This review will be focusing on San Martin watches. San Martin is a brand that many may not be familiar with. They are a Chinese watch brand. Their watches are comparable to brands such as Seiko, or Invicta.
Like the aforementioned brands, San Martin watches are popular for their diver’s watches. They specialize in producing homages to watches such as the Rolex Submariner, Seiko 62 MAS, and more.
That being said, we will be looking at these watches from a perspective of dive watches. The goal here, is to see if San Martin watches are equal to, or better than, similarly styled watches. We’ll start by looking at the build quality.
San Martin Watches Review
Build Quality
San Martin watches have analog displays, and feature automatic movement. Their cases can be made of bronze, brass, or stainless steel. The bezels also, can be made of bronze, brass or stainless steel. Some bezels will be ceramic as well.
Sometimes they mix and match these materials. For example, some watches may have a combination of a bronze case with a stainless steel bezel or vice versa. The use of bronze and brass cases is different, because you don’t see that very often in these kinds of watches.
The dial windows, are usually made of anti-reflective sapphire crystal. Now this is an interesting choice for these types of watches, as sapphire is considered a more premium material, and is thus more expensive.
For their bands, San Martin watches usually have stainless steel, rubber, or even leather bands. And lastly, the water resistance of their watches are going to be rated for a depth of up to 200 meters or more, usually.
So overall, it looks like San Martin watches incorporate an interesting mixture of different alloys. If you do plan on purchasing one, you can check the details of the particular watch you’re planning on getting. That way you know the composition of the watch.
Design
I stated earlier that we’re going to focus on their dive watches. And yes, a lot of their watches are made to look like more expensive brands. This is deliberate, so they can serve as an affordable alternative to more expensive watches. And that is not a bad way to market a product.
San Martin watches will have that all too familiar look that you know and love in diving watches. There will be variations on this design, but you pretty much know what too expect: coin edge unidirectional rotating bezels, luminous hands and markers, and a date window. This will be the basic outline for most of the San Martin diving watches.
Seeing as how many of their watches mimic well known luxury watches, they are going to have an appealing style to them. So what about the price?
Pricing
When compared to other diving watches in their class, San Martin watches inhabit the middle ground. Cheaper diving watches can be found, however, they will not be of the same quality, and will not have sapphire glass windows, if that is important to you.
On the other hand, some brands of diving watches are much more expensive. You will find that the majority San Martin watches hit the middle ground between affordable, and slightly expensive. Although some of them will be a bit more expensive. You can check the prices of San Martin watches here
Now should you be interested in actually purchasing a San Martin watch, we’ll take a quick look at a couple of their more popular offerings.
San Martin Watches Review: Recommendations
San Martin 62MAS
The San Martin 62MAS is one if their most popular products. If you didn’t already know, it is a homage to the Seiko 62MAS.
The San Martin 62MAS uses automatic movement, and features an analog display. It’s dial window is made of ant reflective sapphire crystal. The case of this one is stainless steel, and the band is rubber. It has a ceramic bezel.
On the dial there are luminous hands and markers, which will be visible in the dark. There is a date window, located in the 3 o’clock position. Lastly, it is water resistant 200 meters. So if you do decide to take it diving, it will hold up underwater.
Overall, if you are a fan of Seiko’s 62MAS, I see no reason why this one would disappoint.
Quick Look
- anti reflective sapphire crystal dial window
- luminous hands and markers
- date window
- water resistant 200 meters
San Martin Tuna SBBN015
This is San Martin’s Homage to the Seiko Tuna SBBN015. Definitely a lot cheaper than the original! I also like that the San Martin Tuna comes in various different color variations for the dial. The red especially is quite striking!
The San Martin Tuna looks just like the Seiko version. It is an analog watch that uses Seiko NH35 automatic movement. Both the case and band are stainless steel, though some versions have a leather band. The dial window is made of anti reflective sapphire crystal. It has a day/date window in the 3 o’clock position.
It has luminous hands and markers, as well as a ceramic bezel. And this one is water resistant 300 meters, so great for diving, should you decide to use it for that purpose.
Quick Look
- anti reflective sapphire crystal dial window
- luminous hands and markers
- day/date window
- ceramic bezel
- water resistant 300 meters
San Martin Watches Review: Are San Martin Watches Good?
So what do I think of San Martin watches? San Martin Watches are good, but not too much better than any other inexpensive dive watch or homage. In my opinion, I think that while San Martin watches attempt to be of a higher quality than other brands, they end up just being a more expensive version of something you can get for cheaper elsewhere.
However, that’s just me. Yes the sapphire glass dial windows is an interesting touch, as well as the use of materials uncommon for dive watches. But truth be told, If I’m buying a dive watch or homage, just for the look and style, I will probably try to find something less expensive.
Now I know San Martin watches are not exorbitantly expensive, but there are cheaper options out there. I already mentioned Invicta, but there are others such as Orient, or Stuhrling Original. Keep in mind that I would not be purchasing a dive watch to actually go diving in, and I think that’s true for most people who purchase these types of watches.
Well that wraps up our San Martin watches review! You can see some of our other reviews of watches and watch brands here
Thanks for posting this, it was very informative and helped me very much
The attention to the details and quality in the San Martin lines is comparable to much higher priced models.
That is wht I pulled the trigger on a San Martin 62 MAS Homage in bronze. I own vast numbers of beautiful vintage pieces. It took something really special and useful to earn a purchase. I swam with mine several times last year, highly confident of the products sealing aspects. I did tightten the caseback slightly,, as one should check such things as a precautIon, before the first swim.
San Martun produces the near equivalent of an heirloom grade timepiece for an extraordinary value,
IMO.