Month: August 2025

Thorn

Thorn Submariner T023 Review

Post author By Bob
Post date August 31, 2025
No Comments on Thorn Submariner T023 Review

I’ve always had a special feeling for vintage watches, when some brands release retro-style watches in the market, I always find myself taking a second look. I like vintage Rolex Submariner very much, but there are no brands that specilize in manufacturing homages of vintage Rolex Submariner, Baltany makes some, like the S4084 and 1926 Oyster I introduced before, but they do not have the Submariner-style homage watches that can attract me. I have a project, if someone is interested in, we can cooperate. We can design several Submariner-style watches, and offer several band options for each watch to provide the wearer with more fun, this is a great idea, I think.

Today, when I browse the taobao website and found this Thorn watch, whose reference is T023. About Thorn, it is the first time for me to introduce this brand, like most other homage brands coming from China, Thorn makes homages of Rolex, Blancpain and Tudor, this Thorn shown below is a great Tudor homage. Like other Chinese watches, the watch parts are probably made in Dongguan city of Guangdong province, no need to take a deep look at the background of this brand, there are too many micro brands like Thorn in China.

T023 has three dial colors for you to choose, brown, black and blue, I chose this one in blue, the dial style looks like a Tudor Black Bay, but its dial has the printing of “SUBMARINER”, has Rolex even published a vintage Submariner like this? However, the color looks nice on this watch.

The leather box is nice, it looks better than the one from Baltany.

That pillow inside can be taken out.

This Submariner style watch looks great.

The blue bezel is made with aluminum and has been slightly brushed, it looks vintage style. The bezel is uni-directional rotating.

The blue dial has the same background color as the blue on the bezel. The hour markers are slightly raised from the dial, because they are filled with yellow luminous material.

The crystal is made with sapphire, well, this is a feature on modern watches, I would like it with a plexi. But the sapphire crystal is domed and has rounded finish no the edge, it is good.

On the edge of the case, you can see polished finish.

The case has been measured by me, it has a diameter of 40mm, a thickness of 12.3mm. Actually for a diving-style watch, not too thick. You know, the sapphire crystal rises about 2mm above the bezel.

The watch comes with a vintage riveted bracelet, the clasp is very clean and polished on one side. On back side, there is engraving of “Thorn Watch Co”. On the buckle, there is THORN logo.

Inside, the watch has a PT5000 automatic movement, which is made in China and a great alternative to the Swiss ETA 2824-2. Together with NH35, both are used in low-end Chinese homage watches. The PT5000 has 38-hour power reserve and 28,800 bph, the manufacturer of this movement claims that PT5000 has an accuracy rating of +/- 12 seconds per day.

Tags T023, Thorn

Specht & Sohne

Specht & Sohne Land-Dweller Homage Watch

Post author By Bob
Post date August 24, 2025
No Comments on Specht & Sohne Land-Dweller Homage Watch

Last time, I introduced a watch of Specht & Sohne at https://www.bobswatchstore.com/2025/07/06/specht-sohne-tag-heuer-monaco-homage-review/, which is a great homage watch of the Tag Heuer Monaco, at least a lot of people on forums and reddit like this Specht & Sohne and have recommended it, I do not have particular feelings about this brand, for people who want high quality homages, Specht & Sohne is not what they are looking for, their marketing position is low-end and cheap homage watches of many Swiss brands like Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet and so on. However, such homage brands like Specht & Sohne have one common feature, which is acting very fast to produce the homages when those Swiss brands published new models. For example, I have already found that the homage of Patek Philippe Cubitus 5821 and the homage of Rolex Land-Dweller in Specht & Sohne collection, while the Pagani Design that has the similar marketing position still has not produced these two watches. For Specht & Sohne, Pagani Design and others like them, their business in the past is more or less related to the fake watches, so whether the cheap homage brands Pagani Design and Specht Sohne, or higher-end Steeldive, Octopus, Sugess, etc., their development path is similar and their creative thinking is limited. There is no future for them.

How about this Specht & Sohne watch? The price is around $97, not expensive, but you know, many homages are only $50 or even much lower. This watch looks similar to the latest Rolex Land-Dweller, seeing from the front, it looks like a good high-end dress watch, but from the back, the movement seems not to match its high-end image. It has a Miyota movement that is completely naked without any decoration. I would rather a solid case back on this watch.

It is a solid stainless steel watch with a Japanese automatic movement, priced at $97, for a Chinese watch with such a price, you can not ask for too much on the finish, we can see slightly polished edge on the case and bracelet, but not too obvious, on some specific corners, I can still feel sharp. The hour markers also lack rounded polishing on the corner. I can not see sunburst reflection on the dial.

My conclusion

For all Chinese homage watches with Japanese automatic movement whose prices range from $50 to $100, please do not expect too much, they must have compromised on the craftsmanship.

Tags Land-Dweller, Miyota 8215, Specht & Sohne

San Martin

San Martin SN0148 Review

On my blog, I have introduced several San Martin watches, in one of my oldest posts about San Martin, I also talked about the background about San Martin, where are their watches made in and other information. I know many Chinese watches now, they can be classified into different types according to their ways of development, most of them chose the same way, which is copying the designs of Swiss watches and Japanese watches, many people call these watches homages, but San Martin is not simply a homage brand, if you have followed this watch for a while, you will know they were famous for making homages in this field, but now they have watches with their own independent designs, and look very nice, especially the new watches San Martin published in spring of 2025, they got a lot of praises and also shows the path forward for homegrown micro watch brands. Today, I will take one to show, on San Martin’s website, the reference is SN0148. Please see pictures below.

