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Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/15/2013 in Posts
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So here it is guys. I never thought there would be so much interest in this review. My post on the announcement of this review led to a lot of views and replies. That was very cool and flattering. I hope I can now live up to all the high expectations! First off I would like to thank Angus from Puretime for sending me this movement to review. He is one of the few dealers that is really engaged with all the different fora. As a matter of fact he sent me an entire watch. To my best of knowledge this specific 3135 (short A3135-v2) copy variant is only available at Puretime. I will do a short review of the entire watch when I put it up for sale and will ad a link here. But for now I will concentrate on sèc the movement. So enough with this colloq advertisement, on to the review To manage some expectations I would like to say that I did not have a genuine 3135 at hand to do a thorough 1-on-1 comparison nor did I have spare Rolex parts laying around. I’m blessed with a supplier that lives 10 car minutes away so I don’t need to keep an expensive stock of genuine spare parts. I serviced several gen 3135’s so my comments will be based on my experience. I will also use pictures of the genuine movement of the net to clarify certain things. This review is not an exact science meaning there is a possibility I will overlook certain aspects of the movement: mechanical and visual. Please feel free to ad them in the comments below. I pondered a while about the best way to do this review. I know 10:10 watchmaker did a tear-down of the Yuki 3135 (short Y3135) and I know Watcher did a short photo review of it. With their courtesy I will be using some pictures from them in this review. In my opinion this review would be the best of use if I would compare the A3135 to the Y3135 and the genuine 3135. A big challenge to do so. I will review the A3135 on a couple of aspects, and where possible I will involve the Y3135 and genuine 3135. I’m just making this up while I'm writing this …. Index 1. Looks 2. Performance 3. Interchangeability 4.Summary Looks Comparing the Y335 and A3135 to the genuine we can see a lot of visual differences. I tried to highlight the main differences in the picture. I very well could have missed some but it gives you a good Idea. Overall I would say the A3135 wins the ‘looks-competition’ hands down. Mainly because of the very gen-like engravements. Also the finish is way better than that of the Y3135. The bridges are nicely beveled, striping is nice and fine and the pearlage is ok. The balance apposed to the Y3135 has fake micro stella screws that ad to the overall gen-like appearance. More on that later. Both Y’s and A’s 3135 most noticeable difference with the genuine (apart from the engravements) is the balance. It’s not free sprung and therefore has two regulating arms instead of one. The winner of the looks competition: the A3135. One thing I did notice is that the serial# is missing. Angus posted a picture of an earlier prototype which did show the serial. I don’t know if the factory changed it’s mind or someone forgot to engrave it on this movement? Performance Well upon receiving the A3135 I tested it on the vibrograph. It showed very poor results as you can see on the picture below. With an amplitude of just 188 degees and +32 sec/fast a day this watch is not wearable in this condition. You are better off looking at the sun to know the correct time…. So the tear down begins. Know that all pictures were taken under a bright light.. which even would make Paris Hilton look like a pimple face . First we need to remove the auto wind-bridge to let down the main spring. The thing I noticed immediately is not only a visual difference to the genuine but also a difference in design. The A3135 does not have an extra shock absorber for the escape wheel. Something the Y3135 does have. A very nice feature which ads to the sturdiness of the movement. Also there was no oil on the jewel where auto winding intermediate gear is connected. A very critical spot as all the build up tension that is generated by the rotor is transferred to the main spring through that jewel. All rep movements come this way so nothing new.... Than for the balance. It is nowhere near the real deal when it comes to design and materials. A gen Rolex balance is free sprung. Hence the 1 arm. I won't go into details as this write up is already taking up enough of my time and energie but you can look it up on Google. Also the genuine Rolex balance has a Glucydur hair spring and Micro Stella regulating screws. This is just your typical rep balance with imitated non-functioning Micostella screws. Thereby this balance had coils that were out of alignment. You can see how the space between the coils at 1 is smaller than at 2. This was corrected so that all the coils are now evenly centered. Little blurry but you can see the difference. Also you can see how rough and unfinished the underside of the bridge is. But who cares. It does not affect anything. Here you can see the barrel arbour jewel. The spot where the most tension is generated in the entire movement. Also bone dry… Here you can see the train gear exposed. Also the Balance bridge regulator screws can be seen very clearly. Where the genuine balance bridge can be regulated by turning these screws (end shake adjustment) these are merely for show and non functional. They are one piece and force fitted into the base plate. They did oil the jewels of the train gear, up and down side. Most of the time when we see oil in rep movements these are the spots that get oiled. The reason for this is because they are easy accessible and quick to oil. Here you can see a dirty gear from the gear train.. So now let’s have a look at the dial side. Here we immediately see some major differences with the genuine. Not only in looks but also in function. I won’t go into the visual differences as they are irrelevant on this side of the movement and you can search for them yourself. I do however want to mention the small