Let me also add that the SN0007 does look like the Wolbrook Skindiver, but I think they both went the way of the Glashütte Original SeaQ way of design and both are probably a homage of that design.
The Glashütte Original SeaQ was originally a communist East German copy of the skin divers that were popular in the west in the 1960s, when GO was known as GUB. That dial-design goes back a lot further than Glashütte Original/GUB.
I recently bought the skin diver and I am thrilled. The points mentioned by Jody although valid they are small details in the overall look and quality. I bought it because I love the Glashutte Sea Q but I don't love the north of ten thousand price.
Love the GMT and the monobloc, but I have a weird fear that if I ever need to service the Monobloc it would be a nightmare (but I can't remember the last time I actually needed to service a watch that was considered a 'budget' watch)
That monoblock case is very interesting. Definitely not something you see very often. The Wolbrook/SeaQ homage one is fantastic. I've got the blue dial one as well. I've had it for about a month now and I love it. It's so comfortable with the BOR bracelet and that quick adjust clasp is a game changer.
Visually the skin diver is actually my favorite. I would agree it needs a smaller clasp but other than that it would be my pick. I guess it just shows that we all have different tastes.
The Monobloc would look so much better with a 22mm lug width and the larger clasp imo. It should also definitely have screwed end links for the bracelet...
Recently I’ve actually taken to preferring this style of ‘pin & collar’ bracelet fixing over the ‘screw links’. Less chance of backing out, no need for locktite, or chewing up/scratching the screw heads. Can’t think of any real disadvantages other than one extra part per pin…
Agreed. You can slip'n'scratch with screw heads more easily than witg pin and collar, and split pins are cheap and crap. Pin and collar requires machining and ensures a precise and arguably more secure fit that any other kind of assembly.
Since you asked, Jody, I'm glad SM got rid of that can of SpaghettiO's container for their watches. I like the new green pu leather well enough. Good for a travel container.
The Black Bay lookalike in blue would be my choice. Here's a weird design thought I had: what if you could combine small battery-driven LEDs on the hands and indices, with a light sensor embedded in the dial so that they come and go? Imagine lume that doesn't fade one bit until the lights come on!
Case styles: 1) Original design - never liked it. My first San Martin a few years ago was a green dial 6105. Bought other San Martin's & a few other brands that came in those cases. Just realized that all my watches that came in that case style have been sold over the last couple years 🤔. 2) Canister case - A few months ago I rebought the green dial 6105 from San Martin & it came in that case. 💕 this case. 3) I've seen the new case but haven't bought anything in one yet. I really like the concept of what they're trying to accomplish with it - travel case. Quite similar to the case my old TAG Heuer is in. *** I have a solution to the issues you brought up about the new style & lack of proper storage of the little necessities: San Martin makes a small compartment about 1/2 to 1 inch in height at the bottom of the case w/zipper access. Or, make said same compartment that can be attached & detached by zipper or Velcro.
I recently bought the SN0121 in blue/no date. Got it for $208, free shipping and it came with a rather nice Nato strap that will never get used because I don't care for Nato straps at all. I am very happy with the watch, though, especially for $208 USD. I got it $30 off so retail price is $238 and its still well worth it even at that price. Needed some color in my collection of black and white dials so this is my first blue watch as well as my first watch without a date complication.
Gutted they’ve changed the packaging, I’m halfway through constructing a nuclear fallout shelter in the garden made of black plastic tubs, not sure the green pleather case isn’t going to be up to scratch… I like the blue skin diver…. Ooooooh orange😅
Wonderful. Another thoroughly enjoyable romp through the fields of superfluous horological consumption. Jody, during one of your previous Ali Express/San Martin surveys, you took a cursory look at the San Martin SN085-G, a boffo original design by SM featuring stiletto hands and an orange/grey color scheme. However, you didn't actually have a sample in hand to evaluate. Any chance you could get in one of those for a proper review? Just an idle suggestion.
You made me buy that fauxtina MM300! Jody, you need to start reviewing more expensive watches that I cannot just buy after a review. Well, I did buy that Formex Essence, so review REALLY expensive watches I cannot buy!
