Are these 1188$ now?
I see the logic, but seems high nonetheless.
I guess their appeal is not only to use them OOTB, but also to create Franken 116520
for both these uses I found the 420$ more asked (compared to the past) hard to justify (note: that this is just my 400$ opinion) and I'll try to discuss why.
Creating a 116520 Franken became almost the standard until raids of March-April.
Genuine Dial, maybe hands, Bezel (genuine or ARF) and most people thought to have a very good replica.
Most of the build I saw (90% of the ones with Luminova indexs, that had cheaper dials) were way off because the specific dials required short clasp (almost impossible to find).
Also (and most important) the Rehaut is the main tell. Way more than Dial.
This can be solved only brushing the engraving (but then you need to also find slim hands).
Not only, but case is totaly off.
A 2000$ gen case might be a better investment than 1500$ dial (also = white APH are not rare, are the standard.. listing this as a characrestici is most of the time asinine).
Sad enough, case are very rare.
Many people also replace noob bracelets with ARF (with terrible endlinks as a result)
Case are so off that I think an ARF with a CF Bezel (550-600$) might not be so different when wore (no, the fake minutes ans hours functions are not an issue. Nobody uses them).
To me:
116520
Genuine: 100% looks like genuine (28.000$)
N00b Heavy Franken: 80% genuine (3.000$)
N00b Out of the Box: 75% genuine (1.200$)
ARF with CF: 70% like genuine (600$)
116500
Genuine: 100% looks like genuine (32.000$)
N00b Light Franken: 85% genuine (5.000$)
N00b Heay Mod: 80% genuine (1.200$)
N00b with transparent gasket: 75% genuine (1.250$)
N00b Out of the Box: 50% genuine (1.200$) white gasket is junk
ARF with light mod CF: 70% like genuine (600$)
this are rough estimations....
The mantra of the forum is "Wear your replica being happy about quality of it and do not care too much about it being impossible to spot".
This approach is a good and heathy one, but applying it to my tastes, an ARF with a CF bezel is money better spent than a noob for 1200$ (before any other operations).
P.S. I own a Genuine white 116520 and ARF V2 116500, planned to build a Franken 116520 with black dial, but the rehaut and the case were sooo off, that spending 3000$ seemed silly.