Author: Bob

Categories
Heimdallr

Heimdallr Diver’s 200m Black – the big monster in deep ocean

Heimdallr and Seiko

This Heimdallr diver’s watch is very big and heavy, it is a real moster.

Heimdallr is a Chinese homage watch brand, it has a very young watch-making history and most of their watches are diving styles. At first, the owner of Heimdallr only had a very small room to make homages of some vintage Seiko Prospex models, becuase of the solid quality and durable dial lume, the first batch of watches he customized received a lot of good feedback from his clients, with more and more need for such types of homages, he registered “Heimdallr” brand and decided to use a Shark logo on the watches’ dial. Now, watches coming from Heimdallr can be divided into seven sereis, they are Tuna Can, Turtle Diver, SKX007, Sub, 62 Mas, MM300 and Promaster, most of them are homages of Seiko Prospex, Omega Seamaster and Rolex Submariner.

Heimdallr Dial Logo

Maybe some people do not like such homage watches and think they copied the design of other watches, but sometimes it is exactly these homage brands like Heimdallr to you a chance to own a watch that has been discontinued in production.

Heimdallr Blue Unboxing

The watch reviewed here is a Moster Diver’s model from Heimdallr, it is really big and thick, for people who have a thin wrist, I do not suggest you buy it. The cas is 41.6mm in diameter(without crown), if the crown included, it is about 47.7mm, it looks big but its case is not too thick, which is only about 13.6mm, the case thickness is very acceptable for such a strong and big solid diver’s watch. The bezel is uni-directional rotating and features diving scales filled with black coating, like most diver’s watches, there is a lumed pearl set at 12 o’clock for the wearer to read time easily when under water.

Heimdallr Blue Wrist Shot

The black dial has a very simple design, Heimdallr’s shark logo is at 12 o’clock in white color, each hour marker and hands are applied with C3 SuperLuminova, the dial will have a strong green lume light in dark conditions, which will last for several hours. The design of hour markers is very interesting, they are like the tooth of a tiger shark, when you are looking the dial, it is like a tiger shark swimming towards you. To resist great pressure under water, the watch uses thick sapphire crystal above the dial.

Heimdallr Bracelet

The Heimdallr Monster is equipped with a Japanese NH36A automatic movement, which beats 21,600 times per hour and has 24 jewels, this Japanese movement is better than the Chinese movements used in most fake watches, because NH36A has a power reserve of 41 hours. By the way, the NH36A supplies the watch Day and Date functions. There are totally three big selling points on this Heimdallr Monster watch, the first one is this Japanese movement, the other two are its solid case quality and strong dial lume.

Heimdallr Engraving

I worn this watch when swimming in the pool, it is ok, but the brand said it is 200m water resistant, I do not know if it is true, I have not dived with it. About this watch, Heimdallr also offers many other dial options.

Heimdallr Blue Dial Lume

Categories
Guanqin

Guanqin Tonneau-shaped Watch – the skeleton beauty of mechanical watch

Guanqin Hollow Watch

My first thought on this watch is its cheap price, perhaps it is the most cost-efficient mechanical watch with an acceptable quality.

Guanqin is a common watch brand founded in Guangzhou, China. On the internet, you may see some description about this brand, saying it is a Hong Kong brand founded in 1989, that’s not true, Guanqin does not have that long history, it is a young Chinese brand established in 2011. A lot of Chinese brands like Guanqin have made up such a fake historical story to convince customers, in most times, it works, especially in China. However, if you are able to do some research on the internet, you will know its true face.

Guanqin Tonneau Watch in Box
Guanqin Tonneau Watch in Box 2

Anyway, some of us do not read a brand’s stories, we do more care about their watches’ quality and design, as well as if it worths my money I spent. For this Guanqin watch I just received, I did not spend too mcuh, it is just a special addition to my current watch collection, I love to wear it after being tired of my sweep-second models with clean and round dial design.

