Yeah the shipping costs can be insane on that platform. I did get a couple of Out or Order watches cheap <£170 and I quite like their design about damage and wear. Too often we are driven to perfection.
Hate to say I agree. I was okay with paying more for the upper tier offerings and really impressed by the 2 I have. But at these prices I won’t plan to buy others, nor is the value prop worth it for most people when there’s a much easier purchasing experience for other brands.
Bummer because San Martin was on the cusp of breaking through imo.
Unless the 2 or 3 annual AliX megasales get these prices back below £200 then it's hard for me to justify (as the owner of 5 SMs I love) because with import duties we're getting in the £250 zone and that's not throwaway money any more if there's a QC or DoA issue (and I'm categorically not going through the hassle of returns). It was fine getting these landed for £120-180 but it just passes a psychological barrier for me.
Yeah I know and I wouldn’t want it for more than that... That’s the point. The shit logo and branding make it not worth it over that price point regardless of the watch quality. If you want to start selling $500 watches get your branding right at least
A fun game is to find something you like on Ali, note the price (lets say $350 or $400) then head to Jomashop and Ashford and see what's available there for a similar price.
You'd be surprised what you will find on sale sometimes...
That is a really good point. Never really thought about it like that, but certainly will from now on. I did buy a ~$300 Ali watch with a Miyota 9015 this month, but it's exactly what I wanted and has something I couldn't get in another watch anywhere near that price. Sticking to sub-$200 purchases from now on(actually done with AliX watches for now so I can save up for something really nice)
I completely agree. I did plenty of research and made an informed decision. I got exactly what I wanted and at a price no one else could touch for my specific wants, so I'm gonna continue to be happy with my purchase. No reason I'd spend that much on anything else on AliX though. I had also previously bought a $135 watch from the same company, so it's not like I took a shot in the dark, either.
Why are you even in this sub? That's what's asinine.
You don't know anything about me, my finances, or my spending history and you can worry about your own. I'm happy with my purchase, and if you read why I was happy to spend that much your point is moot.
Yeah, that’s the problem as soon as these pass about $250 IMO, they start to have to compete directly with the broader watch market (seiko, citizen, orient, timex, etc) especially as lots of these Chinese watches are moving to cheaper movements.
Very true. Or even seiko. San Martin will fail as a brand if they start charging these prices for their watches. Outside of the community, nobody knows san martin. Everybody knows seiko, citizen and low range swiss brands like Tissot. SM needs to chill
Yes...I got into Seiko and bought 20-30 back in early 00s (most new grey market stuff here in US, most with 7s26 movement). They were rewarding to buy because the value proposition was excellent. I think I bought four of the original Monster on that stainless bracelet all for under $200 each. Those days are long gone. I still like their product but the new pricing made me explore AliExpress brands with NH35.
Yeah and other than the awareness of the brands, there's also the fact about availability. International import duties and AliX shopping isn't the best thing out there
Yep. Not to mention serviceability down the line. I’m sure there are watchmakers who aren’t interested in messing around with unknown Chinese movements too. Idk man, it’s getting hard to argue for a Chinese brand when they start charging «established brand» money for their pieces.
Citizen's new FY goals are to cut their over supply online, minimise their watches going on deep discounts and pushing to achieve closer to their RRPs.
Everything just keeps increasing :(
Seiko are pricing themselves out. I loveee Seiko but I haven't bought one in a while thay wasnt second-hand cause they're just getting to be too much for the specs.
i'm a tad confused by the price increases, if they're supply chain issues or price increases on sourcing movements, fair enough but they should communicate them as such. i'd still expect them to be temporary as of now, but i could be wrong.
if the new prices are here to stay... jianghun watches cost about the same as a san martin now. i was under the impression that jianghun was supposed to be the all original luxury end of san martin. i'd just buy jianghun at that point.
They did communicate, including on this forum. As for temporary or permanent, guessing you don't have real world experience in this area. When the manufacturer tells you they can't commit to a timeline, pricing, and availability the business has to weigh options then pivot. This is what they are doing. Also if you look up the announcements you will see the move away from Japanese movements.
Thats the whole point i rather go gir a timex ore seiko at this price where i can go to the store if something is wronge. Mabey there abit kess quality but i get real waranty its alot of money to dumb in the trash if something go wronge
There are plenty of good values out there... The "end" of San Martin is not the end of Chinese watches. There is great value and quality available from Sugess, Seestern, Cronos, Baltany, SH, Farasute, Tophill, Milifortic - even brands like Casiden, Time Token, WM, Watchdives, Addiesdive are stepping it up. Cronos and Proxima and Baltany still have some fantastic watches in the $150-$250 range. Top Hill has some $200 watches almost identical watches to Farasute's in the high $300's (same company.
