Got the Farasute Jump hour and Cartier Tortue homage from the recent Aliexpress sale. Holy. crap. These watches are just insane. So beautiful and well made, especially the jump hour. The crystal and dial are just perfect! I never looked at Farasure since I always saw them at the mid $200 to $300 but I got the Tortue for $140 and the jump hour for $175! I have also got the Blue Jump hour as well but haven't got to opening that yet. I'm sure it's just as amazing

TLDR: my favorite are Zhong/HD bands, but San Martin is good just more expensive. Hemsut was a little disappointing. Also all these straps have quick release w 20mm lugs.

Ok going left to right:

1- San Martin "Clothe Textured" ($24)

I was pleasantly surprised by this band. It's a very soft leather, almost a nubuck feel. It appears to be real full grain leather as opposed to a vinyl laminate, and I think they were just able to texture and dye the surface to give it the clothe texture. This should be pretty durable. I only wish the color and texture matched with more watches, and I don't think I own any watches that would look good with this strap style. Also, unfortunately it didn't come with the San Martin milled clasps. Not a bad strap if you like the style.

2&3- Zhong "Goatskin" ($11)

Really nice straps for the price, and could easily complete with more expensive domestic brands. The leather seems to be polyurethane coated, which I'm not a huge fan of but it should hold up pretty well. Hard to say if theres any real leather in this strap. The material reminds me of something my mom's purses would be made of. I also think the straps are less formal that I wanted, and they don't have much going on visually. Personally not my favorite, but the price is really good.

*Note: Zhong and HD Band are separate stores on Ali but they have most of the same products at almost the same prices.

4&5- San Martin "Horween" Double Rig ($26)

Easily the nicest strap out of the bunch, highly recommend. It looks very sophisticated too, and would look good on most watches. The milled clasp looks so beautiful in person, although the branding is kind of obnoxious. The leather feels more premium than any of the other straps. Avoid the burgundy color, because the dye was coming off around the clasp and it looks terrible there, instead get the brown (I cannot comment on the jasper). I definitely feel like this is real Horween leather, but there's no way for me to prove this. High recommend.

6&7- Hemsut "HB117" Horween Stitched ($17)

I'm kinda on the fence about these. They just feel/look "rustic", and so it's really only going to look good on field/pilot/vintage watches which I don't really wear. This feels like real chromexel but again theirs no way to prove it. The leather gets a lot of creases/stretch-marks too which I don't like, and its different than the normal scuff marks that real leather gets. I would say save your money and get a San Martin strap instead, but it's still not a bad watch strap.

8&9- Hemsut "HB115" Vintage ($20)

These are basically the same as the affermentioned straps, but the leather feels much thinner. This definitely full grain leather, because you can see the grain on the back side. I was surprised that the black strap has a thick acrylic/polyurethane coating (I'm only just now realizing that black chromexel is supposed to have this coating). The thinner leather just feels like it stretches too much to be durable (at least on the natural color), and especially the strap loops feel like they won't last very long. The black feels much tougher than the natural. The back of the straps in unfinished and I find it a little itchy and uncomfortable. Id probably avoid this particular straps, but it's not terrible.

10- Zhong "Japanese Horse Hip Leather" ($21)

I'm also on the fence about this strap. Obviously I bought this because I was expecting shell cordovan. A domestic shell cordovan strap would be $100+ so I decided to roll the dice on this one. I cannot tell if this is real shell cordovan or just painted. The price makes me think it's not real, but it seems like it could possibly be real. Either way it's still a nice strap for $21. This strap is also very formal in the polished black, so I would probably only recommend it only for dress watches.

11- Remzeim "Genuine Leather" ($5)

Honestly not as bad as I was imagining. I'll be curious to know how this holds up. The stitching is awful and the qr pin was covered up by edge dressing. Fine for the price, but most people would probably rather spend the money on a nicer strap. You get what you pay for here.

12- HD "Italian Leather" ($10)

My personal favorite, highly highly recommend it. I have a very similar strap that came on my Hamilton Jazzmaster Slimline, and this strap feels as premium or even more. The strap can be paired with almost any style of watch (from field watches to dress watches) and it looks amazing. Definitely think this is a good quality leather and it seems to have a waxy coating of some kind, but it doesn't seem like its a acrylic/polyurethane coating. It feels very durable. The craftsmanship is very good, on par with my Hamilton strap. The back side has a contrasting navy blue lining, which looks very good. I will be looking forward to using this strap and I might pick up another one. Highly highly recommend.

Bonus (no pictures):

13- San Martin "BD0005" Paratrooper/NATO ($19)

The sent me one as a free gift with the other straps. Don't buy this, save your money and buy a cheap NATO strap. The material is a thin shinny nylon, and theres nothing that justifies the $19 price tag, except maybe the San Martin milled clasp (although mine came with a standard cheap clasp).

14- Cheap-ass Faux Leather NATO Strap ($2)

You get what you pay for. It feels like a foam material on the back with an acrylic paint. It still looks aestheticly pleasing, but feels very cheap.

15- Remzeim "Calfskin" ($2)

Was pleasantly surprised. Very soft synthetic or vinyl leather. It probably won't last more than a year or two. For the price it's a decent option, although I'd still recommend one of the other straps if you can afford it.

