Good fellas, this is complete crap and suggests a dearth of experience with gens and/or gen-wearing crowds. You can be far, far more confident in the quality of your AP reps than you've come to believe. Yes, there is substantial variation in replication quality from model to model, factory to factory, but there's a damn good reason why it is you will often hear the wisdom around these parts that "the wearer is the biggest tell". The right person can pass of a shitter, whereas the wrong person couldn't pass off a gen.
The knowledge you'll find around these parts is quite literally world-class. There are simply very few people on planet earth who are as familiar with so many of the different batch variations among the gen models, and then the same among the rep models. The "watch enthusiasts" in the real world will be basing their "real or fake" determination, above and beyond anything else, on you. There are so many different potential points of variation, not just from batch to batch, but simply from watch to watch due to different treatment and circumstances associated with how the watch has been worn, maintained, serviced, abused, etc.
I can speak from extensive personal experience wearing reps among gen-wearing "watch enthusiasts" ever since getting into the rep hobby. I'm also rather aggressive about pointing out that what I'm wearing is fake, and talk about the matter excitedly because I find the rep industry to be absolutely fascinating. Half the time, whoever it is I'm talking to doesn't even believe me when I tell them I'm wearing a fake. This is not an uncommon pattern, and the last occurrence was only a few nights ago at an exclusive dinner event associated with a biztech conference with a completely stock AP rep that I was wearing.
Understanding this will give you a very different appreciation for the rep industry. The chasing of unobtainable "perfection" and mods etc. that those of us in this hobby do is primarily about having fun, as the neverending process is the enjoyment in and of itself (even moreso than the obtainment of the finished pieces). Perhaps an easy way of understanding this is to think about replicas in a different context, such as paintings or ancient artifacts. Ownership of these isn't about fooling anyone into thinking that they're genuine pieces, especially when the real ones are world-famous and unobtainable as they're stored securely in a museum somewhere where the general public can admire and enjoy it. Yet, in order for such a piece to be enjoyable to the collector, it's entirely individually dependent as to what "flaws" are acceptable. A replica Van Gogh that looks like it was drawn by a 4-year-old with crayons probably isn't going to be of much value to anyone. Yet, when you have something sufficiently close that required exceptional skill to reproduce, it will be dependent on the person as to the level of acceptable deviation with regard to brush strokes, colors, textures, other details etc. because it's entirely dependent on the individual person as to what aspect(s) of the original painting have the most meaning to them. At no point in this scenario is the collector concerned about getting "called out", because they're enjoying the replica for precisely what it is: a damn replica. And again, at that point, what's acceptable in terms of deviation from the genuine item is simply about individual preference.
