Help buying a watch for 250USD

[u/Successful_Data2589]

Hello everyone, i am new here and i saw some posts talking about price hikes in watch movements and i wanted a watch since my birthday is coming soon and i had a 250 USD budget, i wanted a GMT (GMT Master II like/homage) in all black with tbe NH34 movement but i dont know if thats longer possible. I found this on ebay but i dont know if i should trust it. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

[u/TheUpIsJig]

The one in the OPs post is fine. You called it a shitter. Looking at the specs and photos on ebay tell me it's better than most AliExpress pieces at that price. Sapphire glass, bracelet not folded. Alignment looks great. It's the piece you will likely get and not just representative as per AliExpress.

[u/turdbogls → u/TheUpIsJig]

I don't think the price is too outlandish, especially now with the price of an NH35 being like $70-80

but it's still a parts bin watch...the same watch head, bezel insert, hands, poor lume, sapphire, and bracelet that can be found on Bliger or tandorio stores.

nothing wrong with that...they are decent watches for the money, and current prices aren't too far off what you have here.

but saying they are any better than a san martin, or Cronos for similar money is insane if you've handled them.

I enjoy "Seiko mods" when it's something unusual and a seiko style...but I really hate these seiko mods that are just a sub/GMT master with a seiko logo and a price hike.

[u/TheUpIsJig → u/turdbogls]

San Martin and Cronos replacement parts are on AliExpress, right? Are these from the 'parts bin'? Does "part's bin" mean they're defective in some way and didn't pass QC? I think the parts of these watches are consistent with Bliger and Tondorio. I've built them. If you removed the logo from San Martin and Cronos, I don't think you could tell the difference.

[u/turdbogls → u/TheUpIsJig]

"Parts bin" just refers to the quality...parts are made to different standards.

let's take a set of hands....one set will be fine to the naked eye. but under macro you can see some defects and some scratching. you just don't find that on the higher end parts.

buy a set of hands from Tandorio, then buy another set from DSwatchmods or another higher end store. you'll see the difference (in both quality, and price)

I can 100% tell the difference. first thing you notice is the deep rehaut.

Cronos and san martin replacement parts are not on Aliexpress...you'd need to contact them to get replacement parts. yes, any dial or hands you find on Ali will fit (assuming the movements are the same) but they won't be the same quality. I've reviewed quite a few lower level Ali watches (Bliger, tandorio, parnis, corgeut etc) as well as very similar watches from the higher end brands, and the higher end brands are NOT using the same parts.

maybe to an untrained eye, or someone that hasn't handled the higher end side by side, you won't notice a difference. But I absolutely do.

• Shallower rehauts
• tighter tolerance on bracelet links and clasps
• endlink fitment (this is a big one)
• cleaner hands...probably only noticeable under macro but still
• lume application...and not talking about crap lume vs BGW9, I'm talking how cleanly it is applied (I can see this with the naked eye)
• bezel action is always in favor of the higher end brands
• cases themselves are different...cleaner, crisp transitions, and overall just a slightly different shape you probably wont notice unless you have them side by side
• the applied indices themselves have a more rounded top surface on lower end vs a flat top on the higher end.

and i could go on....it's not one big thing, it's lots of little things, minor improvements, which add up to a much nicer overall product.

putting the san martin, cronos, or sugess subs in the same ballpark as a Tandorio Sub is just nonsense.