Tag: Explorer

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
Baltany

Baltany Explorer 39mm Homage Review

Baltany Explorer Homage Watch

It is my second Baltany watch, I love it very much, the watch has a super finish on case and bracelet. About Baltany, it seems to be a new homage brand created in 2021, but now their watches are being widely talked on the forums and reddit. I do not know why many people like me just want to collect homage watches, some even own more than ten pieces, this is a big money, which you can use on a Swiss watch. Well, the homage storm in China was brought up by Parnis several years ago, now there are a lot of brands in China manufacturing these watches, I think the main reason why you guys like to buy them is they have cheap prices. For this Baltany, it is an exact homage of the Rolex Explorer, and sold less than $150.

Baltany Explorer 39mm

I know this brand comes from Dongguan city in Guangdong of China, the watch has a 39mm case that not include the crown, the watch thickness is less than 13mm, the manufacturer offers two dial options, amber red and black, the movement also has two options, NH38 and SW200, I chose the one with amber red dial and NH38 movement.

Baltany Bezel
Baltany Crown

I like its finish on the case and bracelet, its dial color and design as well as the movement. The case is brushed, so are the links on both sides of the bracelet, which forms a high contrast outlook with the polished round bezel and middle links of the bracelet. The crystal face is domed sapphire, not only has a high resistance to scratches, but also adds some vintage flavor to this watch, however, I do not like this sapphire crystal, it stands too high above the bezel and increases the thickness of the entire watch. The dial uses amber red color, which is element that makes the watch look a bit vintage. The green lume light emitting from the hour markers and hands is too strong. The movement is NH38 automatic, it is from Japan and most importantly, this movement has the stop seconds feature, the power reserve is also up to 41 hours. For the SW200 option, I think there is no need to pick up a Swiss movement for this homage watch.

Baltany Case Back
Baltany Dial Lume
Baltany Explorer Wrist Shot
Categories
Ebohr

Ebohr Explorer Knight Stainless Steel Watch Review

Ebohr Explorer Box

Both Ebohr and Fiyta are two of my favorite Chinese watches, Fiyta is a more popular and powerful watch company, the watches from both watch companies have modern design beauty that has been recognized by more and more people. I bought one Ebohr watch before, it is a diver’s watch from the Explorer series, the watch looks good and still works accurate, many Chinese watches now refer to the design features of Swiss watches, both Ebohr and Fiyta have done a good job at this, I have seen most watches from these two brands, they indeed look more modern and attractive than other traditional Chinese watch brands such as Shanghai and Beijing, so, to develop the market, some old Chinese brands started to seek cooperation, for example, the cooperation between Beijing Watch Factory and Fiyta is a reflection of this trend. Well, talk too much about the Chinese watches, we have seen a big development occurred in China watch industry, hope these brands can bring us more surprising timepieces in future.

Ebohr Explorer Knight

Today, I want to introduce another Ebohr watch that comes from Explorer series also like my first Ebohr diver’s watch. Ebohr has two versions for this watch, stainless steel and black pvd, I chose the stainless steel model, which has a more regular look for daily wearing and looks more classic. I love the styling of the watch, it is fully stainless steel made with a stainless steel bracelet that seamlessly integrated with the case, the watch has a similar outlook to the Chopard Alpine Eagle.

Ebohr Explorer Black Dial

The stainless steel case is 44.5mm in diameter and measured to be 11mm in thickness, not thick for such an automatic watch that looks strong, but the watch is a little heavy, which is almost 180 grams. The case shape is like a reduced version of the Royal Oak of Audemars Piguet, the front of the case and bezel have the same vertical brushing finish, while the beveled case edge is polished, which forms a high-contrast visual effect. The bezel screws are H-shaped and definitely refer to the design of screws on Hublot Big Bang. The screw-down case back has a crystal on the center to display the engine.

Ebohr Explorer Bracelet

The dial is black with stereo bar-shaped hour markers, there is a white round lume dot next to each hour marker, central hour hand and minute hand refer to the hand design of Hublot, one half is skeleton, the other half applied with white lume, there is a green lume light on the two hands and round dot markers in dark conditions. The date window is trapezoidal with a silver frame, black date font is exactly in the middle of the window in white background, easily readable.

Ebohr Explorer Movement

What I love most on the watch is the stainless steel bracelet, which is seamlessly integrated with the case, the watch looks very uniform in styling. The bracelet and case head have a very seamless connection, it looks like the bracelet is a natural extension from the case. And about the bracelet finish, it is totally brushed, except the polishing on the edge of the links, just like the finish on the case. At last, the Ebohr watch uses a Japanese automatic movement, I have had it for almost two weeks, now it works 12 seconds fast each day, I know the quality of Japanese movements is trusted. There is no extra leather band offered for this watch, well, I think not needed.

Ebohr Explorer Wrist Shot
Categories
San Martin

San Martin 39mm Vintage Explorer 1016 Homage Watch Review

San Martin 39mm Explorer

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.

San Martin Explorer Crown
San Martin Explorer Crystal
San Martin Logo on Bracelet

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.

San Martin Wrist Shot

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.

San Martin Explorer Bracelet

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.

San Martin Explorer Buckle