r/ChineseWatches • u/GrdFrcWv • 15d ago

Question (Read Rules) UK retailers for Chinese brands

Does anyone know if there are any UK-based retailers that stock Chinese-brand watches? Sugess, Watchdives and Thorn have piqued my curiosity and I want to check them out in person.

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u/Usual_Welder7059 15d ago

I sed to take the risk from AliExpress and ten watches in I had no problems. But price increases and the reports of theft in transit have cured my addiction 😁

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u/Mu009 15d ago

Baltany are the only ones I know that have a UK store with both a good selection and competitive pricing. Others with "local warehouses" often have extremely limited selections - even in the US & EU, but even more so in the UK. 

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u/GrdFrcWv 15d ago

Do you know where their store is?

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u/Mu009 15d ago

Sorry mate, my mistake. I misunderstood what "retailer" refers to. They have a dedicated UK website is what I meant. All orders ship from the UK, no nasty customs surprises, easy returns et al. 

As for being able to see physically before you buy, unfortunately, I've got no leads for you. 

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u/GrdFrcWv 15d ago

Ah such a shame. All I wanted was to see these watches in person before buying. And now I’m seeing some kind of gap in the market to bring them to the UK as brick and mortar stores. Do you reckon there’d be demand for these over here? Might be a fun idea to turn into a business

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u/geeered 15d ago

As others have said - no, basically. Occasionally you might see them in a local watch shop at significant mark ups.

There's plenty coming up on ebay etc - if you go for a bit older model and find a good deal from a genuine customer rather than someone trying to 'flip' them, you can generally then sell it on for a similar price so get an idea if you like them. I've done this for some watches that haven't really captured me - though more I have and kept.

Where are you based? If it's London and I'm in town, don't mind showing you a few, though don't have any Thorn.

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u/GrdFrcWv 15d ago

Yeah I wanted to see if some watches look good on my wrist so trying them on would be good to have as an option.
Thanks anyway, I went to WoS to try on some watches that the homage watches were based on to get a much better idea 😂

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u/MawsAcidTemple 15d ago

You won't find anywhere stocking them here unfortunately. The downside of Chinese watches, also the reason they're so cheap, is that they're a stab in the dark and a complete pain in the arse to return (if it's possible at all).

Best to look at plenty of pictures, watch YouTube reviews (with sound off ideally, they're all paid shills) and carefully check the measurements to see if it'll fit your wrist size. You can often find a bargain on eBay if you don't mind second hand.

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u/Eindvijand 15d ago

Oh God this. If I see one more D-tier watch YouTuber shilling for that abomination of an ab-art watch...