I always believed that the Rolex Explorer is one of the best versatile watches ever made, it is dressy enough to have it on a suit, and can be easily dressed down with jeans.
The Explorer was initially released in 1953, and it got re-engineered in 2010.
History of the Explorer
It was highly perceived upon its release, and accordingly a lot of homages to it were produced, some from very respectable watch makers; others from Chinese makers, which I don’t have anything against. As well as shady markets knock-offs.
Studying the homage options, I found some great watches, for great prices that are very well made at a very affordable price tags.
I have excluded the discontinued models, or out of stock ones.
1- Armida A6
A very well made watch, nice bracelet from a good company that produces excellent watches.
The Time Bum has previously reviewed it. http://www.thetimebum.com/2014/07/armida-a6.html
2- Smiths Everst
Great watch from a very nice company;
It was previously reviewed by Worn & Wound . http://wornandwound.com/2013/07/17/smiths-everest-timefactors-prs-25-review/
3- Bernhardt Anchor 3
Bernhardt is a young watch company, produces excellent watches with brilliant customer services.
It was reviewed by a fellow WUS member, and it was compared to the previously released Anchor 1.
http://forums.watchuseek.com/f71/bernhardt-binnacle-anchor-iii-has-arrived-1286722.html
From the Chinese market, I found 2 options;
1- Parnis Explorer
This watch has a sterile dial, which I’m not fond of, but it is well built and has very nice bracelet with solid end-links
2- Alpha Explorer
This is the cheapest among them all, it was released in small batches in 2012 with 3 different dial colors, Black, Blue and Cream, 150 pieces of each color and they were sold out in few days.
They were released again in larger batches, 500 of each color, the Blue was sold out in less than a week!
I jumped on the black immediately as I was scared it will be sold out soon; and I got number 369 out of 500!
I love this watch very much, and it is always in my daily rotation box; I will dedicate one detailed post reviewing this beauty in the coming weeks.