So some people have seen it, some have not, figured I'd post it here.
This comparison will consist of the Full-Size 42mm gen speedmaster professional moonwatch, and its two rep counter-parts.
The way this review will work is simple. First picture is always the gen moonwatch, second picture is the asian 21 jewel cheapest version, third is the most expensive rep version with sapphire glass front and back, lemania/seagull19(or whatever its called now) handwind movement.
This review will work off the "benchmark system" meaning that the gen is the benchmark and the reps will be compared to the benchmark, and so forth.
So, lets meet our test subjects.
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As you can see from the last picture above, there is a slight reflection in the crystal. This is because it has sapphire or "synthetic sapphire" crystal and its a little bit less photogenic than its mineral or gen - Hesalite which is slightly reflective.
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Speaking of crystals. The first picture you can see the gen distance from the bezel I did not measure it, but it looks about 3mm or so, the a21j is pretty close with its mineral crystal. The sapphire crystal on the high-end rep is flat to the bezel, so obviously the a21j gets the win here.
Also look at the bezels the gen bezel is significantly curved towards the crystal, as is the a21j, the high-end rep is not.
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Of course the one thing on the gen, besides the movement they will seemingly never be able to replicate is the Omega symbol stamped into the Hesalite. It is probably the easiest and most obvious determining factor in quickly checking to see if a moonwatch is a rep or a gen. Of course if it has a Hesalite crystal, if it has sapphire it will not have the omega stamp.
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The bezel font is completely different from gen to a21j to high-end rep. The gen bezel looks very crisp and sharp. Where as the two reps just don't compare. The a21j does not have the accent over the E as the high-end rep does, but the a21j bezel looks a lot more crisp than the high-end rep, since the high-end rep looks like it has a sticker bezel markers and not a wrap-around bezel insert as the gen seems to. The overall font, size of font, and spacing is off (just a little for spacing though) all around, compared to the gen.
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As you can see the sub-dial spacing. This has been the topic of debate in the moonwatch-loving rep community for sometime. This, along with the cystal stamp, are probably the two biggest and easiest indicators if it is a rep or a gen. The gen subdial spacing is very tight and it progressively gets wider as the different movements are added. The a21j is about 1-1.5mm off gen spacing and the high-end rep is about 2-3mm off the gen spacing.
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The subdials themselves are actually very accurate. As you can see the swirl marks have been replicated correctly on both reps, lining up to the six, nine, twelve and three correctly, with enough flat space. The a21j has a slow incline coming from after the swirls as the gen and high-end rep actually have walls which make the subdials indented. The gen has both, slow incline from the swirls and then a wall to give it that deep subdial look. The subdial hand size is correct, except for the middle of the subdial hand, which is obviously different.
Also note that on the a21j the subdial at nine and three are faux and are controlled by the pushers at two and four. The center subdial at six moves along with the hour hand.
On the high-end rep the subdial at three is functional. The pushers at two and four are start and stop/reset. The center subdial at six however runs with the hour hand. Then gen has seconds at nine (as does the high-end rep) and subdials at three and nine are for the chrono.
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The chrono hand and hour/minute hands on the gen are textured. On the two reps they are plastic white. The two reps are relatively correct in terms of hand size, but the chrono lume marker is a little bit off on both the reps, the a21j is a little too small and the high-end rep is a little to wide. You can tell by looking at the hour/minute hands that the lume-fill is different as well as lume texture.
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Speaking of lume-fill and texture, you can see the gen lume being a little bit on the light-green/pastey side and it looks as though it was dropped in by a machine, the a21j is completely off, it doesn't even have the two dots on either side of the twelve o'clock marker. The high-end rep has the lume markers on either side and the lume itself is actually fairly correct in color, except for it looks like lume stickers, not actual lume applied to the dial. As you can see there is some schmutz in one of the lume markers of the high-end rep.
Also helps to see the difference in dials in these pictures. The gen dial is textured and has an indent in the middle of the twelve o'clock lume marker, the two reps do not.
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As you can see the difference in dial text/font is actually very apparent. The a21j has "automatic" instead of "professional" and the high-end rep has slightly different dial font. Look at the A in Omega on the gen and high-end rep, you will see feet on the A on the high-end rep where the gen does not have this.
Also note the dial texture.
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The reps have nothing on the "swiss made" branding of the gen. Improperly spaced as well as incorrect font.
Also take note to the chrono spaces on the a21j they have little black dots on the bottoms. The high-end rep is more true to gen in this issue.
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The gen crown is obviously a little better crafted than the two reps, with less teeth on the crown itself as well as not having to be screwed in. The two reps have to screw in the crowns and screw out in order to set. They also pop-out all the way exposing the threads, where the gen does not, it only pops out a tiny bit to allow for time adjustment. The gen also can be wound when the crown is in the closed position, the two reps cannot be.
