Dissecting the AP JF V5 15400 (blue dial)

[chigganv]

Hello,

I just wrote a wall of text but somehow I accidentaly pressed ESC and removed it all. So now I'm writing a bit shorter.
I bought my first rep watch "AP JF V5 15400 (Blue dial)" from puretime

Im happy with the watch overall, its a 450$ copy of a 20-30k$ watch. You cant expect perfection - or - can you?
First of all, whats good with the watch?
- The case, bracelet, clasp, hour markers and hands. They are "close enough" to gen now with the V5. And also the AP logo on the dial is great.

What can be made better? And also, why I think it wont be made better in a long time. Sadly.
The paint job on the dial. Everything is quite bad here except the blue coloring.
1. The white markers are to faint.
2. The "Swiss made" is to faint, especially the "e".
3. The "Audemars Piguet" and "automatic" is to narrow compared to gen. Please see attached picture! (The 2 upper is my rep in different lightning, the 2 lower is gens)

What is strange, is that if you compare this picture with gen: https://puretime.io/media/catalog/pr...9030103-02.jpg
Its actually a little thicker "Audemars Piguet" & "Automatic" text, more like the gen. But not on the QC pictures or the actual watch? I guess the paint job can differ from watch to watch.

What is okay, but still needs some work?
1. The AP logo on the clasp could be even better. Its good enough now but everything can be improved
2. The Rotor engravings!
3. The crystal could be clearer. Dont get me wrong, the crystal its one of the best reps but its not as good as the gen.

So, if the biggest issues is merely paint jobs on the dial, why isnt it being fixed?
Its not a matter of cost or technology. I'll give you a thought. Lets say JF or OMF released a perfectly good dial and a perfectly good copy of a real AP 15400. What would happen?
- Everyone would buy the watch and be happy. And then, no one would buy another watch.
Why? Because everyone already has a perfect watch. Its that simple.
So what do they do instead?
They release 1 or 2 updates per version. Just like the phone companies Iphone, Samsung and Huawei.To keep the customer purchases flowing and make more money.
I'm not here to bash them for it or say that I dont understand them. Becasue I do. But its sad for us customers.

My personal opinion is that I'd rather pay 1000$ for a perfectly good copy than 450$ for a copy that easily could have been better with a little change in the paintings. The paint job is not rocket science.
The OMF factory did a quite good job on the dial paintings minute markers and swiss made (with cheating plate for swiss made). As well as the rotor engravings which seems good. The "Audemars Piguet and Automatic" still to narrow and the rest of the watch, I'd say JF beats them on every part.

SUMMARY:
If JF could paint the minute markers and "Swiss made" better. And make the Audemars Piguet & Automatic thicker.
The watch would be almost perfect.

I hope you liked this post. Its my first Rep watch and First review. But definitely not my last ones!

 

[chigganv]

Update:

I wanted to share some really nice pictures of the watch aswell. Sometimes it comes down to the right light! puretime

This is the exact same watch, but in a better lightning. You can see the minute markers way better, even tho they are still to narrow/faint compared to Gen.
Sorry for the hair/dirt on the crystal, its on the outside at least hehe

 

[chigganv]

Couldnt embed the last images, sorry!
Here is the link: https://imgur.com/a/nW55mxp

 

[m1994]

Great points of view. Thanks for sharing

 

[Tigerdragon]

You compare 2 different generations of gen blues with the JF but you are right about the printing. You have one of the better ones trust me

 

[Rolemars]

I wonder if the OMF dial can fit the JF case!

 

[chigganv]

I wonder if the OMF dial can fit the JF case!

Ye it looks good. But the "AP" logo is a bit to thick I believe.

 

[Rolemars]

The OMF hour indices are also a bit thicker than JF. Let's wait for real side by side shots

 

[legend]

Hello,

I just wrote a wall of text but somehow I accidentaly pressed ESC and removed it all. So now I'm writing a bit shorter.
I bought my first rep watch "AP JF V5 15400 (Blue dial)" from puretime

Im happy with the watch overall, its a 450$ copy of a 20-30k$ watch. You cant expect perfection - or - can you?
First of all, whats good with the watch?
- The case, bracelet, clasp, hour markers and hands. They are "close enough" to gen now with the V5. And also the AP logo on the dial is great.

What can be made better? And also, why I think it wont be made better in a long time. Sadly.
The paint job on the dial. Everything is quite bad here except the blue coloring.
1. The white markers are to faint.
2. The "Swiss made" is to faint, especially the "e".
3. The "Audemars Piguet" and "automatic" is to narrow compared to gen. Please see attached picture! (The 2 upper is my rep in different lightning, the 2 lower is gens)

What is strange, is that if you compare this picture with gen: https://puretime.io/media/catalog/pr...9030103-02.jpg
Its actually a little thicker "Audemars Piguet" & "Automatic" text, more like the gen. But not on the QC pictures or the actual watch? I guess the paint job can differ from watch to watch.

What is okay, but still needs some work?
1. The AP logo on the clasp could be even better. Its good enough now but everything can be improved
2. The Rotor engravings!
3. The crystal could be clearer. Dont get me wrong, the crystal its one of the best reps but its not as good as the gen.

So, if the biggest issues is merely paint jobs on the dial, why isnt it being fixed?
Its not a matter of cost or technology. I'll give you a thought. Lets say JF or OMF released a perfectly good dial and a perfectly good copy of a real AP 15400. What would happen?
- Everyone would buy the watch and be happy. And then, no one would buy another watch.
Why? Because everyone already has a perfect watch. Its that simple.
So what do they do instead?
They release 1 or 2 updates per version. Just like the phone companies Iphone, Samsung and Huawei.To keep the customer purchases flowing and make more money.
I'm not here to bash them for it or say that I dont understand them. Becasue I do. But its sad for us customers.

