Hey everyone,
So I joined this forum back in October of 2012 i think, and i searched and searched and found that there was absolutely no love for the Portofino Moonphase around here.
Well, after thinking about it for a bit, i decided to bite the bullet and jump on a $108 dress watch. I wanted to post a small review here for everyone. I apologize in advance for the iPhone pics, i promise to get better pictures with my nikon later.
For now lets start with a few pictures of the gen to wet the whistle:
So first lets agree on one thing. This is my no means a super rep, and for $108 i would not expect it to be one. That being said. This watch is Stunning and the pictures do not do it any justice. But for the sake of argument I can go over the flaws here.
At first glance we see several things that are incorrect. First and foremost this is not a real Moonphase Complication (But we all knew that) this is however and fully functioning sun/moon subdial. And it looks pretty nice. On the Gen this is a different color (more beige i would say) on the rep it is silver.
Also there is a silver lining that surrounds both subdials. This is also missing on the gen. Rep subdials are also a tad bit smaller. On the gen you can see that the subdials cut off some of the numbers (11 & 1 up top and 5 & 7 on the bottom)
Also i believe on the gen there is a sunburst effect that makes the dial seem grey at times. The rep has a solid back dial which does look nice but is missing that sunburst effect. The lugs look pretty good to me as do the hands and crystal. (There is a slightly recessed cp on the rep)
The crown is another flaw. The gen crown has an entirely different shape. Not sure if the crown that is on the rep even exists for gen watches but it is not correct in any case.
The movement is entirely wrong. But we already knew that one. Not sure why they did not at least try to do a modified version of the FA Jones movement, but i guess they dont have a way of putting that sun/moon dial in there.
That being said, this picture does not give the movement any justice what so ever. The bridges you see here reflect light in a very interesting way. the movement in real life looks fantastic. Obviously anyone with IWC experience would tell in a split second, but to the rest of the 99.99999% of us out there, movement will look great!
One small pet pieve though, one part of the movement states Eighten (18) Jewels. Damn that Chinese spelling.
Overall, let me say that i really do love this watch. It feels fantastic on the hand. The movement is really loud (which i like - some people dont). For $108 its a steal. Compared to some of the things that we see selling for quadrouple the price, i feel that the craftsmanship that went into this watch is truly amazing. I am afraid my pictures dont show that, so i will definitely do a little photo shoot in the next few days to show what I mean.
Thoughts and comments are always welcome! :cheers:
So I joined this forum back in October of 2012 i think, and i searched and searched and found that there was absolutely no love for the Portofino Moonphase around here.
Well, after thinking about it for a bit, i decided to bite the bullet and jump on a $108 dress watch. I wanted to post a small review here for everyone. I apologize in advance for the iPhone pics, i promise to get better pictures with my nikon later.
For now lets start with a few pictures of the gen to wet the whistle:
So first lets agree on one thing. This is my no means a super rep, and for $108 i would not expect it to be one. That being said. This watch is Stunning and the pictures do not do it any justice. But for the sake of argument I can go over the flaws here.
At first glance we see several things that are incorrect. First and foremost this is not a real Moonphase Complication (But we all knew that) this is however and fully functioning sun/moon subdial. And it looks pretty nice. On the Gen this is a different color (more beige i would say) on the rep it is silver.
Also there is a silver lining that surrounds both subdials. This is also missing on the gen. Rep subdials are also a tad bit smaller. On the gen you can see that the subdials cut off some of the numbers (11 & 1 up top and 5 & 7 on the bottom)
Also i believe on the gen there is a sunburst effect that makes the dial seem grey at times. The rep has a solid back dial which does look nice but is missing that sunburst effect. The lugs look pretty good to me as do the hands and crystal. (There is a slightly recessed cp on the rep)
The crown is another flaw. The gen crown has an entirely different shape. Not sure if the crown that is on the rep even exists for gen watches but it is not correct in any case.
The movement is entirely wrong. But we already knew that one. Not sure why they did not at least try to do a modified version of the FA Jones movement, but i guess they dont have a way of putting that sun/moon dial in there.
That being said, this picture does not give the movement any justice what so ever. The bridges you see here reflect light in a very interesting way. the movement in real life looks fantastic. Obviously anyone with IWC experience would tell in a split second, but to the rest of the 99.99999% of us out there, movement will look great!
One small pet pieve though, one part of the movement states Eighten (18) Jewels. Damn that Chinese spelling.
Overall, let me say that i really do love this watch. It feels fantastic on the hand. The movement is really loud (which i like - some people dont). For $108 its a steal. Compared to some of the things that we see selling for quadrouple the price, i feel that the craftsmanship that went into this watch is truly amazing. I am afraid my pictures dont show that, so i will definitely do a little photo shoot in the next few days to show what I mean.
Thoughts and comments are always welcome! :cheers:
