Hi guys,
Here's my modest rep Vs. gen comparison. The rep is the now famous CF 116500 white dial, and the gen is a 2013 116520 with latest clasp model and chromalight (blue lume). If it's not obvious, the CF will always be on the left and the gen on the right.
For those wondering, except the bezel and of course the dial, everything else is supposed to be identical between this late model of 116520 and a 116500: case, strap, hands, lume, crystal, bracelet, clasp etc. which makes this comparison relevant. So no point saying "yeah but it's not a 116500", it doesn't matter as I won't be comparing bezel nor dial. There's a potential exception to that which is how the crystal sticks out, I'll share details later.
Overall I'm happy to say that the CF is an amazing rep. It is very well finished and feels premium. The only exception is the bracelet, but the edges are well finished and I'm 100% sure that it will only take an oil bath to make it feel gen like.
The case is an improvement over the Noob case and is very well done, though it still lacks some of the roundedness of the gen, but this is really hard to tell without the gen next to it and super hard to capture on pictures
The bracelet - as I said provided it gets an oil bath - is very good and gen like. SELs are tight and there's no gap between the SEL and the case nor lugs. The only small issue is that SEL recession could be a little bit more pronounced. But even on the gen the recession on a Daytona is much less than on a 116610, so this is a detail that does not bother me. There is a little space between the top of the SEL and the bottom of the bezel but once again it's like gen. The clasp is also very genlike in terms of looks as well as action, with the exception of the small part with the Rolex coronet that is a bit flimsy, which is something that I think should be fixable with grease/oil bath. The extension works great and feels genlike.
Nothing particular to say about the crystal itself, it's clear and reflects light in a similar manner on gen and rep. The only thing that I noticed is that the crystal sticks out a little bit more on the gen than on the rep. Given that one had a metallic bezel and the other one a ceramic bezel, I don't know whether this is normal or not.
As mentioned by some folks here, the crown does have the 3 dots that are on a straight line instead of a curved one. This is a detail that I don't care about but it is there. On the bright side of things, screwing and unscrewing the crown is super smooth and very gen like. Same thing when it comes to winding the movement, it's butter smooth.
Regarding the pushers the overall action is quite good (screwing/unscrewing/pushing), close to gen though a it feels just a little less more tinny, I wonder whether some grease could help. In terms of shape, this has been discussed at length, they are slightly different from gen. Even with zoomed pictures it's hard to pinpoint what exactly the problem is. In my opinion their overall length is ok but they don't screw down quite enough. I'm also wondering whether the part that you screw/unscrew may have an ever so slightly higher diameter on the CF than on the gen.
As I posted in another thread, the rehaut engraving is also quite well done and well aligned, maybe just a little bit shallow but again without the gen next to it it's impossible to tell.
Finally, and this is an opinion no longer a comparison with the gen, the dial is very well finished. Markers look great, printing is sharp and on this white dialed 116500 the subdials look great. The only thing is that I would have preferred a little bit of a warmer white for the color of the dial. But please note that it's a question of personal preference as I do believe that the latest 116500 gens come with that cold white dial as well.
There you go, these are my thoughts and I hope they are useful. Overall it's a great rep so if you're hesitating just go ahead, you won't be disappointed. Here's a few pics as a bonus.
Cheers