What do you think about this watch? Actually I have not seen such a beautiful watch from China for a long time, I have been tired of those homage watches, you know, this San Martin watch’s design is truly eye-catching, it boldly uses clashing colors in its design, which is blue on the bezel and gradient green on the dial. The gradient green on the dial and the blue color on the bezel perfectly match, both go well together and nothing feels forced. The sunburst finish on the gradient green dial has an intentionally rugged look, it is not refined, but I like this finish very much.

The second selling point on the watch lies in its bracelet, which is a five-row stainless steel bracelet with narrow three links on the middle and two wide links on both sides. The middle three-row links have a higher arch design than the links at both sides. All links on the bracelet have nice polished edge to guarantee a good wearing comfort. By the way, the clasp has a micro-adjustment extension.

At last, the watch is equipped with a Japanese Miyota 9015 movement, which has 24 jewels and beats 28,800 times per hour, the central second hand will stop when you pull out the crown to adjust time. The movement has an inaccuracy of about 10 seconds to 30 seconds per day. This movement is good and best option for San Martin watches, it usually does not have issues and very durable.

Tags SN0148

Vakuy Rigas

An interesting Vakuy Rigas watch

Post author By Bob
Post date August 10, 2025
1 Comment on An interesting Vakuy Rigas watch

Sometimes I more like shopping on taobao because you will find a lot of items you have not seen before, some watches you might not even heard of will catch your attention, I have bought several watches there, some readers of my blog also asked me to buy watches for them, I like doing this. Today, I found a very interesting watch on taobao, it is made by Vakuy Rigas, which is the brother brand of Parnis, I already talked this before. What does this watch look like, a U-Boat or a Panerai? It looks weird, not even a homage watch I think. Is there anyone interested in this watch?

The watch has a case that looks like that of Panerai Submersible, it is made with 316L stainless steel and measured to be 44mm in diameter, the bezel has stud markers, while the crown refers to the design of U-Boat. The back is see-through crystal. On the dial, the most unique place lies in its small seconds subdial, which is set at 9 o’clock and looks like turbine. I remember that one IWC watch has this design, does this Vakuy Rigas take cues from that design?

The watch is equipped with a ST2555 movement that comes from Sea-gull, Parnis always used Sea-gull movements, seems like their tradition, they also use Sea-gull movement in the Vakuy Rigas. Rather than black rubber band, the watch looks better on the brown leather band.

Tags ST2555, Vakuy Rigas

Lucky Harvey

Lucky Harvey Striking Watch Review

Post author By Bob
Post date August 3, 2025
2 Comments on Lucky Harvey Striking Watch Review

I like to hear people’s opinions about everything, it is interesting. There are many reviews about watches on the internet, they are about the Swiss watches and watches made in other countries, what do you think about Chinese watches? Many people have no good impression about them because of the fakes, they thought there are only fake watches in China, and maybe the only Chinese watch they know is Sea-gull, however, after years of development in watch-making technology, the Sea-gull indeed has become a world famous brand, but there are also other Chinese watches that have great designs, especially in recent three years, we can see the big progress Chinese watch industry has made, some new brands appeared, I did not know them, after seeing the watches made by them, I was shocked by their designs, take the Lucky Harvey as an example, I think it is the first time for you to hear this brand, their watches are very distinctive, you will be attracted and want to buy one at your first glance, but after a deep review, I do not think they are the Chinese watches you should consider to buy.

Lucky Harvey is a young Chinese watch brand, created by a watch company in Guangzhou. They do not have too many watches in their catalog, but it seems like each of their watches has unique design inspiration, some use dragon as a dial decoration, some use snake. The Lucky Harvey watch shown below is a striking watch, every hour the watch will make a striking sound from inside. I was attracted by this feature initially, but later found this is just a small trick the brand uses to sell the watch at a higher price, which is about 1200 US Dollars, will you pay that money for this watch?

I want to know how Lucky Harvey promotes this watch, its guilloché dial or the striking feature as the main selling point? The guilloché dial is not a good fit for a striking watch, while customers who want to buy a watch with guilloché dial will think the striking feature is just a little trick. Judging by my watch preferences, a watch with guilloche dial should have the matching high quality finish on case and bracelet, and the movement should be displayed through a crystal back and has very good decoration. Sold at such a price, I think the finish on this striking watch was compromised, at least, the finish does not have the same quality as that on the Peacock Plumage watch I reviewed before, https://www.bobswatchstore.com/2025/03/02/peacock-plumage-gaze-hand-made-guilloche-tourbillon-watch-review/, that Peacock also has a good-looking guilloche dial.

There are two buttons, one at 2 o’clock is used to adjust the big date set at 12 o’clock, the button at 4 o’clock is used to open or close the sound. The watch has a 40mm case diameter, but the end link of the bracelet is not too flexible and the watch may not fit for people with small wrist.

Tags Lucky Harvey, Striking Watch

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