Hi Folks,
after my bracelet on my ARF DJ 41 broke after just two weeks of use I randomly decided to buy a gen DJ41 and be happy with it. I invested a lot of time before buying the ARF and literally went through all comparing and opinions in this forum. Since a lot us users aren't watch experts (like me) I decided to do a comparison between an ARF and a GEN Dj and let yo
u guys know the obvious and the not so obvious things from a newbie perspective.
I will rate different watch parts with a "Obvious fake" scale which should give you some input in how far someone could spot this as a fake watch. A 10 would be a "no chance to spot its fake" - a 1 would be "damn, its an obvious fake".
Lets go.
1) Overall Feeling
The overall feeling of both watches is great. The first time I had the ARF in my hand I was a bit confused because the strap made some weird sounds which did not disappear yet. Generally the GEN just feels a tiny bit more stable and heavy and I do not worry that it suddenly will break into thousand parts. For the ARF I had a strange feeling from the beginning and since a part of the clasp broke, I was right indeed. Anyway in a amateur perspective there is no way you can feel that ARF is fake just by the haptic of the watch. They even managed to copy the sound of the clasp correctly which is unbelievable. Even people who had a GEN DJ would not be able 100% to tell that its fake just by the haptic since the metal changes its looking and the feel through the years. Anyways in case of longlivity I am pretty sure the ARF won't perform good. It finish on everything is fine but you can feel that on the background they try to save money to speed up the production process. Gen feels just more durable here.
Conclusion: 8 of 10
2) Dial
The dial used to be a obvious tell in this forum since it seems like its too light on the ARF. This is something I was very scared about when I bought the ARF. My general feeling is that on the first view no one, literally no one is able to tell whether this is fake or not. Anyway interesting things are happening on the different light conditions. The blue of the GEN varies a lot depending on sunlight. It can be very light blue but also literally black sometimes. Under direct sunlight the ARF indeed is too light and it simply looks "louder and purple" than the GEN while then GEN always has a very gentle look.
Something else which I never saw on this forum and what concerned me a lot is the font thickness. Under this image you can clearly see, that the Rolex and the Superlative Chronometer font is thicker on the ARF. I was able to tell this the first time I had the GEN in my hands and I am very surprised that people do not talk about this very often.
Conclusion: 6 of 10
3) Rehaut
The Rehaut is something people are very interested about if they fake check your watch. Anyway there is something I do not understand. A lot of people are mainly focused on checking whether the markers are aligned correctly, which is totally fine on my ARF. So this really isn't a tell in this case. Whats a real tell instead is the sharpness of the rehaut itself. On my ARF I wasn't able to see the rehaut often while wearing it. On my GEN I have the feeling that I can see that crisp rehaut from every angle.
Conclusion: 6 of 10
4) Datewheel
The date wheel is awful on the ARF. I was thinking that the newer batches might be a bit better but they are awful still. You might have some luck and the position of the 20s will be okay but anyway the thickness is an instant tell. Everyone who has a GEN will see this. Since the ARF has not a clone movement the flip between the dates is not aligned to the original way also. The date on the ARF starts to flip step by step 5 min before twelve whereas the GEN instant flips it. I found myself changing the date manually every day 5 mins before 12 since on this time period everyone would have been able to tell that its a fake.
Conclusion: 3 of 10
5) Clasp and bracelet
The general look and feel of the clasp is awesome. I honestly was shocked after I had the GEN in my hands because I was not able to tell a difference. If I would turn both watches around and I would need to decide which one is real I would not be able to do that. Well done ARF.
Conclusion: 10 of 10
6) Clasp Engravings
The clasp engravings are poor on the ARF. Whereas the Rolex engraving is totally fine, the steelinox engraving on the arf is not that precise than on the gen. You can see that without any magnifying glass. Anyway I doubt that someone who does not have this watch in their collection would spot this. You need to know how gen looks to decide this.
Conclusion: 8 of 10
7) Bezel
A lot of people were talking of the poor bezel on the DJ Reps. On all images which I saw before I was not able to tell a difference here but since I have a GEN now I can tell, that shape, color and sun affect is a lot different on the GEN. The bezel of the GEN is simply more precise and is reflecting the light a lot more than the ARF. Also the color seems to be a bit off on the ARF since its not white gold at all. Anyway, as the last time, someone who does not have this watch in their collection would not be able to tell whether this is fake or not. Simply impossible. Don't worry about this, really.
Conclusion: 7 of 10
8) Laser edged crown
The laser edged crown is something a lot of people use to spot whether its fake or not. I did not care too much about this but I realized that I can see that laser crown way more often on the ARF than on the GEN. On the GEN this crown is very hard to see and you will either need very good light conditions or even a magnifying glass to spot it. On the ARF is very very visible and not as precise as on the gen.
Conclusion: 3 of 10
I hope I was able to give you guys a general feeling on how accurate the ARF DJ41 is. I don't regret buying the GEN since its not just about the watch itself. We often forget that paying such a huge amount of money is also something which affects your mindset and rewards yourself. I am pretty sure that I will hand out this beautiful piece my son sometimes and can not wait to go through my life with this timepiece.
Anyway, for sure its a quite strange feeling to know that I paid so much more while having a very genlike ARF at home. Even after so much of research, I would not be able to spot this as fake on someones wrist without giving it a deep look. If I could take the owners arm, inspect it a bit more, I would spot it in 5 seconds now I guess. If you change the DW, I would need 2 minutes I guess.
