Category: Cronos

Top Ten Best Submariner Hulk Homage Made in China

Post author By Bob
Post date December 21, 2023
No Comments on Top Ten Best Submariner Hulk Homage Made in China

If you are a fan of my blog, you may have noticed that I have introduced a lot of Rolex Submariner homage watches produced in China, I bought most of them, took pictures and made comparison reviews, actually most of them have a good quality, and I more hope these reviews can help you a lot when deciding to buy your first watch in China or picking some homage watches to rich your collection. Today, I will make a summary of the top ten best Submariner hulk homage watches made in China, from this list and by reading my previous reviews, you will easily tell which one is the best.

1.Sugess Seaman SP116610LV

Seeing from its model number, Sugess Seaman is a classic homage watch of Submariner hulk 116610LV. I made some searches about Sugess, and found this is a watch company coming from Shenzhen of China, now they have become one of the most popular homage watch brands. In many watch forums and Reddit, a lot of watch fans have admitted that this is the best homage of Submariner hulk. It has a case measured to be 40mm in diameter and 12.5mm in thickness, which is closest to the case size of the Rolex Submariner 116610LV, the Seaman SP116610LV has a green ceramic bezel, its green color on the bezel and dial looks very close to that on hulk Submariner. By the way, the Sugess Seaman uses a Japanese NH35A automatic movement inside, which is very reliable.

Advantages: correct case shape and size, genuine green ceramic bezel insert, Japanese NH35A movement, correct lume color
Shortcoming: high price, almost 190 USD on their official site

2.San Martin SN0017

SN0017 is a famous model from San Martin, it has black and green color options, I introduced the green SN0017 on my blog at https://www.bobswatchstore.com/2023/05/31/san-martin-submariner-116610lv-homage-review/, and I also have given a comparison review about the black one between it and the Cronos L6015 as well as the Steeldive SD1953, please check my review at https://www.bobswatchstore.com/2023/08/20/black-submariner-homage-review-cronos-l6015-vs-san-martin-sn0017-vs-steeldive-sd1953/. The SN0017 deserves the second position because it really has a very good finish on the case, dial and bracelet like the Sugess. Among all homage watches created in China, the ones made by San Martin all have good finish, their case finish should be among the best. The case of the SN0017 is 40.5mm in diameter and 13mm in thickness, the bezel also uses real green ceramic. The watch is equipped with a Japanese NH35A automatic movement.

Advantages: good case finish, sunburst dial finish, correct bezel engravings, strong and correct blue lume, stable NH35A movement.
Shortcoming: Bracelet structure is not as good as the Sugess Seaman, the top of the bezel pearl is not domed, high price, almost 190 USD.

3.Pagani Design 1639

Why does this watch have such a high position in the list? We know Pagani Design is famous for making cheap homage watches, their Speedmaster, Tiffany Blue Rolex and Daytona homage watches are popular in watch industry, it is the hottest Chinese brand that is being discussed in Reddit. After receiving a Pagani Design watch, you will find its quality exceeds your expecation because you only paid tens of US Dollars, that’s the reason why Pagani Design should rank so high in this list. The Pagani Design 1639, I talked about it in a comparison review here at https://www.bobswatchstore.com/2023/12/12/hulk-submariner-homage-reviewpart-3-pagani-design-1639-vs-vakuy-rigas-v-003-vs-tevise-t801/.

Advantages: good finish on the case and bezel, bezel pearl looks nice, nice sunburst finish on green dial, very reasonable price.
Shortcoming: big case over 43mm, weak lume light on the bezel pearl and dial markers.

4.Cronos L6015

I firstly knew Cronos because it makes a good quality Pepsi GMT-Master homage watch, the L6015 is a Submariner homage model of Cronos, which has black and green color choices. The Cronos L6015 hulk Submariner homage has a correct case size and a green ceramic bezel, the bracelet and clasp are nice and have the similar structure to Submariner. The watch uses a NH35A automatic movement.

Advantages: good finish on the case, green ceramic bezel and Japanese NH35A movement. Bezel pearl is slightly dome-shaped, strong blue lume.
Shortcoming: Arabic number markers on the bezel are bit thinner, surburst finish on the dial not obvious, too green on the dial.

5.Heimdallr HMSR01

Heimdallr is also a great homage watch brand that has been in this field for years. I have introduced its background information in the first article review about a Heimdallr diver’s watch at https://www.bobswatchstore.com/2022/04/09/heimdallr-divers-200m-black-the-big-monster-in-deep-ocean/. Heimdallr is mainly famous for making these homages of Seiko diver’s watches. This green hulk Submariner homage watch HMSR01 from Heimdallr has a great quality, it deserves the fifth position in this list, I like its sunburst finish on the green dial, which is very close to that of green Submariner 116610LV.

