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San Martin are a very interesting Chinese watch brand. At first glance, you may confuse them with any other watch manufacturer that produces watches in China, however, if you look closer you will find out this is not true at all. Founded in only 2016, San Martin already has a good reputation for creating a luxury style for an affordable price.
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The Glaring Difference Between San Martin & Other Chinese Brands
On the surface, you can easily see that San Martin watches are heavily invested in homage timepieces. Almost every popular style that they sell has been designed by the likes of luxury watch companies such as Rolex, Panerai, and Tag Heuer. It’s not uncommon for a Chinese watch brand to create a business around copying the design principles of already popular watches. Since there is no need for investment in research and design, the savings can be passed on to the consumer.
In short, San Martin offers a selection of automatic watches which mostly use Epson (Seiko) movements for a price that is anywhere from $200-$350. This is already fairly reasonable, however, San Martin watches are made in the style of very popular watches such as a Rolex Submariner. So essentially you’re getting a very well made, good-quality homage watch that is made to a very solid specification.
Is San Martin A Good Quality Watch?
First of all, San Martin are not a luxury brand, so it can never be compared with the likes of Rolex, Panerai, Audemars Piguet, or any other brands that their style imitates.
However, San Martin are still very solid and perhaps most importantly, makes watches that are good value for money.
San Martin makes a variety of different watches, so not all of them are equal. In terms of quartz watches made by the brand (which in fairness is very few), they are rather unremarkable and don’t really offer anything new.
The San Martin brand mostly excels in the value of its homage automatic watches. These pieces almost all have sapphire crystal and use entry-level Seiko movements. Of course, these movements are not anywhere near the quality of Swiss-produced companies such as ETA but are significantly cheaper.
These two factors combined mean that even though the San Martin brand is well under 10 years old, it has filled a void between cheap and nasty homage watches, as well as being able to buy a stylish looking automatic watch for a price that doesn’t break the bank.
San Martin Compared To Other Chinese Homage Brands
San Martin has quite a lot of competitors in the Chinese homage sector. Since most of these brands make replica-style watches of top brands, the general public cannot really differentiate between any of them.
To compare San Martin with Corgeut, in terms of movement there is not too much difference. Corgeut mostly opts to use Miyota, although do use some Chinese movements for their more complicated watches such as moonphase models. However, San Martin pulls ahead when it comes to the overall construction of the watch. Using sapphire crystal makes their watches more scratch-resistant and in general, the build quality is vastly superior.
When compared to brands such as Benyar or Pagani, San Martin is more expensive but is better in both build quality and specification of movement.
One key area where San Martin separates itself from the rest of the competition is its “great wave” series. San Martin have recognized that there has been a demand within the watch community to replace boring dials. People will pay for their Seiko to be modified with a painted dial. As a result of this, San Martin have begun to produce these watches off the shelf, without the need for any modification.
Overall, San Martin watches generally are a little more expensive, but vastly superior in build quality. This is quite a big issue for Chinese homage watches since the biggest reservation before buying is that the watch will break quickly. San Martin remove this worry by spending more on construction.
In summary, forget the Chinese stereotypical watchmaker, San Martin is different.
Who Owns San Martin Watches?
San Martin is a private company that operates from the Peoples Republic Of China. Their founder is a businessman named Liao Jia Ming, although not much is known about the company other than this.
What is known, is that the company was founded in 2016 and has already got a decent foothold in the homage watch market. Due to the copyright and trademark issues surrounding watch design, it is likely that San Martin will not reveal too much business information about themselves publicly on the internet other than the above.
The Best San Martin Watches
San Martin Diver Ghost – Hulk Homage
Quite simply one of the best Submariner homages under $300 you can find. The San Martin is not a poor quality replica either.
This dive watch has pretty much the exact same dimensions as a Rolex Submariner, measuring only 0.5mm wider in the dial. The fact that the San Martin dive watch also has a ceramic bezel and sapphire crystal is really good considering most Chinese brands do not bother with this as they don’t really have any repeat customers after an initial sale.
San Martin also uses good quality C3 super luminova on this watch which can be found in a variety of other top brands such as Christoper Ward.
Simply put, you’re very unlikely to find a Hulk colored submariner for this price at anywhere near the quality presented by San Martin.
San Martin Black Bay Homage
It’s quite clear that San Martin are trying to replicate the appearance of a Tudor Black Bay with this design. Everything is intended to look the same from the crown to the dial, as well as the iconic hands.
Using a slightly different movement, this model does not use an Epson as you might expect but instead makes use of a Chinese PT5000. However, this is not as bad as it sounds, since this movement is essentially a clone of the classic ETA 2824. It is of course, not quite as accurate, but most of these movements are within a +/- 6 seconds per day timeframe, which isn’t bad at all.
The black bay homage is a little more expensive than most other San Martin timepieces, but there isn’t much else like this at the same specification.
San Martin Great Wave
As previously mentioned, there was a clear gap in the market for watch dials with the great wave off Kanagawa. Before San Martin began producing this, people were paying for their Seiko’s to be modified with a 3rd party dial.
However, as the San Martin already uses a Seiko NH35, this cuts out the need for you to pay for a modification (which can become quite expensive). Instead, this is an off-the-shelf model which does the same thing and costs less than $300.
There is nothing quite like this on the market right now, especially made for a specification this high.
San Martin Pilots Watch
A rather minimalist pilot’s watch, this timepiece is quite different than pretty much every other watch San Martin Make. It is not too dissimilar from an IWC pilots watch, although there are many other brands that make watches in this style too.
Suitable for those who want a lightweight watch, the case is made of titanium. Coupled with a Seiko NH35 movement and sapphire crystal, this is a reasonably high-spec watch outside of the luxury realm.
There are many other pilots watches worth considering from other brands, but many of them are simply more expensive or use a simple quartz based movement.
San Martin Panerai Homage
There are no prizes for guessing which watch this is a homage to.
Quite simply an iconic design, the Panerai Luminor submersible is an ultra masculine watch that is far too expensive for most budgets.
This variation is obviously a much lower specification as it does not use a bespoke Swiss movement, but instead makes use of a Chinese ETA 2824 clone. In terms of build quality, this is much like any other San Martin watch and is made to a relatively high standard given the price tag of under $400.
San Martin Tuna Homage
Available in 4 different color schemes, this is the closest thing that you will get to a Seiko 6105 which is the iconic watch that Captain Willard wears in Apoclypse now.
Using a bronze coloring, San Martin makes a classic 70’s style watch that is not too readily available in the modern age. Of course, as San Martin uses a Seiko movement, there really isn’t too much difference between this and a legitimate 6105.
Considering San Martin uses sapphire crystal, this watch is actually built to a higher standard than many Seiko watches, although it doesn’t quite reach the same standard as Prospex, it is still very good value for money.
San Martin Explorer Homage
As the Rolex Explorer is not quite as popular as the GMT, Daytona, or Submariner, there are not quite as many homage variations of the Explorer series.
This is a good option for those who want something a little understated that is not going to attract any unwanted attention. The San Martin explorer is a very straight forward stainless steel watch, which can be bought without the logo on the dial if preferred.
San Martin F1 Homage
Crossed somewhere between a Seiko and Tag Heuer F1, this watch is not a real homage piece, yet not too original either.
In general though, if you were to see this watch from a distance, especially with the shape of the logo, you would assume it was a Tag Heuer. The sunray dial is a real selling point of this watch since most brands simply opt for basic color schemes. In addition to this, C3 superluminova is once again used, meaning that the lume is made to the same degree of quality as expensive brands.
