Are Chinese Watches Any Good?

China is a pretty big place and the quality of what comes out of there can vary drastically. Some watches can be very good, while others can be awful. Generally I feel people give Chinese watches a bad name, I will go through why that might be, but this isn’t always the case, a lot of watches that come out of China can be excellent quality, as well as excellently priced.

Why Do Chinese Watches Get A Bad Name?

Chinese watches often get a bad name for the following reasons:

Low Quality

There is a pretty big stereotype that anything made is China is low quality. A huge portion of the worlds very cheap, disposable items are made there so it us understandable why we can think this at times.

This of course can also be seen in watches. There a lot of low quality watches being made in China. When most people’s only experience is with one of these, it is obviously going to give people the perception that “everything” that is made there is bad.

Poor QC

When the watches are better quality, they are still not perfect. When you are paying under £10 for a watch, you expect it to be pretty low quality, but when you are paying closer to £100 you do expect a little more, which can often be lacking from Chinese watches.

The issue usually lies in the quality control. When you read what the watch has to offer on paper, it sounds really good, but when it arrives the quality can just be a little off. Bezels misaligned, dust under the crystal, wonky cyclopses and just a general poor finish on the machined edges.

These little quality control issues would not been seen on a watch of similar price from somewhere else and can really spoil peoples images of Chinese made watches. 

No Originality

One of the big issues people see with Chinese watches is that they just make watches, they are not watch makers. That may sound like the same thing, but it’s not.

Chinese watches are usually homages, there is no originality or uniqueness to the watches. They are just copies of watches from big brands. They do not make their own designs or styles. This is both the look of the watch and the movement inside.

You then have the issue of fakes and counterfeits. These are not just made by some guy his bedroom; they are made to a decent standard and are clearly made in a factory, especially when you start to look at the “super clones” which can be made to a very high level. While not all of these are made in China, clearly some are as they are very easily bought in markets across china (even if the sale of such items is forbidden) –link to serpeza vid

Fashion Brands

This one isn’t really Chinas fault, but they still get dragged in to it through association.  A lot of fashion brands and maybe a few mirco brands will get their watches made in China. Of course there is nothing wrong with this.

The issues arise when the customers realise the company has paid very little for the watch. The materials, production and labour are all fairly cheap in China which can be great for the company, it can really reduce costs.

When these savings are not passed on to the consumer it is seen as greedy and dishonest. The watch company is entitled to make a profit, and they should. However, paying extremely low prices for a watch and then selling it on to the customer at an extremely high price isn’t cool.

This really annoys watch collectors, especially when the marketing around the watch tries to suggest it is a high quality product when we all know it’s been made at low prices in China. 

Warranty

China is far, far away and there can also be a pretty big language barrier at times. This can be a bit of an issue if your watch is not working correctly.

While nearly all watches come with some form of warranty, being able to use this can be an issue. It can be hard to get issues dealt with and sending things back and forth to get repaired or replaced can be equally as troublesome.

I have found that a lot of the warranty cards that come with Chinese watches are actually unsigned, which makes me doubt how legitimate they are. If I did have to use them, what would happen?

Being half way around the world and buying online means we also can’t really rely on the consumer laws that are applicable in our own countries.

Why Chinese Watches Can Be Good

Some Chinese Watch Brands Can Be Good

Not all watches made in china are cheap copies. There are some companies that are pushing out some high quality watches

Original Designs

While it is certainly the minority, there are some watch companies creating original designs. They are exactly like any other watch company from around the world. They just happen to be in a country where they are surrounded by the world’s supply of homage’s.  

Quality Movements

A lot of the decent watch brands coming out of china are actually using high quality movements. You can often find watches using the Seiko NH35 movement, from Japan, or very well respected Swiss movements.

There can be a little bit of controversy with these as a lot of them are clones. This means while they are Swiss or Japanese in design, they are still made in China.

Most times these copies are of movements that have expired patients. This means any one is free to copy the design and use it all they want.  However, sometimes these designs will just be stolen and copied. Sometimes modified, sometimes not. Quite often the only difference is the removal of the original companies branding.              

Most Watch Parts Are From China

A lot of watches, no matter where they come from, have parts inside them that are made in China. Some of the biggest and well known companies will do this, even if the watch is said to be made somewhere else, its parts are still very often Chinese.

I think this is understandable. The Chinese can offer very cheap prices for manufacturing compared to Europe. The quality is the exact same, at a fraction of the price. It is only natural that these companies order their components from China.

Watches Are Made In China

It’s not only the parts that come from China, a lot of the time the whole watch is assembled there. Sadly with the rise in cost of production and labour in a lot of countries, it can just work out a lot cheaper for the whole process to be outsourced to China.

I own a number of Casios where it is clearly written on the case back that the watch has been made in China. To me Casio is still very much a Japanese company and the quality is no less than if was still made in Japan.

You will also find some companies will have the bulk of the watch built in China and then the finishing touches will be completed in the company’s home country. This can then allow them to still use “made in…” on the dial, this is a little sneaky, but it does happen. It just means that the watch you think has nothing to do with China, could be very Chinese.

Should You Get A Chinese Watch?

The honest answer is the same I would give you about any watch. If you like it and can afford it, go for it.

When it comes to Chinese watches, just do you research. Try and find out about the brand and their quality.  Youtube will be full of product reviews so you can very quickly watch multiple videos and get a feel for what you would get, and then you can decide if the price is worth what is being offered. A lot of the time it is a good deal.

I have been very happy with any watch I have bought from China, while some may not be perfect; the low price that I paid for them was worth what I received.

The watches where I have paid more (San Martin watches) I couldn’t be happier. The quality is outstanding and honestly I would have certainly paid more for that level of quality.

(You can read more – Is Buying A Watch From Aliexpress Legit?)