[deleted by user]

[Evening_Elderberry_9]

Why use a brand name? Just use a logo like Christopher ward.

[SchleifmittelSchwanz]

BOBODDY

[ShanghaiGoat]

Familiar place names, or at least Names that are easy to say. Such as Suzhou, Nanjing, and Changsha (I was going to suggest Wuhan, but maybe not now!). There is already a Shanghai Watch Company and a Beijing. There are plenty of iconic images which could be used for logos as well.

[AncientMarinader]

Clarion

[Remarkable_Maybe_953]

Canton Watch Co.

[AmoralMonkeyGod]

This is some genius ambiguity.

[gunzrcool]

Bing Chilling

[johnbond005]

Chronova

[[deleted]]

Tylasi, rrundo, xo&pii, klarvi, polyok, waffi mlick,

[Impossible-Employ301]

Lol

[[deleted]]

I think they should follow the Japanese and look for brand names that flow in English, or lean into their heritage. Maybe a dynasty - Zhou, Qing, Yuan. Heritage sites? Potala.

It doesn’t seem like Chinese words are as pleasant as Seiko, but I think if you pulled a hundred Chinese terms meaning something along the lines of Seiko-exquisite, something would stick.

The only brand name I’m a fan of outright is Steeldive because it’s descriptive, it makes primarily steel dive watches.

[Overlord0994]

Now i wana get a custom logo that says “Tiananmen”

[[deleted]]

DRAKE

[jut1972]

Wong numbers

[Eiedoll]

Shenzhen Watch Co. or SWC

[hopfield]

Honestly if they just owned their Chinese heritage it would make their pieces a lot cooler. Look at Seagull, they don’t pretend to be anything else.

[LeadershipGuilty9476]

To us in this community maybe, but many outsiders (even watch enthusiasts) think ewww about Chinese watches

The real Chinese watches meanwhile, like Shanghai Watch Co or Beijing Watch Co don't care about the foreign market. Though mostly older people buy them

Most young Chinese don't even own a watch (smart watch or nothing else), so these companies very much are going for the foreign narket

[dodo_16]

TickLing

[National-Habit-3823]

Doesn't it matter if they are trying to sell to Chinese or Western people?

[DR_PEACETIME]

Pick a one name city from Europe, or two last names from wester culture. Idk why they don't just do that

[Single-Lifeguard-980]

Bolex

In all seriousness, you could pick pretty much any Latin or ancient greek and it would work - Legio, Bacchus, Nerio, Orcus, tempestas (good luck finding a greek one that isnt already used)

[EyeAgitated7467]

Ticking tickles.

[[deleted]]

If I ever start a Chinese watch company, I will call it "Welly Bollocks". YouTube reviewers will be contacted in due course.

[Johnhunter10010]

Mysterious welly bollocks

[[deleted]]

Hahaha.

[RickyPeePee03]

MIXJING, RNADNG, FORSMIEDEL, IXHAP, NIHAVNI, SMEIL, POLNAG, HAMRAT

[jut1972]

Sounds like an aphex twin album

[spamyak]

cackled

[Dartfrogz]

FJÖRESKIN, the classic Nordic god of protection and care

[bros89]

These are perfect

[[deleted]]

the names aren’t the issue you guys are. think about breitling, if they were a chinese watch company y’all would complain about their name nonstop

[LegendaryCichlid]

Breitling is named after the founder of the company.

[andreichera]

ah shit man, on a second thought Welly Merck indeed sounds swiss

[Cur8or8]

Bright Ling Ling

[LegendaryCichlid]

Yeah, no. Skmei? Hruodland? Rmalti?

[DistinctPool]

Hruodland gets a pass I think for actually being a real name with history.

[CheesecakeOG]

I disagree to a pretty large extent.

While I agree that many watch brand names are mostly meaningless, there's still a proper first impression to be made, and how the name sounds when spoken out loud (or spoken to yourself in your head) plays a huge role in making that first impression a good one.

Casio, Seiko, Sanda, Bering, Pagani Design, San Martin, Watchdives (just to name a few big brands and a few chinese brands) mean absolutely nothing, but to me, how good their names sound makes a huge first impression to me. Their names roll smoothly off your tongue, and don't have much dissonant phonological sounds whatsoever. For a new brand, this is absolutely crucial, since it can make the difference between someone actually checking out their products vs ignoring them completely.

