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Stuhrling is yet another fairly new Chinese watchmaker which has taken over the online watch marketplace. Founded only in 2002, Stuhrling is already outselling big fashion brands due to their eye-catching designs and very low prices. Although Stuhrling is registered as an American company, there is not much Americana about it. None of Stuhrlings watches are made in the USA.
Overall, Sturhling is a very diverse brand with a huge selection of watches. At the low end, watches begin at around $50 and can go up to near $4000 for tourbillon models. However, on the whole, the average price is around $150-$200. Perhaps the main appeal of the brand is the variety of models you can buy such as dive watches, chronographs, dual timezone, and others. Not only this, but Stuhrling also makes both mechanical and quartz models, so are suitable for anyone looking to make an entry level purchase.
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Is Stuhrling A Good Watch Brand?
Sturhling is certainly not a top watch brand and was likely given a name like this in order to appear European. This is one of the main criticisms of Stuhrling and Chinese brands in general. Whilst Stuhrling watches may appear to be high end at first glance, this is certainly not true. In fairness to Sturhling, they do not have a backstory that is full of lies like Reef Tiger and instead are pretty open about what they do.
Overall, the brand receives a lot of unnecessary hate about trying to appear non-Chinese and for the quality of its watches. Given that Stuhrling makes its watches in a very similar way to other fashion watch brands, this is pretty ridiculous. Stuhrling is certainly not a luxury watch brand, but has never claimed to be. Instead, they make entry level quartz and automatic watches at lower prices than most of their competitors.
What differentiates Stuhrling from cheap Chinese brands, is its ability to create watches of different quality at different price points. Although Stuhrling watches are made from materials such as stainless steel (the brand is not high end enough to use precious metals), they do offer Swiss movements and other complications. Stuhrling are a brand that has made use of Chinese innovation in watchmaking, specifically with tourbillon movements. The brand have a varied selection of tourbillon watches for very low prices.
These are the main reasons why the Stuhrling brand has a good reputation online.
Stuhrling Comparison To Other Brands
From a top down overview of Stuhrling, it is fairly similar to brands such as Hugo Boss and Tommy Hilfiger. Whilst these two companies do not make their own watches, they do use movements purchased from Miyota. This is true for both quartz and automatic pieces.
In short, all 3 companies use the same (or similar) movements, whilst assembling their watches in China.
Where Are Stuhrling Watches Made?
Stuhrling watches are made in China. With that being said, the brand mostly uses Miyota (Japanese) movements for both its quartz and mechanical watches. It should also be noted that a small portion of Stuhrling watches uses Swiss movements, these watches are higher quality and are much more expensive than regular Stuhrling models.
Despite garnering heavy criticism for being a garish Chinese brand, Sturhling watches are made in a very similar way to fashion brands made in the far east such as Tommy Hilfiger or Hugo Boss. By this statement, I mean that despite the brand being American or German, all of the production is outsourced to China and movements are purchased from Citizen. These watches are then sold to western consumers. When reviewing Stuhrling compared to other similar brands, Stuhrling seems to get criticized a lot more than other brands, which is very silly given they have very solid movements within their watches. Most of the criticism is leveled ironically towards the fact that the watches are made in China with critics saying “Buy a Seiko instead!” – not knowing that both watches contain exactly the same movement.
Why Are Stuhrling Watches So Cheap?
There are two main reasons why Stuhrling watches are not expensive. First of all, is the production. As previously discussed, Stuhrling makes their watches in China, which is relatively low cost manufacturing. In addition to this, they purchase movements from both Citizen and Seiko. Whilst these movements are not the absolute cheapest, they are still very inexpensive and mass produced.
By making their own watches, Stuhrling can get an instant edge over the competition who license other companies to make watches on their behalf.
Secondly, Sturhling is purely an online brand and does not spend money on global advertisements. If you think of brands such as Coach, Olivia Burton, Hugo Boss, Fossil, or Emporio Armani, you will notice that these companies have a large range of products and commercial advertisements. Paying celebrities to model your watches and then paying more money to put these commercials on billboards is very expensive.
