What's a Lobinni? Just another unfocused Chinese watch brand. The more fitting question here is, what's in this Lobinni? If you look at Ali Express's Lobinni Official Store or their website (links in footer), you will see a fair few watches, many biting the style of forebears as is expected. Others, not so much. Many look good, and are unfortunately quartz in nature - I think a proper dress watch should be mechanical (controversial)...which a lot of these Lobinni's are. Then you get to this one, and in answering the earlier question, in this Lobinni is a Hangzhou 5000A micro rotor, I guess the title of this post gave that away. Anyway first some history and a moan.
The moan, obviously, it's the name. God damn it again, Lobinni is not a cool name, apologies to anyone affected by that but it's another one of these ones that I shouldn't be surprised or annoyed by, but I am. They are in full, Lobinni Interlaken. Interlaken being the city in Switzerland, which by the way isn't taken as a name for watches, so why not just call it Interlaken, so much cooler, better, classier - maybe there's a copyright issue but who cares. Interlaken Watch Co anyone...
Anyhoo, that's out of the way. The history is, as per their website, "On December 20, 1963, the first Lobinni watch was born in Interlaken, Switzerland, and at the same time, the legendary journey of the Lobinni watches began." Yep, that's it, and I dunno about that...I'm unable to verify this claim and well that's the end of the history, other than this watch comes on the scene in earlier 2021 as per my radar. And it definitely ruffled a few feathers.
This Chinese watch is once again, a pleasant surprise. The reason I bought it is of course a given, that micro-rotor action that is quite uncommon and lauded. The movement came to my attention as it features in the Baltic MR01, which is a stunning watch, and it got a huge amount of attention in the community, it sold out, then was relaunched. I was on the second pre-order list but during that wait time I discovered Lobinni. The Baltic was around £500-£600, totally worth the money from what I can see. And the Lobinni was £170-ish, it looked good on the pics, online review were also flattering. So, leaving behind the disappointment of the Tourbillion times, I went for it.
The size is great at 40mm, and it's pretty slim thanks to that mini-rotor. Design wise, it's understated and elegant. The leaf hands and the breguet style numerals are very slick, however the dial itself is rather flat. The seconds subdial is well designed. And obviously it says Lobinni on it under the 12, with Interlaken underneath that, the font styles do not complement each other. Never mind.
The crown is regular, small, a bit fiddly, but functional with onion styling for grip, it features an L on it for good measure. It does have a nice, solid click when setting the date. The strap is a decent deployment.
The caseback is so good looking, like your partner it's what's on the inside that counts, this makes me want a skeleton version of some sort with the rotor showing on the front, Perrelet Dipteros anyone...
They aren't the best photos, just quick snaps with my phone, but you get the idea. It's all about that mini rotor and the exhibition caseback though. That chunky little rotor is as good as real gold to me. The text is in German, giving it some Suisse authenticity (it's one of their official languages).
You can say what you like about it not being Swiss or hand finished, the truth is that my first impressions are that it is a fantastic watch from the back. The front is business like and without flair which might ordinarily be a let down, but it adds to the drama of the unveil, it's what's inside that counts here. I look forward to taking some more snaps and doing a full review.
Alvin
Check out the full review - click HERE
Ali Express Lobinni Store
Lobinni Official website
Baltic MR01