Let me know if you have any further questions!
after my bracelet on my ARF DJ 41 broke after just two weeks of use I randomly decided to buy a gen DJ41 and be happy with it. I invested a lot of time before buying the ARF and literally went through all comparing and opinions in this forum. Since a lot us users aren't watch experts (like me) I decided to do a comparison between an ARF and a GEN Dj and let yo
u guys know the obvious and the not so obvious things from a newbie perspective.
I will rate different watch parts with a "Obvious fake" scale which should give you some input in how far someone could spot this as a fake watch. A 10 would be a "no chance to spot its fake" - a 1 would be "damn, its an obvious fake".
Lets go.
1) Overall Feeling
The overall feeling of both watches is great. The first time I had the ARF in my hand I was a bit confused because the strap made some weird sounds which did not disappear yet. Generally the GEN just feels a tiny bit more stable and heavy and I do not worry that it suddenly will break into thousand parts. For the ARF I had a strange feeling from the beginning and since a part of the clasp broke, I was right indeed. Anyway in a amateur perspective there is no way you can feel that ARF is fake just by the haptic of the watch. They even managed to copy the sound of the clasp correctly which is unbelievable. Even people who had a GEN DJ would not be able 100% to tell that its fake just by the haptic since the metal changes its looking and the feel through the years. Anyways in case of longlivity I am pretty sure the ARF won't perform good. It finish on everything is fine but you can feel that on the background they try to save money to speed up the production process. Gen feels just more durable here.
Conclusion: 8 of 10
2) Dial
The dial used to be a obvious tell in this forum since it seems like its too light on the ARF. This is something I was very scared about when I bought the ARF. My general feeling is that on the first view no one, literally no one is able to tell whether this is fake or not. Anyway interesting things are happening on the different light conditions. The blue of the GEN varies a lot depending on sunlight. It can be very light blue but also literally black sometimes. Under direct sunlight the ARF indeed is too light and it simply looks "louder and purple" than the GEN while then GEN always has a very gentle look.
Something else which I never saw on this forum and what concerned me a lot is the font thickness. Under this image you can clearly see, that the Rolex and the Superlative Chronometer font is thicker on the ARF. I was able to tell this the first time I had the GEN in my hands and I am very surprised that people do not talk about this very often.
Conclusion: 6 of 10
3) Rehaut
The Rehaut is something people are very interested about if they fake check your watch. Anyway there is something I do not understand. A lot of people are mainly focused on checking whether the markers are aligned correctly, which is totally fine on my ARF. So this really isn't a tell in this case. Whats a real tell instead is the sharpness of the rehaut itself. On my ARF I wasn't able to see the rehaut often while wearing it. On my GEN I have the feeling that I can see that crisp rehaut from every angle.
Conclusion: 6 of 10
4) Datewheel
The date wheel is awful on the ARF. I was thinking that the newer batches might be a bit better but they are awful still. You might have some luck and the position of the 20s will be okay but anyway the thickness is an instant tell. Everyone who has a GEN will see this. Since the ARF has not a clone movement the flip between the dates is not aligned to the original way also. The date on the ARF starts to flip step by step 5 min before twelve whereas the GEN instant flips it. I found myself changing the date manually every day 5 mins before 12 since on this time period everyone would have been able to tell that its a fake.
Conclusion: 3 of 10
5) Clasp and bracelet
The general look and feel of the clasp is awesome. I honestly was shocked after I had the GEN in my hands because I was not able to tell a difference. If I would turn both watches around and I would need to decide which one is real I would not be able to do that. Well done ARF.
Conclusion: 10 of 10
6) Clasp Engravings
The clasp engravings are poor on the ARF. Whereas the Rolex engraving is totally fine, the steelinox engraving on the arf is not that precise than on the gen. You can see that without any magnifying glass. Anyway I doubt that someone who does not have this watch in their collection would spot this. You need to know how gen looks to decide this.
Conclusion: 8 of 10
7) Bezel
A lot of people were talking of the poor bezel on the DJ Reps. On all images which I saw before I was not able to tell a difference here but since I have a GEN now I can tell, that shape, color and sun affect is a lot different on the GEN. The bezel of the GEN is simply more precise and is reflecting the light a lot more than the ARF. Also the color seems to be a bit off on the ARF since its not white gold at all. Anyway, as the last time, someone who does not have this watch in their collection would not be able to tell whether this is fake or not. Simply impossible. Don't worry about this, really.
Conclusion: 7 of 10
8) Laser edged crown
The laser edged crown is something a lot of people use to spot whether its fake or not. I did not care too much about this but I realized that I can see that laser crown way more often on the ARF than on the GEN. On the GEN this crown is very hard to see and you will either need very good light conditions or even a magnifying glass to spot it. On the ARF is very very visible and not as precise as on the gen.
Conclusion: 3 of 10
I hope I was able to give you guys a general feeling on how accurate the ARF DJ41 is. I don't regret buying the GEN since its not just about the watch itself. We often forget that paying such a huge amount of money is also something which affects your mindset and rewards yourself. I am pretty sure that I will hand out this beautiful piece my son sometimes and can not wait to go through my life with this timepiece.
Anyway, for sure its a quite strange feeling to know that I paid so much more while having a very genlike ARF at home. Even after so much of research, I would not be able to spot this as fake on someones wrist without giving it a deep look. If I could take the owners arm, inspect it a bit more, I would spot it in 5 seconds now I guess. If you change the DW, I would need 2 minutes I guess.
Let me know if you have any further questions!
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