Stuhrling does not have these advertising related costs, so therefore can pass these savings on to the consumer.
Lastly, Sturhling doesn’t really have many original designs. All of the Sturhling watch models are homage pieces that have taken a big pinch of inspiration from other brands. Therefore they did not need to spend any money on research and development compared to the brand which created the original.
Are There Fake Stuhrling Watches?
It’s possible that there are some Chinese sellers creating copies of Stuhrling watches, but at the same time, it’s quite unlikely. The reason for this is that the margins are already pretty small as Stuhrling are not an expensive watch brand.
It would be equally as easy to make a fake watch made by a more prestigious brand such as Movado or Tissot and then try to sell this. Counterfeiters would make a lot more money by copying watches of similar build quality to Stuhrling, but could be sold for a lot more money.
Unless the brand increased its prices drastically, it’s unlikely that copies of Stuhrling will ever be mass produced and passed off as the real thing.
The Best Stuhrling Watches
Skeleton Dual Time Automatic
Clearly, the loudest watch that Stuhrling makes is their skeleton automatic. This watch is available in gold, rose gold and silver colors with the same dial layout in each model. Considering this is a mechanical watch from an entry-level brand, it is very complicated. The balance wheel is displayed at the 6 o clock position with a second timezone being shown at 9. At the top of the dial is an AM/PM indicator. This was never going to be a moonphase since that would be far too expensive and complicated, although is probably more convenient for most people as AM/PM anyway.
Datejust Homage
It is quite clear that this watch is meant to mimic a Rolex Datejust. Other than the minutes indicated around the outer dial, there is not too much visual difference between the Stuhrling and the original version. The cyclops at the 3 o’clock marker has the same magnification, whilst the fluted bezel and bracelet are almost identical unless you were to inspect through a loupe. The second hand on this model is also slightly thicker than you would find on a Rolex Datejust.
Like many other Stuhrling watches, this model is available in a variety of different color schemes, as well as dial colors. Overall, it is a decent watch, but nothing special, although decent value for money.
Aquadiver
A legitimate quartz based dive watch, the Stuhrling aquadiver has up to 200m water resistance. Whilst this is not a lot compared to other dive models, based on the price it is still not bad. Overall it is very rare to see an orange divers watch, so this is a nice change.
The movement is a fairly unremarkable quartz based Miyota, so this is why the watch is reasonably inexpensive. In terms of lume quality, this watch is not great and you can find a lot better from Seiko & Citizen. Stuhrlings “krysterna” crystal is used to cover the dial, but the jury is still out. I have yet to see any reason why this is better than a sapphire crystal.
GMT
A much cheaper alternative to the Rolex GMT is the Stuhrling version. This model makes use of the jubilee bracelet and can be purchased with a variety of different bezels. Displayed is the classic Pepsi model, although the batgirl (black/blue) is also available alongside black and a nice light brown color.
As you will know, the purpose of a GMT watch is to keep time in 2 different timezones simultaneously. The Stuhrling model does this well using a Miyota quartz which is reliable enough. For the price, this isn’t a bad watch at all.
Moonphase Dress Watch
One of the less flamboyant watches made by Stuhrling is their take on a casual moonphase watch. This model is ideal for those who work in a professional environment as it isn’t too loud or garish and can be worn on almost any occasion. The subdial at the bottom is a legitimate moonphase dial and not simply an AM/PM indicator which is a lot easier to make.
This particular watch is available in 4 different color schemes, although it looks the most elegant and professional in black. Granted, this might not be to the taste of everyone.
Daytona Homage
The Stuhrling “formula i” series is quite distinctive, obviously, the main idea behind the watch is to look like the Rolex Daytona as much as possible – without going too far.
In fairness, the color schemes displayed above are certainly not a release that Rolex has ever released, so there is at least some originality about the design. Although with that being said, there is a version of this watch in a panda dial variation that is quite similar to the original Paul Newman, which will appeal to a lot of people. Despite being a quartz based watch (and quite expensive considering this). The second hand does have a sweeping motion which makes the watch appear to be an automatic.
