Sugess S419 is very similar.Originally Posted by stevet1
Sugess S419 is very similar.
Spotted this on HUKD earlier;
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005...martRedirect=y
That bezel looks very Hulk esq... Whereas the 122660LV doesn't.
Thanks Jon, looking back after reading your post, I’d agree with your assessment there. Cheers.
What peoples current feelings on these Chinese cheap and cheerful pieces. I had a couple during lockdown for fun by sold both.
I get the quality is getting better but they just lack soul.
Soulless is about right. I dislike that they're almost all blank copies of extremely well-known designs - so boring and unoriginal.
The reason I've 'bonded' with the "Depth Charge" cheapie I bought recently is that while its design is obviously a bit derivative (what isn't?), no part of it is actually a direct copy of anything else.
I wish the Chinese would make a lot more unique original designs.
A cautionary tale in which Aliexpress are involved...
I went on to Aliexpress over Xmas looking at the Pagani watches. Whilst I was there I saw a good looking Seiko Chrono Solar watch with Panda styling for around £50. I'm a complete sucker for Panda designs so on a whim clicked the Buy button. Everything seemed to go smoothly and I was given an estimated delivery date of 19th Jan.
Then I had doubts....it had a Seiko model number, and this checked out with the right watch, but in the UK the RRP was £500 - so how come I could apparently buy one from China for £50? What was I buying? I'm fine with hommages, but I draw the line at fakes. Anyway, I never looked at the tracking info until the other day as it wasn't due, but when I did, it said the watch had been despatched, but rejected by the logistics company and returned to sender, with nothing at all happening for the last 2 weeks. There is facility on the Aliexpress site to contact the seller, which I did, saying 'What is going on?' - I did get a response, but only to say that they will respond in the future.
This morning I get an e-mail from Aliexpress regarding a 'Problematic Product' and that the product had a 'potential non-compliance issue' ie its a fake. Not pleased but not surprised.
Aliexpress have a Refunds / Return button, which I pressed and selected the reason 'product returned to Seller' reason and I got an instant Success e-mail, and a notification from Paypal that a refund is on the way.
So....I guess the moral of the story is the old one of if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. On the plus side, it seems like Aliexpress' systems work rather better than you might expect!
The too good to be true mantra is a good one. On Aliexpress avoid the so called genuine items (they generally are not) and go for the homages instead. I also have found their refund process very good and in my experience the sellers either don't want the item back at all, or offer a partial refund big enough to make it worth keeping.
You were luckier than me - ordered a watch from Aliexpress four years back: the seller sent a nasty, cheap, wired 'phone headset! I complained and asked for a refund: Aliexpress themselves called me a scammer and closed my account - no refund. They really are a collection of unaccountable lying, thieving b******s. Closed account or not, I would never use them again.
I've used them a lot had very few issues and always received a full refund when items didn't arrive or partial if I had an issue with something.
The whole site and complaints procedure has improved a lot in the last few years
Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
Well as I said in my earlier post, AliExpress themselves have seemed to have acted very well in my case.
I'm not having a great day with Chinese watches - around the same time, I ordered a silicone strap from China via ebay. It arrrived today - looks good. Snag is, I ordered a 20mm wide one, the label on the wrapping says 20mm, but its actually a 22mm one! And I've already got at least 2 other similar 22mm straps!
Military homage from Ali, 'Escapement Time'. VH31 movement, so more of a sweep rather than ticking per second. Internal AR coating, 100M (allegedly) 38mm, screw down crown and caseback. Pretty nice as a very cheap grab and go.
[url=https://ibb.co/3cxqkKp]/url]
Went for a very cheap Tank vibe which I'd seen recommend in a few places. Have to say for £10 delivered it looks pretty good. The strap it came on was comfortable straight out the box but wanted a more casual look so put it on an orange silicone.
Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
A few weeks ago I put a Pagani Design GMT up for sale on the SC for what I paid for it. I’d sized the jubilee bracelet and worn it once. Decided I just didn’t like the “bling” factor of it. I got no interest in it so withdrew it to use the jubilee on something else.
Well the jubilee didn’t fit properly on the Pagani Design Oyster Perpetual homage and the Oyster bracelet just didn’t fit the GMT at all.
I couldn’t be bothered to refit the jubilee on the GMT so stuck a Zuludiver nato on it instead and left it sitting on my desk.
I’m away in the motorhome for a few weeks and picked up the GMT on a bit of a whim. Three days wear and it’s +/- 0 secs per day when checked against time.is! I’m rather surprised to say the least, the OP homage with a NH35 movement is around +10 secs per day.
