First up ... AP 15202.
I always find these watches with Miyota 9015 a bit of a pain to service - The way you have to case them up, and the faux plates on them make them difficult. The miyota 9015 movement itself isn't too bad, its just everything around it. To be fair though I actually quite liked this particular one, the faux bridges all came off in one go once 2 screws were removed. Sometimes its difficult just to work out what screws are real and what ones aren't!
If people are unaware what im on about, to make it look more like the movement its trying to replicate, faux plates are stuck/ screwed over the top of the actual movement.
How the movement looks to start with - rotor removed :
Then once faux bridges are removed - looks like a different watch!
Next a Rolex Sub with the VSF 3135 movement in - Ive done a few of these now and I have to say I find them a little scary, obviously someone that knows what they are doing will know its a rep, but its very very good at first glance. God knows where these are going to be in another 5 - 10 years - very hard to distinguish from the gen Id imagine (as if they aren't difficult enough already!) I actually had a chat with my watchmaking friends the other day and showed them these pictures, they were shocked there are rep movements this good. Personally I think the regulating arm on the balance is the biggest give away at the moment, if they can somehow sort that, it becomes very difficult for anyone other than watchmakers and people in the know of reps to distinguish.
Never a dull day working on reps though!
52
I always find these watches with Miyota 9015 a bit of a pain to service - The way you have to case them up, and the faux plates on them make them difficult. The miyota 9015 movement itself isn't too bad, its just everything around it. To be fair though I actually quite liked this particular one, the faux bridges all came off in one go once 2 screws were removed. Sometimes its difficult just to work out what screws are real and what ones aren't!
If people are unaware what im on about, to make it look more like the movement its trying to replicate, faux plates are stuck/ screwed over the top of the actual movement.
How the movement looks to start with - rotor removed :
Then once faux bridges are removed - looks like a different watch!
Next a Rolex Sub with the VSF 3135 movement in - Ive done a few of these now and I have to say I find them a little scary, obviously someone that knows what they are doing will know its a rep, but its very very good at first glance. God knows where these are going to be in another 5 - 10 years - very hard to distinguish from the gen Id imagine (as if they aren't difficult enough already!) I actually had a chat with my watchmaking friends the other day and showed them these pictures, they were shocked there are rep movements this good. Personally I think the regulating arm on the balance is the biggest give away at the moment, if they can somehow sort that, it becomes very difficult for anyone other than watchmakers and people in the know of reps to distinguish.
Never a dull day working on reps though!
52
