madmex

It's a nice watch. I own two... one 007 50 years with a 2892a2 clone and the blue with the 2824 gen. They are nice watches, but I do wish the blue one had a better bezel!

Beautiful watch, dial, hands, bracelet... Really cool how the bracelet is form-fitting!

This is a beautiful watch and will likely be my second Royal Oak. I previously owned the TW version that had a closed back, with a Swiss ETA and gold-tone screws on the bezel. Not 1:1 construction style, but it wore nicely. I am planning on the white dial version 15400 from the new factory. My reasoning behind going with new factory vs the BP version is mostly based on the decoration of the movement but also thickness. The BP may have a gen swiss movement, but the finishing is too basic and not worthy of the rest of the watch. The canon pinion on these BP ETAs is better suited for Rolex clones with the tall clearances between the hands. I suspect that is where the extra 0.9mm in thickness comes from. The new factory version has an ETA 2824 clone (25 or 26 jewels) with a beautiful radial Colimaçonnée (diamond cut snailing circular finish on the perimeter of the bridges), and Côtes de Genève or "Geneva stripes" on the winding bridge. Additionally on the winding bridge perimeter step down there is snailing. It looks good and is a reliable movement from experience (assuming it is the same one that Noob is using on their V2 sub, IWC Vintage Ingenieur). I am looking forward to see the upcoming 24 jewel Miyota 9015 version, which I was told by Angus should be out within 2 months (hopefully that is a well-padded date) , has the Geneva stripes and a plus is the winding rotor center bearing which sort-of resembles the 45 jewel (officially 40) 4.25mm thick AP 3120 part at least more closely than the single screw and copper colored bearing of the winding rotor on the ETA design. One small detail is that the main plate does not have decoration--only the automatic winding bridge does--at least in the 9015s I have seen on the Internet so far. A down side of both of these watches is the beat rate of 28000vph (4Hz) or 8 ticks per second, but it results in good accuracy in timekeeping and looks very smooth vs. the genuine's 21600vph (3Hz) or 6 ticks per second. If this is an issue the drive train from an ETA 2846-2 could be substituted assuming it fits the Asian clone counterpart. I would leave it alone at 28000vph. Someone mentioned their curiosity as to why the slim 21 Jewel 3.6mm Asian 2892A2 clone--the rather excellent SeaGull ST18--was not used. Frankly I am very fond of that movement due to its performance. I purchased it on an Omega Speedmaster James Bond 50 years watch from the BP factory, and transplanted it into a blue SMP-c from the same BP factory, and I can say the movement is very accurate and well decorated. The only issue with the ST18 is the same as would be using the ETA2892A2--the winding rotor mount is very peculiar looking and resembles the gen even less. That said, I like the movement so much that I would buy more watches with this movement. My $0.02. Beautiful watches btw.

Looks great I want one. But wait I already have it. I wish I could source a bezel insert but according to PerfectClones not available yet.

Looks like you made it to 5! I meant the alignment as far as the placement of the arrow at 0/60. Mine is at 59.5!!! so I have a choice to align the bezel with the arrow and have every other marker be off by 1/2 tick, or align the markers and have the pearl/arrow off by 1/2 tick :-(

I meant to say the total thickness of the watch is different, in part due to the rehaut. But here's the deal with the rehaut... the Swiss 2824 in these (which by the way looks brand new and not reclaimed), has a taller canon pinion than standard so the hands do take up the space nicely. The rehaut difference is difficult to detect, but it is there. I have both a James Bond 50th and a blue SMP. The latter came with the Swiss movement, the former with a 2892a2 clone which is excellent. On the 2892 the canon pinion is short, and the hands are very close to each other, so one can see a bigger gap of empty space between the top of the sapphire dome and the top of the seconds hand tube. Seriously though, it would be very difficult to spot these on the wrist, and only knowing the caseback difference would be the tell-tale. I'll try to post some pics when I have more time, if anyone wants to see.

Oh and the pearl is easy to fix: blow dryer on low heat for a few seconds to warm the glue up, then posh it in on the edge of the table, flat against the bezel insert so that it doesn't go below the surface.

Hey machineboy thanks for the review. It would be cool if you posted some pics. How's your bezel pearl centered? Mine is half a tick toward 59. I concur it's a nice watch. The reason the back is so off is that this watch was replicated from a James Bond 50 years. They did the back beautifully on that. They then proceeded to recreate the back from a few pictures online. Another basic difference is the rehaut is too deep. The gen is thinner overall by a couple of mm.

The salts in our sweat will definitely begin a chemical reaction in the metal. It's advised to rinse with fresh water and pat dry after exposure to salts (from seawater or sweat). The way to prevent this--oil the bracelet... get the oil all over, exercise the links in the bracelet so that it all seeps through.... then dry it a few times with paper towels, then rinse with fresh water and dry again. Do this once every few months or so and it probably won't happen again. I have a new unused Noob sub bracelet (I know it's no TC but I have it).

Looks nice rep or not. How much are these?

if it's 1:1 construction you could probably buy one off the 'bay or contact seller.

