Hi folks. Reigniting this thread as I'd like to pull the trigger on this in Rose Gold and have seen that GF now have a V3 of this watch (but from the description it no longer has green AR coating like the V2 (??).
Is there a general consensus on what is the preferred factory? From what I've researched, it seems people lean towards ZF but would value the feedback of the experts here.
Thanks in advance!
People are recommending all sorts. No one has got more than 1 and compared them while writing up something. Well no one outside of some dealers.
I bought the GF V3. It has the cloned 925 movement. According to several sources, the GF's 925 movement is different to the YLF/AZF movement. No comments on whether it is better or worse. I would imagine it is similarly and could benefit from a proper service from a trustworthy and capable watchmaker. The being different seems to check out after carefully viewing dozens of photos and comparing mine with all of them. The engraving and decoration patterns are slightly different to the AZF and YLF versions of this movement.
AZF price is quite appealing. ZF has a lot of fans but a 9015 based movement with mods. Unsure how well that works considering the 9015 isn't designed for this moonphase + date arrangement at all. The distance between date dial and central pinion should be a little off compared to gen since I imagine they used the moonphase at 6 oclock version of the Miyota 9015 to build the modification off? Just guessing.
AZF dial and moon are also decently accurate. In fact the moon disk is considered by some Chinese sellers to be more accurate to gen since gen is not convex like the GF's. AZF apparently nailed the moon closer than the others but the date printing is off.
To be honest, the best choices I worked out would be ZF, GF V3, or AZF. If you care about finish and detail, ZF
apparently is better than the other two (I don't own one). GF is the recommended one by every seller I talked to (quite likely because they make the most money from GF sales compared to the others) and AZF some sellers aren't even that willing to talk about but it seems decent, accurate to gen like the other and has the clone movement which can be a plus to some.
One Chinese seller on video recommended the AZF rosegold variants but GF for steel for some reason. Although he also said the AZF's grey dial is more nicely done than GF's.