my posts, I said I will create some big projects, now here it is one. This is a big project, it is a comparison review on three watches, Cronos L6015, San Martin SN0017 and Steeldive SD1953. Why do I select these three watches to make a comparison review? Because these three models have some popularity on the forums and reddit, they are quality homage watches of black Submariner, today, let’s me make a detailed review about each of them, you can also learn some advice from this article first if need to buy any one of them in future. Let’s start.

Box and Accessories:

Cronos Watch Box
Cronos L6015 in Box
Cronos L6015 Accessories

The three pictures above show Crono L6015 and its accessories. They are in a cloth box with brand name and logo printed. Inside the box, the Crono watch is wrapped with plastic bubble bag, fixed with the help of an elastic band, above and under the watch, it is under the protection of soft pads. The accessories coming with the watch are two screwdrivers and one card.

San Martin Green Leather Box
San Martin SN0017 in Box
San Martin Box and Accessories

Next, let’s see the package of San Martin SN0017. Inside the package, there is a watch inside a green leather box, two screwdrivers, one tag, one warranty card and one user manual. On the warranty card, it is hand written with the purchasing date and the number of watch model.

Steeldive Plastic Box
Steeldive SD1953 in Box
Steeldive SD1953 and Accessories

Third, let’s see the package and accessories of Steeldive SD1953. Once you open the package, you will find the watch and all accessories are inside a black platic box. The watch with a plasitc bubble bag and protected by two soft pads contained in the box. There is a warranty card and one instructions book inside.

After checking the box and accessories of the three watches, each has their own features. Each box gives enough protection for the watch, which type of box do you like? If you want me to choose, I like the green leather box of San Martin. By the way, the Cronos does not offer a user manual for the watch.

Case:

Let’s check the case and finish of them. First, it is Cronos.

Cronos L6015
Cronos L6015 Watch
Cronos L6015 Submariner Homage
Cronos L6015 Crown
Cronos L6015 Case
Cronos L6015 Case Diameter
Cronos L6015 Case Thickness
Cronos L6015 Weight

First, the Cronos L6015 is made with 316L stainless steel, I measured its case, it is about 40.3mm in diameter, and the case thickness is 13.5mm, the watch has a weight of about 157.5 grams. Actually there is no big difference with the case specification which Cronos has claimed on their official website. Besides, the case size is also very close to that of Rolex Submariner.

Next, it comes with some pictures of San Martin SN0017.

San Martin SN0017
San Martin SN0017 Submariner Homage
San Martin SN0017 Submariner Black
San Martin SN0017 Case Diameter
San Martin SN0017 Thickness
San Martin SN0017 Weight

SN0017 is also made with 316L stainless steel, the case is measured to be 40.5mm in diameter and 13mm in thickness. The watch weighs about 156.7 grams.

At last, let us see some pictures of Steeldive SD1953.

Steeldive SD1953
Steeldive SD1953 Submariner Black
Steeldive SD1953 Black Submariner
Steeldive SD1953 Case
Steeldive SD1953 Crown
Steeldive SD1953 Case Diameter
Steeldive SD1953 Case Thickness
Steeldive SD1953 Weight

The Steeldive SD1953 is made with 316L stainless steel, the case is measured to be 41.1mm in diameter and 14mm in thickness. The watch has a weight of 183 grams. SD1953 is an exception, because it is a watch with 41mm diameter, I already knew this before buying this watch, however, Steeldive does not produce a Submariner homage watch in 40mm. So, you see the Steeldive is more than 20 grams heavier than the other two watches.

Let’s make a summary of the case of these three watches. They use the same grade of stainless steel, the case thickness of the actual watch should be thinner because I did not remove the plastic wrapped around the watch when I doing the measurement. About the finish, three watches all have very good finish on the case, lugs and crown guards. The first link on the bracelet that connects with the case, I think it is correctly made on the Cronos L6015 if you take Submariner 116610LN as a reference, because the first link is slightly ached in the middle and looks a bit higher above the level. Perhaps you can not spot this point from the pictures above, I can find this difference when holding them in hands.

