Though on the more expensive end for Chinese watches found on AliExpress, the San Martin BB homage is every bit deserving of its ~$270 price tag.
The SN0109 sports a 39mm solid stainless steel case, though with a lug width of nearly 49mm, it will sit a little larger on the wrist than you might expect. I have small wrists, so any larger and it probably wouldn’t work for me.
Although Chinese watches have a negative connotation for the uninitiated, some brands (Sea-Gull, Sugess, Watchdives) do create affordable but well-made pieces. San Martin is among these brands. Beneath the sapphire crystal and applied lumed indices a trusty automatic Seiko NH34 powers the time, date, and GMT functions.
Speaking of GMT, the aluminum bezel both clicks nicely and looks great. It stays truthful to the Tudor it’s an homage of, in fact, someone even mistook it for the Tudor BB when I wore it out.
The screw down crown helps this watch achieve 100 meters of water resistance. Admittedly, the crown sometimes looks like there’s more room to screw in and I’d be hesitant to really test the watch at that depth.
While on the subject of nitpicking, there’s an occasional less-than-smooth edge. I wouldn’t go as far as to say these imperfections are sharp, but I sometimes feel an edge or two when leaning my wrist against a hard surface (such as a desk). A few more minutes rounding out the edges would’ve done this watch good.
My last criticism is more for San Martin than the watch. San Martin sells this watch with an oyster bracelet. It’s a nice bracelet but I knew before ordering I wanted this on a jubilee. SM also sells a jubilee made for this case. I messaged them before purchasing to ask whether I could buy this with the jubilee instead, paying the difference between the oyster and the jubilee, but they said no. It’s odd the jubilee isn’t an option at purchase and requires a separate order, but alas.
All in all, I do enjoy this watch and it gets a lot of wrist time. A GMT of this size with sapphire glass is hard to come by at this price point and for that reason I definitely recommend the San Martin SN0109.