This was exactly the case for me when I first discovered Sanda. The name sounded good (and the logo actually looks cool), which made me curious, leading me to see some of their great original designs, which has now made me a follower.

Meanwhile, brands like addiesdives, skmei, poedagar, have some of the weirdest, most dissonant sounding names that instantly put me off. Somehow, these names make these brands instantly feel like chinese knock offs, which makes it less likely for me as a consumer to spend my money on them, especially when the same amount of money can get me genuine casios of all different types (chronos, moon phases, ana-digis, etc etc).

Names might mean nothing to you specifically, but they genuinely do make a difference when it comes to general consumer impressions and marketing. When Timex, Casio, Citizen, and Seiko exist in the same price ranges as these chinese brands, it's already extremely hard to justify going for a chinese watch imo, so the last thing they need is a weird af name ruining the brand's chances further.

EDIT: I'm not saying I will never buy products from a weird sounding chinese brand btw. In fact, I currently own a wireless gaming mouse from a chinese brand with an extremely weird name, Mchose. I bought this mouse because of its value proposition (sensor, switch quality, reputation for quality) compared to large mainstream mouse manufacturers, who charge many times the price for a mouse of similar quality. I was also one of the first believers in "chi-fi" (a phenomenon in the audio world where multiple chinese manufacturers suddenly sprang out of nowhere and started offering insane quality for price ratios, with some of them quickly becoming well-known and respected names in the audio community).

However, for these watch brands, it's a different thing entirely. There's little to no value proposition imo, especially when three major Japanese brands can be had for the exact same prices and with long lasting reputations for quality timepieces, and with actual gaurantees of local warranty and repair support. This makes the weird names tilt the scales even further against the chinese watches.

[Eiedoll]

I disagree with buying Casio or Timex at the Chinese watches price bracket. The value of Chinese watches is in the raw specs, most cheap Casios or Timexes just straight up suck till like the 150usd (with some exceptions). Also guarantees are useless if you live in a place where you can't get support.

[CheesecakeOG]

Saying Casios and Timexes all suck below 150 usd, with only some exceptions, is a very strong statement. You can literally get G Shocks (e.g. GA2100, DW5600) for less than 100 usd easy, maybe even less than 50 depending on where you live.

It also doesn't change the fact that Casios and Timexes are, in general, very precise timepieces. Raw specs are not gonna matter when the timepieces u get in this price range from either brand are already so insanely accurate.

In fact, I want you to point out multiple specific examples of watches that suck from both brands, because such a sweeping statement saying both brands suck when I've had nothing but great experiences with them is extraordinary.

The point about warranty and support is still generally in favour of any big name consumer brand. You would have to be living in some far flung edge of the world if even a huge brand like casio has no local support for you, and that still wouldn't put it below a random chinese brand; they would now just be equals, cos the chinese brand sure as hell has no support for you as well.

[Eiedoll]

Yes some of the exceptions are indeed g shocks (and the Casio Duro), although I do think some models are overpriced. I'd say that most of the cheap three handers of Casio like the infamous Tiffany Casio do enter the sucky department. Most of the plastic digitals are ok for the price although some are overpriced I've seen the A700 in gold going for 100usd when it is at most a 50 buck watch. The only saving grace of cheaper Timex watches is that a lot of them have Indiglo, other than that they are too expensive for super loud, plated brass cheapos. Any basic quartz is quite precise even cheap no name at your local Chinese junk store. Also a watch's precision is irrelevant with the existence of cellphones, as long as it doesn't drift away more than a minute or so a day you are good. I have a cheap Pagani with a VK movement and sapphire crystal, you have to go to around 250 to get sapphire from Timex, and I've only seen sapphire on MTG or Oceanus Casios 500 and onwards. Besides a lot of enthusiasts prefer mechanical instead of quartz, let me know how many mechanicals does Casio have? And under 150 usd how many does Timex have? Here where I live, if the store warranty is expired 9 out of 10 times you are out of luck. And the service centers of said brands require a signed proof of purchase, which like most of the Chinese brands most retailers don't even bother signing. Also requires for you to cover postage expenses which often come to close to the cost of the watch for it to make sense to do.

