First rep review - Omega 300 SMP "Lite"

[speedyfan]

I bought my first rep because I really wanted to know how good they are vs gen watches. In summary: I love it. Yes you can clearly tell it is not a gen watch (more on that below) but it's still a very attractive watch in its own right.

But before I get to the photos and comments, there are three things I want to make clear:

1. The watch I chose is, I think, towards the cheaper end of the rep market at £150/$190. I suspect the more you spend, the fewer noticable differences you'd find when compared to a gen watch. But whatever: my first one cost £150; I received it within 48 hours of ordering it; and it is a rep of a watch I already own, so it was a low-risk way for me to dip my toe in this hobby.

2. I do not pretend to be watch expert. I buy gen watches I like, but i don't spend hours scrutinising every detail. I don't know much about movements in gens, never mind reps. And I'll be honest, I didn't really do any research before I bought either. I registered on here on Weds and had the Watch by Friday morning. So I am sure there will be LOADS more differences than the ones I set out below, but these are just the ones that stood out to my untrained eye after an hour or so of wearing the rep.

3. I am objectively setting out the differences between the rep and the gen because that is what is interesting to me. How accurately can someone working in a tiny factory in Asia replicate a watch made under perfect conditions in Omega's state-of-the-art factory in Switzerland? These differences are not complaints or criticisms. I do not expect that a £150 watch could or should really be equal to a £5200 gen. I am not belittling the efforts of the rep factory here, just pointing out what the differences are.

Main visual differences

Coating/crystal
The one difference that was immediately obvious to me was the coating on the crystal. It makes a really obvious difference between the rep and the gen. This shot is backlit, and it is just so obvious:



Engraving

The engraving on the gen is noticably sharper and finer than the engraving on the rep.



Dial/waves

Similarly, the laser cut waves on the dial are sharper on the gen than the more rounded equivalent on the rep. I struggled to photograph this properly as I just had my phone on me and the issue with the coating on the crystal made it tricky. I may give it another go with my DSLR and my lightbox at some point. In the meantime tho, here is what I have:


That's it. Those are the three differences that I think I'd spot within a few seconds and mark this watch out as an obvious rep.

Other visual differences- I had to look for these

Case

The rep's case is rounded off a bit more than the gen, which looks sharper.



Bezel

The blue ceramic on the gen bezel is flush with the steel; on the rep it is slightly recessed. You can also see the pearl here on the gen sits proud of the bezel; wheareas on the rep it is flush. I actually prefer the flush syle on the rep.



Non-visual differences

Movement. Clearly this is a visual difference too, but that goes without saying surely so I've not bothered photographing it. However the movement in the rep (Miyota 821A hacking) is noisy! The rotor makes a right racket as I move around. As does winding the crown or changing the time.

Bezel. The Bezel on the gen is quite stiff. The bezel on the rep is far looser and there is a tiny bit of play in it.

Bracelet: Clearly I don't have the gen bracelet but I note the rep's version did not have the easy micro-adjustment thingy. I've not really focussed on the bracelet tho as I have no point of comparison. I do like it though, and prefer it to the rubber strap that I have on my gen.

Does any of this matter?

Not really. Is it as good as the gen? Of course not. While I actually prefer the bezel pearl on the rep, the other differences are all things that the gen does better. Which you would expect, given the bloody enormous price difference, and the conditions under which the watches were made.

Would an untrained eye tell them apart? Yep, the lack of coating on the crystal alone instantly marks it out as a rep.

Am I happy with it? Absolutely. it is still a beautiful watch. It functions, it looks good, and I am amazed at just how close it gets to the gen for half the price of a Seiko 5 equivalent. I am in awe frankly of the industry that put this together and got it to me in a matter of days.

Will I wear it instead of the gen? Yep. Not to work (I think it's obviously a rep and I am sure some colleagues would recognise that, and in my industry it would not be the done thing to wear a rep). But doing anything active, or out in the pub with my friends etc then absolutely I will.

Will I buy more? Almost certainly (and the buying experience was excellent, thanks to Repsource-UK). A speedmaster is next....

 

[speedyfan]

Apologies for not cleaning the watches properly before these photos.

 

[eBoy]

The watch I chose is, I think, towards the cheaper end of the rep market at £150/$190. I suspect the more you spend, the fewer noticable differences you'd find when compared to a gen watch.

Your suspicion is correct. If you spend roughly twice as much or a bit more, the quality increases exponentially. That's why most people here will recommend to you that it's better to go high-end, because you're getting a lot more "bang-for-the-buck".

Thanks for the detailed review. Your contribution is very valuable, because typically watches of the low-tier or mid-tier (like yours) are a bit of RWI step children, so to speak, because everyone prefers the high-end ones, which in turn leads to content about watches in the lower categories being more scarce.