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The pushers on the gen protrude a little less than the two reps. On both of the reps you can see the inner-tubes and the pushers almost seem over-sized (though they do not look this way in the picture). I believe Omega's point in this case was to make the pushers smaller than usual as not to get them caught on anything, hit by accident or something of the sort. Though the high-end rep is somewhat closer to gen in this regard
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You can see the gen horse has a little bit more texture as well as detail overall. It looks much better than the a21j rep.
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On the casebacks the font is completely off, the a21j font is much bolder as well as darker, also has that round ring running around the bezel, no doubt a fault of their machining processing. The high-end rep comes with a see-through caseback, I do not have a gen see-through caseback, but when compared to a picture I found on google, they seem to have the correct font, and wording. Obviously movement is different.
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The gen bracelet is really obvious in these pictures as the two reps do not come close. The a21j bracelet is a little bit thinner links and also noticeably lighter, where as the high-end rep has thicker links, heavier bracelet and correct clasp.
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You can tell the difference in quality and workman ship in the two reps as opposed to the gen. The a21j is the wrong clasp, it is the long type, not the short round-contour type. Also the font as well as content is different. The a21j has the correct content, wrong font and wrong clasp. Gen is not as deep of an engraving. The high-end rep seems to have a better clasp, much more sturdy than the a21j.
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The lume of course is very noticeable. The gen moonwatch does not have the best lume in the world, even for a gen, but it does shine very bright, especially when worn outside for a few hours in bright sunlight it'll shine for the entire day with no problem. The two reps simply cannot compete. Though the a21j (on the right in this pix) seems to have pretty good lumed hour/min hands than the high-end rep.
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Conclusion:
As you can see that the gen moonwatch has a lot of little things which can give it away. Those little things you can either live with, or you can angst over and purchase the gen. No matter how much money you spend on a moonwatch rep, unless they decide to release some new version with closer subdial spacing (see new upo chrono), there just is no getting around the subdial spacing.
Overall these are excellent reps. The a21j keeps excellent time as does the high-end rep (seagull). I always prefer to stay true to spec and have a manual hand-wind movement in my watch, especially a moonwatch. If a gen moonwatch is not in your budget, but you can spring for the high-end rep and do not care much about the subdial spacing, you can literally beat the crap out of this watch for a few years daily before you ever need to service it.
Hope everyone enjoyed this comparison!
This comparison will consist of the Full-Size 42mm gen speedmaster professional moonwatch, and its two rep counter-parts.
The way this review will work is simple. First picture is always the gen moonwatch, second picture is the asian 21 jewel cheapest version, third is the most expensive rep version with sapphire glass front and back, lemania/seagull19(or whatever its called now) handwind movement.
This review will work off the "benchmark system" meaning that the gen is the benchmark and the reps will be compared to the benchmark, and so forth.
So, lets meet our test subjects.
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As you can see from the last picture above, there is a slight reflection in the crystal. This is because it has sapphire or "synthetic sapphire" crystal and its a little bit less photogenic than its mineral or gen - Hesalite which is slightly reflective.
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Speaking of crystals. The first picture you can see the gen distance from the bezel I did not measure it, but it looks about 3mm or so, the a21j is pretty close with its mineral crystal. The sapphire crystal on the high-end rep is flat to the bezel, so obviously the a21j gets the win here.
Also look at the bezels the gen bezel is significantly curved towards the crystal, as is the a21j, the high-end rep is not.
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Of course the one thing on the gen, besides the movement they will seemingly never be able to replicate is the Omega symbol stamped into the Hesalite. It is probably the easiest and most obvious determining factor in quickly checking to see if a moonwatch is a rep or a gen. Of course if it has a Hesalite crystal, if it has sapphire it will not have the omega stamp.
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The bezel font is completely different from gen to a21j to high-end rep. The gen bezel looks very crisp and sharp. Where as the two reps just don't compare. The a21j does not have the accent over the E as the high-end rep does, but the a21j bezel looks a lot more crisp than the high-end rep, since the high-end rep looks like it has a sticker bezel markers and not a wrap-around bezel insert as the gen seems to. The overall font, size of font, and spacing is off (just a little for spacing though) all around, compared to the gen.
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As you can see the sub-dial spacing. This has been the topic of debate in the moonwatch-loving rep community for sometime. This, along with the cystal stamp, are probably the two biggest and easiest indicators if it is a rep or a gen. The gen subdial spacing is very tight and it progressively gets wider as the different movements are added. The a21j is about 1-1.5mm off gen spacing and the high-end rep is about 2-3mm off the gen spacing.