Yes I saw Torobravo's site, it has the revised bezel with the proper arrow placement. I'm talking to Joshua to see if he can get me the revised and correct bezel insert. Kind of like pulling teeth actually... I don't feel the love back. "No sir, no sir, no sir" etc lol. but he said to contact him in a week. so there's hope.

Wow! just... wow! speechless here. I think I'm going to get one... have to get one Thank you for the beautiful pictures and narrative you put together. Beautiful watch and beautiful job you did.

It is a beautiful watch. It's a fantasy model, but beautiful indeed. I also like the TUDOR Prince Submariner with blue dial (arrow at 9 o'clock) from the 80s-90s... with submariner hands. Love blue watches too!

Just the way they modded a 7750 with a tri-compax module to change the gearing around (can get problematic), they could add some gears to venerable workhorse, Venus 175 clone/SeaGull ST19. The issue is probably more along the lines of a demand for the watch. I don't think there's a high demand for the watch, the way a Daytona for example or even the pricey AP Royal Oak chronos.

I purchased quite a bit from Silix-Prime. One time, I received a great watch, a Speedmaster triple date (eta 7751 clone), and unfortunately the chrono mechanism was faulty. I sent it back, and it came back dinged up with new scratches. Upon contacting Silix, I was told the watchmaker said it was already scratched. The movement busted again in a matter of a day, by using the chronograph, I contacted Silix again and got the silent treatment--no responses. A while later I contacted back and Silix email said they had been sold to a new company and they knew nothing about my watch and could not help. So, I am not buying from Silix any more.

So I noticed a flaw on the V1 blue bezel... I didn't notice it until after transplanting a 2892A2 into it... I couldn't get the bezel to align. I had not noticed that the bezel insert arrow (with pearl) is not centered between the 59 "dot" and the 1 line. This is not the case with the black and 007 50 years bezel inserts. Even the prototype pictures on the dealer sites have this design.

I believe it is 1-2 mm thicker than gen. The gen is 12.5mm thick whereas this one is thicker but not by much. One reason is the ETA 2824s are 4.6mm thick whereas the Omega 2500 is based on the ETA 2892A2 which is 3.6mm thick.

I fixed it and put a gen date wheel. I would like to get a rubber/silicone blue strap for it, a la gen-style. i wonder if there are other models that have straps that could fit.

thank you bamcky2k. Did you use the knife to the bezel? Is there a particular zone or approach to this? I've done it on Subs, but tried on a SMP and I believe I changed my mind after a few tries. Your comment about the bezel insert having a V2 is very interesting. I have only seen it once at the AD and that was prior to purchasing it. Q2(edit): is the insert glued on or has double-sided tape?

Thank you for posting this! When you stripped your watch, did you take the bezel off? I would like to polish my bezel insert and align it while I'm at it, and I want to know if it was relatively easy or what method you used (I do not need to have an accident on this watch ) I have the blue version and the bezel is a "different" ceramic, basically it may be powder coated or spray coated and if I was able to "mirror" polish it it may look more like the gen bezel insert.

Oops. The bezel insert is ceramic and will chip if you try to pry it out with sharp object. The proper way to fix it is to take the bezel off and then massage the bezel insert out, then re-set into place. Unfortunately it is a risky process and you could injure yourself or scratch the watch badly while doing this. It is best to probably leave it that way, it is not a big deal. If it bothers you tremendously (I am bothered by stuff like this too!), you could carefully try to warm the bezel insert with a blow dryer while you use a soft sharp object like a toothpick or a thin plastic card (thinner than a credit card) and see if the glue loosens up a bit.. then just reattach in the proper position, with the 5 minute markers aligning with the pointy ends. Look up how to remove bezel on these.. it usually involves a sharp blade slid between the bezel and the watch--danger! Or a special tool that costs $$ and looks like 4 razor blades pointing at each other lol.

I agree that I wish they had a real blue ceramic insert. The texture of the blue looks like car paint. It shows some small scratches on the surface and is not perfectly mirror flat polished like ceramic bezels. Even on the pics I took. -if you look closely at the light reflection on the bezel you will notice this. I have a couple of ceramic Rollies as well as the SMP 50 years Omega with the black bezel (50 red) and the smooth mirror polish gloss is completely different. It's still a beautiful watch and I will probably wear it until the N factory comes out with their own version and then I may change the bezel insert too and possibly mod them together to improve it.

I received the blue one (blue SMP has always been MY personal fav), and I am pleased. However, I will admit that this bezel insert has what looks like a blue paint on top and is not glass-like shiny as the black version is.

I received my blue SMP-C this Saturday, and it quickly grew on me. Not perfect but what better blue SMP-ceramic is out there? None other. The bezel insert and the caseback are the weak spots as far as accuracy, but the rest of the watch is pretty nicely done. The blue insert appears to be painted on top of the ceramic (defeats the purpose lol). The pearl is much improved. The black version is more accurate as far as the bezel insert being true ceramic color but has the inaccuracy of also being engraved deep and numbers not being filled-in flush with the bezel insert surface as in the gen. As far as color of the dial, I think it's so close I can't tell the difference without having a gen side by side. The bezel insert could be treated blue ceramic, not a ceramic bezel that is painted blue (unfortunate), but it still doesn't look bad at all.