Hello, and first of all, I would like to thank everyone for participating in this thread and keep it alive. And secondly, now that the wait is over and I have the watch on hand. Therefore, I will post pictures of the watch as promised. So we all could study it and so that in the future if any of the members would like to buy the watch, from the same manufacturer will have some expectation of what they might get.
First, and mainly is for the new members. If you order a watch from any TDs (Trusted Dealers) on the forum, the packet you will get is packing like the picture below:
I know you would be very excited to see your watch inside, but!!!! Hold on to your horses there! Because not all factories will be proving you a plastic box, as the ARF does. Most of the time, if you ordered a low-end replica watch from any of the factories. The watch will only be with plastic-wrapped! So please, be careful when unboxing your watch.
After unboxing, I when straight for checking all the markers on the bezel and the markers on the dial. The inscriptions seem to be OK. However, some of them have a little dirt on them. Which is normal and as expected from a replica watch. Here are the pictures.
As you can see, there are little tiny black particles that lay inside of the engraving on number 10, 40, and 50. I am no expert yet, so I could not tell the differences from the bezel teeth. Therefore, no comment for me. However, if any of the experts out there would like to comment on this, your welcome to do so. And please, do so! So that we (the newbies) can learn a thing or two from it. Thanks in advance.
Next, I will show the pictures of the SELs.
KJ2020, brother, I know this is what you have been waiting for a while. I took your advice on how to take pictures of the SELs, and here is it.
Good Lord, it is plated! And the gold color looks correct too. I am happy with the result. Even though the bracelet is 904L steel, but it feels very light for some unknown reason. When I first unwrapped the protective plastic cover, I was surprised! Compare this new bracelet to my previous ARF 116613 LN. The LN bracelet seems to have more weight, therefore better quality than this. I also think that ARF is stepping up their game. Look how much the gold plating on the clasp end.
I love it so far! Next is the clasp holder (sorry, I do not know if this is the correct term for it. Feels free to correct me, though, as I am still new to the terms). The plating on the outside is magnificent. However, when I inspect the other side of the clasp, it was clear to me that the factory is careless about the little details. Not so much gold plating there. No problem, I again, took the advice from KJ2020. I took the gold leafing pen and color onto the weak gold plating area, and now it looks better!
I am moving on to the engraving of the case and the dial color. What can I say about the bluesy? It is just beautiful, as it is. However, the color of the dial looks a bit off to me. I do not know how to explain this, but to me, the gen dial look brighter under the sunlight! And it is standout out more. ARF is OK, and I would give it 8/10. There still be room for dial improvement in the future! About the engraving, though! I am thinking of having the engraving redone by one of our modders. The crown symbol is looking bad!
Next is the gold color. The gold color of this watch is looking better than my previous 116613 LN. It seems like the gold color is correct. Therefore, closer to the genuine. Compare the two gold color of the new and old bracelet in the picture below:
Just in case you got confused. The lighter gold color is the new 116613 LB, and the darker gold color is the previous 116613 LN.
Next is the movement inspection! I am currently working on my watch repair license, and therefore I do not have the machine to test the movement yet! Even if I have the tool, I would have less to no idea of what the device is telling me. So sorry for not having more details on the movement. However, I noticed that one of the teeth of the reversing wheels is missing color! Oh darn! Even though this is a new watch. On the flip side, though, the movement is running, which is good enough for now.
In conclusion, if you are not picky about these flaws, then it is an excellent out-of-the-box (OOB) submariner experience. You would love it; however, If you like me, I am OCD about these flaws, cause I know they can be correcting through a process called "modding," so I will go ahead and get that done. I will send this to Spongebob for bezel modding, and I am currently looking for a modder who can work on the 904L steel case to redos the engraving, and maybe I will have the modder work on the case also. Long story short, nothing beat gen. You have to pick the flaws you can live with and accept it. Here are more pictures of the watch. Thanks for spending time with this thread.
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Best regard,
Beanvatan