jewel that is meant to guide the date wheel. It is present on the Y3135 but on the A3135 they used a metal version. We all know jewels minimize friction so a jewel is preferred. However I could not determine whether it really affects date-change reliability as everything works like it should. Than there is the keyless works. Where the Y3135 mimics the keyless works very good the A3135 is totally different. Not only in looks but also design. I have no idea why they did this. So forget spare parts. Genuine Rolex parts will definitely not fit. Here you can see the dirty keyless works. The cut outs on the setting lever are really shallow (arrow). This makes it a little finicky to get the crown in date-set position as one easily pulls through the date position. You need to be really gentle, like with your girlfriend….does not affect anything other than you have to use some more 'finesse' when searching for the date set position. When I came to the main spring I immediately knew what caused the low amplitude and bad performance. Besides little oil throughout the movement the barrel and main spring were very dirty…. And this is how it looks after cleaning, the proper amount of braking grease on the barrel wall and oil on coils and floor. But proper oiling is for another day… To conclude I want to show you some pics of the reversing wheels. They are constructed completely different than the genuines. They can not be taken apart. The reversing wheels of the Y3135 are just like the genuine. At least in terms of construction. I can’t say anything about dimensions off course. Interchangeability Like I said before. I didn't have a genuine movement or parts laying around and I did not have the time or energy to go look up all the genuine dimensions. Therefor I will give you the dimensions of some critical parts of the A3135 and I will let you do you own investigation. What I do know a 100% sure is that the keyless works of the A3135 is not interchangeable with the genuine. Diameter balance wheel= 9,99mm Diameter date wheel= 21,75mm Height main spring= 0,95mm Diameter minute wheel= 1,02mm Diameter hour wheel= 1,45mm Diameter second hand post= 0,20mm Diameter reversing wheel= 7,00mm Diameter reversing wheel jewel hole= 0,25mm Overall movement diameter= 28,4mm Overall movement thickness (without rotor) 5,4mm Here is also a scan of the dial feet position. You can use it in your own build to decide if a genuine dial will fit. IMO the feet are at the right position. The thickness of the dial feet is 0,92mm (-actual size- with the dial feet circled in red) The stem’s thickness is indeed increased just like Angus mentioned to 0.55mm. Screw thread is 0,85mm Summary The A3135 mimics the Rolex 3135 very well but when it comes to construction and design the Y3135 wins. This is purely based on the fact that the Y3135 copied all the design features like the keyless, date wheel guiding jewel, escape wheel shock absorber perfectly. If it is looks you want than the A3135 wins. Both the Y3135 an A3135 have several tell signs but the A3135 just looks the most accurate. Off course mainly based on the nice engravements and overall finishing of the bridges. But neither will fool a watchmaker for a second off course. Most movements assembled in China are incorrectly oiled and dirty. For the A3135 his is no different. After service it can be as reliable as an ETA or clone. The Y3135 for that matter is designed almost identical to it's genuine counterpart so I believe that if serviced correctly the Y3135 can even be as reliable and sturdy as a genuine 3135 ...but now I'm getting out on a limb. So basically both movements have the potential to be reliable when serviced even though it asks a lot of skill and time from the watch maker to correct all the problems.... If I would service these for a living I would definitely charge more for these 3135 clones than a regular ETA oR clone. The 3135 clones are simply more sensitive to oiling and proper adjustment of parts to get it performing up to par. The A3135 from this review was fully cleaned and oiled according to the Rolex spec sheet. It is now running at an amplitude of 275 degrees and within COCS norms. This is the best this movement can do without replacing the main spring with a genuine. So why buy the A3135? For me the only advantage of the A and Y3135 for that matter is the crown position, ability to take genuine hands and genuine like 'time setting'. As Rolex has closed case backs no one will ever see the movement. And although the A3135 is accurately decorated and better finished, it still doesn’t fool anybody. So if looks don’t count and only mechanics and movement design matters the Y3135 would be a better choice….If you don’t care about crown position, gen hands and all that stuff just go for an ETA or clone. They are a lot cheaper, parts are widely available and they are virtually bullet proof after proper service. Food for thought The balance click on the A3135 was milled wrong making it impossible to tighten the screw. A washer needed to be added. The exact same thing applied to the Y3135 as did 10:10 repair mention in his review. Two different movements with the exact same strange production flaw…. Different movements same sub contractors? Who knows? Well that was all folks. Hope you liked it! Mark ------------------------ Performance shot after service. Running and performing flawlessly like a gen1 point
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A couple of points - For 1 thing, banks contain money, which criminals want. This differs from schools & movie houses, which only contain targets. A successful bank robber leaves the bank with money that he can use to buy things. A successful mass murderer always loses his life or ends up spending the rest of his life in prison. Point being that the goals are different, so, in comparing arming schools/movie houses to banks, you are comparing apples & oranges. Still, the reason banks have guards & spend alot of time, effort & money to implement other anti-crime defense strategies is because banks learned long ago that if they continued to rely on the police to foil bank robberies, they would all end up with empty safes. The way I see it, you have 2 options - either you take away ALL guns, which would require a constitutional amendment & result in an insurrection or you grant the innocent the option to protect themselves. Enacting more laws & regulations that abridge lawful citizens' rights to keep & bear arms does little to stop criminals & the insane (who, by definition, ignore laws & regulations). Like I keep saying, there are no perfect solutions when dealing with imperfect human beings. Like choosing rep watches, you have to select the option that contains the fewest warts & work from there.1 point
