Hello Hello and welcome back to another Cheap Heat review - this time I’ve got the Skmei 1894 up for discussion. What initially attracted me to this model was the large clear LCD display, the uncluttered placement of time, date, and day of the week, lugs that looked like they would accommodate a single pass strap nicely, and of course, its price of $5.08. The Skmei 1894 is available in five different colors, in both positive and negative LCD displays. I opted for a black and

“Theres an old saying in Tennessee - I know It’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once , shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can’t get fooled again.” George W. Bush In an earlier edition of “Cheap Heat” I reviewed the North Edge X1 - to save you a read, it was terrible and I returned it due to the illegible negative display and comically small labeling of the function buttons. Today I am reviewing the Skmei 2543, which as far as i can tell is almost the

If you have been following along with my “Cheap Heat” segments, you may have noticed the majority of the watches that have been reviewed thus far have digital. When I came up with the idea for this review segment, there were two main guiding principles. First, I wanted to find the coolest and cheapest watches that weren’t getting any attention. Second, I was willing to take a gamble on something weird or unusual - but it still had to be something I would consider wearable or

When I began my Cheap Heat project, I did the sensible thing and unpacked all of the watches, threw out the instruction manuals, and put them all in a shoebox that sits on my shelf. Ever since they all arrived, every day at approximately 5:45 pm, an alarm goes off. By the time I get to the shoebox the alarm has silenced and all the watches are staring at me innocently. So I devised a plan to catch the offending watch. In my last review I compared myself to the tame racing dri

On the tv show Top Gear (RIP), they used to have a segment where they would see what time a car would set around their test track and compare it against a wall of other cars and their respective lap times. It was an interesting way to see how a car stacked up against its competition and could potentially out or underperform cars at its price point. In order to account for variables, they used their “Tame Racing Driver” to set the lap times, which is the role I am attempting t

Being a long time collector of primarily budget timepieces, I quickly became aware of the value of Chinese watches. For a long time (and even now) the main offerings available to Western consumers were homages. They were often sterile-dial replicas of the real deal; sometimes they flew too close to the sun and became the target of legal action. If you were around for the days of the Parnis Marina Militare you know what I’m talking about - if you don’t, just consider yourself

I’m getting old and as part of that process, I’m starting to lose touch with what's cool with the youth. These days, in my Dad Era, my wife fills me in on the new slang the kids are using and I shake my head in disbelief. When it came time for me to strap the Skmei 2320 to my wrist, the first thing I thought was “This thing is cool” and snapped a pic. I sent it to my sister who is 10 years my junior, and she responded “No”. Maybe it’s a generational thing. I don't care, I sti

In the modern world of manufacturing, regardless of industry, compromises are often made in order to meet targeted price points. For example, in my Volkswagen Jetta GLI, the driver's seat has automatic controls while the passenger seat does not. The door wells in my car are bare plastic vs the fabric lining of the GTI. These small details, and many others all add up to the reason why my car was several thousand dollars cheaper than the GTI. In my instance, all the compromises

I’m going to start this review by saying if you have ever been a young male, there is a significant chance you went through a phase where things being “blacked out” was the absolute peak of styling. Clothes, cars, accessories, didn’t matter - had to be blacked out. Or camo - but I digress.  This is the North Edge X1, and according to my receipt, I paid $10.08. With the $5 Skmei 1999 being my current benchmark for a cheap digital watch, I had high hopes as this was double the

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

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

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