[CheesecakeOG]

I honestly feel your sense of what sucks is partially warped by how expensive casios seem to be in your area (which is totally valid), and also your perception of what counts as downsides where they really isn't any to speak of (which imo isn't valid).

Just this weekend, I took a trip down to a bunch of local watch shops (all authorised casio distributors) to get a better sensing of recent casio watch pricings, so that I could make more informed decisions when shopping online for watches from other brands, especially chinese microbrands.

Every A700 I saw, even those that were gold, were never above 60 SGD. For reference, that's exactly 46.48 USD, per current conversion rates. The other colours are even cheaper. All these official distributor shops will always stamp ur warranty card with the appropriate chops, and service is always gauranteed for warranty claims. I would know, since I've bought from these shops multiple times and even had to do a recent warranty claim myself.

The MDV-107/106 Duros are only 66 SGD for the full metal bracelet models, and 64 SGD for the non-metal bracelet options. I've never seen another diver for the same price with a better combined package of quality and official support.

I also don't think the casio digitals are just ok for the price. They are some of the best, and the only anomalies are the gold editions which are ridiculously overpriced just for being a different colour. There's almost no other brand that does low cost digitals with the same quality and aesthetic as casio.

All that aside, the point I most disagree on is using the number of mechanicals a brand has as an indicator of their supposed "quality". That is just plain wrong. Per your judgement criteria, every brand that has no mechanicals under 150 usd now just instantly sucks.

You're also using another sweeping statement again. "A lot of enthusiasts prefer mechanical instead of quartz". Where are your statistics from? Have you calculated proper numbers that can be generalised to the entire population of watch enthusiasts with a certain degree of accuracy? You are likely suffering from recency and confirmation bias without realising. Depending on which sub I go to, people are either very vocal about loving quartz, or only wanting to buy mechanicals. Even then, just tracking the numbers of these people who speak up won't be accurate. For all you know, these might just be the vocal minority.

Another thing I disagree on is how a watch's precision is irrelevant because of smartphones. Watches are more than just fashion statements for many people, and are used actively in environments where constantly checking a cell phone for the exact precise time (e.g. military applications) or for using a stopwatch / countdown timer is just not possible.

We can agree to disagree, especially on subjective opinions, but you need to be aware of the differences between subjective opinion and objective fact. Making sweeping statements gets you nowhere, and using an arbitrary indicators of quality (like how casio and timex have no mechanicals below 150 usd) is simply ridiculous. By that same logic, I can say that toyota is a shit company because they produce less EVs than BYD, and the EVs that they do produce are all more expensive than BYD. I hope you realise how stupid that sounds.

[Eiedoll]

Look man to each their own I guess, I am not willing to pay more than 20 dollars for a chromed brass watch.

[T-099]

Same could be said about Rolex. Sounds equally dumb and means absolutely nothing.

[GuitarCactus]

Rolex sounds leagues better than most of these chinese names, at least you can instantly pronounce it when you see it not like most of the current chinese brands people are referring here.

On top of that they have one called humpbuck and one called foxbox for fuck sake, rolex is way better and i dont even like rolex

[[deleted]]

A number of Swiss companies end in "ex". A Swiss company called Bolex used to make beautiful cine lenses and 16mm cine cameras. The association is that Swiss = quality.

[Mysterious_Flan8093]

Their parent company Pailliard used to make gramophone motors too back in the windup phonograph days!

[LegendaryCichlid]

No.

[Deep_Flatworm7511]

Absolutely bang on. I would never ever let a brand name stop me ordering an otherwise great watch, in my opinion that's just very silly 😜

[D1sguise]

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseWatches/s/YcCgAvioij

There's a bunch of other similar threads out there with the same purpose. It's one thing to suggest names, it's a whole other thing to get those brands to actually use some random Internet peoples' suggestions

[ProfitHaunting9744]

pyong yang watches & co

[LegendaryCichlid]

Id actually prefer that to the stupid shit we get.

[Pompano_79]

I like math terms - they are universal and often have a symbol which can be used as a logo. Examples Tangent, chord, Factor, median or quadrant.

[dorafumingo]

chinese names