JF Royal Oak Extra-Thin Tourbillon
It's finally here, the long awaited JF RO Tourby Rep... Does it live up to the hype??
It certainly appears to be a major improvement over the old RO Tourbillon replica. I'm not sure what factory made that one, but while still a great watch, there were many visible flaws. While this rep is still a far cry from being a 1:1 with the gen, it's still a fantastic watch!
First up, lets take a look at the front of the watch. The bezel 'screws' are much closer to the Gen size and are much better machined. The gold gear beneath the hand stack that pokes out into the Tourbillon opening is bigger as per the gen. The only thing that seems to be a slight step backwards here is the size of the balance wheel. It is noticeably smaller on the new JF Rep, leaving a pretty large gap in the balance wheel diameter to opening diameter ratio. On the Get the balance wheel and the gold gear overlap a bit. The "Swiss Made" printing on the dial is much better on the new JF Rep, as the old was far too large.
The dial pattern is slightly better.. the "squares" of the dial pattern are a bit smaller, but still not as small as the gen dial. There are 5 squares along the top hour marker on the Gen, but only 4 on both Reps due to the larger pattern size.
The JF Rep is ever so slightly thinner than the old rep. But neither come close to the thickness of the Gen.
The caseback movement decoration is substantially better, despite having an "Audemars Piguet" sticker, rather than being engraved with the brand name. The orientation of the gears and such on the JF Rep is correct as per Gen, whereas the old rep had the layout reversed. There is now a Power Reserve Dial, but they made a glaring mistake and left out the PR hand... This was likely because they used the movement renders from AP's website as a reference, and those renders don't include the actual dial hand. A bit bummed about that, but at least its a mistake on the back of the watch. The font of used for the "Royal Oak" engraving at the top as well as the serial number at the bottom is incorrect on both the Reps. But the JF Rep correctly DOESN'T have all the extra engravings around the caseback that were incorrectly present on the old Rep. While hard to tell in the photo, the rear bridge across the Tourbillon has a polished appearance as per Gen, whereas the old Rep incorrectly has a brushed finish.
The bracelet of the JF isn't as "floppy" as the old Rep. Not sure if that is closer to Gen or not.
Old Rep on left, JF Rep on right
Summery
I really like the improvements on this new model, especially considering the movement on my old RO Tourby Rep started having issues coincidentally the day I received my new JF Rep. (I'll be taking the old Rep apart and attempting to fix that or at least diagnose the issue and make another post documenting that) The watch is stunning!
Here's a bonus shot of the reps side by side, plus a shot of the JF next to my Gen Royal Oak 15300OR.
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