u/TSiWRX

Purchased a San Martin SN0012-GB in preparation for the arrival of my Monta Noble 40.

I know, that's weird, right?

It's actually not. I'm trying to reconcile in an objective manner our mostly subjective take on "finishing." What do I mean? Well, when was the last time someone wrote/said that a watch had "awesome finish," and then you ask them for some details, and they came back with "it plays so well in the light!"

Is that objective? Does that actually tell you *anything* at all about how the watch is finished?

No, and absolutely no, right? That's what I mean - I want to kill that 7-word platitude. I want to get beyond.

San Martin's evolving their watches as fast as their profits will allow. It's like asking Old Man Ferrari which of his cars he likes best: "....the next one." There's no rhyme or reason to the references for us hobbyists and collectors. It's just catalog numbers for their contracts. They don't care at all. The SN0012-GB is the newest revision to their product line ( https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseWatches/comments/1thamml/san_martin_upgraded_toolwatch_with_1200hv/ ), overhauling a watch that's approximately 7-8 years old in their catalog, by their own words: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseWatches/comments/1trvwrr/san_martin_sn0012gb_production_process_overview/ (I'm a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese), with heavy focus on the bracelet, for which they tout some of the tightest production tolerances they've had, to-date.

I wanted to get it for my Monta comparison because my own SN0144 Jian Zhan is now some 2 years old. In a sector of the business where products are evolving by the day, I wanted to make sure the Monta got a fair fight on its card, and the SN0012-GB at least fulfills the brushing and bracelet tolerances part of that equation.

But of-course what also interests me is the lume, I want to see how its lume blocks look under my scope ( https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1rnh0x8/lume_blocks_what_genuine_rctritec_superluminova/ - more, soon), and I wanted to see how it stacks up in performance against today's best, too ( https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseWatches/comments/1sph6bb/phorcydes_ph5_lume_comparison_wph4_ph2_and/ ).

So, here we are....

My "Drawer of Lume," as of March, 2026.

Glad to have found a community of like-minded folks! xD

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My running lume thread -
https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1otyjrl/lume_micros_are_lumetastic/

Whenever I'm soooooo looking forward to something, I'm always afraid it might somehow fail to live up to my expectations.

Montréal is a special place in my life. My wife and I honeymooned there. As med students we wanted somewhere relatively close by, yet would feel like a totally different country, a different culture. That was 25 years ago on March 10, the day that this watch's pre-order dropped.

I'm thrilled to say that this one exceeded my expectations.

From the vintage Airstream-esque watch box to the brilliant BGW-9 reflecting off that sunburst stainless dial.

Well done, u/Lacite_Watches .

With the Original Post of my old thread somehow having been mistakenly booted into moderation by the sub bot, I thought it's time to come back to this post to make it a bit clearer and better, particularly as the sub moderators have entrusted me with "Approved User" status. =) 

Before I begin, I need to declare that I am an independent hobbyist only. I have no vested interest in any of the makers or products that I'm comparing below. I stand to make no gains -financial or otherwise (i.e. free/discounted watches or products)- directly or indirectly via any of these comparisons. I paid for every watch that I own out of my own pocket, and these findings can be replicated by anyone with access to these same watches and some slate: I was not supplied with "ringer" products, as these purchases were made just like you would make them yourself, blinded to the makers/vendors/manufacturers.

Apart from the lead-post below, every "update" you will see listed will be top-level replies. I will provide direct links to them as I edit this "overview" OP. 

[ pending add - 904L and 316L, polished versus brushed finishes - Wise Timepieces and MT&W - ]
[ Wicked Watch Co. - https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1tb9ems/comment/olfckan/ ]
[ WREN - https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1tb9ems/comment/olfbzs6/ ]
[ Mark Time Watches - https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1tb9ems/comment/olfawz7/ ]
[ defunct link sample from Wicked Watch Co. - https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1tb9ems/comment/olfab4u/ ]
[ Swiss Watch Co. (SWCUSA) - https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1tb9ems/comment/olf9oik/ ]
[ Canopy Watch Co. - https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1tb9ems/comment/olf8u56/ ]
[ Watchdives - https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1tb9ems/comment/olf85na/ ]
[ Héron Watch Co. - https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1tb9ems/comment/olf7cgp/ ]
[ Taso Baltimore and Second Hour - https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1tb9ems/comment/olf4f7s/ ]
[ Englemaan - https://www.reddit.com/r/MicrobrandWatches/comments/1tb9ems/comment/olf2r3u/  ]

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Not-infrequently in this sub, I see posts from my fellow Redditors asking about the anti-scratch surface-hardening treatments and coatings that some of our favorite microbrands spec their watches with. As a lifelong desk-diver who isn’t shy about wearing everything in my collection, I’ve always lived with some level of scratches and blemishes on the ulnar side of my watches. I figured that’s just par-for-course. But as I spent more of my free time in this community, these posts had me wondering, so I eventually decided to take matters into my own hands. 

I work in a pre-War building. My benchtop is slate, which I knew empirically to be very abrasive. Pictured here are two of my non-treated 316L stainless watches, each after ~3 years of honest 5-days-a-week, evey workweek, wear. Left is my Seiko SRPB81, right is my Maratac DC-50 (my apologies for the face shots, it was originally used to facilitate a discussion on long-term wear of mineral glass versus sapphire crystals). I’m a benchtop scientist and typically rest my wrists on the bench not only to do what I need to do on my computer, but also when I sit at my little dissecting scope for my specialty work.

What follows is a series of comparisons. 

This is NOT a “scratch test,” like the one seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oX1itHnqcY from Benjamin Arthur's Ben’s Watch Club YouTube Channel.

My informal, non-quantitative comparison here doesn’t use a Mohs Hardness Test Kit [ understand that even with the Mohs picks, it's still more or less a qualitative comparison: it's whether "this" (i.e. Pick X) will scratch "that" (i.e. the tested object)]. I'm simply using my slate benchtop to demonstrate how a watch might accrue scratches and scrapes from "normal" everyday use. Slate (Mohs Hardness of ~4) is actually “softer” than stainless, but being a metamorphic rock, it contains inclusions which are often quite high on the Mohs Hardness Scale (6+). 

My comparison here can be equated to a “snapshot in time” of the more innocuous type of wear that many of us tend to incur on our watches – repeatedly wearing away at the finish, until, all of a sudden, we realize that we’ve got this kind of situation going on….. https://www.reddit.com/r/CitizenWatches/comments/1n6cysn/unusual_watch_band_wear/ . I absolutely believe that this particular Redditor didn’t think that he was mistreating his watch. But the truth of the matter is that he did *something* to cause that kind of wear. This is the kind of wear that I’m trying to simulate. The kind of wear that you see in my two daily-beaters above, with the watches having near daily interaction with my benchtop.  

[ continued as replies to this post, below ]

For u/No_Mix_7617 , who wanted to see this watch in varied lighting.

Videos and pictures to-follow.

Lead picture is high-macro from typical $150-ish Amazon/AliEx "digital microscope." Lighting is via its included crappy armature LEDs.