Advantages: green dial with sunburst finish, engraved inner bezel, strong lume, Japanese movement
Shortcoming: inner bezel is a little high, wrong lume on the bezel pearl, thin bezel markers

6.STEELDIVE SD1953

STEELDIVE is a Chinese brand that is loved by a lot of people, they do make high quality watches and sell them at reasonable prices, when selecting a homage watch from China, STEELDIVE may become the first choice. Among watches made by STEELDIVE, SD1953 is one of the most popular models. STEELDIVE offers a hard plastic box that gives the watch a full protection, there are some accessories coming with the watch such as card, user manual and screwdriver. As far as I know, STEELDIVE does not make a 40mm Submariner homage, the SD1953 has a 41mm case that is measured to be 14mm in thickness, which is much thicker than other Submariner homage watches I saw. The finish on the case and bracelet is very good. The dial has nice printings. With a low price, the quality of the STEELDIVE SD1953 absolutely meets your expectation.

Advantages: good case finish, very nice dial details, strong lume on the bezel and dial, Japanese movement, cheap price.
Shortcomings: no bezel pearl, the green color is a little dark on the dial

7.Hruodland F-015

This brand has a strange name, which is hard to pronounce. I knew Hruodland because the Explorer homage watch really caught my attention. I made a comparison review between it and the Heimdallr, both watches are very nice. The Hruodland has a stainless steel case that is measured to be 40.7mm in diameter and 12.4mm in thickness. The bezel uses genuine green ceramic, there are engravings on the inner bezel, the green dial looks great but sunburst finish is not obvious. The watch uses a PT5000 movement made in China, the brand also offers a SW200 movement option for this watch.

Advantages: good finish, strong lume, real ceramic bezel, PT5000 movement
Shortcoming: no bezel pearl, the sunburst finish on the dial not too obvious

8.Mysterious Code Submariner

It is one of my most favorite green Submariner homage watches, now it is hard to find this watch on the aliexpress, maybe because of the “SUBMARINER” printing on the dial, it violates the intellectual property right. Now if you want to buy this watch, perhaps need to search it on Taobao and ask one of your friends in China to buy for you. The Mysterious Code Submariner uses real green ceramic on the bezel insert, the dial color also looks great, you can read the review between this watch and the Lige on my blog at https://www.bobswatchstore.com/2023/11/30/hulk-submariner-homage-reviewpart-2-lige-vs-mysterious-code/.

Advantages: ceramic bezel, correct case size, good bezel pearl, correct lume, Miyota 8215 movement
Shortcoming: lume not last

9.Lige 6801

About Lige, actually I know little about this watch company, I also do not suggest you buy watches from Lige watch company, because their watches are overpriced in China, while sold at very cheap prices abroad, so I do not think they are trusted. However, this Lige green Submariner homage watch looks nice, especially its green color, better than some watches I mentioned above. I love its tridimensional brand logo on the dial and the see-through design on the back.

Advantages: good finish on the case, good bezel pearl with similar shape to hulk, strong lume, good dial color and details,
Shortcoming: wrong lume color, a low-end Chinese movement with short power reserve

10.Vakuy Rigas V-003

There is little information about the background of Vakuy Rigas, actually I know something about this brand, do you know Parnis? It is the earliest homage watch manufacturer in China, now Vakuy Rigas is owned by the same team as Parnis, you can think Vakuy Rigas is a sub-branch of Parnis. The hottest Vakuy Rigas watch being discussed on the internet is the Daytona Paul Newman homage model. This green Submariner homage watch is also in good quality.

Advantages: acceptable quality with very cheap price, good bezel pearl with similar shape to real Submariner, real ceramic bezel(claimed by the dealer), Miyota 8215 movement
Shortcoming: the green color on the dial not good, smooth dial without surburst finish

Tags 1639, Ceramic, Cronos, Heimdallr, HMSR01, Hulk, L6015, Lige, Miyota 8215, Mysterious Code, NH35A, Pagani Design, PT5000, San Martin, SD1953, Seaman, SN0017, SP116610LV, STEELDIVE, Submariner, Sugess, Vakuy Rigas

Cronos San Martin STEELDIVE

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

Post author By Bob
Post date August 20, 2023
No Comments on 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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

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:

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 Clasp — Cronos bracelet and clasp

San Martin SN0017 Clasp — San Martin bracelet and clasp

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:

Tags Ceramic, Cronos, L6015, San Martin, SD1953, SN0017, STEELDIVE, Submariner

Cronos

Cronos L6019 Explorer 1 124270 Homage Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date August 15, 2023
No Comments on Cronos L6019 Explorer 1 124270 Homage Watch Review

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.

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.

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.

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.

Tags 124270, Cronos, Explorer

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