My Favourite AliExpress Watch 2024

That is a Kraken little watch there... Ha! I can't be the only one to come up with that little pun there. In all seriousness this has got to be one of the best Explorer homages I've seen. Excellent review!

My blue enamel dial version just arrived today. Great explorer homage. The dark blue basically looks black in dimmer lighting but has a beautiful color outside in the sun. The 36mm is a perfect size on my 6.75" wrist. I gotta be honest though. I don't think they put any anti-reflective coating on this watch. This thing is basically a mirror when it comes to reflections. I have several watches with flat sapphire crystals and this one is by far the most reflective, which is really the only disappointing thing I can see other than the unsigned crown. Even sitting here at my computer, I can see with perfect clarity everything I'm typing in this comment on my screen when I angle my wrist a certain way lol.

The Baltany is sort of its own thing with the beige coloring, whereas this Octopus looks more like the original Rolex. Both are nice. I think I prefer the Baltany branding, but the logo looks cool on the Octopus.

I love all 4 of my Octopus watches, and this one looks like a winner too! Great review, John!

Looks great. A very true homage to the latest edition explorer. I personally prefer the San Martin version though. It has a more vintage feel.

Beautiful watch! One of the best do it ALL watches IMHO! Love it!!!!!!

I happen to own an Octopus Kraken watch, an Oris homage, and I am nothing but happy with it. This Explorer homage is a good one, too. AliExpress Explorer homages often look a bit weird because their bezels are too massive. I believe it's down to the fact that they try to work existing dive watch cases into fixed bezel Explorer homages. This one looks to be designed as an Explorer homage from the get-go. Sure, the brand name is a bit odd.

The thinner bezel in combination with the reduced thickness, as opposed to the Baltany, is why I would opt for the Octopus Kraken. It makes the watch look bigger, which is not a bad thing at all for a 36mm watch. The Baltany looks a bit 'chubby' imo. Apart from that, because of the logo the printing fits the contours of the dial better as does the printing at the bottom of the dial. It's a real pity I don't like Mercedes hands, otherwise I'd have ordered it right now. Overall it looks very well balanced. I also prefer the white indices over the fauxtina on the Baltany, it provides a cleaner look against the black of the dial. Really nicely executed watch. Thanks for yet another great review, John!

Good review and nice to see it beside the Baltany. I agree the bezel looks better proportioned on the Octopus. I have been very tempted by the Octopus Oris Big Crown homages several times, but never pulled the trigger.

So great to see this classic in two subtly different homages. Hope you can keep doing these Explorer comparisons!

Nice review, nice watch, but personally I prefer BALTANY's homage explorer 36mm mostly for the bellow two major reasons. Baltany explorer has true no ghost date caliber NH38 and Octopus a caliber that has date function which means that has ghost position in the crown. Furthermore, Seiko NH38 is more proper movement for a tool watch like the explorer, because it is very reliable with good accuracy and it is compliant with the minimum antimagnetic resistance ISO764 standard. Last but not least Baltany explorer has more personality, it is not a direct clonage of the Rolex explorer.

I’ve had my eye on a few from the brand. They all look very good.

thats a really good looking watch even if its an homage the quality looks excellent

I had no experience with octopus watch quality and couldn’t find any videos on this particular explorer and decided to risk it. It arrived a couple days ago and I have to say I’m very happy with the watch. Phenomenal quality. Usually I’m not a big fan of Chinese watch logos but I’m very happy with this one. It’s the best one that I have seen so far on a explorer

Thanks for another great review. Experience says this will be too small for my 7.3" wrist. Be good to see it in 40mm.. .

The kraken is delightful, I just wish they had opted to sign the claps with their logo and added an applied logo to the dial. I wish more brands would do that, just elevates the perceived brand presence in my eyes

Leaning towards the Baltany. The sapphire crystal on my baltany chrono is spectacular. I am hooked now

Lovely & clean looking watch. I’m a sucker for a blue dial watch,but I think the black dial, does this watch justice. The Baltany is very nice. I think the Octopus Kraken trumps it by a little. Great review.

I have the Octopus Seamaster homage and the lume is off the charts!

Lovely.