I fancy bits of of each.. Hands of the monobloc, dial and bracelet of the skinnydipper but in the casesize and SS bezel of the orange one....and an NH3* movement
So the third option with the leather ask box should just be a little bit larger and they include everything in the way they did on the previous cylindrical plastic box
The 0007 skin diver looks great. Love the vintage look and I don't mind the larger clasp. 90 clicker isn't that bad a deal seeing as most don't even play with the bezels on a regular basis
Citizen makes a monoblock watch, the Promaster Tough. I bought one in 2020, mostly because of curiosity and that it was quite thin for a 200m tool watch type. Still wear it often!
The last one I'd prefer the taper down to 18mm with larger clasp. Nice enough looking watch but I don't think they quite pull off the looky likey feel. It's ok
Honestly. Just get the Wolbrook Mecaquartz skin diver. Its awesome. 100m WR, Sapphire Crystal. Quick release springbars, and Antimagnetic case! All for £188. I love mine, its bullet proof!
Pity you can't swap the clasps due to the taper differences between watch 1 and watch 2. You could however swap the clasps between watch 2 with watch 3. I agree the monobloc makes adjusting a bad movement difficult. Would have preferred to see the GMT in Black rather than that insipid Orange. 3 nice watches. Great videpo as always Jody. 👍👍
I quite like the skin diver. You can change the bracelet if the clasp is a no go for you. But I would opt for the SW200 version, kind of eases the mind if a service should be required down the line!
The order the trio was reviewed is my order of preference. 1) Love the mono block case of the MM300. Don't like the Gilt tone - kills the lume - should have used the lume from watch#3. I used to own the Heimdallr version of this & it had the ST2130 movement. 2) A tad small for my taste but, the legibility of the dial design makes up for that. 3) Best lume of the trio & overall visually appealing. Two things make it a no-go for me: Snowflake hour hand (never been a fan) and; GMT movement. The market has been flooded with all sorts of GMT's 😒. For me, the GMT is the new Tiffany dial overkill 🧐.
I like the quality of SM but they broke my heart a little with their tiny-wearing 39mm Flieger that I ended up selling on eBay. The bezel and dial size just made it look so small and I never wore it because I never felt like it looked right on me. Wanting something a little ‘retro’ and had an itch to do a ‘Bond Nato’ homage, I recently picked up a Thorn BB58 39mm and I love that watch (but not the fiddly ‘screw and nut’ bracelet adjustment) and it wears so much better for me, in spite of the similar dimensions. I used to wear larger watches but as I get older, I tend to stick to 40mm as an upper limit, even my collection of heavily modded 41.5mm Orient Mako II/Ray IIs seem like ‘too much watch’ on some occasions and I find myself grabbing something with a little less bulk and heft out of the winder as a daily. I’m currently wearing an NH35, 39mm Tandorio Flieger Type B on a rubber strap with a cheap AE milled clasp that I have literally $60 into and it is the perfect little weekend beater that doesn’t bang into everything doing chores, and even when it does, who cares? I think I will give San Martin another day in court and try their BB58 in black or blue, but San Martin, I MUST have it on the new ratchet adjustable clasp! 😁👍 Another great review Dr. Jody!
I like the new packaging. The tool (or QC) was another matter on my most recent purchase - the pin to adjust the spring bar on the clasp was too large in diameter to fit the holes in the clasp (or the holes were drilled to small). I e-mailed both the San Martin store and San Martin web site, neither of which wanted to do anything about it. I'm happy with the watch, though.
Nothing wrong with a 90 click bezel. The only feature on the dial it needs to line up with is the 12 o'clock. To use, you line the bezel up with the minute hand and a 90 click will line up better than a 60 click used on toolwatches like the Sinn U1 and Tudor Pelagos 42mm, and not as well as a 120 click found predominantly on luxury watches like the Rolex sub. Maybe 90 click is a good halfway house 🤔
Jody, I'd love to see you review the San Martin SN0008-G-B, which apparently is it BB58 homage with an NH-35. I have it in blue, and it surprised me by skyrocketing to the top of my list of favorite watches in my collection. Fits perfectly, beautiful color, and keeps almost perfect time.
