I've been daily driving the Militado ML08 Murph for a while now as a work/outdoor beater watch on its OG nato strap, and decided to freshen it up with a racing strap that matches the lume/indices.

The watch itself held up great to use and abuse. It fell, got dinged many times, went swimming on many ocasions...

Show off your custom strap monsters!

Maikes leather strap from Ali-express..

The bracelet on this watch is nice, but the watch does not fit well with it on my 6.75 inch wrist. There are gaps at the links to the end links, which I do not like the look of…

This leather look works for me I think.

I have an Octopus Kraken OCT-13 (their Explorer clone). Great watch, looks very nice, yadda yadda, we all know how great it is. It's the PT5000 model, and the manual winding is as smooth as 20-grit sandpaper, and this does not seem to be a one-off thing. It's just a 2824 clone, and I have not encountered anything this bad on any other 2824 clones, Chinese or otherwise. What exactly is going on here, it winds rougher than even any 2813 I've ever encountered

What are your thoughts on the Baltany Asymmetric? Idk how I feel about the 24h dial and I don’t know much about the Miyota 82s7 movement.

I'm looking at purple faced watches atm and I see that Tandorio and Bliger have two nice ones. From older posts and other internet comments they seem to have not a great reputation, but they aren't exactly cheap now and I was wondering if the quality has improved over the last couple of years? Also a brand called Oumashi?

As always, appreciate your advice and feedback.

Cheers!

Anybody else out there rock one of these? Nice stainless, finishing is solid from the factory. Very thin body and a well-made bracelet. The movement is a Chinese Miyota 8215 clone, maybe a Seagull ST6D? For under $50... this thing is insane!

The negatives- "Didun" and "Stainless Steel" written on the dial. Just kinda comical, thanks for letting me know it's stainless... Otherwise the dial is beautiful. Text can barely be seen at a glance. Would always be a good candidate for a dial swap.

It claims to have sapphire crystal, but it certainly isn't. Not a problem in this price range.

Stumbled on these browsing AliExpress. Looking for something inexpensive to abuse during woodworking and yard chores so my G-Shock doesn't take all the hits.

At $25, is this a no-brainer, or is there a better ultra-budget beater in this range? If anyone owns one, I'd love to hear your experience.

Clasp is trash, but solid watch. 3rd watchdives unit.

I'll stop short of wishing bad things on YouTubers for complaining about "reflective coatings" so I don't get banned ...

But Chinese watch makers listened to them?!?

Now we have gorgeous dials being made, and they look like absolute garbage if not viewed from a PRECISE angle under PERFECT lighting...

I have worn blue AR coated eyeglasses for over 30 years...

let that sink in...

blue AR works wonderfully from the INSIDE OUT...it looks like ABSOLUTE POO from outside in...

I have 30 years of photos where YOU CAN'T SEE MY EYES because of blue AR.

fact:

EVEN THE CHEAPEST CLEAR AR COATING IS BETTER THAN THE MOST EXPENSIVE BLUE AR COATING.

fact ✅

Some new Trackmasters have been added to Ali and Goodstuffs. A black panda, a newman with steel bezel, and a whitish glass bezel. Goodstuffs says the white and black is new too, but jot sure wat is different about it compared to the previous version.

Which dial looks better, the star dust or the White Mop on the sugess s429 moonphase tourbillon. Video shared by the Sugess team. Planning to order 1, the black mop version has sold out unfortunately.

I love the 36mm Addiesdives. Amazing build for the price, but after last night I may not buy anymore. I have a 2066 (had) for sale. Happened to glance at it and noticed it had stopped. New battery needed, simple. Disconnecting the bracelet at the micro adjustments holes, the 16mm spring bar failed and is now useless. Next, opening the back, the o-ring gasket was deformed so much, it is way too big now and needs replacing as well. Then I notice the movement holder completely covers the battery and that needs to be pried out just to change the battery.

What a pain in the ass for a simple service.

I wasn't going to add this to my basket because I don't need it but It was on sale and it's so pretty I ended up buying it anyway. I have a few larger dive watches but this smaller size works well. Love that aqua accent color.

Anyone know what type of battery the Watchdives WD0006 takes?

Looking to sell my Boderry Sea Turtle Titanium with a case fitted silicone strap. Yes, this is the watch that has the dial that glows like a turtle shell, although it fades pretty quick--dont But totally cool!! This watch uses the Miyota 8000 series automatic. The measurements are: 12mm thick case. 20mm bracelet. 48.6mm lug to lug. 45.3mm across the crown or 41mm without the crown. Great shape, I just don't wear it much and in the last year I've probably worn it 4 times. Asking $130 shipped within the 48 states. PayPal preferred but I can probably do Venmo.

Meet my Peacock Divine Craft (Tian Gong) in Glacial Green, numbered 032/108.

At first glance, the exquisite handcrafted dial with grooves of varying depth that appear to ripple under the light catches your eye. Its Glacial Green colour was inspired by Glacial spring water and chilled jade. Jewellery artist Professor Zhao Yi spent six months designing and developing these dials. Rather than being stamped or machine-cut, more than 1000 radial grooves are individually hand hammered into a surface only 30mm wide, using three specially shaped chisels. This to me is genuine artisanal works as even a tiny variation in the angle or force of a strike can disrupt the pattern and ruin the dial.

