Given my striking resemblance to Prince Harry, I thought it was only appropriate that I should follow in his footsteps and bag myself one of the new Noob 42mm Polar Explorers that everyone kept raving about a few months ago. I'm pretty sure Harry's is a rep too as I doubt even he would take a £4.5K onto the battlefield! :rofl:
Following on from Kenny's excellent video review of the first release of this rep, I thought I'd post up a few pics. Mine came from Sora who has become my TD of choice over the past few months. Unfortunately, the first watch that he sent to me was DOA so I had to brave the Chinese post and return it to him to replace. Predictably the return package went astray somewhere between Gangzhou and Grimsby so he very kindly sent me out a replacement. Here are my first impressions.
Case - 8/10
Very high quality construction and level of replication - only the slightly bolder bezel markings give the game away, but you have to look very hard. To my eyes the CGs and crown look pretty damn close to gen.
The rehaut engraving is the best I've seen on a Rollie rep and as far as I understand each case has individual serials (but I may be wrong here). Wow.
Crystal - 8/10
Good height and clarity, and my cyclops was level and well-centred; but the poor AR-coating on the cyclops lets the side down a bit. Not a biggy.
Dial & Hands - 9/10
Very close indeed. Possibly a slightly different shade of orange (really?) but who cares. All the necessary boxes are ticked (why do the Noob boys keep getting the Sub hour hand wrong?!). I was lucky with mine - the lume application is okay (better than my BP ND Sub C) - only the 12 triangle is slightly patchy.
Bracelet - 9/10
Best quality bracelet I've had the pleasure of finding on a rep. All the screws are smooth and well-machined and as an added bonus the SELs fit like old gloves.
So what about the clasp I hear you say? Okay mine doesn't close flush, but it bothers me less than I though it would and there is a simple fix to make it perfect (if I can be bothered).
If it wasn't for the clasp this would be a 10/10 bracelet.
Lume - 9/10
Need I say more?
Not quite up there with my gen PO 2500, but pretty close (and most importantly very close to gen).
Overall - 9/10
My Exp II 42 is running on an Asian clone 2836 and is running at a steady +8s / day; not too shabby at all. Overall I'd say it is the best out-of-the-box Rollie rep I have had the pleasure of owning and, along with my BP SD and PT 1680, should be a 'keeper' for the watch box.
Aside from the clasp fix, iffy cyclops AR and erratic lume application QC, I'd say this is damn close to perfection. All this for $230? My God we are spoilt with the quality of reps these days. There's a lot of talk about 'feel' when it comes to discerning the difference in quality between a rep and gen; I defy anyone to take a blindfold test with this puppy as it feels bloody well made to me ;-)
I have a 7.5" wrist by the way. To give it some scale, here it is next to my vintage Speedy Pro...
And to finish here I am modelling it in my work clobber. Thanks for reading... :thumbsup:
Following on from Kenny's excellent video review of the first release of this rep, I thought I'd post up a few pics. Mine came from Sora who has become my TD of choice over the past few months. Unfortunately, the first watch that he sent to me was DOA so I had to brave the Chinese post and return it to him to replace. Predictably the return package went astray somewhere between Gangzhou and Grimsby so he very kindly sent me out a replacement. Here are my first impressions.
Case - 8/10
Very high quality construction and level of replication - only the slightly bolder bezel markings give the game away, but you have to look very hard. To my eyes the CGs and crown look pretty damn close to gen.
The rehaut engraving is the best I've seen on a Rollie rep and as far as I understand each case has individual serials (but I may be wrong here). Wow.
Crystal - 8/10
Good height and clarity, and my cyclops was level and well-centred; but the poor AR-coating on the cyclops lets the side down a bit. Not a biggy.
Dial & Hands - 9/10
Very close indeed. Possibly a slightly different shade of orange (really?) but who cares. All the necessary boxes are ticked (why do the Noob boys keep getting the Sub hour hand wrong?!). I was lucky with mine - the lume application is okay (better than my BP ND Sub C) - only the 12 triangle is slightly patchy.
Bracelet - 9/10
Best quality bracelet I've had the pleasure of finding on a rep. All the screws are smooth and well-machined and as an added bonus the SELs fit like old gloves.
So what about the clasp I hear you say? Okay mine doesn't close flush, but it bothers me less than I though it would and there is a simple fix to make it perfect (if I can be bothered).
If it wasn't for the clasp this would be a 10/10 bracelet.
Lume - 9/10
Need I say more?
Not quite up there with my gen PO 2500, but pretty close (and most importantly very close to gen).
Overall - 9/10
My Exp II 42 is running on an Asian clone 2836 and is running at a steady +8s / day; not too shabby at all. Overall I'd say it is the best out-of-the-box Rollie rep I have had the pleasure of owning and, along with my BP SD and PT 1680, should be a 'keeper' for the watch box.
Aside from the clasp fix, iffy cyclops AR and erratic lume application QC, I'd say this is damn close to perfection. All this for $230? My God we are spoilt with the quality of reps these days. There's a lot of talk about 'feel' when it comes to discerning the difference in quality between a rep and gen; I defy anyone to take a blindfold test with this puppy as it feels bloody well made to me ;-)
I have a 7.5" wrist by the way. To give it some scale, here it is next to my vintage Speedy Pro...
And to finish here I am modelling it in my work clobber. Thanks for reading... :thumbsup:
Would recommend black or white to anyone:thumbsup: