Novamos ShanHai Titanium Review

Hourstriker has really broadened my view of the watch world over the short time that we have been running the site. In my previous two decades of being in the watch industry I was mostly surrounded by watches from legacy Swiss brands like Audemars Piguet, Rolex, IWC and Patek Philippe. Since starting Hourstriker I have been exposed to all sorts of brands from high end independents to the smallest of micro brands.

I've said from the beginning that we planned to cover all watches and to really be a site for every collector. Along that point, a few weeks ago Chinese watch brand Novamos contacted us over Instagram and asked if we would like to review their newest watch. Looking over their site I saw a mixture of mechanical and smart watches. At first I was a bit hesitant to review the watch but after some thought I decided it would be an interesting piece to cover.



Novamos was started in 2022 by a team of watch enthusiasts who create watches with original designs that are inspired by elements of nature like the seas and mountains. Their newest release and the watch we are going to be reviewing today is the brands first real step into this design approach with their previous watches being more in the vein of high tech design.

The watch in question is the Novamos ShanHai in titanium. First off let me just say that the ShanHai is unlike any watch I have ever seen in person before. The watch has a large lugless 50 mm round case that in black resembles a hockey puck from its profile. The top of the case is three dimensional in nature and resembles a mountainous region, which in black actually looks more like the surface of the moon. Some members of a watch group I'm a part of called it the "Real Moon Watch".



The right hand side of the "dial" has a large cutout that houses an automatic skeleton movement beneath a domed sapphire crystal. Novamos refers to this as the sea element of the dial. Overall I can see where they are going with the design language of the watch and they even refer to it sarcastically as the "World's Ugliest Watch." Color me intrigued, so let's take a closer look at the Novamos ShanHai.

When the watch arrived the first thing I noticed was how solid the watch felt. It really shouldn't be a surprise since the watch is crafted out of blackened titanium. For some reason just looking at the images online I expected the watch to be more plastic or carbon feeling in hand, but it actually felt pretty substantial.



The next thing I noticed was how nice the skeletonized movement looked. I've seen a ton of skeleton dial watches over the past few years and the Novamos movement actually looks stunning. Maybe the very domed sapphire crystal exaggerates the look of the movement, but it really is one of the nicer looking skeletons I've seen. I do now kind of wish the movement was larger or Novamos would expand this movement into the full dial of another watch down the line.

Finally the last thing that I noticed over my initial time with the ShanHai was just how wearable the watch was. Even being a fan of large watches, I do not have a watch with a case diameter of 50 mm or larger. I do have two watches with 48 mm case diameters and some with 46 mm as well, but even at 50 mm the ShanHai wears smaller than any of those watches. Since there are no lugs on the case of the ShanHai the lug to lug length of the watch is also 50 mm, wearing similar to a newer Rolex sports model.



Now that we've gone over my initial thoughts of the Novamos ShanHai let's take a look at the technical specifications of the watch. Like I mentioned earlier the ShanHai has a case diameter of 50 mm and an identical lug to lug length of 50 mm. The thickness of the watch is between 11.3 mm at its lowest point and 15.1 mm at the tallest "mountain peak". Even with being a 50 mm watch, the ShanHai only weighs in at 90 grams on our scale including its leather strap and pin buckle.

The sapphire crystal covering the skeleton movement is highly domed and really makes the movement components underneath pop. Around the outside of the dial are minute markers with the hour markers being coated with luminous material. The 12 hour marker has been replaced with the Novamos logo. The hour and minute hands are arrow shaped and also feature a healthy dose of lume on them. The running seconds hand is curved to resemble a branch and has a luminous bird sitting on it.



The real star of the dial is the skeleton movement that is fully exposed. The entire cutout for the movement and dial is just over 26 mm, so the dial is rather small when looking at it compared to the 50 mm body. To the naked eye the movement is brilliant looking and really puts on a show. Like I said earlier the skeleton work is really nice. When you bring out a loupe you can see that movement isn't finished and there are machining marks on it. This isn't a hand finished Breguet or high end independent, so this is pretty much expected.

Moving past the dial to the face of the watch you have the three dimensional mountainous design. Novamos achieves this effect by repeatedly stamping the titanium case at extreme pressures and also firing the titanium to over 1,100 degrees centigrade. To say the look is unique would be a tremendous understatement. While the black version I have does resemble the lunar surface, I'd say some of the other available case colors would probably do a better job of representing natural environments found on Earth.



The sides of the case feature no decoration and are satin in finish. The only defining feature of the case is the large onion shaped crown on the right. The crown does not screw down and provides manual winding in its resting position. Even with a push pull crown the ShanHai has 50 meters of water resistance. Pulling the crown out to position one reveals a ghost date setting meaning the movement originally featured a date wheel before being put in the ShanHai. Pulling the crown out to position two lets you set the time. When fully pulled out the seconds hand stops allowing for more precise time setting. Pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minute hand either.

Flipping the watch over shows something that I have never seen on a watch before. Opposite of the movement is a removable cover that exposes a rather large, for a watch, storage area. I'm really not sure what you would store in there, but Novamos does give you that option. That area of the case would have been un-used space anyway and having a hollow cavity does reduce the weight of the watch.