Bezel:

Cronos L6015 Bezel Pearl
San Martin SN0017 Inner Bezel
Steeldive SD1953 Inner Bezel

Three watches have ceramic bezel. Compare the bezel and you can see big differences. First, about the markers. The Cronos L6015 has the deepest markers’ engraving on the bezel, you can see obvious deepth. The San Martin SN0017 also has a certain engraved depth on these markers, but not obvious. However on the Steeldive SD1953, it seems like there is no depth, the bezel markers looks like being printed. About the thickness, on Cronos L6015, the numbers 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 are too thin. The numbers on San Martin SN0017 have the correct thickness. About the bezel pear, it is domed on the Cronos L6015, while it has a flat roof on the San Martin SN0017, that depends on which type of bezel pearl you like. However, there is only a big triangle marker without bezel pearl on the Steeldive watch.

Lume:

Cronos Dial Lume
San Martin Dial Lume

The first picture shows the dial lume of the Cronos L6015, the second is the dial lume of the San Martin, the third is the lume of the Steeldive. They all blue and look strong, while the Steeldive SD1953 has lume light emitting from the bezel markers.

Bracelet:

Cronos L6015 Bracelet
Cronos L6015 Clasp
Cronos bracelet and clasp
San Martin SN0017 Bracelet
San Martin SN0017 Clasp
San Martin bracelet and clasp
Steeldive SD1953 Bracelet

Check the pictures of bracelet and clasp, only the Cronos L6015 does not have a brand logo on the buckle, by the way, the Cronos has a correct clasp system like Submariner 116610LN with diver’s extension.

Movement:

The three watches are equipped with Japan NH35 automatic movement, it has two big features, which are cheap and durable. NH35 has 24 jewels, 21,600 BPH and 40-hour power reserve, the daily inaccuracy of the movement ranges from -20 seconds to +40 seconds. San Martin sent the watch out at 19:00PM yesterday, the watch still worked when I received it today in the morning and it kept an accurate time, and when I checked the San Martin at 18:00PM, the watch still works great, I did not compare it with standard time, but I think it only runs several seconds slower or faster.

By the way, about the Cronos L6015, the company also offers SW200 and PT5000 movement options, if with SW200, the price is much higher.

Conclusion:

Three watches have good quality and are good homage watches of the black Submariner. Among them, the Cronos L6015 has the designs that are closest to Submariner 116610LN, if you like it, please buy on their official website. Well, the other two have their own designs which you may like more, so I can not tell you which watch is better, you like the Cronos, maybe the other people like the San Martin, that depends on everyone’s taste. Each of them has a Japanese NH35 automatic movement, so I can tell you they are reliable and durable watches.

In price, both Cronos L6015 and San Martin SN0017 have a very similar price, which is around $200, the Steeldive SD1953 is much cheaper, which is less than $90. If you do not have enough budget and just consider to buy your first Chinese watch, the Steeldive SD1953 will be a good start. If you are looking for a top quality homage with high-end logo design on the dial and buckle, then I recommend the San Martin, be sure to buy the latest V3 edition on their website.

Videos of the three watches:

Categories
Mysterious Code

Mysterious Code Submariner Guan Yu Watch

Mysterious Code Guan Yu

Perhaps you do not remember this brand now, Mysterious Code was a popular watch when homage watches just entered into the market, that’s the period of Parnis. Now few people talk about this watch, but I still think some of you guys will be interested in this brand because their watches are really cheap, besides, when browsing the website of Mysterious Code, you will find some watches that have unique designs, which are very interesting, just like this watch I am showing here, it has an unique face.

Mysterious Code Crown

The watch is very interesting, seeing from its case shape, it does not look like Rolex Submariner, but on its face, it is printed ‘SUBMARINER’. That is strange, now this word ‘SUBMARINER’ is being misused among those homage watches made in China. What this watch really impresses me is its low price and the character image on the dial. Do you know him? His name is Guan Yu, which is 关羽 in Chinese, the weapon he uses is Guandao, Guan Yu is a very famous person in Chinese history, he represents loyalty and righteousness. I did not imagine that he will appear on the face of a watch. This will be a very special watch for people who like him.

Mysterious Code Guan Yu Case Back
Mysterious Code Guan Yu Case

The watch looks very big, it is 40mm in case diameter and 13mm in thickness, this is also a correct size for a Submariner watch, but the bezel is totally different, this Mysterious Code watch has a stronger bezel, the case and bezel are more roughly finished. What another thing makes me excited on this watch is the strong blue lume on the bezel. Actually I like this bezel design. There is a dragon relief on the solid case back.

