Cheap Ali Ex watches
So..been watching a lot of JUST ONE MORE WATCH videos on youtube, he mentioned a lot of these ali ex brands watches like starking and pagani, Lige etc. are they any good ? anyone here own any of these watches ? personal experience ? was thinking of getting one, just because they are cheap......just wondering
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love vintage watches, used to collect but now, no more money to collect :D:D
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I have a couple of Pagani Design watches that are OK. One quartz Daytona "homage' and an Omega homage that's automatic. The quartz is soild and very accurate.
The auto-not so good. Sloppy bezel, not at all accurate, and horrible strap. I never wear it and haven't even wasted the time to take a picture.
I got them from Amazon. I've never bought from Ali Express and doubt I ever will.
Buying watches from these companies is pretty much a crapshoot, but for short money it's hard to complain.
I got into vintage watches first and love them but you can’t take a bubbleback or 1980’s datejust everywhere so I really liked the ideia of a “good quality AliExpress“ watch. I have a tudor Bb58/pelagos homage from Pagani Design, a Tiffany DJ homage and a San Martin blue BB58 homage. And I have to say that they are worth it. The build quality and QC of the San Martin is better then my vintage Rolexes. It’s a watch I can wear in the hospital or at the Beach without worrying about it breaking and it never looks out of place. For $80 the Pagani design is worth it and for $350 the San Martin is too.
I've got loads of Chinese stuff and to be honest the only issues I've had were with a scratched screw on a Pagani Royal Oak-alike quartz chronograph, but it was so cheap I don't really mind now, at the time I was a bit annoyed.
Ultimately, you pays your money, you takes your chances, I've had other stuff directly bought via Ali-Express too for other hobbies, and when I've had issues with stuff not arriving, or being wrong/broken, I've been refunded.
Oh a warning though.. cheap China watches can be addictive. A friend of mine with a nice vintage collection, also has a ton of Pagani stuff that he rotates as well.
The best part of Chinese watches are the Japanese movements. Their own are quite well done but are slapped together with little to no cleanliness. If you get a Chinese movement get it serviced because I found filings, a washer and fluff in mine. The Miota and seiko movements are really good. Their feedback ratings for those go 90% or better. Their native movements not so much. Pagani almost exclusively use Seiko.
Of the brands you mentioned, I'd say Pagani is better than Starking which is better than Lige. I would give Lige a miss in general. Starking have decent build quality, but I'd say entry level for Ali Express mechanical watches; they generally use Chinese movements, even their own. Their high-beat movement is false economy. A few years ago people reported duds with Pagani, but more recently they seem to produce good quality throughout.
The top brands on AliExpress are IMHO SanMartin, Baltany, Cronos/Hruodland, Merkur, Sea-gull.
There are other higher priced brands on Ali that are a bit suspect: Farasute, Oupinke, Agelocer, Aesop.