AP lovers who abandon AP ... for Rolex

[slaughterer62]

Audemars Piguet (the real company located in Le Brassus) and JF (the factory in China) are not really doing much that is exciting these days with AP designs except offering the same watch in multiple loud colors, whereas Rolex (the real company in Geneva) and ARF/JF/Noob seems to be doing exciting things with their models (904L steel, Daytona movement clone, SD reboot with new movement, etc). At the same time, many long-lasting AP rep and Franken lovers seem to be losing their passion for APs and getting more excited about Rolex. Guru was the first to defect a few years back, then Sharrkey to Tudor, then, slowly at first and then all of a sudden, tinitonsi, Curt941, MrBeasy, ap@12, jpohl, etc. There are exceptions with people coming back from Rolex to AP, like the infamous QueTip, but for the most part, the trend seems to be very evident. State your reasons why or feel free to pontificate about this development. It seems set in stone for 2018 at least. Personally, I have 8 Rolex Frankens already, LOL.

 

[slaughterer62]

I even saw TheDonSL posting pics of his ARF Daytona....

 

[slaughterer62]

Once tosoboso posts pics of some perfect Paul Newman Daytona, I will know I am on to something...

 

[Darkimplicates]

QueTip doesn’t care whether it’s a Rolex or AP as Long as its full diamond. I bet he’ll even wear a Casio edifice made of real carat diamond and gold if it exists LoL!

I agree with you however J. I myself have lost interest in AP Franken already. I will only keep the one I have right now and will not get anymore. There was a time where I thought if I had some spare funds lying around I would build a or buy a Franken because there’s many that interests me but now that I have more then enough free funds to spend on it, I’ve lost interest in Franken AP all together.

The only and ONLY 2nd Franken AP I will ever buy again without a second thought is the Rubbberclad that you modded and perfected for me last year.(if the owner decides to sell)

I love Franken APs but the amount of time it takes to source the parts , shipping, building it etc is just a turn off IMO.

 

[QueTip]

QueTip doesn’t care whether it’s a Rolex or AP as Long as its full diamond. I bet he’ll even wear a Casio edifice made of real carat diamond and gold if it exists LoL!

LOOOOL! I'm not this bad, eh?
slaughterer62 the reason why I switched camps from Rolex back to AP was mostly because I find it heart attacking to see multiple people wear the same watch as I might. Where I live, I see Rolexes everywhere, literally everywhere. And whenever I think to myself, 'Hey you haven't seen a Rolex in some time' I see multiple people with Rolexes walk past me just before I even finished that thought.

That's really not the case with AP and especially special APs like the TourAuto or the gold ones I am currently into. You barely see these and even if you do, you can cope with it as it'll most likely just be one.

Additional to that, I do find that Rolex's design booth has been lacking. I see redesigned models that are absolutely stupid and a disrespecting precious metal buyers (2018 Pepsi) and some iced out d
Daytona's that just look too similar to something they have released in the past.

And they all just look the same. With a few exceptions like 116622 YachtMaster most of them just look so similar to each other. Sub, GMT, SeaDweller all have black dials and just marginal differences on dial print and a different insert. That was kinda mehing it for me.

 

[slaughterer62]

Sorry, I forgot you Darkimplicates: the beautiful ARF Daytona Franken you made with JohnnyDepp and then sold, will always remain in my memory as a model to be followed. As for QueTip, it seems he flips everything he gets his hands on, like a playboy who breaks up with each and every GF after a week or two. Yet, we must not forget: QueTip has written some excellent reference guides to Rolex, despite complaining to me in multiple PMs about the sameness of Rolex designs and the way they all break down in the end. But, hey, Darkimplicates, isn't the black dial Rubberclad basically APs Submariner (thanks for the tip of the hat BTW)?

 

[slaughterer62]

"And they all just look the same. With a few exceptions like 116622 YachtMaster most of them just look so similar to each other. Sub, GMT, SeaDweller all have black dials and just marginal differences on dial print and a different insert." Zum Beispiel, und der QueTip hat völlig Recht!

