The world of watch industry was completely different until the Chinese entered the market. Earlier, you had to spend quite a lot of money to get your hands on a decent watch.
Well, not anymore!
We need to thank Chinese brands like SMAEL, SKMEI, Curren, and Naviforce for making the drastic change in the market. Yes, these brands compromise with materials and components but only to let you have a great looking watch at $10 to $20 price point.
Today, we would help you find the best SMAEL watch
| IMAGE | PRODUCT | DETAILS | rating | price |
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Best Overall |
SMAEL Men’s Sports Analog Quartz Watch – 1545 |
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SMAEL Men Watches Military Army LED Digital Wristwatch – 8010 |
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SMAEL Men Watches Military Army LED Digital Wristwatch – 1708 |
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SMAEL New Multi-Function Men’ s/Women’s Sports – 1509 |
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SMAEL Women’s Sport Wrist Watch – 1643 |
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A Quick History and Where It Is Made?
SMAEL is the flagship brand of the Guangzhou SMAEL Watch Co. Limited. Their R&D, sales, and marketing team is based in Guangzhou while their main factory is in the Dongguan.
Sadly, I couldn’t be sure of their year of establishment. Some references say that SMAEL started a journey in 2014 while some say in 2016. As there is no official website or Wikipedia page, you and I will have sit in the dark.
However, it’s safe to say that the brand is relatively new in the market.
SMAEL is more focused on B2B business, and only online retailers can offer you a single piece watch.
So, the bottom line is that SMAEL is a new Chinese brand located in Guangzhou, and their watches are made in Dongguan, China.
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Top 5 Best SMAEL Watch Reviews
SMAEL Men’s Sports Analog Quartz Watch – 1545 – Best Overall
The first watch in the first place is quite special. Apparently, this is the most well-known product in their collection.
There’s good chance that you got introduced to the SMAEL brand with this model. I am talking about SMAEL Men’s Sports Analog Quartz Watch – 1545.
SMAEL also market this product as the S-Shock MudMaster.
Does the name sound too familiar?
Because, Casio has a very successful watch called G-Shock MudMaster!
And yes, you’ve guessed it right – it’s direct copy of the same model even the dimensions are identical.
However, the build quality is quite good and the there’re a lot of helpful functionalities in this watch.
Product Specification
- Display Type: Dual (Analog and LED)
- Movement: Chinese Quartz
- Case Diameter: 51mm
- Case Thickness: 18mm
- Band Width: 21mm
- Case Material: PC (Poly-Carbonate) and Stainless Steel
- Bezel Material: PC (Poly-Carbonate)
- Band Material: PU (Polyurethane) Rubber
- Water-Resistance: 5ATM (165ft.)
- Model Year:2017
Notable Features
- Shockproof design with hardened glass protection
- Dual time feature
- Chronograph features stopwatch, alarm, and 12/24h display
- Complete Calendar with auto date and multiple time zone
- Luminous hands and LED backlight
SMAEL Men Watches Military Army LED Digital Wristwatch – 8010 – Best Sports Model
Okay, we’ve found the Mudmaster homage.
The G-Shock Rangeman is the inspiration of SMAEL Men Watches Military Army LED Digital Wristwatch – 8010. The 8010 model is sometimes known as SMAEL Tactical Recon Type A in some stores.
Don’t worry, both of them are the same thing.
Unlike the previous model, it’s a full digital watch with a chronograph that can measure 1/10-second readings.
If you are looking for a cool looking sports watch, SMAEL Men Watches Military Army LED Digital Wristwatch – 8010 is just the right option.
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Product Specification
- Display Type: Digital (LED)
- Movement: Chinese Quartz
- Case Diameter: 53mm
- Case Thickness: 17mm
- Band Width: 22mm
- Case Material: PC (Poly-Carbonate)
- Bezel Material: PC (Poly-Carbonate)
- Band Material: Resin
- Water-Resistance: 5ATM (165ft.)
- Model Year: 2017
Notable Features
- Shockproof design with acrylic watch face protection
- Chronograph feature lap timer and 1/100 second stopwatch
- Day-date display
- 12/24h military time display
- Complete Calendar with auto date, day, week, and month
- Alarm signal and hourly chime
- LED backlight
SMAEL Men Watches Military Army LED Digital Wristwatch – 1708 – Best Military-style Watch
Military watches are the specialty of SMAEL. You can call it their bread and butter!
Among all the military watches, I preferred the SMAEL Men Watches Military Army LED Digital Wristwatch – 1708.
Design-wise, it’s great looking watch that would very fashionable in your wrist.
However, I loved the digital panels the most. There are four separate digital panels here and all of them show different things. Plus, there’re the analog hands.
Very cool design!
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Product Specification
- Display Type: Dual (Analog and Digital)
- Movement: Japanese Quartz
- Case Diameter: 53.5mm
- Case Thickness: 17.6mm
- Band Width: 22mm
- Case Material: PC (Poly-Carbonate)
- Bezel Material: PC (Poly-Carbonate)
- Band Material: PU (Polyurethane) Rubber
- Water-Resistance: 5ATM (165ft.)