Mysterious Code Guan Yu Buckle

This is really a nice watch if you can accept its dial, the watch also has a high configuration including Titanium case and Seiko NH35 automatic movement, many other Chinese homages with the same configuration are being sold much higher prices.

Mysterious Code Guan Yu Wrist Shot
Categories
Berny

Berny 200m Yellow Diver’s Watch

Berny Package

Have you ever known this brand? Berny, there are a lot of other brands in China making the similar watches, affordable price, acceptable quality and sports outlook. I made some searches about this brand on the internet, and found Berny is registered by a company in Shenzhen of China, the company name is Shenzhen Berny Industrial Co., Ltd, which was founded in 1995, but this watch brand was created in 2013. Well, I checked the website of Berny, and have found they make a lot of watches in different styles, not only the homages. About this Berny watch, it is claimed to be 200m water resistant on their website, I do not know if it can resist that deep pressure under water, and why they did not print “200m” on the dial.

Berny 200m in Box

This Berny watch has classic features of a diver’s watch, big case, highly-readable dial design and rubber band. Berny offers black, white, blue, green and yellow dial color options for this watch, I like the one with yellow dial, it has a brighter color and will easily catch the others’ attention in the crowd when playing on the beach. Checking the appearance, it just looks like a professional diver’s watch, and the watch company indeed claims that this watch is 200m water resistant on their website. The watch has a big case that is 42mm in diameter and 14mm in thickness, a bit thick, but I usually would like such a thick case for a diver’s watch. The two crowns on the case are big, the purpose to make them big may be for easy operation when the diver needs to wear gloves under water.

Berny Yellow Watch

Everything on the yellow dial looks reasonable. Hour markers, hour hand and minute hand have a wide design so that they can be applied with enough lume material, when under water or in any other dark conditions, the dial can emit considerable lume light from the dial. The central second hand is in red, which enhances the dial readability of the watch. There is a white triangle mark on the slopy inner bezel, you can rotate the inner bezel by adjusting the crown at 2 o’clock, the white triangle mark will also move when you rotating the crown to help you fix the diving time. The big crown at 4 o’clock is used to adjust time, day and date.

Berny 200m Diver

The watch comes with a see-through crystal back, well, I do not know what movement inside, the watch company said the movement is from Japan. This black rubber band looks well on the watch, and it is more suitable to be worn outside your diving suit.

Berny 200m Crown
Berny Movement
Berny 200m Yellow Wrist Shot

Buying advice:

The black rubber band looks better on the Berny watch than the stainless steel bracelet, and it seems to be more in line with the diving style.

Categories
Octopus

Octopus Vintage Pilot’s Watch

Octopus Cloth Box

I have introduced three Octopus watches on my blog, actually I do not like this brand just because it has this name, while the Tudor Pelagos homage watch made by them is the most favorite one for many people. There are only several pieces on the website of Octopus, but they are all quality timepieces, especially the Tudor homages they make, why they do not make more watches like San Martin and Steeldive? What is the real reputation of Octopus among watch fans? Actually I heard few people talking about this watch in the forums and reddit, most people are talking San Martin and Steeldive, a lot of them show hands-on pictures, I am not sure if these are real orders, but San Martin and Steeldive are indeed more popular than other Chinese homage watches.

Octopus Watch in Box

Today, I want to show you a pilot-style Octopus watch, actually I do not like this watch very much, there are a lot of other pilot watches in the market that look cool, but some people may like this style, its bezel and band have somewhat vintage flavor, but the blue dial looks a little bright and does not blend well with the vintage bezel and strap.

Octopus Blue Watch

The case is big and is completely brushed with fat lugs, the bezel is unique, it is the so-called coin bezel, the big crown has flutes that is in line with the style of coin bezel, the big crown is screwed down and also very easy to rotate to adjust time. If including the bubble sapphire crystal, the entire watch is about 12.5mm in thickness.

Octopus Blue Crown

The dial is highly readability, not only because the sapphire crystal features an anti-reflective coating, but the dial has a high-contrast color combination, which is blue and white. The central hour hand and minute hand are classic style of the hand on vintage pilot’s watches, the track-style minute scales is also an obvious feature of some pilot’s watches. By the way, Octopus also offers a grey dial option for this watch, but it was sold out when I selected.