Guanqin Steel Watch with Accessories

This Guanqin watch has a tonneau-shaped case that is made with stainless steel, the case is measured to be 40mm in width, 47mm in height and 13mm in thickness, it has a slightly curved shape, you can observe this from its side and case back, this makes the watch sit my wrist more comfortable, the case has ten screws fixed, in silver tone and star shape, two “buttons” up and under the crown, they can not be pushed, just two metal pieces protecting the crown. The case uses two different polishing methods, the frontal side is brushed, while the edge around the case is mirror polished, which feels very smooth.

Guanqin Steel Watch with Accessories 2

Through the skeleton dial and crystal back, you can see working machine parts of the movement. I immediately felt it worth the money when I saw this openwork of the dial. these brackets have a little help to keep the movement more stable, the red color usage on the central hands enhance the readability of the watch, on the hour hand and minute hand, there are two arrows and two bars having been applied with white lume material, the lume light is not as strong as that of diver’s watches. Have you noticed those white trapezoidal hour markers around, they are not luminous at night, I think the watch manufacturer can use lume material on these markers, this will absolutely give the Guanqin watch a new wearing feeling.

Guanqin Tonneau Watch Crystal Back
Guanqin Steel Watch Movement Show

The case back has a round crystal window, the movement inside has a skeleton auto rotor, without brand’s logo. This is a very common automatic movement manufactured in China, and mostly used by Chinese brand watches priced at 80 USD or 90 USD like this Guanqin. I have no worries about this Chinese movement and no complains, the shipper adjusted the movement excellent before sending to me, so the watch still works accurate since I received, yes, you may say they can choose a Japanese movement, but that means more money it would cost.

Guanqin Watch with Clasp

At last, the Guanqin watch comes with a black rubber band in a box, one pair of black leather straps and one screw driver offered for free.

Guanqin Bag and Box
Guanqin Watch Wrist Shot
Guanqin Black Rubber Band
Guanqin Watch with Black Leather Strap
Categories
CIGA Design

CIGA Design X Series Gorilla – a mechanical elf beating on your wrist

CIGA Design X Series Box

CIGA Design is one of the few watch brands in China that has not copied the design of any other watches, it is totally a brand that is created by a Chinese designer, whose name is Zhang Jianmin.

CIGA Design X Series Gorilla Box

I like this brand, their watches are not knockoffs of some Swiss watches, they have their own design with many young and innovation elements. CIGA Design is a very young Chinese brand that was established in 2012, their first watch was launched in 2013 and won Red Dot Design Award(https://www.red-dot.org/project/ciga-design-009-series-6992), that’s crazy and I also saw they choose a development road that is completely different from other Chinese brand watches. In 2021, the Blue Planet watch from CIGA Design won Challenge Watch Prize(https://www.gphg.org/horlogerie/en/gphg-2021-prizes/challenge-watch-prize-2021-ciga-design-blue-planet), it is the first time for a Chinese watch to win a GPHG award, very inspirational. During the development in the past few years, a series of award-winning records show that their watch design has been recognized. So today, let’s see how the quality of their watches is.

CIGA Design Box
CIGA Design X Series in Box

This CIGA Design watch is a Gorilla model from X Series, I got this black/orange one in an iron box like a container, with one gorilla-shaped pillow for the watch. The container-style watch box has a big gorilla image, a big “X” letter crossing the entire box, “CIGADesign” logo is on one side of the box. The watch is cool and the gorilla watch pillow is so cute.

CIGA Design X Series Gorilla Orange

The case has an unique design, the entire case system is divided into two parts, inner case and outer case frame, I firstly saw such case structure on a mechanical watch. The more interesting thing is each corner of the case is equipped with an independent spring suspension device, whose design inspiration comes from car’s suspension system, this adds more fun to a mechanical watch, maybe also have a protection for the inner case. With the spring in four corners, the inner case can move when you push it with your fingers.

CIGA Design X Series Gorilla Crown

Under the protection of outer case frame, the entire watch looks very big, it is measured to be 44mm in width and 44mm in height, the case is not thick, only 11.8mm. There are orange metal pieces on both sides. The crown on the right has a big “C” logo, the left has a “Gorilla” image, both pieces are fixed by silver “X” screws. The matte black finish on case eactly meets the “Gorilla” theme of CIGA Design Series X.

