Category: San Martin

San Martin Bronze Pilot Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date June 3, 2022
No Comments on San Martin Bronze Pilot Watch Review

I have always been wanting to get a pilot watch, IWC is my most favorite brand to choose from, but it is too expensive, so I am searching for a pilot watch with all classic designs of IWC Pilot’s but without a brand name on the dial. I checked the websites of all Chinese watches I bought before and found this beautiful timepiece, it is exactly the pilot watch I am looking for. Its bronze material and dial design make it look so unique among various pilot watches, I like it very much.

The San Martin pilot watch is made with bronze, the brown leather band perfectly matches the bronze tone of the case, the entire watch has a very uniform style. The case has a diameter of 39mm, not including the crown, this is a size suitable for both men and women, but considering its bronze case, I think only men will buy this pilot watch. The case thickness(crystal included) is about 12mm, which is acceptable to me, it seems like all pilots watches have such similar case thickness.

The dial has a classic and traditional pilot’s watch design, it also looks simple. The dial is divided into two parts, we can easily know the hours and minutes even at night, because all elements we can see on the dial are applied with C3 Superlume, the green lume light is so strong and long lasting. The second hand is white, which differentiates it from the hour markers and hands around. The arrow-shaped marker at 12 o’clock is an eye-catching design of the dial. In a word, the dial has all necessary designs that make it a classic pilot watch.

The brown leather band has a bronze pin buckle. The brown leather band looks perfectly on this bronze watch, I do not think a band in other color or material will fit this watch. The leather band feels very soft and comfortable to wear. The bronze case will be oxidized as time goes by, but it is easy to renew. By the way, I think San Martin should consider a green dial for this watch, it is also a good match for the bronze case. The watch is not expensive, which is less than 160 USD on San Martin’s website.

Tags Bronze, Pilot Watch, San Martin

San Martin 39mm Vintage Explorer 1016 Homage Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date May 18, 2022
No Comments on San Martin 39mm Vintage Explorer 1016 Homage Watch Review

Now, San Martin has become a high-end custom made watch brand in China, they have a successful development model, many brands now learn the way but none of them have been as successful as San Martin. If you have ever visited the official website of San Martin, you will know many of their watches are homages of Rolex, while San Martin watches are still sold very well abroad, it seems like a lot of watch fans in the world still like this brand. By the way, if you do not like the name “San Martin”, you can ask them to leave it empty or print another name on the dial, after all, San Martin is a custom made brand, they can do this job for you.

I like San Martin, I have always been on their website to search something interesting, sometimes I saw specific models which I did not see before, so I will search on google and find all details about them, to find the original model behind the homage watch. This San Martin watch is exactly such type of watch I have not seen before, I know it is a homage watch of Rolex when I first saw this watch on San Martin website, but I did not know which exactly Rolex model, I googled and found there is an old Rolex Explorer whose reference is 1016, yes, this San Martin watch is very similar to it. The Explorer 1016 has some features which can not be found on modern Rolex, let’s see if the San Martin has kept these features, this is a very interesting learning process.

The San Martin Explorer homage is made with 316L stainless steel, the case and bracelet are fully brushed, round and smooth bezel is polished, which forms a sharp contrast with the brushed finish on case and bracelet. The case has a diameter of 39mm, not including the crown, it is bigger than the vintage Rolex Explorer 1016, which is only 36mm, however, the 39mm is a more popular size for men. The case is 12.5mm in thickness, including the crystal, which is arched, so it makes the entire case thicker, by the way, San Martin used a sapphire crystal, it is an upgradation from the plexiglass on the vintage Explorer 1016. The lug width is about 20mm, now you can buy one nato band for this watch after knowing this data.

The black dial is very simple, it does not have a window to show the date, all you can see from the dial are hands and hour markers. Certainly, the retro yellow luminous material applied on hour markers and hands is the most eye-catching place of the watch, the San Martin recreates the classic 3-6-9 dial design of Explorer 1016. At night, you will see a strong green lume light emitting from the dial.

Inside the case, it is a Japan Epson YN55 automatic movement, which has 22 jewels and 40-hour power reserve, it is the first time for me to know this movement, it has a beat frequency of 21,600 times per hour. It is said that the inaccuracy of this movement is between 25 seconds to 35 seconds per day, this accuracy rate is acceptable to me, I did not spend too much for the watch, so I can not expect too much, the watch now is about 2 minutes faster after wearing it two weeks. Now, San Martin sells this watch at 35% discount off.

Tags 1016, Epson, Explorer, San Martin, YN55

San Martin

San Martin SN004 200m – a high-end custom-made diver’s watch

Post author By Bob
Post date April 20, 2022
No Comments on San Martin SN004 200m – a high-end custom-made diver’s watch

This San Martin is a top quality diver’s watch with several retro design elements.

San Martin is a very young Chinese custom-made watch brand, which was founded by Liao Jiaming in 2016. From a small workshop to a watch company, the development of San Martin brand is very fast, certainly, this must be attributed to the efforts which Liao Jiaming made in watchmaking field. Among so many custom-made watch brands in China, San Martin is the most high-end one, although their watches are still homages of Swiss brands such as Rolex, Tudor, Omega, Zenith, IWC, etc., they really have a very good quality, even much better than some other Chinese homage watches I introduced before. As a high-end custom-made watch brand, San Martin offers a great flexibility for the customers to customize the watches they want, besides, San Martin provides the wearers with a lot of bands made with different types of materials and in various styles, this will bring a lot of fun to the wearer. San Martin never opened a physical store, they only sell watches online.

The San Martin SN004 200m I received is a homage of Tudor Black Bay, it is a very good diving-style watch with retro combinations. The case is made with solid 316L stainless steel, which is fully brushed, except the polished streamlined case edge with glossy face. The case has a diameter of 38mm and is measured to be 13mm in thickness, the size is not big or too small, very suitable for most men. The weight of the entire watch is about 140 grams. The uni-directional rotating bezel features a black ceramic insert, I like ceramic bezel, but I will be more happy with the watch if it uses a metal bezel insert that will enhance the retro temperament.

The crystal uses sapphire, which is arch-shaped and features AR Coating, this sapphire crystal is very hard and highly scratch resistant, it is an important feature that brings this San Martin watch to a new quality level. Certainly, if San Martin chose to use a mineral or even a acrylic face on this watch and reduce its price, I will also accept it, afte all the retro element means a lot to a vintage watch. On the black dial, hour markers and hands are applied with C3 SuperLuminova that looks a bit yellowish, just like the yellow fill on bezel markers, handset is not the style on Tudor Black Bay, it uses iconic Mercedes hands on Rolex Submariner. At 12 o’clock, “San Martin” letters are printed.

The bracelet is a rivet style and made with solid 316L stainless steel, every link is brushed and there is a embossed “SAN MARTIN” logo on the outer face of the buckle. The solid case back is screwed down, it is empty and has nothing on it, no brand logo or water resistance information, very clean. Inside the case back, it uses a Japanese NH35 automatic movement, which beats 21,600 times per hous, the auto rotor is bi-directional winding and has a high winding efficiency. Considering its good finish, high-end feature and reasonable price, this movement is already good enough.

The San Martin SN004 200m is a great quality homage of “Tudor Black Bay”, I love it very much.

Tags San Martin

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