I really like it on the nato and can see this getting a lot more wear going forward. An absolute bargain at the £70 I paid for it delivered
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I think the bracelet is often the weak link, pun intended, of these Ali-Express watches. At the moment I’m wearing a Steeldive SKX007 homage on a Hirsch Heavy Calf, Breitling spec, strap plus deployant and it feels like a quality watch. Dump the cheap bracelet and pop them onto decent straps for a better feel.
Ironically, I’m not a fan of Seiko watches in general and the SKX type divers in particular, principally because of v. poor timekeeping, non-handwinding, non-hacking, poor bezel alignment - I have owned at least 6 of them, including two bought new. The Steeldive solves all of these issues plus has a ceramic bezel and a sapphire crystal all for £87 when I bought it a couple of years ago. I see that Creation have the SKX007 for £404 right now, so the Steeldive alternative is a bargain for anyone wanting that style of watch.
I didn't buy this from AliExpress, although it might have been a bit cheaper if I had. I got it for £54.60 including shipping from https://addiesdivewatches.com.
Beautifully slim, screw-down crown, 100m water resistance, box mineral crystal. Quartz microstepper movement, to give the second hand a mechanical sweep (I think it's 4 steps / sec, it reminds me of a handwound watch I had in the 60s). 36mm.
Even the bracelet is decent. Secured by pins, but has a very solid, nicely finished milled clasp. I love the way the hands and the batons catch the light.
I didn't buy this from AliExpress, although it might have been a bit cheaper if I had. I got it for £54.60 including shipping from https://addiesdivewatches.com.
Beautifully slim, screw-down crown, 100m water resistance, box mineral crystal. Quartz microstepper movement, to give the second hand a mechanical sweep (I think it's 4 steps / sec, it reminds me of a handwound watch I had in the 60s). 36mm.
Even the bracelet is decent. Secured by pins, but has a very solid, nicely finished milled clasp. I love the way the hands and the batons catch the light.
The Aventurine GMT is on amazon uk for 346. It's the end of the world as we know it. Well, it's only a bracelet.
Costume jewellery. Ouch!!!
Hmm., mine has a wandering bezel, & the applied luminous indices do not line up with the minute hand.
Would not buy another.
Sent from my SM-A515F using Tapatalk
I know there were bezel alignment issues on previous versions, mine is the V4 and seems spot on.
Those Steeldive Willard's make fantastic beaters.
Sent from my SM-A217F using Tapatalk
I have the exact same Willard copy, but with a sterile dial, back before Steeldive decided to push its own 'brand' exclusively.
Having handled a couple of Seiko's own copies, I can confidently say these are the superior watch in every way.
Picked up this stunning VK64 chrono in the most recent sale.
This brand name is known to divide opinion but for the money, the fit, finish and quality far outweigh the cons of the name.
Sent from my SM-A217F using Tapatalk
For £90 total delivered this is remarkably good
Really light and comfy due to the 4 o clock crown and titanium case.
Improvements? 20mm lugs maybe and the lume is weak due to tiny coverage. Oh and the 6 and 9 are a little weird to my eye
Not quite under a tonne, but unworn for £119.
A proper automatic moon phase, with aventurine-style dial, big date, sub seconds and a lumed moon. It keeps superb time too.
I've ditched the frankly abominable strap and replaced it with a smooth, soft blue leather. Annoyingly it's 21mm lugs (why?), but it's a cracking piece all round for the cash.
This one arrived yesterday from the last Ali Express sale, a smidge over £100.
Apart from the handset, it's identical to the BENRUS Type I including the bezel markings...This one arrived yesterday from the last Ali Express sale, a smidge over £100.
I own one of these. It's brilliant. Great timekeeper. Lovely bezel and crown actions. Built so well it belies it's retail price.This one arrived yesterday from the last Ali Express sale, a smidge over £100.
Love that bezel.
Sent from my SM-A515F using Tapatalk
That San Martin is a really handsome watch
Bugger, another watch I don't need ,but do..