CIGA Design X Series Gorilla Case

Black dial is hollow, with all machine parts clearly in front of my eyes. The big “X” support on the dial looks like a standing Gorilla, in dark condition, the “X” support is luminous, so are hour hand and minute hand. The central second hand is in striking orange color, which matches the orange color on the case. The use of this “X” support on the dial not only gives me a strong visual impact, but it also makes the movement work more stable.

CIGA Design X Series Gorilla Movement

Through the crystal back, the movement has a skeleton auto rotor that is engraved with “CIGA DESIGN CUSTOMIZED MOVEMENT CO-01”, I think this information is redundant, “CIGA DESIGN CO-01” will be enough. The watch comes with a black rubber band that features breathable grids, which is very comfortable to wear in summer, they also offer one pair of black nylon band for free, you can change by yourself.

CIGA Design Gorilla Wrist Shot

Overall, CIGA Design is a Chinese watch brand that is full of many creative and innovative designs, for this Series X Gorilla that looks fashion and sporty, I think a lot of young people will love it.

CIGA Design X Series Orange
Categories
Binger

Binger “Double Tourbillon” Moon Phase Watch Review

Binger Double Tourbillon SS Watch

Is this watch using double tourbillon? I do not think so.

Binger is not a Swiss watch brand, it is totally a Chinese brand. In their brand story you may read somewhere on the internet, it is said that Binger was founded in 1853 and its headquarter is located at Le Locle of Switzerland, these are not true, they made up the story, actually many watch brands in China like Binger has such a fake backstory, as a Chinese, I feel embarrassed when reading such a fake story because they are cheating customers.

Binger Double Tourbillon Blue

I did some research online and found that Binger was owned by a e-commerce company in China, besides Binger watches, I know they are selling a lot of other luxury goods, don’t be surprised, this is normal for most e-commerce companies in China. Ok, now you have a brief understanding of Binger’s background, let’s see this watch from them. We more care about a watch’s quality.

Binger Tourbillon Watch Blue Dial

It is from “Hao Yue” series of Binger, the watch comes with a stainless steel bracelet, while they shipped one extra black leather band to me, many thanks. After wearing the watch for several days, I am satisfied with its quality, the case polishing, bracelet finish and dial design are all good.

Binger Double Tourbillon Wrist Shot 3

The Binger watch is completely made with stainless steel, the polishing on the stainless steel case and bracelet is very good, when I received the package and get the watch in my hand, I said “Wow”, it worth the money I spent. The case has a diameter of 42mm and thickness of 13mm, not very thick for me, it is acceptable for most people.

Binger Double Tourbillon Wrist Shot

Besides the top quality finish on case and bracelet, this Binger watch also has a good sapphire crystal face, which is highly scratch resistant, their salesperson said that they did an experiment on the sapphire crystal on every Binger watch, use a knife to scratch on the surface and there won’t be any scratches, well, to prove that, I did not do that on my watch.

Binger Double Tourbillon Wrist Shot 2

The blue dial looks amazing, I know you noticed the double opening windows, but I was attracted by its sun-ray texture on the dial, it looks unique and indeed adds scores to the entire watch. The two opening windows on the dial, one is placed between 4:00 and 5:00, the other is positioned between 7:00 and 8:00, both are not tourbillon devices but are displays of double balance wheel. Each balance wheel has one support fixed on the dial with blue screws, this enhance the stability of the entire movement. Under 12 o’clock, date and moon phase are displayed, the small silver hand is indicating current date, the moon phase rotates once a month.

Binger Automatic Movement

Now I understand the reason for high price of this watch, the following elements are all necessary:
Top-level case and bracelet finish
Double balance wheel movement
Date and moon phase functions
Highly scratch-resistant sapphire crystal

Binger Double Tourbillon Blue Dial with Black Leather Strap
Binger Original Box

Overall, this is a good watch, but I think this Chinese watch should’t use “Swiss” to advertise, if watches’ quality is good, everyone will know. By the way, Binger only sell watches on the internet, they do not have stores in any countries.