Greetings everyone from the RWI family! I’m relatively new here but thought I’d share some thoughts and my mini review on the new VSF 126234 Datejust 36 Blue Dial.
Just got mine in today and snapped an absolute avalanche of photos for this review, if there is any specific part you want to see in macro, let me know!
Bezel
The bezel finishing and shape is good overall. Personally I would upgrade the bezel to a gen one or plate it with white gold if you want to get the most accurate colour. An experienced person would definitely be able to tell the colour difference between the VSF stock stainless and white gold.
Crown
Crown is acceptable, but when compared to gen, the coronet is more pronounced and finishing looks better. Overall still OK in my opinion.
Rehaut
The rehaut on this one was a bit of a letdown for me. Alignment is good but finishing isn’t as spectacular as their submariner rehaut.
Case
Overall case finishing on the VSF is good. Comes fully stickered around the whole case with a QR code on the side. Lugs also have protection tape stickers. However, as many have mentioned, the shape of the lugs seems wrong as it also was on their Datejust 41. Profile does not look as sharp as gen to me, but perhaps guys can help to discuss further on this in the comments. Finishing otherwise is good.
Dial
Blue sunburst is beautiful on the dial, dial printing is sharp and nice. Lume plots are white and lume is strong- though I expect gen lume to be brighter. Finish on the coronet at 12 is decent too. No reason to go gen in my opinion unless you want to go all out.
Hands
Hands are polished and look acceptable stock, proportions look good and accurate to gen. However as most reps, once you compare them to gen the difference in the 3D effect is night and day. They can be swapped and frankened for gen hands by a modder though.
Datewheel
Font on the datewheel looks to be ever so slightly thicker than gen to the naked eye. Other than that, the stock printing is sharp. Since the movement is a VS3235, it is also possible to franken and swap it with a gen datewheel.
Movement
Running the top tier VS3235 movement. Decentr finishing on the workhorse movement and winds nicely. Hands were also set correctly on mine, having the date change at exactly 12am.
Bracelet / clasp
The jubilee bracelet feels great. Quality of the actual bracelet itself feels similar to an ARF/Clean jubilee bracelet, and leaves no jangly-ness. Clasp is good as well but an ARF/Clean clasp’s ‘click’ feels better. Clasp code on my copy is P2K, SEL Codes are 8UF and 3NW.
Crystal
As expected from VSF, the crystal on this one is good, but has a tinge of blue on the cyclops from the AR coating they used. Good clarity and distortion, upgrading to a prof or deep crystal would only yield a slightly better AR coating and blackhole effect in my opinion. You might be better off going gen if you want to upgrade the crystal.
SEL
Good fitment as expected from VSF. No complaints here.
Overall Thoughts
I think that the VSF is a great contender out of the box, and has potential to be even more satisfying with a few mods or frankened parts, depending on what you want. It definitely is the best DJ36 rep available at the moment. The major downfalls of this are the lugs and the rehaut, but I believe they might be able to be reshaped by an experienced modder (or you can wait for clean’s version if they decide to produce one). If you can look past these flaws and enjoy it as it is, the VSF is a great rep OOTB and I believe you will have no regrets.
Out of the box, I would give build quality a 9/10 and accuracy a 7.5/10. To an untrained eye, it would be very hard to tell without the gen side by side.
However for many of us hardcore enthusiasts, you may opt to swap the following for a nice franken piece while parts are readily available. These are sorted in order of priority based on my opinion:
I hope I was able to give everyone a bit of an insight to the new Datejust 36 from VSF, and hopefully helped you in deciding on whether to get it. I am still training my eyes and am by no means a professional in this game, and would love to hear your pointers and what you guys think about this as well.
Just got mine in today and snapped an absolute avalanche of photos for this review, if there is any specific part you want to see in macro, let me know!
Bezel
The bezel finishing and shape is good overall. Personally I would upgrade the bezel to a gen one or plate it with white gold if you want to get the most accurate colour. An experienced person would definitely be able to tell the colour difference between the VSF stock stainless and white gold.
Crown
Crown is acceptable, but when compared to gen, the coronet is more pronounced and finishing looks better. Overall still OK in my opinion.
Rehaut
The rehaut on this one was a bit of a letdown for me. Alignment is good but finishing isn’t as spectacular as their submariner rehaut.
Case
Overall case finishing on the VSF is good. Comes fully stickered around the whole case with a QR code on the side. Lugs also have protection tape stickers. However, as many have mentioned, the shape of the lugs seems wrong as it also was on their Datejust 41. Profile does not look as sharp as gen to me, but perhaps guys can help to discuss further on this in the comments. Finishing otherwise is good.
Dial
Blue sunburst is beautiful on the dial, dial printing is sharp and nice. Lume plots are white and lume is strong- though I expect gen lume to be brighter. Finish on the coronet at 12 is decent too. No reason to go gen in my opinion unless you want to go all out.
Hands
Hands are polished and look acceptable stock, proportions look good and accurate to gen. However as most reps, once you compare them to gen the difference in the 3D effect is night and day. They can be swapped and frankened for gen hands by a modder though.
Datewheel
Font on the datewheel looks to be ever so slightly thicker than gen to the naked eye. Other than that, the stock printing is sharp. Since the movement is a VS3235, it is also possible to franken and swap it with a gen datewheel.
Movement
Running the top tier VS3235 movement. Decentr finishing on the workhorse movement and winds nicely. Hands were also set correctly on mine, having the date change at exactly 12am.
Bracelet / clasp
The jubilee bracelet feels great. Quality of the actual bracelet itself feels similar to an ARF/Clean jubilee bracelet, and leaves no jangly-ness. Clasp is good as well but an ARF/Clean clasp’s ‘click’ feels better. Clasp code on my copy is P2K, SEL Codes are 8UF and 3NW.
Crystal
As expected from VSF, the crystal on this one is good, but has a tinge of blue on the cyclops from the AR coating they used. Good clarity and distortion, upgrading to a prof or deep crystal would only yield a slightly better AR coating and blackhole effect in my opinion. You might be better off going gen if you want to upgrade the crystal.
SEL
Good fitment as expected from VSF. No complaints here.
Overall Thoughts
I think that the VSF is a great contender out of the box, and has potential to be even more satisfying with a few mods or frankened parts, depending on what you want. It definitely is the best DJ36 rep available at the moment. The major downfalls of this are the lugs and the rehaut, but I believe they might be able to be reshaped by an experienced modder (or you can wait for clean’s version if they decide to produce one). If you can look past these flaws and enjoy it as it is, the VSF is a great rep OOTB and I believe you will have no regrets.
Out of the box, I would give build quality a 9/10 and accuracy a 7.5/10. To an untrained eye, it would be very hard to tell without the gen side by side.
However for many of us hardcore enthusiasts, you may opt to swap the following for a nice franken piece while parts are readily available. These are sorted in order of priority based on my opinion:
- WG Plated/Gen Fluted Bezel
- Gen Hands
- Gen DW
- Gen Crystal
- Gen Dial
I hope I was able to give everyone a bit of an insight to the new Datejust 36 from VSF, and hopefully helped you in deciding on whether to get it. I am still training my eyes and am by no means a professional in this game, and would love to hear your pointers and what you guys think about this as well.