 

[PTwatchLover]

Thanks for the review. Interesting reading. I hope you buy a high end rep of that watch soon so that you can make another review and post the differences between the 3.

I have a low end and an high end replica of that watch and they are VERY different, although I don't have a gen to compared them with.

 

[dpd3672]

I think it's extremely valuable to see what different price points give you for your money, and also what they don't. The higher end reps seem to get the vast majority of attention here, but not every situation calls for a nearly perfect rep, and it's, frankly, not always practical to chase the best, every time, for all kinds of reasons.

My own collection is a mixture of high-ish end gens (SS Omega and Rolex and Breitling, but nothing like 18k Lange and Patek and AP), and what I feel are good "bang for the buck" reps...I'll spend the money for VSF and Clean when it's substantially better, but I can also live with the mid (and even, sometimes, low) tier stuff for watches I don't care about as much. Some homages and absolute bottom of the "horological totem pole" stuff that I'm attached to for my own reasons rounds out the stable...every one of us collects different things for different reasons, and there's no "right" way to do it.

As the poster above mentions, "bang for the buck" can increase exponentially as you spend more, but there's also a point where it starts to drop off exponentially as well. If $300 gets you 90% there, $350 might get you 95% there, and $500 can get you 98% of gen...but you can spend another $10k getting another 1%, and the only way you get the last 1% is by going gen, so at some point, chasing perfection becomes self-defeating. Each of us decides where that point lies.

VSF makes an outstanding Submariner rep for $500-700, and many here choose those...but Marv sells a pretty damn good Cartel Sub for just over $100...lots here have those as well; many have both. The Cartel Subs are worn both out of the box and with hundreds or thousands of dollars invested to make them more authentic, depending on the desires and resources (and OCD, lol) of the owner.

I guess my point here is that while this site mostly focuses on the "best of the best" and cutting edge replica watches, there is some value in exploring what's being done on the other tiers...sometimes it can be surprising how cheap "good enough" can be.

 

[speedyfan]

Thanks for the comments all. As I said up front: I did almost no research here, I just found a trusted seller in my country that had stock in my country and had a rep of a watch I liked at a price I was willing to pay to satisfy my curiousity. I was keen to just jump in straight away or else I'd face decision paralysis.

But now I've taken the first step, these comments are encouraging. I'd happily pay double for a rep that fixed the three main issues I set out above and had a quieter movement (and one that looks a lot more like the gen movement too - I believe they make clones of Omega movements so that would be on the "must have" list for the next one).

So that might be my next task then: I have the gen and the entry-level rep, but can I find one that sits somewhere in the middle with no obvious visible tells? I'll get hunting.

 

[PTwatchLover]

@speedyfan You'll probably find this interesting:

Seamaster 300 Blue: A comprehensive comparison of GEN, VS, OR, ZF and AG

VSF Omega seamaster 300 comparison

 

[speedyfan]

That's incredible! Thanks. Although it rather takes the fun out of doing the research because someone has done it!

Having read that I can see LOADS more differences between mine and the gen now. The 12 o clock markers being one.

Right, off to find out how to get a

 

[eBoy]

As the poster above mentions, "bang for the buck" can increase exponentially as you spend more, but there's also a point where it starts to drop off exponentially as well. If $300 gets you 90% there, $350 might get you 95% there, and $500 can get you 98% of gen...but you can spend another $10k getting another 1%, and the only way you get the last 1% is by going gen, so at some point, chasing perfection becomes self-defeating. Each of us decides where that point lies.

That's an excellent observation. It's the same with cars, at a certain point, every extra 10k you spend, the performance increase curve gets much flatter. It's probably a curve that looks like a reversed Nike swoosh. Except that the longer part of the swoosh doesn't point downwards, but upwards. I don't know if that makes sense.

But anyway, it seems that the price range of 350 to roughly 700 or 900 USD seems to be the optimal "sweet spot" of the price / offering ratio for reps.

 

[speedyfan]

It's the law of diminishing returns. I suppose it's obvious that it applies to reps as much as any other product.

In any event I am off to find a VS version based on the info shared abovel ideally in green or white. You are not wrong- the delta between my entry level rep and the VS version is huge.

 

[capri_auto]

Great comparison post! Its interesting to see a comparison of the mid range reps. The cost of a ZF or VSF is pretty reasonable, but even this lower cost options is fairly close to gen, at least for most people.

 

[Snooky]

Great comparison post! Its interesting to see a comparison of the mid range reps. The cost of a ZF or VSF is pretty reasonable, but even this lower cost options is fairly close to gen, at least for most people.

This is my current dilemma. I currently have a ZF on order, but I also want another colour dial. So do I next try a GDF / Lite just to have a different colour but risk not wearing it. Or do I just go with ZF again..?