The case back also displays the automatic 6600A movement featuring a Novamos branded winding rotor. The movement beats at 28,800 (4Hz) bph and features 38 hours of power reserve. On our timegrapher the movement showed an average accuracy of +4 seconds per day over several positions. This level of accuracy puts the ShanHai within chronometer specifications which really surprised me. I really expected the movement to show something in the +/- 20 second range.

The ShanHai comes on a black leather strap with a width of 24 mm that secures just inside of the case. I do believe that most 24 mm straps should work with the watch but I did not try swapping straps. The strap seems like it is rather good quality and didn't require much if any break in to be comfortable. The blackened pin buckle is substantial and also features Novamos branding. The strap has a nice taper from 24 mm down to 19 mm at the buckle as well.



During my time with the Novamos ShanHai I tried to wear the watch fairly frequently. I didn't wear the watch exclusively since let's be honest the ShanHai will not be a daily wearer. The watch makes a great addition to an already solid collection or a fun second watch. There are two main issues with the watch being a daily wearer and size isn't one of them due to the average lug to lug length.

The main issue keeping the ShanHai from being a great everyday watch is its legibility. The dial of the watch is around 26 mm and the hour markers are minimal. When combining that with the fact that the watch is fully skeletonized telling the time, especially at a glance, can be tricky. Daily wearers should be able to be glanced at and deciphered quickly. The same thing can be said about watches from MB&F and their legibility, but nobody in their right mind would say they are not exceptional timepieces.



The second issue with the ShanHai being a daily watch is just how polarizing it is. For the most part a daily watch should be able to blend into your outfit and not bring too much attention on itself. While wearing the ShanHai I was constantly stopped and asked about the watch. This is actually something I love, but I feel most people don't want to be bothered all the time about their watch.

With that out of the way, the ShanHai did wear very comfortable on wrist for its case size and lack of case contouring. The thick leather strap kept the watch centered on my wrist and it didn't favor one side over the other. 50 mm tends to be around my preferred lug to lug length and the watch covered my 7.25 inch wrist with a 55 mm flat area nicely. The watch kind of reminded me of wearing my Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 500 Fathoms which also feels like a watch that is mostly all dial with minimal lugs.

At first I felt a bit self conscious wearing the ShanHai since the watch design is just so out there. You kind of have the same feeling when wearing something so bold as a larger Ulysse Nardin Freak. Over a few hours I got more used to the watch and even forgot about exactly what I was wearing. The low weight of 90 grams also helped with that.



Like I said earlier the ShanHai attracts a lot of attention when I wore it out, really almost to the same levels as wearing a Freak. It just seemed no matter where we went somebody wanted to know about the watch. I'd say the mountainous look of the case along with the skeleton movement is what really impressed the people I showed the watch to the most.

The Novamos ShanHai titanium sells for just over $400 and offers a very unique timepiece for the price. For that price you get a full titanium case with an accurate skeleton movement. I can also say that you aren't going to see somebody wearing the same watch when you're out and about.



Normally this is where I would pick four watches to compare the ShanHai to but with how unique the watch is, I can't really think of anything to compare it to. I would either need to go the route of comparing it to something from an incredibly high end independent like MB&F or Vianney Halter which really aren't comparable. The other end of the spectrum would be something more of a cheap gimmick watch but that really isn't fair to the ShanHai either. I am legitimately stumped of what the ShanHai can be compared to…

So in the end is the Novamos ShanHai for me? To be honest liking large watches means that I already have large statement pieces in my personal collection. Wearing something like my 48 mm 500 Fathoms or 48 mm Big Pilot Perpetual Calendar already makes enough of a statement on wrist. If I didn't have pieces like that and had smaller watches the ShanHai could be a fun piece to add to the collection.



Would I recommend the ShanHai to something looking for a statement piece watch? I could see myself recommending the ShanHai under a few circumstances. I would need to stress that the ShanHai probably wouldn't work as a daily wearer due to legibility and styling reasons. If somebody is a huge fan of the moon and space the black ShanHai would be ideal and seems to recall the moon more than a Speedmaster. Also if you want to wear a watch that gets noticed and attracts attention the ShanHai would be hard to beat. The Novamos ShanHai is just a fun watch, it is really not meant to be anything more. Even Novamos knows this and calls the watch the "World's Ugliest Watch."

I'd really like to thank Novamos for sending us this ShanHai to review. I also hope this review was a nice break from the typical steel sports watch reviews seen on our site and others. I know Novamos is a new watch brand but with the ShanHai they showed that they aren't scared to take risks. I'm genuinely excited to see what they come up with next.



For more information about the ShanHai please visit : Novamos

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: ShanHai

Retail Price: $404

Case Size: 50 mm

Lug to Lug: 50 mm

Thickness: 11.3 – 15.1 mm

Weight: 90 Grams (On Leather Strap)

Case Material: Titanium

Bezel: Titanium

Strap: Black Leather Strap with Pin Buckle

Movement: 6600A Automatic Movement

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds

Power Reserve: 38 Hours

Water Resistance: 50 Meters