 

[sharrkey]

Still have a Love for the brand J but lost the love for reps and haven’t bought one in over 2 years I think!

I only own 1 Watch now and that’s enough for me lol

It will be 10yrs in June I think when I joined RWI and damn How things have progressed in the rep world, unfortunately the new breed of rep enthusiasts leave me to mostly lurk on the forum! (Not tainting everyone new mind)

Instead of spending my money on reps I’ve bought 2 new cars, refreshed my wardrobe with designer clobber so it ain’t all that bad lol

And Looking forward to my Florida ???? vacation next month


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hinclimincli]

Well, I for one have moved the opposite direction. Used to have a Milgauss, Explorer, Datejust, Submariner 5-digit and Submariner 6 digit. Now I only have the ceramic sub and the datejust and spend my days looking at my new blue dial 15450 and trying to find the guts to go for the full yellow gold + blue dial 15450 which I find fascinating for some reason I truly can't explain.

 

[rolexwatchfan]

slaughterer62 Trust me my friend, most of the AP crowd will be back on board around November this year. :matty:
Including myself I'm ready for my NEW Bumble Bee and Montauk Highway :wowa:

 

[ciceroyeah]

Whereas Rolex has been classing up the proceedings, AP has had several years where the only decent releases are un-reppable $100k+ monsters, or terrible Hublot-level re-issues in a variety of obnoxious colors. I'm just not interested in any of the new AP releases. Patek is even worse and the 40th "tombstone" basically ruined the Nautilus. Emperor has no clothes etc.

Bring back Octavio and AP will have another renaissance.

 

[watchtiger]

A lot of good points made here. I myself have sold most of my APs. Late last year I really wanted to mod a couple of Offshores, but aside from the resources one has to allocate to make the watch aesthetically accurate, the AP rep factories haven’t really done anything to address the issues on: tachy, DW and font, hour hand pinion, correct case materials (models that need to be in titanium), correct color (grey/rhodium dials) etc.

IMO, Rolex reps especially those from ARF are fantastic and ready to be worn out of the box without having to spend so much on modding. Not ignoring some of the fantastic AP pieces made with carbon, ceramic and even the 44mm ones but movement wise, not much innovation has taken place.

We still don’t have an accurate rep of the Royal Oak Chronograph with correct seconds. Even thickness of the Offshores.

When the time comes wherein the AP guys of JF introduce something new or even an improvement of already existing models, I may just end up eating my words and coming back to AP.

 

[QueTip]

.

When the time comes wherein the AP guys of JP introduce something new or even an improvement of already existing models, I may just end up eating my words and coming back to AP.

That is true and so will most of the guys that have been torn to the Rolex side of the watch box.

 

[peterpl]

I used to love AP as well. I've fallen a bit out of love with AP and now focused heavily on Rolex. Even bought 7 gens over the last few years. I still like AP but the passion I used to once have is gone.

 

[BIONONE]

don't know if it is the right place for a low-post-counter like me to write and comment.... But

I agree with the fact that the AP releases were a bit lacking since the post-2014 novelties... no much updates in case of DW and basic things like the hand size (standard mods without going franken etc.)
The finish developed nevertheless when we have a look at the 15400 V3 from JF which is pretty beside the shitty 9015 and the still not gen like tapisserie pattern.
Compromises like the decorated movements hold (forum)buyers back i think...

However i think there will be dedication on the side of the factories especially JF to put much more effort in developing new movements to up their game even if there is no real competitor for AP reps at the moment. (watchbus and some other insiders already announced the development of a new AP movement over a year ago)

In order to that we have to mention the huge step forward regarding the clone movements (SH3135, SH4130 and some decent panerai alternatives etc.) which influences the AP world in the future i think.

