"The "Wrapped" Gold Sub Guide"

[robinstyler]

Update: @robinstyler earlier suggested @andrei01 could test the "wrap" and satisfy our curiosity as to what it is exactly. I took his suggestion and have been PM'g andrei and he kindly agreed to test it, he is overseas and I am conus so it will take a bit for it to get there and get done but will post the results when we have them.

Reading all the replies some things come to mind, first the question as to why it is not all made out of whatever the "wrap" metal is, I am thinking likely because that was very light and brittle whatever it is, like tin....so maybe it would make the rep stupidly light and prone to breakage at the stress points like springbar holes, link joints etc.

Second the BP link or even the Patek possibly being gold of some degree- again I want to stress I just worked with a Noob link, there is a bare possibility other reps are different, but of course I know we are all thinking riiiiight....the whole of the rep industry is so entwined in Asia that that is not very likely.

Finally the BP link testing...you would not need to do a teardown as I did or sacrifice the link really- if anyone @Versaceboy54 ? was willing to take a link down to any local "gold buyer" jewlery business they could take it, scratch it on a testing stone and acid test the result for gold. At worst you would have a scratched link but it would be intact still, I know aaaaaaaughhh! but just to put it out there.

It boggles my mind that they would go to all the trouble of wrapping a link JUST to deceive us into thinking it is gold filled, they do not use remotely the same process, filled is bonded to the base metal as @tripdog posted earlier, the "wrap" is just that, it was barely adhering to the substrate metal. I think it MIGHT initially have just been a method to increase the thickness of the "gold" color on a watch so scratches/ wear are less of an issue than plated. And as a bonus being the devious industry they are- they figured out they could market it as thick "18k gold wrapped" and see who bought into it...the process itself has to be worth something more than just plating so I can see a somewhat higher price than plated.

If they were honest they would say: watch has "thick 18k toned gold metal wrapping" that resists wear and scratches to an extreme degree! But then again they would also say 1:92% copy! Gen clone Swiss! Water resistant to 3 feet (sometimes)! It is what it is.

If you need any help with shipping costs, dont be afraid to ask. Im sure many including myself would have no problem donating for this cause. But then again it shouldnt be expensive to ship such a small piece [emoji1]

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[Parabuteo]

If you need any help with shipping costs, dont be afraid to ask. Im sure many including myself would have no problem donating for this cause. But then again it shouldnt be expensive to ship such a small piece [emoji1]

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Appreciate the offer Mate and much thanks- but this is a personal quest of mine (though happy it is being shared with so many members) and I have to say I am getting way more $ value in curiosity satisfaction/ entertainment out of this than I am putting in!

It's all good!

 

[SuprKamiGuru]

Subscribing to this thread for sure....

 

[thinwhiteduke]

Congratulations, OP! Deserving a sticky, for sure!
Worthy quest, too. It's one thing to know you're buying a fake watch. It's another to buy fake gold thinking it was gold.

 

[Spatiumtemporis]

Great thread. I'm curious to find out the result as well.

 

[d4m.test]

On the edge of my seat, and the "complete checkout" button, to see what the results of the BP links are. I've been eyeing the wrapped DD.


My question is... if the noob contains no gold, then why spend all those man hours doing a wrap instead of just making the links out of solid gold toned metal?

 

[robinstyler]

On the edge of my seat, and the "complete checkout" button, to see what the results of the BP links are. I've been eyeing the wrapped DD.


My question is... if the noob contains no gold, then why spend all those man hours doing a wrap instead of just making the links out of solid gold toned metal?

That was mentioned already. OP said the toned metal is very brittle so making a whole bracelet, link out of it would not be an option as the bracelet might break too easily.

 

[Versaceboy54]

Update: @robinstyler earlier suggested @andrei01 could test the "wrap" and satisfy our curiosity as to what it is exactly. I took his suggestion and have been PM'g andrei and he kindly agreed to test it, he is overseas and I am conus so it will take a bit for it to get there and get done but will post the results when we have them.

Reading all the replies some things come to mind, first the question as to why it is not all made out of whatever the "wrap" metal is, I am thinking likely because that was very light and brittle whatever it is, like tin....so maybe it would make the rep stupidly light and prone to breakage at the stress points like springbar holes, link joints etc.

Second the BP link or even the Patek possibly being gold of some degree- again I want to stress I just worked with a Noob link, there is a bare possibility other reps are different, but of course I know we are all thinking riiiiight....the whole of the rep industry is so entwined in Asia that that is not very likely.

Finally the BP link testing...you would not need to do a teardown as I did or sacrifice the link really- if anyone @Versaceboy54 ? was willing to take a link down to any local "gold buyer" jewlery business they could take it, scratch it on a testing stone and acid test the result for gold. At worst you would have a scratched link but it would be intact still, I know aaaaaaaughhh! but just to put it out there.

