Guangzhou Watch Quality

Beware, though, that just because some watches look the same doesn't not mean that they actually are. You will have to spend a lot of time and really know what to look for if you're looking for a high quality timepiece that will last longer than a few weeks.

Getting a watch with a bad band makes the rest of the watch completely useless. The watches will be wrapped when you are looking at them but they will quickly unwrap them for you to try on.

Take advantage of this and put the watch on your hand. Give it a few vigorous movements, particularly if it is a metal band. A bad band will quickly snap open rendering the watch extremely poor quality. You will probably weed out about 70% of all the watches you look at by testing the band's strength - believe me, though, it is worth it.

Assuming you like fine watches you are probably interested in the quality of the movement (if you are looking for a quartz watch you are in luck - battery movements are much easier to shop for as they are less complicated to build and so they tend to hold up a little better).

For an automatic watch, they will probably tell you that the movement is a Chinese-Swiss movement. This is hype - China movement is in general not at all as precise as a Swiss movement (though it is better than Japanese movement).

Watch the sweeping second hand - if you have a watch with Swiss ETA movement compare the two. This is a more subtle difference, but has a great impact on the overall quality of the watch.

If possible bring a stopwatch with you and time the second hand - I typically let it run for ten minutes and compare how far the watch has gone. You will be amazed by how bad some of these watches are - I have literally seen watches that lose (or gain) a minute for every 7 minutes. This is obviously unusable.

Play with all of the extra features on the watch - date setting, stop watch, etc. Make sure they work! Most of the vendors will tell you that glitches with the watch are "features" or that they are "exact copies of the original." Usually if you notice something that seems extremely unusual it is a problem with the watch itself - not a copy of a more expensive design.

Don't be afraid to just walk away!

All of the watches you will see at the Guangzhou Market will have either a mineral crystal or a sapphire crystal. Actually, less than 5% of the watches you see will actually have a sapphire crystal (which is virtually scratch proof).

This is one of the favorite vendor tricks in Guangzhou (or China for that matter). They will take out a sharp little screwdriver and tap it on the glass to show you how strong it is. Remember, though, that they have years of experience making it look like they are really roughing up the watch, but usually they are barely tapping the face. Demand that they let you test it for yourself - go ahead and try to give it a little scratch while they aren't paying attention. If you can it's not a sapphire.

It is dangerous to judge quality by price alone, especially when you are a tourist in China. Smart vendors will prey on your inability to speak Chinese and will offer absurdly high prices knowing that you will feel good negotiating them down 50%.

If you are looking at a vendor's selection, however, be sure to ask about the prices of all the watches they have. They will typically give you an indication of quality based on the relative prices. If one watch is 70RMB and another is 500RMB, the more expensive one is probably higher quality.