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The subdials themselves are actually very accurate. As you can see the swirl marks have been replicated correctly on both reps, lining up to the six, nine, twelve and three correctly, with enough flat space. The a21j has a slow incline coming from after the swirls as the gen and high-end rep actually have walls which make the subdials indented. The gen has both, slow incline from the swirls and then a wall to give it that deep subdial look. The subdial hand size is correct, except for the middle of the subdial hand, which is obviously different.
Also note that on the a21j the subdial at nine and three are faux and are controlled by the pushers at two and four. The center subdial at six moves along with the hour hand.
On the high-end rep the subdial at three is functional. The pushers at two and four are start and stop/reset. The center subdial at six however runs with the hour hand. Then gen has seconds at nine (as does the high-end rep) and subdials at three and nine are for the chrono.
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The chrono hand and hour/minute hands on the gen are textured. On the two reps they are plastic white. The two reps are relatively correct in terms of hand size, but the chrono lume marker is a little bit off on both the reps, the a21j is a little too small and the high-end rep is a little to wide. You can tell by looking at the hour/minute hands that the lume-fill is different as well as lume texture.
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Speaking of lume-fill and texture, you can see the gen lume being a little bit on the light-green/pastey side and it looks as though it was dropped in by a machine, the a21j is completely off, it doesn't even have the two dots on either side of the twelve o'clock marker. The high-end rep has the lume markers on either side and the lume itself is actually fairly correct in color, except for it looks like lume stickers, not actual lume applied to the dial. As you can see there is some schmutz in one of the lume markers of the high-end rep.
Also helps to see the difference in dials in these pictures. The gen dial is textured and has an indent in the middle of the twelve o'clock lume marker, the two reps do not.
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As you can see the difference in dial text/font is actually very apparent. The a21j has "automatic" instead of "professional" and the high-end rep has slightly different dial font. Look at the A in Omega on the gen and high-end rep, you will see feet on the A on the high-end rep where the gen does not have this.
Also note the dial texture.
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The reps have nothing on the "swiss made" branding of the gen. Improperly spaced as well as incorrect font.
Also take note to the chrono spaces on the a21j they have little black dots on the bottoms. The high-end rep is more true to gen in this issue.
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The gen crown is obviously a little better crafted than the two reps, with less teeth on the crown itself as well as not having to be screwed in. The two reps have to screw in the crowns and screw out in order to set. They also pop-out all the way exposing the threads, where the gen does not, it only pops out a tiny bit to allow for time adjustment. The gen also can be wound when the crown is in the closed position, the two reps cannot be.
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The pushers on the gen protrude a little less than the two reps. On both of the reps you can see the inner-tubes and the pushers almost seem over-sized (though they do not look this way in the picture). I believe Omega's point in this case was to make the pushers smaller than usual as not to get them caught on anything, hit by accident or something of the sort. Though the high-end rep is somewhat closer to gen in this regard
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You can see the gen horse has a little bit more texture as well as detail overall. It looks much better than the a21j rep.
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On the casebacks the font is completely off, the a21j font is much bolder as well as darker, also has that round ring running around the bezel, no doubt a fault of their machining processing. The high-end rep comes with a see-through caseback, I do not have a gen see-through caseback, but when compared to a picture I found on google, they seem to have the correct font, and wording. Obviously movement is different.
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The gen bracelet is really obvious in these pictures as the two reps do not come close. The a21j bracelet is a little bit thinner links and also noticeably lighter, where as the high-end rep has thicker links, heavier bracelet and correct clasp.
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You can tell the difference in quality and workman ship in the two reps as opposed to the gen. The a21j is the wrong clasp, it is the long type, not the short round-contour type. Also the font as well as content is different. The a21j has the correct content, wrong font and wrong clasp. Gen is not as deep of an engraving. The high-end rep seems to have a better clasp, much more sturdy than the a21j.
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The lume of course is very noticeable. The gen moonwatch does not have the best lume in the world, even for a gen, but it does shine very bright, especially when worn outside for a few hours in bright sunlight it'll shine for the entire day with no problem. The two reps simply cannot compete. Though the a21j (on the right in this pix) seems to have pretty good lumed hour/min hands than the high-end rep.
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Conclusion:
As you can see that the gen moonwatch has a lot of little things which can give it away. Those little things you can either live with, or you can angst over and purchase the gen. No matter how much money you spend on a moonwatch rep, unless they decide to release some new version with closer subdial spacing (see new upo chrono), there just is no getting around the subdial spacing.
Overall these are excellent reps. The a21j keeps excellent time as does the high-end rep (seagull). I always prefer to stay true to spec and have a manual hand-wind movement in my watch, especially a moonwatch. If a gen moonwatch is not in your budget, but you can spring for the high-end rep and do not care much about the subdial spacing, you can literally beat the crap out of this watch for a few years daily before you ever need to service it.
Hope everyone enjoyed this comparison!
