Every watch brand takes inspiration from others. You can only arrange hands, numbers, sub-dials and winding crowns so many times before you repeat the past. It’s kinda like the Ed Sheeran songbook, sounds eerily familiar in many places…

But that remixing of established elements brings great watch design within the reach of mere mortals earning slave ship wages in today’s western economies. One such classic design is the Tudor Pelagos, with its brilliant blue dial and white `snowflake’ hands.

Then there’s the simplicity and elegance of the Grand Seiko snowflake dial dress watches, plus the classic lines of the older Seiko 5 SNK range, the default everyday beater/dress watch for many enthusiasts.

Pagani in China have been taking note and released variants of their Snowflake model with blue, black, silver and Tiffany blue dial colours – or turquoise to you n me – just recently.

Handsome to look at, they retail at $99 on the UK website, is which very reasonable. I’ve bought a Pagani in the past and the overall build quality is slightly higher than some sterile dial Chinese watches.

Inside there is the trusty Seiko NH35 auto movement, which is the Honda 1.3 Jazz engine of the watch world. Nothing special to look at, but will clock up 200,000 miles of service.

Steel case and bracelet, and it’s worth noting this baby is just 36mm wide. That might not suit some watch fans but smaller case widths are in vogue right now, if fashion matters to you. Personally I love vintage watches and most are 33-36mm in diameter.

Sometimes less is more and never really dates. In some respects the Pagani offers Seiko entry quality for less cash. That’s no bad thing as tribute acts go.

More here.