- 29/1/11
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Received my V5 Diver and also a PAM297 from Toro today. Perfect samples and fast shipping, as always from him.
I am very impressed with the V5 Diver. I have a v4.1 with full Vac mods to compare it with. I will post some pics once I have time. I have had more AP Divers than I'd like to admit - V2, V3, V3.5, V4, V4.1, now V5 - both regular and Vac modded, with multiple samples of some :lol:
I am very impressed with the V5 Diver. I have a v4.1 with full Vac mods to compare it with. I will post some pics once I have time. I have had more AP Divers than I'd like to admit - V2, V3, V3.5, V4, V4.1, now V5 - both regular and Vac modded, with multiple samples of some :lol:
- Strap is much improved and is now nearly identical to the gen. Embossings in particular are much crisper, which was a relatively easy to way to distinguish gen from rep before. Not any more. The solitary remaining tell is the shape at the end of the dual grooves which start at the conversion links, while curved is still more flattened than the gen. The flexibility is a little different too, but unless you have both side by side that won't be useful to distinguish them.
- The bezel screws are just fine, at least on my sample, and are slightly countersunk, although not as much as the gen. Slightly overdrilling the screw holes in the bezel could sink them more, if desired. These screws are something that should be improved in the future from all the factories. Maybe I need to pester Mikey2008 to make some proper AP ROO screws, just as he did for HBB.
- Case and bezel brushing is clearly superior to the Noob, and looks very comparable to the gen. Case shape is supposed to be better too, although honestly I cannot tell much difference. The case back also is better than the Noob, I think.
- AR on the crystal and cyclops is now seemingly identical to Noob.
- Bezel alignment, at least on my sample, is perfect. This was usually not the case on the Noob, but I have not seen enough V5 to know if this is still a common QC issue. As far as the font... well the V4.1 has the correct spacing, but the numerals are foreshortened - I think because the bezel is not quite tall enough. On the V5, the height is now correct but the spacing is a little too wide, looks kind of like the V2. Somewhere half in between would be good :facepalm:
- Lume is very good. I felt all the previous Noob divers really needed relume of the bezel - particularly the V2 which had none - and the hands and indices would then need to be redone to match. The lume on the V5 is not quite as bright as Vac lume but it is good enough that I no longer see relume as necessary. I entertained the idea of transferring the Vac low beat dial/hands/movement en bloc into the V5 but the lume colors are slightly different so that's not going to happen.
- Hands and dial are improved from the V4 and look pretty much as good as the Noob. Second hand is straight, on most if not all Noob divers the end segment is slightly deviated, which may or may not be obvious depending on how deviated it is. I found this more noticeable on my Vac pieces with the 2846 low beat movement.
As you can see Vac lume is a slightly different hue - probably closer to gen since I know he uses the good and expensive stuff - and also is a bit more precisely applied and defined. It also is maybe a little stronger at full charge and slightly more durable. But, considering the V5 lume was not applied by hand by a master like Vac at high expense, wow it is incredibly good and for sure qualifies as factory superlume.