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PS, your questions come during the middle of the day,you act surprised you didn't get an answer yet. Your lucky I had to take a dump at work and saw this!1 point
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Looks great man. Can't wait to see the step by step diary. Good luck with the build.1 point
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With all the bad things from scamers to PP disputes getting much air time I thought I would tell this short story. Bought a 1680 of member whoopy12 no problem all good few days later he is selling parts, AH ! a 703 crown (need that) pm him pay all good sending right over Mike. Well few days later letter comes ripped open no crown (looks like from sorting machine no foul play), take some of my great pics send, hey whoop no crown! Well by that night money credited to my PP acct. done! Now this story tells me two things member whoopy12 is stand up guy and always ship with tracking and insurance. Keep in mind I didn't even ask for money back just sent the news w/pics, this how we should deal with each other.1 point
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In fact the 14th amendment says we are entitled to egual protection under the law. Obama just signed a bill to give presidents and ther wives secret service protection for life.1 point
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Of course the ruling class gets guns just want to disarm the rest of us, yes it's for the children they could care less.1 point
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I have to respectfully disagree Ken. Is the Presidents life more valuable to you than your daughter...son...wife...or anyone else you love and care about? It would be a lot easier for the bad guys to get you and your family than the president or any other head of state. Here's one of the most powerful anti gun lobbyist and powerful senators against guns. Draw your own conclusions.1 point
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As far as that online map of registered handgun owners goes, I think, since the information is publically available, the newspaper, under the auspices of the 1st Amendment, had every right to print it. However, in my opinion, this type of information (private info on law-abiding citizens), whether it be of registered gun owners, AIDs patients, traffic speeders or other publically available data, should only ever be accessible by way of a court order. And, then, only in those cases where a crime has been committed. But, again, this is another issue altogether.1 point
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I learned the hard way about those sorting machines when sending a rep crown out to a member. Same thing, he got the envelope ripped with no crown. And I had the crown between two pieces of cardboard. No money exchanged hands but I learned not to ship items in envelopes made for letters.1 point
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Alrighty then You have just showed the bit of ignorance and snobbery the OP reaks of....... Just IMO of course.1 point
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Like WC as an example. Crickets over there most days without the influx of new members.1 point
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Hi all Firstly sorry for all of you that have probably seen this model of watch a million times and there's nothing new here for you, but every day there is new guys n girls joining our community who havn't, hopefully someone will gain some sort of knowledge through this thread like i did 3 months ago. I thought i would share my build of my planet ocean 45mm from the start. Alot of us these days are seeing the dreaded planet ocean stripped crown or tube threads or some sort of keyless works issue like i did when i first received my planet ocean 42mm, so what i did like most of us who have never stripped a watch or wouldn't have the bottle or patients to strip a watch is send it back to the dealer, in most cases this is on the other side of the world and is going to take possibly another 2 weeks!!!!!! so off it went my 42mm planet ocean back to a trusted dealer who i might just add has been amazing every time i have purchased a watch from him. luckily for me i managed to change the watch with the dealer and i requested a 45mm upo.... great now it's on its way to me...10 days later it arrives I pull the crown out and..............................it wont set the time or date!! so after hours of searching the forum and speaking to some long time members between us we worked out it was a keyless works issue. so do i send it back and wait another 3 week(2 journeys there and back) or do i bite the bullet and fix it? you guessed i ordered a tool kit from offshore at watchbitz.com which is amazing and started stripping it down. heres my link to the keyless works repair if you need any help with it. http://www.rwg.cc/to...