Octopus Blue Case Back

The watch is equipped with a vintage style brown leather band, now few watches use adopt this type of leahter band except some vintage models. Because made of genuine Italian leather material, the band feels very comfortable and soft. The inside machine is a NH35 automatic movement, which has been micro adjusted by the watch company to ensure a higher accuracy.

Categories
Cronos

Cronos L6019 Explorer 1 124270 Homage Watch Review

Cronos Explorer Homage

Cronos, it is the first time for me to introduce this watch here, I heard this brand on some watch forms, a lot of people like the Submariner homage watch and GMT-Master Pepsi homage watch made by Cronos, they think the Submariner 116610LN homage watch made by Cronos is one of the best Submariner homage watches in this field, well, I do not know too much about Cronos, I will get more watches from Cronos to give a complete review of them, absolutely I checked some information of this brand and found it is a niche brand registered in Dongguan city, Guangdong, China, like many other homage watches from China, most of them are made in Dongguan, and their quality is very acceptable. After reviewing so many Chinese watches, I found good quality homage watches are mostly coming from Dongguan, so I suppose almost all watch parts factories are in Dongguan.

Cronos Rolex 124270

This Cronos watch is a high quality homage watch of a Rolex watch, do you know which Rolex it is? I know it copies the design of the latest Rolex Explorer 1 124270, which has a 36mm case diameter. Was this Rolex watch published in 2022? I do not remember now. This Cronos watch looks exactly the same as the Explorer 124270, except the different brand logo and dial printings. I have not seen the similar watch from other Chinese homage watches. This Cronos watch is made with solid 316L stainless steel, it is completely brushed, the matt finish on the case feels very delicate, while the round smooth bezel is polished, there is a special Cronos logo on the crown, it is the most unique and connotive brand logo which I have seen on all homage watches in China.

Cronos Explorer Crown

The black dial is a very iconic Explorer’s dial that features 3-6-9 numeral hour markers, the central hands and all hour markers are applied with Swiss lume material that will emit a strong blue lume light in the darkness. The central second hand has a small round dot on, which is also an obvious feature on Rolex Explorer. It is said to be 100m water resistant on the dial, but I think this watch can only dive to 30m depth under water.

Cronos Explorer Case

The watch has a solid case back, I think the watch will be more popular if a crystal back used on it, this watch has a very low price, if the watch company adopts a see-through crystal back on this watch, then it will be more competitive among those similar homage watches. Inside the case, the movement is NH35A automatic that is imported from Japan, well, many watches reviewed on my blog use this movement, it is widely used because of its low cost and high reliability. This Cronos watch is 36mm, which is also very suitable for women, and fortunately Cronos also offers a tiffany blue dial version for women.

Cronos Explorer Buckle
Categories
Borman

Borman Sun-Moon Dual Time Watch

Borman Dual Time Watch

Among these Chinese watches reviewed on my blog, actually I like Borman more than Sea-gull, however, this brand only makes models in one style, which is Glashutte style. The watch company that registers this brand claims it is made in Germany, but is is certainly a Chinese brand. I have introduced several Borman watches, they look like complications, each of them has an unique or multiple functions, most importantly, their appearance is really elegant, which has learned the design essence of German or Swiss watches. Today, I will show you another Borman watch you may be interested in, it looks like and has a dial design which I think most watch fans can not resist its charm, even though it has a false moon phase.

Borman Sun Moon Watch

The watch is big, which has a case diameter up to 42mm and is measured to be 11mm in thickness, the case has arched lugs that will fit your hand in a more comfortable way, the lugs seem to be integrated with the case seamlessly, a little round shape that is in line with the smooth round bezel, but they are brushed rather than polishing on the bezel. Through the see-through crystal back, you can see an automatic movement inside that has golden rotor and movement plates, no brand logo on the auto rotor, not sure where this movement comes from, but the accuracy is acceptable.

