Lobinni 16001 Review

Lobinni is one of relatively few Chinese watch brands on AliExpress that offer (mechanical) perpetual and annual calendar watches. Not just one model - I counted five, and the 16001 is one of them. The particular watch in question is a (used) ebay purchase, and the main picture was taken from that listing - my watch photography skills are no match here to the seller's.

Complications: day+date windows, 24h subdial, month subdial. This is not a perpetual calendar, so at the end of a month day/month have to be adjusted - which is quite easy via those pushers - no toothpicks needed for the adjustment. The mysterious outer markings are pulsometer markings for 30 heart beats.

Specs: 41.5mm dial, case thickness 11.5mm, sapphire crystal, 50m water-resistance, applied indices. Watch band is a 22mm leather strap with (branded) butterfly clasp. Movement: Seagull ST16T.

Appearance: this is simply put a spectacular looking watch. The applied indices pop, hands and markers align nicely. The back of the watch is also nicely decorated. In short: you'll be hard pushed to find a better-looking watch at this pricepoint. The pulsometer markings make the watch dial busier than it needed to be IMO, but that is a matter of taste.

Niggles:

• as a non-bracelet-guy I am not used to butterfly-clasps, and this one did not wear very comfortably. I suspect it may work better for people with larger wrists than me, but the leather strap is not all that great to begin with, so I would recommend people getting a new strap for this.
• looking closely at the photograph you may spot the date wheel at the 3 o'clock position sitting a bit further back than the day wheel at 9. It is noticeable to the point of being annoying, because it spoils the fantastic looks to some extent, besides making the day harder to read. This is a common problem with Chinese watches, and it is not always spottable on those rendered images.
• in certain light conditions the general readability of time is compromised. I did use it in gloomy light at work, and wished back then I had a flieger on my wrist instead.

On this wrist shot of mine you can see that the hands get a little bit camouflaged by the dial, depending on whether or not they catch a light beam. The watch is also available with a white dial which presumably does not have this issue.

Availability: apparently not available on AliExpress at the moment, but one can find brand new versions on ebay, from approximately $150 onwards; on Lobinni's website (from which one can also order) the RRP is $286.50.