Ok, now the pics are out the way and the risk of my phone crashing mid post is gone, here are my thoughts:
First impressions:
This is a seriously good looking watch. Bear in mind that I have owned all the reps from the last 10years and am no stranger to gen. There is nothing worth mentioning that my eyes find “off” or ugly about the main aspects of this watch. Usually if it doesn’t look off it’s not off. Leave it at that. Comparing with gen to that level of scrutiny is unnecessary, given the quality of replication we are talking about.
Crystal:
The first thing I noticed was how the dial genuinely pops. Hard to articulate what that actually means but I think you know what I’m on about here. With JF, there seems to be an ever so slightly milky tinge to the dial, certainly at some angles, probably owing to the inferior crystal clarity, which Just looks off compared to how you’d expect a £15k watch to look. The ZF crystal is very nice and showcases the dial beautifully.
Inner bezel:
The inner bezel numerals are stunning and really set the dial off. Refer to the above pics. Maybe you’ll see something that I haven’t seen because I am not in the habit of zooming into pics of reps (not even my own pics), there’s nothing to gain from that given reps have gotten this good.
Date:
With reference to the above pics, I personally don’t have any issues with the date font or window. It doesn’t look “off” to me.....maybe you’ll conclude differently based on looking at my pics but in real life the dates do not look offensive to me. It’s not like there’s a big x2AR magnifying cyclops over the date area to magnify any possible aesthetic defects. Remember also that there are many gen variations, which obviously i haven’t attempted to familiarise myself with, let alone commit to memory.
All I can say is that the date font, window and cyclops looks broadly in accordance with AP design principles and thus could be gen as far as my eyes are concerned and I don’t think anyone can prove otherwise, beyond reasonable doubt.
Dial:
This looks very nice. Looks wet at some angles. The tapp squares look very premium and the 3 dimensional shadowing effect they cast around the tapp edges is more pronounced than JF. As a result this dial looks prettier than JF and just seems to have more depth of beauty to it. I haven’t counted the number of concentric machining lines or tried to assess the relative spacing of the tapp squares with respect to gen or any other such silly assessment, lol.
Crown/caseback: who cares what these look like. It’s 2021, reps are good enough. No need to go out your way, looking for flaws in these irrelevant areas.
Strap: usual rep rubber. Not bad. Can’t get too excited about it. Meh.
Conclusions:
Extremely well made and handsome looking watch. No milky crystal or weird date, markers are clean. Hands are also cut clean, no rough edges. Very well finished. Brushing looks better than jeweller refinished used gens we see.
Basically it looks gen to me, for all intents and purposes, in the real world, outside the internet. If you’re idea of a good rep is one that you can post pics on the internet and not have a 16year old kid call you out, then you’ll be waiting a long time for the perfect rep. For everyone else, this is as good as it gets.
*****Not for sale. Factory closed at time of writing ******
Wristie;