It boggles my mind that they would go to all the trouble of wrapping a link JUST to deceive us into thinking it is gold filled, they do not use remotely the same process, filled is bonded to the base metal as @tripdog posted earlier, the "wrap" is just that, it was barely adhering to the substrate metal. I think it MIGHT initially have just been a method to increase the thickness of the "gold" color on a watch so scratches/ wear are less of an issue than plated. And as a bonus being the devious industry they are- they figured out they could market it as thick "18k gold wrapped" and see who bought into it...the process itself has to be worth something more than just plating so I can see a somewhat higher price than plated.

If they were honest they would say: watch has "thick 18k toned gold metal wrapping" that resists wear and scratches to an extreme degree! But then again they would also say 1:92% copy! Gen clone Swiss! Water resistant to 3 feet (sometimes)! It is what it is.

As curious as I am to find out how the BP Wrapped link compares to the Noob I'm not very keen on using a link that I need for the bracelet to be intentionally scratched to find out.

As I said earlier I would gladly offer one up if I had a spare but I'm really trying my best to avoid scratches on this particular watch!

There got to be someone else out there who has a spare BP Wrapped link!?



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[Parabuteo]

That was mentioned already. OP said the toned metal is very brittle so making a whole bracelet, link out of it would not be an option as the bracelet might break too easily.

Another point, made by @andrei01 in conversation with me and that sounds very logical...is that if the factories made the whole watch solidly out of "gold" and marketed it as such, they know it would never fly as far as price, if they sold it at the same 900-1500 they are selling the wrapped for it would make no sense since the nominal gold value would be MORE than the price they were asking, if they tried selling it for 4K or so someone for sure would test it and call it out. Plus the weight would be so far off it would be an instant giveaway.

I have been going crazy wading thru revelant threads looking for any recent positive results for gold in other than Noob reps and FINALLY found one where the OP, @RX7GP, says this of his recent model BP TT:

https://forum.replica-watch.info/th...apped-bp-116613-ln-sub-c-lots-of-pics.306979/

View attachment 77825




So, possibly there is some hope for gold content in a wrapped BP? @RX7GP has not been on the boards for a few months now but if he checks back in would love to hear his take on things and if the jeweler actually tested the link or was just showed the link and confirmed it wrapped not plated.

I know the old TW best DD's acid tested positive, @Versaceboy54 has confirmed this I think, and it is mentioned here:

https://forum.replica-watch.info/th...apped-gold-tw-best-day-date-president.216362/

Will mail the Noob sample to andrei tomorrow and post the minute we have the results as to what the metal composite is.

 

[thinwhiteduke]

Eagerly waiting for updates, OP!

 

[Gonza328]

@Versaceboy54 must have a ginormous wrist if he doesn't have even one link he can spar... [emoji848]


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[Versaceboy54]

@Versaceboy54 must have a ginormous wrist if he doesn't have even one link he can spar... [emoji848]


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If it were sub links I would no doubt have extra.

The issue is that Presidential links are much smaller, one link is about half the size of a sub link therefore more are needed for the bracelet to fit and the factories don't take that into account. On top of that there is no micro adjuster on the clasp for this particular style bracelet.

So if your wrist size is a bit over 7 inches chances are you would need to order extra links to get the bracelet to fit as I needed 2 extra links for mine.

This is a known issue and discussed in the actual dd40 thread.




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[robinstyler]

If it were sub links I would no doubt have extra.

The issue is that Presidential links are much smaller, one link is about half the size of a sub link therefore more are needed for the bracelet to fit and the factories don't take that into account. On top of that there is no micro adjuster on the clasp for this particular style bracelet.

So if your wrist size is a bit over 7 inches chances are you would need to order extra links to get the bracelet to fit as I needed 2 extra links for mine.

This is a known issue and discussed in the actual dd40 thread.




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How much is an extra link? Maybe we can all donate into a pot and order one for the sake of research [emoji38]

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[Versaceboy54]

How much is an extra link? Maybe we can all donate into a pot and order one for the sake of research [emoji38]

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The problem is that most TDs say the factory won't allow them to order wrapped links separately because of the price and a full bracelet would need to be ordered.

I went through this exact issue bc prior to ordering my watch I knew that I needed 2 extra links for the bracelet to fit so before ordering I asked 2 of my usual TDs if they could arrange it and both told me the factory wouldn't allow them to order extra links. It was only Andrew at trusty that was able to get it done and he had the links already added to the watch and at no charge! So for that reason I'm not sure if it would be possible to get any extra nor do I know what the price would be.

I know a good number of guys have bought these watches bc I've personally done many of the QCs to identity wrapped vs plated so surly someone has 1 link to spare!?





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[Sunny_80]

I have bought the links separately from Torobravos, they are 30usd each

 

[Versaceboy54]

I have bought the links separately from Torobravos, they are 30usd each

For the wrapped dd40?

 

[Sunny_80]

yes, wrapped dd40

 

[Versaceboy54]

yes, wrapped dd40

Well that's good news


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[Versaceboy54]

Now that we know toro will sell them individually let's chip in and get one to test!

Who's in?!

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[ayylmao123]

I've been eying up those wrapped BP subs for a while. Hopefully someone can confirm the gold content soon before I spend the money on pams and other ss subs :blush2: