When I first started my watch collecting journey, I was immediately drawn to the design of rugged tool watches - at the time brands like Marathon, Kobold, Damasko and Sinn had the designs I craved. They were all purpose built, glowed in the dark, and had exotic features such as submarine steel, oil filled cases, or hardness coatings. These brands were out of reach for me financially; they were the metaphorical Ferrari poster on my bedroom wall. However, I was fortunate to sta

For my second edition of “Cheap Heat” I thought I would review another watch that I have owned since the AliExpress 11.11 sale two years prior: the Berny T2576 field watch. At the time, it cost me about $50, and from a brief pop over to the AliExpress website, I see that it can still be had for about the same price. I bought it for two reasons: first, I love Sinn inspired design and this clearly borrowed heavily from the Sinn 566, and second, because I was curious about what

This is a fun little watch! I bought the Skmei1999 year ago for around $5 just to see what that would get me in a digital watch. I have already experienced the magic of $50 Steeldives so I knew there was potential, but come on, $5? I didn't have high hopes, and I was planning on giving it to one of my children so they would have a watch of their own and leave mine alone but I digress. As I am a 90's child, I of course went with the clear resin case, but there are other transp

Homages are a divisive topic in the watch community. There are watch collectors that have no problem with brands borrowing or even lifting wholesale design elements from other companies’ watches. After all, good artists copy and great artists steal. There are others who can appreciate when a twist is applied to a classic design, such as my review of the Revelot Hexmariner where I cover its fresh take on the iconic submariner design language. People buy homages of watches they

Within the watch collecting world, people are drawn to watches for a variety of reasons. Some people are fascinated by the engineering that goes into the mechanical movements that power their watches, and build their collection around that. Others are devoted to collecting specific brands or different eras; I myself have a penchant for 2000’s era Seiko dive watches. Some people collect watches with pop culture significance, such as the Hamilton Murph or Coop featured in the m

The idea of a watch being used to commemorate a significant event or milestone is an oft repeated trope in the watch collecting world. A new dress watch for your wedding day, something to celebrate a promotion at work, the birth of a child with the intent to hand it down to them when they become of age. In my instance, I had just graduated from nursing school and wanted something special to mark the occasion. As I mentioned in a previous writeup, in my formative watch collect

Hi all - just getting started on my watch review journey so I wanted to start with this cool San Martin variant - the SN085-G. The watch comes in two color ways - light red/grey and deep red/black. This review is about the light red version. There are a lot of similarities with the rest of its siblings in the lineup AKA the "B" version - but also does a few things differently, and in my opinion, better. Let's start with the measurements - all of the SN085 family case share th

I expect this one to be a bit divisive. When it comes to watches, I have my hands in a few communities on Reddit, with the ones being relevant to this review being r/chinesewatches and r/microbrandwatches. In the last decade, I've enjoyed watching both industries enjoy tremendous success and growth, carving out new spaces in the watch collecting world. Many Chinese watch companies have worked hard to shake off the reputation of Canal St. knockoffs and are producing compelling

Hi all - I have a new build to share, and while it is an interesting build, I wanted to talk about my design process behind it and what informed my parts selection. Full disclosure, I received this case from u/bixbo33  at no cost, he designs and manufactures his own cases and watch straps under the brand "ghost straps" - I chose the plain bezel case because I have never built something with that sort of bezel and I was interested in a new design challenge. To start with the c

For this mod showcase, I wanted to show off a Dagaz Typhoon build I did last year. I've shared this build before on r/Seikomods, but I have better pictures now and was hoping to have more discussion around the changes in the modding scene. When I first got into watch collecting and modding, there were two people leading the scene - Yobokies and Dagaz. Dagaz closed up shop and left Hong Kong for political reasons about two years ago - a loss for the modding community for sure.

One of the problems when it comes to designing or discussing dive watches in general is that there is a giant elephant in the room: the Rolex Submariner. For better or worse, this is THE dive watch according to the cultural zeitgeist. If you're wearing a black watch with a bezel, it's a Rolex Submariner in the eye of the general public - sorry, I don't make the rules, that's just how it is. The submariner is an icon for a reason - before everything got turned on its head and

I'm going to start this review by saying that the microbrand space is extremely competitive in 2025 and there are a lot of brands offering quality watches at price points that are very competitive. There are a lot of design and material overlap between brands, and it is a lot harder for a smaller or newer company to stand out from the pack. However, I do believe that one of the biggest ways a brand can cultivate a following and truly elevate the brand experience is through a

San Martin is a Chinese watch company that has a well deserved reputation of making high quality homages and original designs with excelent specs and finishing at a very competitive price point. They do a lot of releases, and sometimes they do something a bit different and it flies under the radar; this is one such watch. It is a SN0115, which in itself nothing unusual, but this limited run color palette flew under the radar and I thought It deserved a bit of attention, Long