I bought an Apogaum watch in the Fall of 2006, knowing that for the price, it must be a Chinese knock-off company pretending to be German.  But for the advertised price of $75, I thought why not?  After shipping I think it came to $95.  Plus, heck it came with a wood box.  I surmized that if I were as good as the Alpha Watch from mainland China, I might be getting a decent watch. 

Side note:  I had bought a green Rolex-look-alike from Alpha for $50 ($70 with shipping from Hong Kong) and was surprised by the weight and shine, akin to my ... 2007 $300 Seiko Kinetic  (although the Alpha's metal band is not as substantial as the Seiko's... nor is the attention to detail in the watch face numbers and hands).  This same company, Alpha, might be the same producer of the cheapo Rolex knockoffs available behind closed curtains at Chinatowns across the U.S.  

I know about the cheapo Rolexes as a friend bought a fake Rolex for me for the heck of it ... and the lighter weight Rolex cheapo definitely bears the same markings as the weightier Alpha.  Seems they didn't change the machine that stamped the steel, just changed the quality of the steel used in the watch case and links.

But back to the Apogaum chronograph automatic watch I bought...not 7 months later, the watch stops working.  Finito.  No more.  Dead.  The automatic movement that once worked OK, is now clunking along.

But to the seller's credibility (after I emailed him), he said that he'd either fix or replace the Apogaum watch if I returned it to him.  I'm lazy and I guess I'm keeping it dead as a token remembrance of money not well spent.  Why bother with fixing it as this point? 

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Update:  Starlog:  July 2008:

I brought the Apogaum to a trusted jeweler and he replaced the movement.  The watch works fine now that the movement is not original.  The Alpha watches (I have two) continue to work, uninterrupted, and have not needed servicing at all.  The total cost to replace the movement in the Apogaum was 2/3 of its purchase price, or $65.  Apogaum is a good looking watch, but I would not pay over $50 for this watch, given it's reliability issues.

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Update:  Sept 14 2008

I've timed the Apogaum watch against my cell phone and it stopped at the end of the day (I had to take it off my wrist and shake it to work), and despite that, it lost 8 full minutes against the cell phone.  Hmmm.... +/- 8 minutes... that's a lot... most good watches are +/- 10 SECONDS.  I timed the Apogaum again today as I ran errands during the day, and again, a full 8 minutes lost.  That's twice. 

Given that I had this watched oiled and repaired, I thought I might give the Apogaum another look... I was hoping that it'd prove me wrong.  Lately, I've been reading about Chinese mechanical watch movements and had hoped the Apogaum was a Seagull Tianjin watch movement (which I read on several forums are used by the Alpha watches and several Fossil models).  Seagull movements tend to be the most dependable Chinese automatic watch movements; one of their top-line movements recently won the right to a patent in Switzerland due to it's technical innovation.  This is akin to entering the major leagues in the watch industry. 

Since the two Alpha watches must use more reliable Chinese movements (I'm assuming Seagull from other forums... I don't have the tools or the know-how to open the back and ascertain it's Seagull), I have had not any reliability issues.  The only issues I have with Alpha watches:  a) they tend to be staid replicas of the tried and true brands that have been around forever, i.e. mainly, homages to Rolex, and b) their metal watch bands tend to be on the chintzy (light) side.  I have two Alphas, and the green-faced one has a better, heavier, more substantial metal band, but the second, the Pepsi GMT one, has the chintzy feeling metal band.  Although the green one comes close to the "feel" of a $300 watch, it still doesn't match the weight, polish, and substance of a Seiko Kinetic.  But again, for under $50, the Alpha is a good bargain. 

My Apogaum watch, for $95, as an homage to the Daytona is not a good bargain.