New Noob Daytona 116520 4130 clone build thread.

[Kilowog]

Amazing thread! thanks for the review.

 

[Kwigyboo]

Subscribed! Thanks for the detailed photos and review. Excited to see what this turns into

 

[RolieBoy]

Interesting progress, many thanks for very good rev.


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[AgentPena]

Do anyone know if it's possible to replace this with gen dial without having to cut the feet since it's a 4130 rep? I'm looking to explore this watcg

 

[Drifter]

Subscribed.

Toro has confirmed noob will accept gen dial .

 

[nomana]

Somebody pls mod gen dial and gen insert and sell it to me

 

[The Rod]

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd post a review/build thread for the new Noob 4130 clone as looks like I'm one of the first on here to receive the 116520.

This will start as a review and follow up on my build.

First impressions out of the box were very good.

I'll discuss the pros and cons of the watch, then update when the real parts arrive and are fitted.

The build plan is to turn this into an early/mid 2000's thin hand model.

Plans for this are as follows:

Remove rehaut engraving.
Remove noob lug engravings and re-engrave with a Y serial to be period correct.
Replace dial with a real white 1166520 dial. Early 2 tick if I can find one.
Replace the bezel with a real Rolex bezel.
Replace the hands with real rolex thin hands.
Replace the clasp with a 78490 'hole' clasp. Already sourced from Phong.

Now onto some pictures.

The watch:
BEZEL. In my opinion this could be improved. The are too thin and not deep enough. Having said that I've had a genuine bezel that was also not engraved very deep, the markings were slightly thicker however. It looks to be not as flat as a genuine bezel. I don't have a real bezel at the moment to compare it to, as soon as it arrives I'll update this.Also the 120 mark doesn't line up perfectly with the 6 o clock dial marker. I haven't pulled the bezel off yet but I'm hoping there's no lip under there like on the Noob 2824 version. This will be getting replaced with a genuine bezel.

CASE SHAPE AND THICKNESS. The case shape isn't perfect. When viewed side on its almost flat on the underside, needs more of a curve on the lugs. Nice shape to the side though (
The thickness comes in at 12.8mm including the crystal. Rolex gives the Daytona thickness measurement at 12.2mm. 0.6mm difference. This may be in the crystal, caseback, rehaut etc. I don't know. Crown is excellent as usual from Noob.

CASEBACK. Very good, nice and thin, stampings are very good.

CROWN GUARDS. Again very good. No complaints here, no shaving or mods required imo. PUSHERS. These are very good. Not perfect, but the best ones I've seen on a rep. These are fully screwed in.

REHAUT/REHAUT ENGRAVINGS. The rehaut is a little tall. Fractions of a mm. Engravings are superb...if this was a 116500. It's 'matrix' style when it should be the 'double outlined' on a 116520. All letters line up very well with the dial markers. These are far better than the ARF. The pictures do these no justice

SEL. This is a let down. The SELs are the worst part of this watch. They're shit. This example was the best I could find. Others were far worse. I'm hoping this is a bracelet issue, and not the lugs being out of spec. I'll swap this bracelet over for an ARF and see if that fixes the issue. The photos do exaggerate the gap though, it's not that noticeable on the wrist.

BRACELET. Good feel to it, nice engravings on both the clasp and SEL. cClasp and flip lock nice and snappy. Can't feel any difference between this and my last ARF bracelet to be honest. Polishing is superb and the brushing isn't bad, could be a little courser if I'm being fussy.

LUG ENGRAVINGS: Standard Noob engravings here. The best in the rep game IMO. Nice and light, fonts are spot on. However, this is a 116520, the engravings are for a 116500. Poor form from noob for using the same cases for both the 116500 and the 116520.

DIAL: A fantasy. 2 tick dial on a supposed 2016 model watch. 116520 of this era should have a single tick dial. Text spacing is also from that of a 116500. Looks like noob used the same pad printers on both. The font is also crap, and the R O LEX spacing isn't right. The 'DAYTONA' text colour is also off. Too bright. The subdials have a nice shine, and the printing isn't bad. The markers however are a bit flat.

HANDS: Standard rep hands, a little rough on the edges.

MOVEMENT: The pièce de résistance! I've opened the back up on this and studied it very carefully against genuine picture. It looks to be a complete clone of the 4130. I'm pretty sure it will take real Rolex parts bar the balance assembly. All parts are in the correct position, screws, jewels all look exactley the same. This looks more of an SH4130 than an SA4130. The finishing is very very good for a Chinese clone. Obviously not to Rolex standards, but close.

A good base for a franken, not perfect, but what rep is? For me this is worth the price tag just for the movement alone. If your not fussed about the movement, buy an ARF. It's a much better finished watch out of the box.

I'll update this thread as the parts arrive and when it's back from the engravers. Cheers

If I understand you correctly then the 116500 version would be much closer to gen, as it would have correct tex spacing, correct rehaut engravings, correct dial and correct case?

 

[mydnytrydr]

Can't wait until ARF put's a fully functioning chrono in their Daytona ..... it's only a matter of time folks .. :woot::daffy::len:

 

[michel7752]

This thread is the final verdict and answer to the popular question: "Should I buy the celebrated ARF Daytona or the new Noob Daytona with the 4130 clone?"

ANSWER:

If you want the most accurate and best Daytona by far externally, and if you do not care about all subdials working, buy the ARF Daytona for less than 500 USD and enjoy it immediately out of the box.

If you care a lot about the new 4130 clone movement and that all the subdials are working, buy the new Noob Daytona for around 600 USD. But be prepared to fiddle around for weeks and months in order to mod and franken that inaccurate rep for achieving the same ARF Daytona out of the box quality and look. And that might easily add another 1.000 - 2.000 USD or more.

You choice.

 

[xpresso]

Wow, thanks


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[MrChink]

Very informative. Subscribed.


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[timbui]

nice review. subscribed

 

[Marius13]

bill33 I noticed that the movement doesn't have an engraved serial. Or is it just the angle of the photo ?

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[joint07]

bill33 very nice thread. can you make a movement tear down?

 

[bill33]

bill33 I noticed that the movement doesn't have an engraved serial. Or is it just the angle of the photo ?

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

No it’s missing the engraved serials.

 

[bill33]

bill33 very nice thread. can you make a movement tear down?

Unfortunately not buddy. I’ll let someone far more experienced than myself tackle that.

 

[kennycoder]

So one cannot swap the movement from noob to arf i suppose.. maybe with some minor modding it will be possible. would be really cool imho

 

[bill33]

So one cannot swap the movement from noob to arf i suppose.. maybe with some minor modding it will be possible. would be really cool imho

From what I’ve read the inside of the ARF case has a lip that needs removing on a lathe as the 4130 is too big in diameter. It’s been done with a real 4130 by a poster on another forum so it’s possible, just not a straight drop in. I’ve no idea if the tube needs moving also.

 

[joint07]

bill33 how good does the movemnet work? accuracy ?power reserve? zero reset?

 

[bill33]

bill33 how good does the movemnet work? accuracy ?power reserve? zero reset?

Running within 4 secs a day, power reserve is good, still going strong after 36hours. Resets back to zero perfectly every time without fail.