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There are 4 3135 clones on the market:
SA3135, SH3135, VR3135 and VS3135.
The reason each of these movements will fail sooner or later, are the reversing wheels.
The SA variant has roller clutch type reversing wheels with rubies as rollers in them. While they work fine, the rubies have a tendency to break and jam the mechanism. These were the least reliable ones.
The SH, VR and VS clones copy the genuine reversing wheels very precisely, while the SH reversing wheels are simply painted, which will eventually flake off and cause trouble. I stripped the paint with acetone on my watches.
The VR reversing wheels are actually great and made fom anodized aluminium almost exactly like the genuine.
I can't comment on VS yet.
BUT they all have a common design flaw:
The metal (probably steel) ring, that's pressed into red wheel itself, is staked to be held in place.
The way the chinese factories stake them is very sloppy and causes many of them to fall apart, hence you'll often read about people recommending to install gen reversing wheels or the full autowind module.
Here's a VR reversing wheel, taken straight out of the ultrasonic cleaner after 5 minutes (note that it has fallen apart and is now considered to be junk):
SA3135, SH3135, VR3135 and VS3135.
The reason each of these movements will fail sooner or later, are the reversing wheels.
The SA variant has roller clutch type reversing wheels with rubies as rollers in them. While they work fine, the rubies have a tendency to break and jam the mechanism. These were the least reliable ones.
The SH, VR and VS clones copy the genuine reversing wheels very precisely, while the SH reversing wheels are simply painted, which will eventually flake off and cause trouble. I stripped the paint with acetone on my watches.
The VR reversing wheels are actually great and made fom anodized aluminium almost exactly like the genuine.
I can't comment on VS yet.
BUT they all have a common design flaw:
The metal (probably steel) ring, that's pressed into red wheel itself, is staked to be held in place.
The way the chinese factories stake them is very sloppy and causes many of them to fall apart, hence you'll often read about people recommending to install gen reversing wheels or the full autowind module.
Here's a VR reversing wheel, taken straight out of the ultrasonic cleaner after 5 minutes (note that it has fallen apart and is now considered to be junk):
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