My personal opinion is that I'd rather pay 1000$ for a perfectly good copy than 450$ for a copy that easily could have been better with a little change in the paintings. The paint job is not rocket science.
The OMF factory did a quite good job on the dial paintings minute markers and swiss made (with cheating plate for swiss made). As well as the rotor engravings which seems good. The "Audemars Piguet and Automatic" still to narrow and the rest of the watch, I'd say JF beats them on every part.

SUMMARY:
If JF could paint the minute markers and "Swiss made" better. And make the Audemars Piguet & Automatic thicker.
The watch would be almost perfect.

I hope you liked this post. Its my first Rep watch and First review. But definitely not my last ones!

Thank you for the nice review.
The details you mentioned are accurate in general.
I own the black and blue dial gens and I think that they are overpriced for what they are, especially the blue dial versions. For the minute differences, the rep is a good enough substitute to wear daily and not worry about scratches and marring. Yes all the differences you mentioned exists. Yes it’s imperfect. Yes it’s not a super rep and likely never will be. But it works in real life, and the beauty of the watch (accuracy aside) does make it desirable to wear as a substitute for the gen.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rolemars]

Thank you for the nice review.
The details you mentioned are accurate in general.
I own the black and blue dial gens and I think that they are overpriced for what they are, especially the blue dial versions. For the minute differences, the rep is a good enough substitute to wear daily and not worry about scratches and marring. Yes all the differences you mentioned exists. Yes it’s imperfect. Yes it’s not a super rep and likely never will be. But it works in real life, and the beauty of the watch (accuracy aside) does make it desirable to wear as a substitute for the gen.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I wouldn't say it better myself! Today's 15400 reps are more than good enough and you feel better using it as a daily beater. If you run into any issue, it's also cheaper to buy a new one than doing maintenance on a gen AP. :thumbup: A gen AP will always be an amazing piece, but after owning a JF for a couple months, honestly it's hard to justify investing that much money on this particular model.

 

[ilyailya]

What’s the best color ? Is the Thinnes same ? Caseback
thinner ?

 

[Blue Ocean]

Same thickness. I own blue, black and silver. I prefer the blue as the color is very subtle. Unfortunately the Dw background doesn’t match the dial color on the blue even on the v5. Black and silver 15400 do not have this problem. If you want to go Franken later, gen blue dial are very hard to source as well while silver and black are available

 

[Jurgenk]

Thank you for the nice review.
The details you mentioned are accurate in general.
I own the black and blue dial gens and I think that they are overpriced for what they are, especially the blue dial versions. For the minute differences, the rep is a good enough substitute to wear daily and not worry about scratches and marring. Yes all the differences you mentioned exists. Yes it’s imperfect. Yes it’s not a super rep and likely never will be. But it works in real life, and the beauty of the watch (accuracy aside) does make it desirable to wear as a substitute for the gen.

This is incredibly helpful and honest.
I feel that both OMF and JF have captured aspects of the beauty of the gen to varying degrees with respect to different details. And it’s up to the wearer to decide which details matter most. Having said that, do you find the OMF any more/less wearable?

 

[Tigerdragon]

I must say on the blue one the dw on gen had so much different batches over the years it could be just a batch of the gen because even gens did have not matching backgrounds.

 

[legend]

This is incredibly helpful and honest.
I feel that both OMF and JF have captured aspects of the beauty of the gen to varying degrees with respect to different details. And it’s up to the wearer to decide which details matter most. Having said that, do you find the OMF any more/less wearable?

To be honest Jurgenk, I understand we dissect flaws on the rep forums, flaws which are often NOT evident in real life. I think that OMF isn’t as good overall as the JF iteration. But both will be very wearable as nice watches in real life, accuracy aside. I doubt anyone will be in proximity to scrutinize the dial prints, markers, dw and hands unless it’s one of our community guys. Mostly it’ll be a case of “hey nice watch” in real life and nothing further, JF or OMF or even gen.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[iwantaprettywatch]

This is incredibly helpful and honest.
I feel that both OMF and JF have captured aspects of the beauty of the gen to varying degrees with respect to different details. And it’s up to the wearer to decide which details matter most. Having said that, do you find the OMF any more/less wearable?

I agree with legend. I have the gen in black. I think the 15400 rep is much better for daily wear. You will not get spotted unless someone with the knowledge comes up to you and inspect the hands or swissmade print. The tapisserie is only obvious in macro still shots imo.

 

[Rolemars]

I agree with legend. I have the gen in black. I think the 15400 rep is much better for daily wear. You will not get spotted unless someone with the knowledge comes up to you and inspect the hands or swissmade print. The tapisserie is only obvious in macro still shots imo.

Agree Only watch fans know how to spot a fake AP anyway. And let's be honest, most people on earth don't even know what AP is, they just see it as a nice watch. I rather daily wear a nice looking <1k rep without worries about damage / theft than the gen counterpart (RG royal oaks are around 50k). Specially while travelling

 

[iwantaprettywatch]

Agree Only watch fans know how to spot a fake AP anyway. And let's be honest, most people on earth don't even know what AP is, they just see it as a nice watch. I rather daily wear a nice looking <1k rep without worries about damage / theft than the gen counterpart (RG royal oaks are around 50k). Specially while travelling

Personally, I'll only wear reps which I think hits the mark in terms of likeness - visually to gen. Of which without the Franken or heavy modding route, only the fc diver, 9.5 ss and 15400 hit the mark for me. 44 FC is really good too, the rest of which are still missing a thing or two.