hi guys in the end I got the 15500
I was willing to buy a gen but absolutely at list price not with the absurd prices that run
I was willing to wait but the Milanese boutique does not take names in the list for the 15500
then I decided and I got the ZF, I was doubtful about the screw ....... all bullshit .... this watch is gorgeous a jewel, really top zf.
and now let's go dancing :coax:
Congrats first and foremost. It is indeed a beautiful watch and you carry it off very well.
The 15500 Royal Oak is really a watch which is understated, and grows on the owner very quickly. It is for me the perfect interpretation of a modern sports watch, and superbly designed and finished. Slap it on with a suit and it works well. Wear a T shirt and jeans and it is again perfect wrist company. A simple 3 hands watch, but yet it is so much more, given the myriad of details to appreciate on and off the wrist. I guess that explains why the watch is unobtainable for most from the boutique, and why the excessive demand has driven prices beyond the range of sanity.
The ZF 15500 captures most of the essence of the gen in terms of wrist presence and details. Unless you know the gen intimately well, it is a watch which is very difficult to call out as a rep on the wrist in the wild. Of course, the Achilles Heel of the watch lies in the Miyota 9015 movement, which looks nothing like the genuine, but this is not visible unless watch is off the wrist.
Some of the ZF watches come with less than ideal bezel screws or poorer finish, but these can be addressed by any modder.
I was lucky to get 3 gens at retail prices myself, but I hardly wear them. I am considering wearing a ZF 15500 black and modding it to my own taste. ZF has put in effort to produce a very respectable version of the 15500 and for me, this is the best Royal Oak replica out of the box currently, even when compared with the APSF 15400 which has a "clone" movement which isn't really a clone.