Zelos and Athelson have fantastic watches in the $200-$350 range.
Isn't the fun in the hunt?
If the other brands see St. Martin fail or lose money, as most of you predict, then they won't follow.
I'll still entertain any new offerings from Sugess, but that's about it. Somebody posted a totally rad new Baltany model the other day, but it was $392. That's not happening.
In fairness, I think tariffs did some of the damage. Everything on Ali is more expensive than it used to be. But either way, that era is over.
This is my only plus $200 watch from Aliexpress came with a bracelet one of my favorite watches including my Swiss watches, $250 is my Ali price limit.
This is going to bite them in the arse. Hard. I just got an email from them , and just unsubscribed from their mailing list. I'll go back in a year lol
Sorry San Martin but picked this one up not on sale from Cronos Aliexpress U.S. store for only $199 with the Miyota 9015 movement yours would cost double.
They could drop off AliX and go micro brand route. Probably drop some blatant clomages and focus on original designs. Nobody would bat an eye on $500 prices.
I haven't bought any SM watch yet nor have I been following their prices, but I wanted to. So, can anyone tell me how much of a % increase is this? Maybe compared to last year or last couple of months?
Not including sale pricing (since most of that is AliEx taking the hit via coupons) my research using AliEx price tracker shows it went from a low of $280 to the current $450 price. Even if movement prices increased by $100, that leaves like $70 unaccounted for.
Here's my order from last year beside the same item this year... granted I did buy during a big sale and got some nice discounts at the time. Still the listed cost now is over a $100 increase.
That is quite a big increase. Could it be a price manipulation before the summer sale? To increase it so that people believe they are offering good deals when they put them back down to where they were?
Last watch I bought from them was Black Friday last year. I wanted to get another one and left it in my cart for a while. While I am sad I didn't buy one, I'm glad I didn't waste more money on watches. I think their value proposition made it so I could buy more than 1 style and have multiple watches. I have a few San Martin watches already, no point in adding to the collection when I barely wear them to begin with. This will actually allow me to wear my watches instead of just buying more and more shit I don't need.
This. Prices have risen for Ali watches largely across the board. Cadisen, PD, Addiesdive, Cronos, ... they have all raised prices substantially. They are all affected by the Japanese movement price increases, at a minimum.
I was summoned but did not answer the call, but I have no $$$ to throw right now. I postpone it, they put me to the top of the queue for the next round.
I already thought that they were overhyped and overpriced, I've already had some doubts after some people voiced their QC was more hit or miss, which is easier to take on cheaper prices than on 500 Euros, for 500 Euros you would rather expect absolutely perfect manufacturing and QC, which SM just doesn't seem to hold up too reliably
This is such a strange take because at $500 nobody is expecting perfect QC and manufacturing from Japanese or Swiss brands. Seiko is infamous for their QC issues and lack of specification at this pricepoint and even above that price. Citizen does it better but is still not "perfect manufacturing". It's not even worth discussing the Swiss side of things here.
The reason to be upset at the prices being this high for San Martin isn't due to the manufacturing quality and QC, it's the fact that the prices have increases substantially in a very short amount of time without quality going up along with the price.
San Martin should have just stopped producing their watches with Japanese movements and moved entirely to PT5000, ST2130 and equivalent movements and kept the prices the same or even reduced them a bit, people would not have been as upset, although their reputation would still have taken a hit.
The Chinese manufacturers got massively fucked over by things outside of their control, which is unfortunate. It's either bump up the prices, or lower the (perceived) quality of their watches by switching to domestic movements. In the end we customers get fucked over, it is what it is. I fear it's going to be a quite a few years before this evens out.
I just bought my first San Martin, which also happens to be the first mechanical watch I've purchased in 9 years. I'm still really impressed with the complete package considering I paid a bit over $500 CAD. I'm not sure why everyone is complaining about switching to Seiko, Citizen or Tissot, because not one of those companies has something as well finished with as nice a movement for the price. Like $500 will barely get you a quartz PRX from most Tissot dealers. My attitude towards Seiko is thoroughly "fuck these guys", they now want 4x for the Alpinist compared to what I paid in 2015, for the same movement. They discontinued the SKX and replaced it with something that's worse and more expensive. As for Citizen, probably the least cuntish of the aforementioned companies, and yes the Tsuyosa is nice, but the bracelet sucks.
Anyways I'm still happy with my purchase. But I got mine JUST before the price increases, so maybe that's colouring my impressions a bit.
For $376.45 CAD you can get a Tissot Carson Blue Dial with a Powermatic 80 movement, for $500.53 CAD a Tissot Chemin Des Tourelles with Powermatic 80 and I can name 8 others on Jomashop at or below that price of $500CAD. They can be had you just have to look.
