Thanks guys. Overall it's a pretty critical review. I'm sure those who own the gen and have lived with it would point out a few more things I left out. I don't want to put people off the watches, they are great, but these days people seem to want a very critical breakdown of even the best reps. So I went with that....
It's a difficult watch to review, you could do several reviews of this...vs gen, vs old V5/UPO, 45mm vs 42mm, also Vs general higher end rep quality (AP diver, Laureus Ingy etc). Some things look much more pronounced in pics than on the wrist (e.g. red numerals looks almost dirty at times, this only comes across in blown up pics!, Movement looks a bit shoddy but it is really great when just viewing the watch.)
It was mentioned a couple of times but it just shows how the factories outsource and sub contract so many different parts from various suppliers we end up with things like great AR on one and great lettering details the other . It's pretty clear some of the 42mm came from entirely different suppliers than the 45mm.
Just to clarify on the clasp, the issue was with one watch, but even though the other two were fine they didn't leave me inspired, they are by no means bad clasps its just they fall down when compared to gen and some of the better rep bracelets of the past year. i.e. TC V3, noob explorer II latest (which is great!), JLC NSD etc...
It's most certainly a better bracelet than the old PO bracelet, the endlinks and screwlinks alone make it a better bracelet.
Also I've been wearing the 42mm on the old PO gen rubber for the past couple of days. It's really growing on me more and more and looks great.
I think both watches are quality reps for the price and look really good on the wrist, I think they will sell really well if minor things like the AR on the 45mm is sorted out. They will probably sell really well anyway!