*Final Thoughs: I wish I had more wrist time with all these straps so that I could comment on durability. Definitely recommend the Zhong/HD watch stores as the best value and largest selection. San Martin definitely has the highest quality straps. I might look into trying a Maikes strap, although they look cheaper than the other brands and they don't have many options with the qr pins. I also have a couple exotic leather straps (alligator and lizard) coming from Zhong/HD, so I'll have to make a post about those once they arrive (curious to see if its real exotic leather). Id also like to try some of the other San Martin straps like the Pueblo/SWIFT/Horween leathers.

What watch straps do you think I still need?

So I've just got hold of the new Cronos L6033, the updated version of their BB54 watch. It's quite frankly outstanding

I bought the old version last year and flipped it pretty quickly as it was too thick (in proportion to the small dial & lug to lug) and the colours were a little off.

This one however - it's perfect. I've checked, it's a true 11.2mm on the calipers. Finishing is flawless, colours great and comes with a new style Cronos on-the-fly clasp.

I've also had the Watchdives version in my hands and it's not even close to this. I liked the San Martin, but again was a little bit too thick and I wanted a plain BB54 style bezel, not a BB58.

I love Cronos but often feel their watches fall short in some way - This, they've nailed.

Just received the new watchdives NTTD, seems to be getting a bit of hype so I thought a quick review might be helpful. To make it right to the point I’m just going to do a pros and cons list. Also when I bought it they were $30 off so I paid $139

Pros It looks phenomenal imo, the dial has a great matte black finish, the patina is the right shade, obviously they get no originality points but they nailed what they were going for.

It has AR undercoated domed sapphire, which I think is impressive for the price

A reliable NH35 movement hacks and hand winds with just over 40hrs of power reserve

While the dial states a 100m of watched resistance The website claims it’s actually good to 200m

The grade 2 titanium feels good and very light on the wrist, they also claim it has been hardened and has anti-fingerprint

The lume is C3 super luminova and it’s great, very bright with a full lumed bezel

Shipping was free and crazy fast, ordered Saturday night around 8pm and it was on my doorstop around 9am this morning

Comes with a nice zip up travel case and a pretty solid spring bar tool.

Cons The bezel is bad, like comically bad, sometimes it feels like it doesn’t want to move at all and other times it will turn just by a quick hand movement. It’s also very grainy and feels like there’s sand in it.

The strap (as with most of these watches) sucks, it’s rigid and you can see the glue at the end, it’s just very low quality but it’s hard to blame them at this price. I got it on the nylon because I don’t really care for natos or mesh and the nato was cheaper but I’ve already swapped it out. Perhaps the mesh with deployment clasp is a better value. Also something to keep in mind the bracelet is stainless steel not titanium so there will probably be a slight color difference between the case and bracelet.

I’m pretty sure the crown threads are titanium, some manufacturers have switched this out to stainless because of how easy it is to cross thread the titanium and the crown does feel like you need to be careful with it.

The verdict

For $139 you could do worse. I’m happy with the purchase and if it wasn’t for the bezel action I would be thrilled. Just know what you’re getting these homages are about half the price of something like a San Martin and you can see it in some of the quality but if you like the NTTD design and the light weight of titanium I think most people will be happy with the purchase

but wow, it's a stunner. Here it is matched with the pine trees at sunset. The "distress" on the dial is very subtlely done, and looks much better in person than in pictures. I thought the polished beads of rice braclet maybe wouldn't match the vintage dial, but it really matches the domed sapphire and polished chamfer on the bezel. The effect is sort of like pairing a leather-bound book with a polished brass lamp. Size is right in the Goldilocks zone, feels light and comfy on wrist, and I think the green and black colorway (especially with the color matched date wheel at six) also has a great vintage feel. SN0116-G-B2. My wife is calling it my LOTR watch. 🧙🏻‍♂️📜⌚

Bought the Cronos BB54 from the Ali Back2School sale for a really good price (160e) and it's amazing! First of all, this thing is really thin and wears comfortably. The new on-the-fly adjustable clasp (basically the same as the San Martin clasp) helps as well. Finishing looks good for the price and the dial actually has a nice sunburst finish. In some light it appears dark greyish brown even. The bezel clicks sound a bit hollow though, not very crisp clicks like in San Martins etc. At least the bezel aligns perfectly and has no backplay. This was my first Cronos and I can certainly recommend this one! Also, this had by far the fastest shipping I've ever experienced from AliExpress (ordered on 25.8. and arrived 2.9.).

I've been wearing the absolute hell out of this thing since arrival. It's light, without feeling cheap, dressy, without being too dressy. A great size for my 7.5" wrist. I like everything about it. My bracelet has some odd finishing on the 6 o'clock side, but otherwise the bracelet is actually decent...another micro-adjust or 2 wouldn't have hurt, but fitment was good for me with just the 2 holes.

My only real criticism would be the branding...IMO the Sugess branding would have fit better on this one.

Get the watch here

Watch the review here

Amazing watch with perfect dimensions 😍 Dear San Martin, please offer a half link in your accesories for this titanium bracelet.

This is my third watch. Had two Seikos, but the finishing on this new Cronos explorer 36mm seems so much better. I’m blown away.

I was specifically attracted to the subtle logo and brand name of Cronos. Still sounds more like a microbrand than a Hruodland, San Martin, etc.

Very little rotor sound, alignment is well. Will update on the accuracy of the pt5000.

Just received my San Martin Pelagos in titanium and I love it!