- Model Year: 2017
Notable Features
- Shockproof design with hardened glass watch face protection
- Chronograph feature lap timer and 24h stopwatch
- Dual time feature
- Day-date display
- Separate digital display window to show seconds
- 24h military time display
- Complete Calendar with auto date, day, week, and month
- Alarm signal and hourly chime
- LED backlight
SMAEL New Multi-Function Men’ s/Women’s Sports – 1509 – Best Unisex Sports Watch
G-Shock has a great collection of unisex watches suitable for both male and female wrists. So, SMAEL should follow their footsteps too.
And, SMAEL New Multi-Function Men’ s/Women’s Sports – 1509 is SMAEL’s answer to G-Shock.
As the Solar Gloss models are in lower price point, SMAEL had to put extra effort into justifying their model.
Well, I’d say that SMAEL is -1509 is quite great and able to put good fight. There are tons of features and the build quality is impressive.
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Product Specification
- Display Type: Dual (Analog and Digital)
- Movement: Chinese Quartz
- Case Diameter: 53mm
- Case Thickness: 18mm
- Band Width: 21mm
- Case Material: PC (Poly-Carbonate) with 304 Stainless Steel Back
- Bezel Material: PC (Poly-Carbonate)
- Band Material: PU (Polyurethane) Rubber
- Water-Resistance: 3ATM (99ft.)
- Model Year: 2018
Notable Features
- Shockproof design with Hardlex crystal watch face protection
- Dual time feature
- Chronograph features stopwatch, alarm, and 12/24h display
- Complete Calendar with auto date and multiple time zone
- Luminous hands and LED backlight
SMAEL Women’s Sport Wrist Watch – 1643 – Best Ladies’ Sports Watch
SMAEL doesn’t only make watches for men, their women’s collection is vast too.
SMAEL Women’s Sport Wrist Watch – 1643 is well-built and stands in Amazon’s Choice category. Not only it has remarkable features, but also the customers have given positive reviews.
It means a lot as SMAEL watches don’t get too many positive feedbacks in many watch communities.
Product Specification
- Display Type: Dual (Analog and Digital)
- Movement: Japanese Quartz
- Case Diameter: 38mm
- Case Thickness: 15.5mm
- Band Width: 18mm
- Case Material: PC (Poly-Carbonate)
- Bezel Material: PC (Poly-Carbonate)
- Band Material: PU (Polyurethane) Rubber
- Water-Resistance: 5ATM (165ft.)
- Model Year: 2017
Notable Features
- Shockproof design with acrylic watch face protection
- Chronograph feature lap timer and 1/100 second stopwatch
- Day-date display
- 12/24h military time display
- Complete Calendar with auto date, day, week, and month
- Alarm signal and hourly chime
- LED backlight
Are SMAEL Watches Any Good? The Strength of The Brand
SMAEL is relatively small brand but in this short period of time, they have made quite some name in the market.
How?
Well, following the design philosophy of a well-known brand is a common practice in the smaller Chinese brands. Many follow Japanese brands like Citizen and Seiko while some opt to follow big names like Rolex or Omega.
SMAEL followed a different strategy here.
They chose to “pay homage to” Casio G-Shock. G-Shock is a very popular name in the market especially for their ultra-durable military watches. Smael even named the military-themed watches as “S-Shock.”
While top-shelf G-Shock models like Mudmaster or Rangeman costs $600 to $800, SMAEL is offering identical copies at only $11! If you order in bulk, that price even drops down to $7 to $8!
The pricing is the game-changer for SMAEL.
That’s why SMAEL became so popular in such short time span in the international market.
However, several other brands like SKMEI or SMAEI (a copy-cat of copy-cat!) emerged and started following the same strategy.
Certainly, the quality of the watches of SMAEL can’t be on the same level as the G-Shock in durability or functionality.
But it’d be foolish to compare them!
I mean, come on, one launches watches at $800 while the other one launches at $8!
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Is SMAEL Watch A Good Watch? What did We like About This Brand?
Despite everything, we need to give credit to SMAEL.
They are making watches that have the same look as the premium ones.
Plus, these watches have premium functionalities like dual time, chronograph, LED backlight, complete Calendar, and so on!
So, if you think about it, it’s a mystery how a brand can offer so much at this insane price point.
Don’t forget that SMAEL is even making a profit!
Also, the finish quality and durability are quite impressive.
What Didn’t We Like About This Brand?
SMAEL is not a brand that will offer you timepieces that last for years.
As they are using local Chinese quartz movements (a few models have Japanese quartz) in their watches, these movements will not last for a long time. If you are lucky, your SMAEL watch might serve for a year or two.
Then comes the issue of finish quality.
These watches look quite disappointing in real life.
For example, I bought SMAEL Men’s Sports Analog Quartz Watch – 1545 for the review purpose. I was shocked by the images on the websites – it almost looked like the original G-Shock Mudmaster.
But in reality, the watch doesn’t have that top-tier finishing. You can feel that the build material is poor.
Also, the water-resistance performance is quite questionable. You can take some of the models in the swimming pool for a short period of time. But if you press any buttons underwater, water spill pass and ruin the watch movement.
So, these watches do look great but you shouldn’t depend on them in terms of durability.
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Conclusion
So, what is the best SMAEL watch?
I would place SMAEL Men’s Sports Analog Quartz Watch – 1545 on the top spot.
The second and third place will go to SMAEL Men Watches Military Army LED Digital Wristwatch – 8010 and SMAEL Men Watches Military Army LED Digital Wristwatch – 1708 watches respectively.
