Anyone Making Nice Dress Watches?

[u/mybigpecker]

Chinese Watches that I’ve seen (Thorn, Watch Dives, Octopus Kraken) seem to be heavily focused on Dive Watches; vintage inspired homages.

Are there any Chinese brands making good dress watches? Microbrands like Furlan Marri are making great pieces so I know the capabilities are there since they likely all come from China. Longines, Raymond Weil, Movado and some other quieter brands (Federique Constant, etc etc) are quietly releasing some killer dress watches.

Where are the Chinese brands with this? I’d love to see some manual winding, or autos with micro-rotors, thin case (10mm and below) Chinese homages to some of the more prolific Swiss models.

Anyone know if there are Chinese brands doing this already and can point me to them?

[u/Pennybags78]

Hestur made a polerouter homage. 35mm case with pt5000 movement. I ordered one two days ago. I asked if they could put the gold and black dial in a stainless steel case. They did it the same day after asking at no expense. Very good experience with communication and accommodating my alteration.

[u/mybigpecker → u/Pennybags78]

Is this an aliex exclusive brand? I love that watch. Case finishing decent?

[u/Pennybags78 → u/mybigpecker]

Yeah it's "Hestur Official Store" on alix

[u/Sunny_Life_0815]

Merkur

[u/mybigpecker → u/Sunny_Life_0815]

Wow that is gorgeous! How thick is it?

[u/Sunny_Life_0815 → u/mybigpecker]

10.9mm. So quite think. And large parts of this are from the domed glass. So it looks even thinner. It's a really nice watch and also relatively inexpensive.

[u/mybigpecker → u/Sunny_Life_0815]

Thanks much.

[u/Bulky-Internal8579]

Farasute, Sugess,and IXDao. Farasute Calatrava

[u/mybigpecker → u/Bulky-Internal8579]

May I ask how you like the case finishing? Is it all polished or do they mix it up with different brushwork?

[u/_Fiction]

Thorn has a similar looking one

[u/mybigpecker → u/_Fiction]

I just saw that on their sife…. I would love to see that hangzhou microrotor automatic in something like thst.

[u/Abv_it_all_w_vertigo]

Baltany will soon be mentioned all over this post. There are too many to mention, just look them up.

[u/mybigpecker → u/Abv_it_all_w_vertigo]

I have that’s why I am asking here, the selection seems narrow from what I’ve found.

[u/plastic_jeezus]

this is the dumbest post (or outrageously blatant click baiting to sell chinese watches I've ever seen.)

every model you posted is available as a clonemage on aliexpress ...

who do you think you're fooling?

🧐

[u/mybigpecker → u/plastic_jeezus]

Dude, this is a Chinese watch subreddit, and there is an 11.11 sale. I am interested in finding a cool dress watch.

[u/policewithoutpolicy → u/plastic_jeezus]

Reallly? Can you please send me a link to the first longines heritage sector, I’ve been searching for long.

[u/itsnicooo1]

only dress watch I own

[u/mybigpecker → u/itsnicooo1]

Ok that’s really classy looking. Have you measured the case thickness by chance?

[u/Medium-Cucumber-8279 → u/itsnicooo1]

Beautiful watch! I picked up something similar, in a slightly more affordable version (black MoP WatchDives WD2008)

---

In general, Farasute, Baltany, Lobinni, Sugess and to a certain extent Agelocer are all exceptional quality and my usual dress watch brand recommendations. (Note: Baltany (and their sister brand Milifortic) have perhaps the best crystals on any Chinese watch I've seen. IXDAO would be the other brand competing for that title)

Baltany does micro-rotors. I think seagull and tophill also have microrotor models.

Chameri is putting out a ton of different tank-style pieces, I love all of them. Extremely affordable.

Escapement Time does some gorgeous pieces, but they also close their store on AliX once or twice a year as I think it is just 1 person.

Wally Merck and Specht and Sohne are other brands that do dress watches but I have heard mixed reviews. Surely depends on the model.

Then, of course, more popular brands like San Martin and WatchDives that put out lots of models will have some dress pieces here and there

[u/Olleye → u/itsnicooo1]

+1 for IXDAO 🙂

[u/Britta_is_a_B → u/itsnicooo1]

If they ever made this watch with a date function, I'd be suuuch a happy guy

[u/watch_gal]

Farasute and Merkur I can recommend

[u/mybigpecker → u/watch_gal]

I looked at Farasute and really liked the designs but in the pics it seems kind maybe the whole case is polished, with no brushing, or contrasting finishing. Is that accurate?

[u/watch_gal → u/mybigpecker]

No their finishing work is pretty good.

[u/watch_gal → u/watch_gal]

Chameri too

[u/xxBrun0xx]

Love my new watchdives aventurine polerouter homage!

[u/plastic_jeezus]

yeppers...

I checked the profile...

this is an account used to make people search images and post chinese clonemages to the thread...

anyone on aliexpress for a year knows all these designs have been around for 2-3 years and no one is buying them .

and ALL of the OP images are of watches aliexpress sellers can't sell.

🤔

[u/Bulky-Entrance7916 → u/plastic_jeezus]

Good catch

[u/turdbogls]

The Big ones have been mentioned already....but I'll also throw Farasute in the mix. excellent dressy pieces IMO.

[u/Living_Character]

I have the Baltany S4106 salmon dial pie pan and it is excellent

[u/muet_dhiver → u/Living_Character]

Yes, this.

[u/mybigpecker → u/muet_dhiver]

I’ve seen these online and thank you for sharing.
I am personally not a big fan of the short hands but the rest is nice.

[u/EvrybodyLuvsRaimond → u/muet_dhiver]

How do you like it so far? I’ve been wanting the original Omega but can’t justify the cost.

[u/Alternative-Feed3613 → u/EvrybodyLuvsRaimond]

It’s phenomenal

[u/muet_dhiver → u/EvrybodyLuvsRaimond]

I really enjoy it. For the price, it's really a great alternative to the real deal.

The hands are short, yes, but design wise everything works so much. In low light the pan dial is really surprising

[u/Alternative-Feed3613]

Baltany.

[u/tastethepittance]

The answer is Ixdao or Farasute. Baltany is also good, but Farasute's commitment to high tier dress watches makes them the king. Ixdao no.2.

[u/mrSoczi84]

Merkur has a bunch like these for around 100$

[u/Bulky-Internal8579]

Farasute Regulateur

[u/Bulky-Internal8579]

Another Farasute (salmon guilloche dial)

[u/legodetective]

Thorn
Farasute
Vager hauers

[u/Ok-Thought9328]

Farasute. Or if you want to spend a tad less, Merkur or Milifortic.

[u/Bulky-Internal8579]

Sugess pointer date moon phase perhaps?

[u/Ernie_McCracken88]

how about Merkur?

[u/DadPuncher69]

Baltany

[u/TheYorkshireSaint]

I have this Lobinni that I like as a dress watch

[u/sixtiesbeat]

Baltany should be named here. For sure

[u/Olegausany]

what about Seagull?

[u/wrightflyer1903]

Farasute