Borman Dual Time Movement

The dial has special patterns, one indicator at 12 o’clock and one opening at 6 o’clock, they are symmetrical, while the two rosy jewels have broken this symmetrical beauty on the dial. The printing ‘DUAL TIME’ means the indicator at 12 o’clock offers a time display in 24-hour format, this indicator also offers Sun and Moon imaging, not moon phase. Sword-shaped hour hand and minute hand on the center, you can see a blue small second hand above the opening at 6 o’clock, it moves along with the working balance wheel. The dial completely presents the design concept of Borman.

Borman Dual Time Clasp

The watch is equipped with a black leather band that comes with a deployant clasp, the band is made with genuine calfskin leather, which is soft and durable. By the way, do not wear it when swimming, even the watch has a good water resistance due to its screwed down crown and back.

Borman Dual Time Wrist Shot
Categories
Sea-gull

Sea-gull 819.316 Day Date Review

Sea-gull 819.316

Very tired recently, one of my family members got cancer, bad news, feel so sad, what is the real meaning of living in this world? Hope you guys always keep healthy. However, I need to work, otherwise there is no money to pay hospital cost. I like writing blogs about watches, in next months, I will write more articles and do some experiments on them, so that you will not consider too much things when need to buy a China made watch. Today, I will introduce another Sea-gull watch, Sea-gull is my most favorite Chinese watch brand, this watch is the type a lot of people will consider to buy especially it has an opening window on the dial, this is very popular in the past. Now there are still a large part of people like this dial layout.

Sea-gull Dress Watch

The watch copies the design of Breguet? I do not know, while I like this style very much. The watch is 42mm in diameter and 13mm in thickness, the size and thickness are acceptable for most watch fans. The case frame is big enough and it has a thin round bezel, so the dial won’t look so crowd even so many functions displayed on the dial. The big onion-shaped crown is very convenient for you to operate.

Sea-gull 819.316 Day Date

The white dial looks very classic, one big window opened at 6 o’clock with two ends fixed on the dial to enhance the stability. Two fan-shaped indicators show date and week, all hands are in classic blue, the lancet-style hour hand and minute hand will catch the attention of many people I think. The date and week can be adjusted through the buttons on the case. Check the dial carefully, you will see delicate patterns on different parts of the dial.

Sea-gull 819.316 White Dial

The watch is powered by a ST2505 automatic movement by Sea-gull, another reason why I like this watch is it has a crystal back, you can see beautiful fish-scale patterns on the auto rotor and movement plate, and there is a golden Sea-gull logo on the rotor. Many homage watches use Sea-gull movements, Parnis likes to use very much. This is an old model published by Sea-gull in 2014, now you could not find it on official website of Sea-gull.

Sea-gull 819.316 Crown
Sea-gull 819.316 Black Leather Band
Sea-gull 819.316 ST2505
Sea-gull 819.316 Wrist Shot
Categories
San Martin

San Martin SN0125 Review

San Martin SN0125

What does this watch look like? This watch seems to be a homage of a Panerai, is it really a homage watch of a certain Panerai model? I know a lot of Panerai watches but have not seen a model that looks like this one. San Martin rarely made Panerai homages, most of them are usually Rolex homage watches, while I like the style on this watch, it looks more fashionable and luxury than those PAMs made in the past.

San Martin Panerai Style Watch

The watch uses three different materials, titanium, bronze and rubber, now more watches are likely to adopt several types of materials, this has been a trend for years. This San Martin has a 42mm case, which has the same size as the Submersible Panerai has published in recent two years, by the way, the case is only about 13mm in thickness, for a diver’s watch, this is a very proper case size suitable for men who can not hold very large watches. The titanium case has a special finish that is sand treated, which looks greatly different from the bronze bezel. The brushed bezel finish forms a high contrast with the sand-finished case, which gives the wearer a strong visual impression.

San Martin Panerai Homage

The gradient dial also has a sanded face that features tridimensional hour markers that is filled with cyan Swiss luminous material. The lume light on the hour markers and hands is strong green, the sword-shaped hour hand and minute hand also have lume on the center, the central second hand is its own feature of this San Martin watch, actually I think they can use a sundial to display the seconds.

San Martin SS Buckle

The movement is powered by a NH35 automatic movement, which is the mostly widely used movement among these homage watches made in China. The black rubber band is made with natural soft rubber material, the buckle is not titanium but stainless steel, it is also sanded finish. By the way, besides the rubber band, a nylon strap will also fit this watch well.

San Martin Black Rubber Strap