Sunday night triple unboxing! Some great looking San Martins. My pick would be the GMT. Haven’t got a GMT in the collection so I might put this one in the “watch” list for the next Ali sale.
I like the GMT model the most. I wish it had a high-beat movement even a Chinese clone of the eta 2824. I am not a big fan of the NH35 as I have too many and most keep crappy time sadly. I am in the market for a mechanical GMT. I don't mind paying around 300, that is probably one of the least expensive ones I have seen. Seiko 5 has them for around 350 maybe a little less but it has mineral crystal and not sapphire. It is probably the same movement. I like the high-beat Miyota movements as they tend to be thinner and cheaper than the Swiss movements.
As far as I can tell, (please add to this or correct me if I am wrong) there are only 7 categories of watches: Diving Watches, Military Watches, Chronograph Watches (my personal favorite!), Dress Watches, Multiple Time Zone Watches (including GMT watches), Aviation/Pilot Watches. Sport watches (usually digital). And then there are Smart Watches. (Not REALLY watches at all.) Should there be MORE categories? If so... what would be some additions??
I’d happily have the old old packaging back. Smaller and neater and money is not wasted on not the watch. Can’t understand why anything under £500ish needs more than just a bix
I went with the sterile dial of the 6159 monoblock homage...it just looks amazing! SM's new packaging is horrendous imo, bring back that cool 'tall watch case' style case :)
I would love those female endlinks for older San Martin 300 mm but they said they weren't available on their site. It does have the brightest lume of any watch I've seen.. Thankye from Denver North Carolina
I have the San Martin BB Pro in Black and love love love it. I actually like the look of the skin diver (love a beads of rice bracelet), love the bright blue colorway (think it would look amazing in teal) and while I would love the clasp to be smaller I love that it is glide lock ... wish more bracelets were so. As for the mono-block I love the colorway but the thickness puts me off a bit and the inability to have work done easily, should something go wrong, puts me off mono-block cases in general.
For whatever it's worth, the bezel numbers don't match the dial numbers on the very similar looking *$10,000* GO SeaQ 39mm. San Martin's bezel honestly looks very close to theirs, I wonder if that was intentional. Shame it doesn't have the applied markers that that the GO does, it'd be nice if somebody did a closer homage than what's been made so far. Their Tudor BB Pro-alike is scary good. The black dial version doesn't look quite right because the markers are just printed, obviously they aren't using the applied ceramic that Tudor is. The others that are applied give it a lot more character.
Nice trio. I like the monobloc design and understand wouldn't be easy to have at the movement - but seriously, do many people actually service their ~$200 watches?
I just can’t figure out my stance on such well built homages. I want one, but if someone asked about it…. I’m not sure if I’d be embarrassed. I think I have some self reflection to do.
I'm not convinced about monobloc cases....to me they are too impractical. I have the older version of this watch - the SN086G with the removable caseback and that came with a broken hairspring. Easy to replace and adjust and now it runs 2s/day, plus is thinner and more wearable despite being hefty. I think you really should get that one in and compare it with this one, would make a great video and there aren't that many SN086 videos out there.
SM still send out watches in the old old packaging , all depends on which model you buy ...... anyways , the skindiver seaq looks very nice and is on the list :)
If the SN0054 in that amazing orange wouldn't be so small 39.7mm, I would purchase one today but being 6'8" with a 9.5 wrist it would look like a little toy.
The MM300 they did about 3 years ago was better in my opinion. This is kind of a mix between the MM300 and the MM200, for instance the back of the case and the bezel (insert included) are different. Anyway, San Martin quality/price ratio is always fantastic!!
@@Andrew.W75 yes you are right; I also loved “Marine Master” on the dial of the version I mentioned, even if it made the watch closer to a copy…but that name excites me eheh. At least the one I bought had some differences from the original like the color (blue), the absence of the date complication and the numbers on the bezel insert.