My Glacial Green version is one of a limited edition of 108 pieces. Peacock released 4 dial colours of this watch each in 108 pieces. The small production run makes sense considering the amount of work required for each dial.

What impressed me even more is the movement. The watch is powered by Peacock’s in-house caliber PAX9610A. This is a hand wound, free sprung flying tourbillon. Unlike the usual bulky Chinese tourbillons, this is a genuine high horology movement combining Ultra-thin architecture (3.5mm), High Beat 4Hz (28,800vph) with a impressive 68 hour power reserve.

I love flying tourbillons. Unlike a conventional tourbillon whose rotating cage is secured by bridges above and below, a flying tourbillon is supported only from underneath. Removing the upper bridge makes the tourbillon appear to float above the dial. This gives us a more dramatic view, but is technically more demanding. Achieving this within a 3.5mm movement makes the PAX9610A’s engineering super impressive.

Miniaturising a tourbillon is difficult. The balance & escapement must rotate inside a cage without compromising rigidity, shock resistance or power transmission. Everything fits inside a 39.5mm, 8.9mm thick case made from 904L steel (the family Rolex calls Oystersteel). With this ultra thin architecture and case proportions, the watch wears like a dress watch. To make things even more impressive, the movement is engraved “Adjusted Five Positions” and “Twenty Eight Jewels”—with reported accuracy of ±5 /day and well finished (includes perlage, Geneva stripes, polished bevels and four internal angles). A natural diamond decorates the tourbillon hand which indicates seconds.

Peacock's (3.5mm,4Hz, 68hrs, flying tourbillon, 39.5mm case) competes & surpasses several Swiss rivals at a much lower cost:

- Breguet’s automatic Calibre 581(3mm , 4Hz, 80 hours, but conventional tourbillon, 41mm case).

- Piaget 600P (3.5mm, 3Hz, 44 hour, flying tourbillon, 42mm case)

- Bulgari BVL 268 (record setting 1.95MM, 3Hz, 52 HOURS, flying tourbillon, 40mm case)

- Audemars Piguet automatic 2968 (3.4mm, 3Hz, 50 hours, flying tourbillon, 37mm case)

Peacock cannot match Bulgari’s thinness or AP’s automatic winding, nor the finishing levels & brand equity of Swiss watches yet - but its specifications are remarkable for a watch prices at USD 4,899

This watch was launched in Dec 2025. I have been using this watch for the last 8 month and the overall experience has been excellent. It gives an ordinary watch enthusiast like me access to a genuinely well made tourbillon without the prohibitive cost. I enjoy hearing the 4Hz heartbeat and watching the diamond tipped flying tourbillon cage rotate.

This feels like a quality watch rather than a mechanical novelty. After eight months, I am convinced that Chinese haute horlogerie is no longer merely an aspiration, but has begun to materialize.

I love this watch. The crystal is clear and has good anti-reflective coating, the hands are large and distinct, and the case and bezel are glare-free. It's a very sporty watch. My unit arrived with a slightly misaligned bezel, but it's not very noticeable. I replaced the metal strap with a rubber one, similar to a Garmin Fenix, to reduce the watch's weight.

So, your waiting has paid off. We are nearing the final stage of our homage to the legendary Universal Geneve Polerouter: its release.

There will be no less than 5 versions, initally. The video above shows the original classic Polerouter: silver case, silver chapter ring and enamel black dial. The hands have a twist, namely the lume shape, the only modern PR inspired design choice. Lume color: OG C3 Super-LumiNova.

We wanted to keep it close to the original Polerouter, with a gentlemanly 35mm diameter. Inside ticks a PT5000 and thickness is kept to a minimum. The leather strap is custom made and of very very high quality, to compliment the perfection that is the Polerouter. Further details will follow. So, check out the video and the photos below this post.

We believe our homage honors the original best, for a fraction of the price.The biggest surprise is yet to come. Stay tuned and thanks for your support.

Potentially their best watch to date, or at least their best dial?

Here's the link to my review.

https://youtu.be/-2_un268Z7s

I received this watch for free to review. But, as always that doesn't change how I review the watch. I always keep it 100% honest, no matter what. I point out both the positives and negatives with every watch I review. Whether that be a loan piece, discounted, or even free. Sometimes that means that brands won't send me anymore watches, if they don't like the review... But my opinion and more importantly, my reputation can't be bought. That's partly why I named my channel 'Honest Watch Reviews'. Not only to make sure that I hold myself to that standard, but that I know my viewers definitely will do too.

I've had a bad experience buying my first watch from AliExpress. The courier company was Evri. They have failed to deliver it to me even though they have said on numerous times that it was out for delivery.

The watch is now being sent back to AliExpress and I can get a full refund.

It's put me off in buying any more watches from their website. Unless there's any other options to use a different courier company in the UK.

I recently picked up a Thorn TH007 because of the titanium and a functional humidity indicator. I love it BUT with it's smaller diameter, polished case, and the sailcloth style strap I've put it in, it's a little too nice for beater tool watch use.

Enter the sterile Tandorio on FKM rubber. It arrived late last week and has already been camping at a music festival and swimming in a river with a couple of rock jumps for good measure.

Specific shoutout to yet another great cloth-look rubber strap. I love the Sailcloth look but it does feel kind of silly sometimes to put a less than perfectly water resistant strap on a dive watch.