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I need some advices on 116613LB before buying

KJ2020

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Just to top up on Noob, I have purchased it through Jtime and has gotten the QC photos 2 days back.
All looks great except the SEL is only slightly wrapped but it cannot be seen when on wrist.

Photos for your reference if you're considering Noob V8 116613LB.
zi9nQ.jpg

Thanks for the pics bro. Any idea about the other mid links? I guess you read about member Akilles having that issue and sending his bracelet back.

BTW there is a goldleaf pen mod that can be done on the SEL sides
 
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beanvatan

Renowned Member
26/8/18
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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.

url=https://clickpix.org/image/zoqNW]
zoqNW.jpg
[/url]



Best regard,
Beanvatan
 

MrBi

Horology Curious
31/3/16
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Thanks for the pics bro. Any idea about the other mid links? I guess you read about member Akilles having that issue and sending his bracelet back.

BTW there is a goldleaf pen mod that can be done on the SEL sides

Hey bro, yet to received the watch and will let you know once I got hand of it.
 

JDM180

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Thanks for the pics bro. Any idea about the other mid links? I guess you read about member Akilles having that issue and sending his bracelet back.

BTW there is a goldleaf pen mod that can be done on the SEL sides

Not sure if I said already , but my noob had plated midlinks but bare sel sides
 
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MrBi

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Not sure if I said already , but my noob had plated midlinks but bare sel sides

Yea, was told by Jtime that the midlinks are wrapped but only the SEL sides are bare.
But it is also not really bare as the wrapped gold area is covering the angel when on wrist so can't really see the super small naked area.
 
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JDM180

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Best regard,
Beanvatan

Definitely would benefit from a spongebob insert , not sure if worth getting a gen crystal too as for me the case shape makes it not really worth putting too much money into it.

Looks awesome on those last few photos , looking forward to getting mine now to compare to noob , jf and gen.
 
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JDM180

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Yea, was told by Jtime that the midlinks are wrapped but only the SEL sides are bare.
But it is also not really bare as the wrapped gold area is covering the angel when on wrist so can't really see the super small naked area.

Yeah not a major issue just a nice to have I think , Appears they are still using that not so good dial which is the bigger problem for me, Dont know why they changed it look at the advert photos on some tds pages and you see it is a much better dial rounded markers , better blue with no purple and better text.
 
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mega12

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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.

url=https://clickpix.org/image/zoqNW]
zoqNW.jpg
[/url]



Best regard,
Beanvatan

Nice write up bro
I guess the term you was searching for is called „flip lock“
I agree in everything apart from dial color. Have a gen here and it looks very identical to my ARF.
Only lettering like „Submariner“ etc is way more crisp on gen. But ARF is quiet good IMO


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JDM180

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So... recieved my ARF today. Some pics as promised...
42675ae812ca618d36c694260f509b60.jpg
2b03cda1bd8744d5e09c1d121a9e9073.jpg
127c1faa59f8f682af096caac6698a76.jpg


Skickat från min SM-G973F via Tapatalk


Looking VERY good ! Apart from the case I think we are close to getting a decent 116613 rep !

Is that the eta or 3135 ? I wonder if the parts could be transplanted into a noob case.
 

KJ2020

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Hello, and first of all, I would like to thank everyone for participating in this thread and keep it alive.

zmivc.jpg


Beanvatan

Congrats bro on a great looking piece. Thanks for all the fabulous pics and commentary. Looks like the right side bezel markers are centered OK, maybe that's been fixed. And the bracelet wrapping and SEL covering is good news. You got a great sample, time to enjoy it now!
 
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KJ2020

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Looking VERY good ! Apart from the case I think we are close to getting a decent 116613 rep !

Is that the eta or 3135 ? I wonder if the parts could be transplanted into a noob case.

Everything can be transplanted into a like Noob case, eta to eta, 3135 to 3135

Thinking along those lines myself
 

JDM180

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Everything can be transplanted into a like Noob case, eta to eta, 3135 to 3135

Thinking along those lines myself

Yeah , Wonder how best to go about it since we cant get the noob in 3135 without buying the 116610 , Dont think the arf bezel assembly is straight swap without changing the retaining ring and all those bits too. Might be easier to do the eta and could just swap the movment/dial set and bracelet over.

tbh hoping when I have the arf in hand il be happy enough as it is , Between that the noob the JF , the early BP and a loco louie I'm sure one has to suit me Haha!
 
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membrelli

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A possible solution that I love for problem solution of bad endlink, gold in band not really similar ecc... is a croco band, Fournet has good bands compatible whit buckle Rlx.

In this photo there is not an ARF, but, for I post it for an idea of result


zn0NK.png
 
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KSwatches

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Everything can be transplanted into a like Noob case, eta to eta, 3135 to 3135

Thinking along those lines myself

Really? I’ve had 6 of these. SELs plated all around


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

KJ2020

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Really? I’ve had 6 of these. SELs plated all around


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry, six of what Noobs or ARFs?

The post you quoted was about putting ARF parts onto a Noob case to gain the better lugs - slimmer and greater angle on the tips.

From what I've seen Noob used to have covered SELs but a recently purchased one posted here has just a sliver of coverage on the SEL sides just like Trusty's pics and video show now. ARF on the other hand has been widely inconsistent, some bracelets fully covered, some SEL but no mid links, some mid links but no SEL coverage. Until very recently, that is. Every very recent ARF I've seen has had full side coverage on SELs and mid links. That's the ARF I want to swap everything to a Noob V9 case. Of course the ARF 2824 won't fit, so it'll have to be changed to a 2836.
 

MrBi

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Gotten the watch (Noob V8 116613LB) from Jtime and has wear it today.

Sunburst is amazing and there's no purple hint at all!
 
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