__fromsearch__1 so now its working again i wore it a few times and cut a long story short ended up taking my watch apart about 4 times until i eventually found a broken part in the keyless works which all along was broken and i didn't realize!! below is a picture of the part which was broken, as you can see on the left the little post is snapped off which holds the setting cog next to it. every time i put my keyless back together i thought you put the post in the hole and then put the setting cog on the post, i did think every time that is a very poor design but carried on anyway.it only became aparent there was an issue when i spoke to a few members and they pointed it out. thanks again guys. so while i was planning on stripping my watch again i decided i would buy all the new keyless works parts and cogs from http://www.cousins.co.uk so i shouldnt get the same issues in the near future. yes and you can see from the pictures i thought i would grab a couple of new spring bars for my strap incase i broke one...i thought i ordered 4 but i got 100 !!! so if anyone needs a spring bar or two let me know i'm sure i have a few spare whilst i was taking my watch apart again i decided to upgrade to a gen crown and tube as i had previously seen so many posts and topics about the subject. heres a couple of pics of the parts if anyone needed the part numbers. and heres a couple of before pics of the crown well i found a few thread on replacing the tube on the internet and thought that sounds pretty simple. the only worry is you have to get the old tube out of the case without damaging it, it was a bit worrying as once you start theres no turning back!!! not good when it's your favourite watch which you've only had a couple of weeks and costs you a few hundred pounds, i mean come on you wouldn't buy a £300 tv and take it apart in the first 2 weeks! anyway heres a few pics firstly strip out the case back,dial, movement, take strap off and wrap in electrical tape to ensure its safe from pointy screw drivers and pliers!!!! Then remove the stock crown,now i started off trying to remove this with a pair of small needle nose pliers as shown in picture but got to a point where i couldn't get the tube out so i used my made shift chisel and hammer and simple knocked it out, just take your time and try not to damage the case or crystal.once its out then just file the inside hole to clean up edges not to make hole any bigger as the gen tube is smaller than the rep tube. now thats done i simply cleaned up the hole and mixed up some chemical metal and put a small amount in the hole and on the thread of the gen tube as pointed out with the toothpick. Then i insulated one side of the watch and one side of my g clamp to protect the watch case and tube. clamp it up and leave it for at least 24 hours. whilst that was drying i took a couple of comparison pictures of the gen and rep crown and you can also notice in the picture with the stem fitted how much more sturdy it is, as the stem in the rep crown is very floppy and lose. rep crown on the left and gen on the right. this is the end result of the gen crown/tube install now that was all back together i started enjoying my watch and actually wearing it and not using it as an experiment on how to fix something i don't know the first thing about ! Then came my next problem,during the many dismantles of my watch i managed to slightly damage the dial and scratch the hands from removing the hands to many times, mainly from trying to set up hands for date change at midnight, which i can say after lots of attempts my watch now flips date at 11:58 so i'm pretty happy with that, any way the dial and hands wasn't majorly noticable but i could see it, none of my freinds noticed but it bugged me. so luckily i met a new member on rwg who sorted me out a gen dial at an amazing price! thanks again buddy your an absolute legend! so now i've got the gen dial but due to its radioactive lume it has i had to invest in gen hands as it would look completely out of place. so thats what ive been doing today.fitting dial and hands. onto the pics. one last before pic with white numbers firstly out with the old heres a couple of comparison shots of rep and gen dial, rep with white numbers and gen with orange. to me the only obvious difference is the date window which looks amazing on the gen and the gen dial is more gloss finished and the rep dial being more matte finish.if you clean the rep dial with a polishing cloth it leaves marks whereas on the gen it cleans it up a treat. and one other difference being the dial feet, these are in the same place as the rep but are too short for the dial feet clamps on the movement,so all i did was put a couple of small blobs of super glue on the movement clamp to hold it whilst i fitted the hands.just enough so that it would be easily removed if need be. the lettering looks pretty spot on,great rep its just mainly the lume that lets it down. I apologize in advance for the next photos as my camera was playing up today and some pictures are not great, oh and the dust factor!!! Right onto the hand install,the easiest way to do this i found is to use rodico putty/blue tac to hold hands and then push on with hand tool. also make sure when you fit hands there is a good gap between the hands so that they don't touch each other or the dial,logo or hour markers because this with jam them up or damage them. heres a few comparison pics of the gen vs rep hands, again the rep hands are very good,they look pretty much spot on again the only big tell is the lume strength which isn't a major issue if your not fussed about it. Here we have the gen on right and rep on left. sorry about the seconds hand pic really hard to get both points in focus,even though the pics don't show it the gen orange tip really is alot brighter than it looks, i just didnt get a great picture. now thats all done onto the finished article and you can see how the radioactive lume wants to get shining in the next picture,this was just from working on the dial today in the light. And finally the lume shot i also got myself some dry chain lube in the week and cleaned and lubed my strap.which has made it feel amazingly smooth and silk like feel,a must mod to anyone with a stainless strap,i then went over it with a bit of scotch brite to polish out any scratches. heres a couple more shots And there we have it. hope you enjoyed my thread as much as i did building this watch.I must want to say a Hugh thanks to every one who has helped me with information or parts,I couldn't have got this far with out you or rwg. thanks for looking, and now onto the next project my upo 45 beater! Ryan1 point
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Absolutely fantastic. This is a must read for every PO owner.1 point