This is a situation where I think the rep looks BETTER than the gen - I prefer the rep second hand AND the rep dial color.
In my short time in this rep arena, I started with wanting reps that were as close as possible to gen. But I've noticed more than one instance where I thought the rep was a better looking style that the gen, and I even regret modifying one of my reps to better approximate the gen. There are some Frankenstein examples out there that are shockingly beautiful and I would much prefer them to a lot of gens of the same make.