This is one of my impulse buys. I saw this model in Precious Time's gallery and bought it. I did ZERO research, didn't care how accurate it was, I just loved the looks of it. I've been a fan of AP for a long time, and it's actually quite surprising that I never bought a Royal Oak. This watch has the old 7750 inside and it was exceptionally cheap (for a real automatic chronograph), so I grabbed one.
This same model also comes in various dial colors, but perhaps the most beautiful of them is the rose gold model with gorgeous white dial. But since gold is too much for me, I chose the stainless steel version. Here you can see the pictures of the gold version anyway (pictures courtesy of Precious Time). If I ever buy another gold watch again, this AP is definitely my first choice.
Another reason I bought this was that I wanted to have day/date watch. I always thought it was a neat feature. Date sets normally, and the day changes when you turn the crown anti-clockwise (in the date set position). This particular watch had especially slow date change. It started to change already 10'o'clock and the wheel got perfectly centered as late as 2'o'clock.
When I got the watch I immediately started searching for its genuine counterpart. I found lots of "Seven Sails" special edition models, but not this model. When I posted my first picture of my new aqcuisiton, none of the members couldn't tell, either. Next move, of course, was to contact thomasng, our own AP expert and he verified that this watch is a fantasy model. For me it didn't matter at all. I have never done a review of a fantasy model before. Saved me a lot of research and work.
The dial uses very nice looking "square layer" with kinda original "lump of sugar" hour markers. All dial print is very crispy and clean which was very apparent even in all huge and uncropped photos. The case was beautifully finished brushed steel which was one of the main attractions of this watch for me.
The subdial arrangement is the unmodified 12-9-6, which is always the best option (keeping the reliability and possible adjustments in mind). The old Asian 7750 takes genuine ETA Valjoux in without any modifications. If I'm not mistaken even the hands are usable.
The caseback with sailboats is beautiful.
The strap has very neat looking lockup mechanism, using the AP logo on both sides. Since this was my first ever watch with a leather band I can't really make any educated comments about the quality of the strap. All I know it feels sturdy and thick, and it was designed to fit even larger wrists (like my 8+).
The pushers and crown are screw-down type a'la Daytona. This means you can't operate the chronograph functions without unscrewing the bolts first. The quality feeling of the pushers and bolts is fair, but I'd imagine these kind of things are the easiest tell-tales when you compare a rep to a genuine $10K watch.
The diameter of the watch is just 42mm. But because of the typical square AP design it feels much bigger. This watch really has some impressive and "machismo" wrist presence. No wonder they chose AP as Schwartzenegger's watch in
Terminator 3.
All in all... I think this rep is a "strange ride". It's very rare to see a complete fantasy model with fully functional automatic chronograph and quality like this. Perhaps the factories just wanted to be creative and have some fun. For me rep collecting isn't all about pedantic and meticulous whining about minutiae inaccuracies, either. If someone looks nice, I'll wear it.
Funny thing is... My friend (who already owns a rep of AP Wempe) bought this rep literally from my wrist. When I'm writing and finishing this review I no longer have the watch. But now I'm seriously considering the rose gold model. I simply can't stop staring at those pictures.
Thanks for reading (again).
