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San Martin or any of the Atelier Chinoise brands simply do not have the QA/QC or finish/polish of $2k Swiss Watches in almost any case. They push out volume on

San Martin or any of the Atelier Chinoise brands simply do not have the QA/QC or finish/polish of $2k Swiss Watches in almost any case. They push out volume on Rolex steel-sports lookalikes with cheaply printed limited run dials, and are even then competing with 50% off lookalikes cutting corners on the BOM (Pagani Design anyone?). Likes of Sugess do it a little better, but comparing it to a $1-2k Christopher Ward or something is silly. Something a bit more hand assembled and finished like Orient Star is probably where you start seeing value against a swiss RRP in terms of East/West divide.

Yodel0914 2y ago
I’ve owned Seiko, Orient, Oris, Tudor, Omega, Christopher Ward, Hamilton, Tissot, Longines… along with San Martin and Sugess. The SM dive GMT I have has tighter endlink tolerances than any watch I’ve owned, better bezel action than most, and finishing at around CW level. Bracelet build quality is better than SRP-level Seiko or CW. Side by side with a modern Omega, the SM is clearly inferior. Though, honestly, side by side with my early 2000s Omega the SM isn’t that far off, and is better in some ways. You might be right about QC, but then again there are plenty of Swiss watches that ship out with issues. My CW had to go back to the factory when the movement failed - I haven’t had that happen in any Seiko-powered watch.