Fishhook Second Hand

Nope

Controversial opinion:  it is the most original design element in Chinese watches.

I'm hoping that's not serious.

Not near the most original.

Only for starters, it might be worthwhile to examine the Chinese members and candidates at f AHCI/Académie Horlogère des Créateurs Indépendants

https://www.ahci.ch/members/ : Lin Yong  Hua,  Xushu Ma,  Zehua Tan and  Guo Ming

And then there are incidents like this:  at Basel, for example:

https://www.europastar.com/magazine/highlights/1004082674-tianjin-sea-gull-watch.html 

ES: During BaselWorld 2008, Sea-Gullwas the victim of a small scandal. Would you care to comment on that?

J.W.: Two men from a then-independent brand, which has since been acquired by the Richemont Group [Roger Dubuis] came to our stand and rudely accused us of having violated a part of their patent in the creation of our double tourbillon. We were distraught because of the suddenness of the complaint and the problem of communication. We immediately hired a local attorney to represent Sea-Gull in order to negotiate between the accuser and the arbitrage council. That night, we had our China-registered patent as well as the many plans of the calibre sent to us in Switzerland. A 70 year-old master watchmaker, formerly with IWC, was the expert in the case. After having leafed through the documents and having examined the watches for seven minutes, he declared, “There is absolutely no similarity between the two systems.” Later, the elder gentleman congratulated us for our double tourbillon and added, “Sea-Gull is becoming the main competitor to the Swiss watch industry.” This was also the first time, since the opening up of China that a Chinese company had won a foreign legal proceeding against a foreign company. This created shockwaves that travelled across China and the World Intellectual Property Organization.

And, for fun and appreciation, here's a world-timer... 

There's lots of innovation in Chinese horology, but it gets overshadowed.

It looks awful and I would never buy a watch with it but I love it

The watch in the original post is a nice modern recreation/re-issue of a 1970s watch. I have this...

...and a poorer example...

Ew.

I quite like it; the 1970s ones looks like a little rocket ship with the wings.

Did you hear about the guy who walked into a psychiatrist's office with a steering wheel stuffed down his pants?

The doctor took a look at him and said, "You've got a steering wheel down your pants.".

The patient said, "Yeah! It's driving me nuts!!!"

It was a joke, a little joke. There are folks who have very passionate opinions about homages and knock-offs and are very disparaging of the Chinese watch industry. Here a Chinese watch manufacturer adds a little flair to the second hand and "damned if they do, damned if they don't" they will get grief.

Understood and accepted, and I kinda thought so from your very respectful comments on my previous posts. But sarcasm doesn't translate well on the internet, and so I figured I'd respond :-)

You got me to buy a Merkur (still waiting on it).  Your proselytizing is working.

As I always say, I give opinions and not advice 😊 but I do like my Merkur watches. They offer a lot of enjoyment for the price range. And they're doing things other Chinese brands aren't.

Merkur 'Big Eye' is very tempting.