£45 delivered from Aliexpress. It's an Rdunae RA03, a homage of the Benrus DTU-2A/P. It's an exceedingly close copy of the original in terms of case shape and lug width which I like. Hard to fault it for the money
These Rdunae watches just don't get the credit they deserve, even in Ali circles they're often overlooked by Baltany and that Militado brand£45 delivered from Aliexpress. It's an Rdunae RA03, a homage of the Benrus DTU-2A/P. It's an exceedingly close copy of the original in terms of case shape and lug width which I like. Hard to fault it for the money
Sent from my SM-A217F using Tapatalk
Surely it's a homage of the Hamilton Khaki Field? Or is that based upon the Benrus?£45 delivered from Aliexpress. It's an Rdunae RA03, a homage of the Benrus DTU-2A/P. It's an exceedingly close copy of the original in terms of case shape and lug width which I like. Hard to fault it for the money
The design was outlined by the US department of defence for general issued military watches.Surely it's a homage of the Hamilton Khaki Field? Or is that based upon the Benrus?
Benrus and Hamilton both produced watches from the 60s to the 90s based on the design
The modern Khaki and the khakis that went before take their design from these issued watches. The modern ones tend to be a little larger then the issued watches.
Got'cha.
As Sinnlover said above various specs for US military watches were issued and both Benrus and Hamilton made similar versions.Surely it's a homage of the Hamilton Khaki Field? Or is that based upon the Benrus?
I'm not an expert on US military watches, but from reading into the history of them, MIL-W-3818B was the spec issued in 1962 which is what the Benrus DTU-2A/P was made to meet. Other companies (not including Hamilton) also tendered but only the Benrus was considered to meet the spec. MIL-W-46374 was the updated spec issued in 1964, and the A version was released in 1968 with Hamilton producing metal cased versions.
The 1960's Mil-Spec case size was 34mm which is what Benrus produced after beating Bulova to win the contract in 1962....
The originals (Hamilton) are small but wear well - with a Tudor sub for scale
You can see the design language in the earlier A17s (Waltham)
The Rdunae is 34mm also and has the correct lug width. Here it is next to a 1968 W10
At the risk of peeing on everyone’s chips here, I am wondering how it’s possible to make watches of this apparent quality at these tiny prices?
Are they coming from less-than ethical places?
Not judging others, but it would help me decide if I’m interested in this sort of thing.
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Just a Quick Look online and you can buy an Accurist quartz or Sekonda for £40, Seiko 5 on Amazon for £75
These - along with the overwhelming majority of consumer goods - are coming from one of the least ethical sources possible - the pseudo-communist dictatorship of China. A nation regularly topping lists of human rights abusers, ethnic-cleansers, polluters, natural resource over-exploiters, cyber-criminals, intellectual property thieves, fake-news disinformation-propagandists . . . and so much else.
We ALL wilfully turn a blind eye to this, because the alternative in 2024 is to live in a cave and fashion stone tools with which to hunt for rats and feral pigeons - so ubiquitous is Chinese manufacturing.
You could opt to buy only - say - Swiss watches, but I'm willing to bet that even the big names are buying part-finished and even ready components from China, and certainly things like boxes, packaging, brochures, booklets, bulk alloys, machined blanks, sapphire crystals and a great deal else...
Ironic, really, that Western consumerist greed has made China a pre-eminent World power...
But yeah, where discretionary luxury purchases are concerned, we should, morally, avoid buying from China.
Yes I'd imagine it's a hard task to find a watch that has no part of the total package coming from China.
Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
Good points, the three of you.
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
This is a little outside the scope of the thread as it was £109 plus postage, but I figure it's ok to squeeze it in seeing as we were just talking about Rdunae. This is the R6. A homage to the Tornek-Rayville TR-900. A sterile dial version existed of this watch but only 5 are known so pretty much impossible to own for anyone without exceedingly deep pockets. Seiko NH35 auto movement and 200m WR. I can see this one hanging around
I have one of theseThis is a little outside the scope of the thread as it was £109 plus postage, but I figure it's ok to squeeze it in seeing as we were just talking about Rdunae. This is the R6. A homage to the Tornek-Rayville TR-900. A sterile dial version existed of this watch but only 5 are known so pretty much impossible to own for anyone without exceedingly deep pockets. Seiko NH35 auto movement and 200m WR. I can see this one hanging around
It’s not bad for the money, nice bezel action, good lume the only downside is the mineral crystal (domed) and bezel insert.
Nice. Giving me Unimatic vibes. Just been a full black bezel :)This is a little outside the scope of the thread as it was £109 plus postage, but I figure it's ok to squeeze it in seeing as we were just talking about Rdunae. This is the R6. A homage to the Tornek-Rayville TR-900. A sterile dial version existed of this watch but only 5 are known so pretty much impossible to own for anyone without exceedingly deep pockets. Seiko NH35 auto movement and 200m WR. I can see this one hanging around
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