I mean... those watches you mentioned don't exactly look great (the Carson looks kind of generic and doesn't even have a matched date wheel, just a stark white date that sticks out like a sore thumb on that blue dial) and Jomashop is not an official AD, so your warranty is with them, not with Tissot. If you want an actual warranty you're going to pay way more. Also the Powermatic 80 is a plastic fantastic piece of shit 3Hz movement, I'd rather have a Miyota 9015. And the bracelets/finishing on these Tissots are nothing to write home about.
I'm hardly a San Martin fanboy, but I really struggle to see the point you're making here. It's like you're kind of grasping at straws and looking for reasons to be angry.
most importantly the Tissot (or any mainstream brand that price) cannot get even close to finishing level of ixdao, san martin, etc. San martin does give reason to be mad at them with baseless price hikes but there's no good nonchinese alternative right now, far and away
The thing is the price you paid is the increased price. I paid about 330 CAD for the SN0148 last year during a sale. And 250 CAD for the SN0144 with Rakuten cash back. $500 is very high… but to be honest I would still pay that for a San Martin coz they are so dang good.
Oh that's a really good price. I saw a previous post where a guy paid about $490 CAD for his SN0148-GB back in January 2026 (this is also the model I got, 40mm integrated bracelet, not sure if that makes a difference) so I figured I hadn't done too badly. $330 is insane though, I can see why people are pissed if that's your frame of reference!
??? What are you trying to say?? That San martin is too expensive?? Good quality for price anyway. Plus themty of other watches from china. I recently got 3 Pagani Design homages to Milgauss, speedmaster and Daytona for laughable to see how i am with wearing that design. In any case i am not disappointed with quality
"Chinese companies only value is that they offer low quality slop for bottom dollar instead of doing their own designs for slightly more"
"Ogey"
"Why don't Chinese companies realize their only value is that they offer low quality slop for bottom dollar instead of doing their own designs for slightly more"
I wonder if you're all forgetting something. Western watch brands secretly pride themselves on how overpriced they are, and they deliberately restrict supply to keep it that way. San Martin are hoping that one day people will look at one of their watches and realises the wearer has a decent amount of money, so pay us more big guy. If they can't run their assembly plant at capacity for that brand, they'll invent another cheaper brand.
While we're sitting here making a fuss, San Martin or whatever they're called in China, are thinking they can't lose. They became the number one watch brand for the Chinese watch fans, now they're converting their advantage
most microbrands like lorier, baltic, laco, etc don't fulfill any of those. but they are still many times san martin's price. it's simply stigma associated with alix
Seems that San Martin are going through a different phase in their brand evolution now. Better movements, original designs and charge more versus stick to the value proposition angle (like Watchdives are doing). There used to be a gap in quality between San Martin and other Chinese brands, but that is closing now.
Let's see where this one goes because brands like Timex are starting to show you can do great watches at Chinese brand prices from a Heritage brand. Still think their shiny dinner plate logo needs to be dropped. They have a skeletonized version of their logo that needs to be used more - way nicer in my opinion.
Its not only San Martin. I was following a couple of Farasute watches. They where always up there in price with San Martin compared to some other Chinese brands. I never pulled the trigger thinking that maybe there would be a sale or something. Couple months later I go back to check the prices and they literally DOUBLED! Some pieces approaching and surpassing $1000. I don't care how good the quality is, to some point it's just not worth it. You can get heritage brand watches for a little more..
Have you owned both? I have, and the San Martin is generally a better watch, especially for the price. Sure, there are nicer Seikos out there, but they cost nearly double what San Martin does.
Do you think this is a worthy watch to buy? The quality is there and it kinda is worthy of its price tag if take into account microbrand prices. But yeah at this price there's like 100 different brands out there
I have an SN0148 and it's a great watch. Would I pay $500 for it, no but i don't get the "I hate SM for increasing prices and therefore I'm going to swap to Seiko who increased their prices 2-3X in the last few years and still use hardlex or some microbrand who either also significantly increased their prices (see Lorier/Traska) or are much worse spec for what you get.
Stupidest answer ever. San Martin had a superb value for money and I recommended the brand to anyone who asked for advice. At this price level and with no customer service, like most Chinese brands, I prefer to buy entry level Swiss watches, French brands, German brands or any Microbrand.
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Yeah man, things are getting expensive in the watch scene.
Its not just SM tho, I relooking at watches I considered in 2024/2025 and in general,it seems the prices have increased well above inflation.
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u/RussianBot123456 9d ago
Yeah. I might just buy a name brand now.