GF Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe

[mgberns]

So this was just posted...

https://www.ts-station.cn/mobile/goods.php?ProId=24504

Actually looks quite good. I wonder did GF just contract out parts or did they do this them selves?

 

[The Rod]

Interesting! A competition between GF and ZF would be good for BP reps! It appears to be basically identical to the one released earlier this year from ZF....

 

[mgberns]

ZF never released a black ceramic. The one you posted from dtime never made it to other TDs. Moreover, the back of the watch was stamped "steel", where this one is proper "zro2". This one also had proper bezel assembly and hands. Date wheel looks a little off but close enough..

 

[The Rod]

ZF never released a black ceramic. The one you posted from dtime never made it to other TDs. Moreover, the back of the watch was stamped "steel", where this one is proper "zro2". This one also had proper bezel assembly and hands. Date wheel looks a little off but close enough..

Interesting, I didn't notice those details. Hmmm, I would be very curious to see GF taking a stab at the Grey Ceramic Bathyscaphe we have recently purchased and see if they can one up ZF in terms of QC

 

[dashindark]

This one is apparently better than the blue ceramic and the ordinary grey ones. But the back is still not accurate. GF refined the deco plate so that the bronze dirt would not fall and obstruct the movement and this is good news.
I believe that the factory can do better than this with the Hangzhou 7xxx movement. I guess it can actually be modified and make the location of the balance wheel to match that of the gen just as what they did to the ZF aquanaut.

 

[ZoomBoy]

What movement is actually in these Bathyscaphe reps anyways? Miyota?

 

[The Rod]

This one is apparently better than the blue ceramic and the ordinary grey ones. But the back is still not accurate. GF refined the deco plate so that the bronze dirt would not fall and obstruct the movement and this is good news.
I believe that the factory can do better than this with the Hangzhou 7xxx movement. I guess it can actually be modified and make the location of the balance wheel to match that of the gen just as what they did to the ZF aquanaut.

What do you mean with that? Where is this "bronze dirt" on the deco plate?

 

[The Rod]

What movement is actually in these Bathyscaphe reps anyways? Miyota?

As dashindark said it's a Hangzhou 7000 series

 

[dashindark]

What do you mean with that? Where is this "bronze dirt" on the deco plate?

I mean: the deco plates on both ZF (blue&grey) and GF (black) are not made of stainless steel. If the watch is not airtight, the deco plate would get rusted. It can be sooner or later to get some rust stains on it or inside it, and then the particles resulted from the rust can fall into the movement, obstructing its function. Your watch would stop working then.
GF allegedly sorted out this issue by using a refined deco plate.


Who knows. It may be but a marketing ploy by GF to outmatch ZF, the QC from ZF has indeed been disastrous for a long time though, especially with their IWC reps.

Using Hangzhou 7xxx is truly good news. The movement is a Chinese in-house, cheap, robust, and new. It has modern specs with a long PR. Its instant date-flip and bi-directional winding make it a lot better than the freaking noisy miyotas with the incorrect progressive date change function.
I hope they replace everything made with miyota with HZ stuff or 2892 (ST18 series) in future.

 

[mgberns]

The back matters a little bit less than the details in the front. The likelihood I am ever taking off my watch and handing it to someone is pretty small.

However, movement issues are definitely real, and it's good that the GF version seems to have a reliable one..

 

[mgberns]

On another note, these advertised rep prices are getting high. It seems which ever dealer posts the price first, everyone else follows suit. I can remember two ocassions now where I purchased a watch before the pricing hit td websites and it was sognficantly cheaper than advertised on TDs. One of the two being relatively recent with the blue Bathyscaphe.

Then when you go back and ask for a price once "retail" has been establish, it's the higher price. What an interesting game...

 

[ZoomBoy]

I imagine the higher price on this one is due to the high scrap rate and the "new" materials used. If GF releases a blue variant I might be interested.

 

[The Rod]

I mean: the deco plates on both ZF (blue&grey) and GF (black) are not made of stainless steel. If the watch is not airtight, the deco plate would get rusted. It can be sooner or later to get some rust stains on it or inside it, and then the particles resulted from the rust can fall into the movement, obstructing its function. Your watch would stop working then.
GF allegedly sorted out this issue by using a refined deco plate.

May I ask you where you read this? Chinese forum? In any case if the watch is water tight I guess it shouldn't be so easy that the deco plates rust. Remember that bridges in most watches are actually rhodium plated brass...

 

[mgberns]

The blue version is ZrO2/ZrC, where as the black version is just ZrO2, on originals anyway. So as far as new materials, there aren't any on the black version. The gray ceramic material is relatively new and I can't think of any other watch brand other than Rado (maybe Omega too) that uses plasma ceramic.

To be fair regardless the price, we are being provided high quality replicas at a fraction of their genunie counterparts. To be able to enjoy the aesthetics of the real deal and at a fraction of the cost is great. However, at the inconsistency of cost begs to question how price is truly broken down. I'm sure there is a lot going on behind the scenes we don't know about. Just like how when you buy a genuine watch, the cost is far less the materials, and more what goes into it like marketing. The marketing budget some of these luxury brands have are huge!

 

[mgberns]

The question is..do we wait for ZF to come out with their black ceramic or pull the trigger on this GF one? Thanks engravings look a little bit shallow for me. Especially on the bezel.

 

[The Rod]

The question is..do we wait for ZF to come out with their black ceramic or pull the trigger on this GF one? Thanks engravings look a little bit shallow for me. Especially on the bezel.

If you are interested in the black ceramic version you should go for this one, in my book GF > ZF when it comes to quality. The issue is that very often ZF is the only factory replicating certain specific models but if you got a better alternative you should take it

 

[mgberns]

ZF makes some really good reps. Their QC maybe really shitty, but as far as replicating from a genuine sample, they do a good job. The QC also comes down to the TD, as I'm pretty certain during assembly, the factory tolerances are much wider than forum consumer tolerances.

This GF has some really shallow bezel teeth though..

Gen's bezel teeth for comparison..

 

[mgberns]

..and just posted on perfect clones for $50 less..

I'm still uncertain about the depth of the bezel teeth..

 

[The Rod]

It's out also with puretime:

https://puretime.io/featured-produc...ail-canvas-strap-a1315-free-rubber-strap.html

I have to say that the deco plate does look better as it has more depth compared to the one on the ZF...

 

[mgberns]

Yea, the puretime pictures definitely provides better clarity..

Tbh, the last thing I am looking at on reps is the back movement..

The two things that stand out to me on the GF version are the depth of the bezwl scallops and the Pearl. The bezel scallops, looks a little bit shallow but possibly acceptable. The pearl is like a pimple waiting to pop however. Gen pictures and even on the ZF reps, it's more recessed..