When we look at the RM011 Calibre from ZF (which should be a clone) we can hope for or expect a clone of the Dubois Depraz module on top of an existing chines base movement (e.g. A2892 or another one). If they are developing this particular key part in the chronograph world i guess there will be the huge step forward everyone is hoping for.
The RM011 calibre is nothing else than the in house RM005 and a DD chrono module on top of it with as many as possible deco plates and bridges to conceal the shiny standard face and give the watch it technical overpriced look (but thats not the point here)

I think there will be something around the corner that is about to surprise us and let us paying more attention to the rep AP section. Even if AP itself don't show too much development in their style and Designs... and when it comes to change we see some new neon or camouflage faux pas

 

[FastPaced]

I have departed from Rolex towards AP. Seems like everyone by me has a few Rolexs, I see at least 3 people a day in passing that have a Rolex on. I have yet to see any AP's in the wild by me.
But as far as Reps go, Rolex Reps do seem like they are advancing and possibly AP Reps going the wrong way. My Noob SA3135 v2 SD4k was a huge improvement in Rolex reps. I was easily able to have gen parts put on it. Only thing that was a bit of trouble (but Adrian did it) was machine the case for a Gen crown tube. But with "bolt on" parts I was able to get it VERY close to my gen for a cost of about $1200.
As stated, AP reps still have big problems as far as Case material being correct, thickness and movement that cause the dreaded in-line crown pushers problem.
Luckily we have modders like Slaughterer, Adrian, Spongbob and Domi that do the work to fix these problems. It does however take up such huge chunks of their time that it probably is a huge burden on them. Parts availability is a big problem and cost of parts is a big problem.
What we need is AP reps with clone movements so that parts can start being interchangeable with Gens like Rolex reps. But for me, I am sticking to APs just because I like them and they don't seem like the "me too" that Rolex has become. Just my 2 cents, probably not even worth a penny.

 

[rolexwatchfan]

What we need is AP reps with clone movements so that parts can start being interchangeable with Gens like Rolex reps.

 

[jmicro]

I used to live in a South American country where most of my friends had APs. I moved to another country and where everyone has Cartiers or Rolex.... I sold most of my franken APs becuase I found the blue dial 15400 just simple and beautiful and the only rep i wear along with my fully modded FC 44mm.

 

[MrBeasy]

Good thread.

I think for me it was a combination of a few points:

1) Wanted a new challenge as I acquired or built many AP Frankens. I have also pushed the modding limit as far as I wanted to on the unfrankennable pieces like GP and LBJ.

2) Lack of readily available post 2014 release AP parts meaning I couldn't Franken the new style Safari or elephant. All my Frankens had the rubber pushers (not ceramic) meaning I felt they were a bit dated.

3) Limited number of options for who could do the machining and Franken build and therefore potentially longer wait times compared to say Rolex Frankens. I understand that there is now really just 2 maybe 3 watchsmiths who can machine and build an AP franken and offers these services to others.

4) Changing taste to smaller face watches. I used to never wear 40mm pieces but now find them very comfortable - I think Rolex are definitely more comfortable daily pieces than AP. Maybe Patek is where I go next...

I still do really like AP though but only Frankens now or super modded pieces that visually get close (e.g. noob GP with the elusive tachy gap). I have a speciaI AP franken kn the works at the moment that I hope to unveil soon.

I think in general the reps produced by JF and noob have too many visual flaws for me and it's painful to think you have to add 300 bucks more in mods on top of say 500 for the actual watch before it becomes close to being acceptable. There are also too many AP variations and releases like hublot whereas I think Rolex have the recognisable 40mm silhouette for gmt and subs which are just... classic.

 

[tosoboso]

slaughterer62 - my dear friend, as you know I haven’t been very active on the forum for completely different reasons.

But I am not abandoning the AP ship. Just taking a sebatical

Still, as you mentioned vintage Daytonas, here’s a recent acquisition of mine which I intend to upgrade to a gen dial and gen movement level but that’s that on the Rolex front for me. I much more prefer the Patek challenge...

Thank you for creating this fantastic thread, it’s thought provoking and will eventually resurrect the AP franken I guess