When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'TC Sub'.
-
Hi all,New to this forum, but have been reading up on all the available information - and just pulled the trigger on a TC Sub v7 Extreme And have my eye on the LMPO as well...But then the Pams (438 and 508 ceramics) also look really beautiful.Anyone know if the current LMPO no longer comes with the SS bracelet, seems it only comes with the Leather?Treat me gently!
-
Hi all! Took delivery of this a while back...haven't had a chance to type this up. TC was very responsive from the start and after 7 weeks of anxious waiting, it finally got delivered to my office. I was like a kid on Christmas day! I requested for the insert to be left unmounted as I was planning on sourcing a gen insert. The TC 16610 insert came packaged separately and looks like quite an improvement from the previous version. Although side-by-side with a gen, there's some scope for improvement with the pearl. Not criticising TC's efforts whatsoever as I can see why it's such a challenge as the gen is truly remarkable. TC is a true artist and gentleman in every sense. I'd been studying these at second hand watch shops throughout London for months prior to receiving the watch and was very impressed by it. A common comment that's made about the TC bracelet is that the first link is stamped with 93250, but in my "research", I was surprised that I encountered quite a few re-conditioned 16610s did not have it. Apparently Rolex stopped doing it in later versions and in later phases of production. Out of the box, the bracelet was a little stiff compared to the gens, but as TC has pointed out in his blog, this is a CNY350 vs a USD1000 gen. A very resourceful member posted about a bracelet "spa" treatment, which involves soaking the bracelet overnight in Johnson's baby oil, which worked like a charm. Feels fantastic now. I must admit, the middle section of the SEL appears to be raised higher than the gens I've seen, so I'm a bit unsure about that. TC reckons that the sample used as datum had such raised middle sections, but I am yet to encounter one. Has anyone out there? The crown stamp on the buckle is not quite as clearly defined as a gen, but is far better than any other rep I've encountered. The bezel click is fairly close to a gen too, although is not quite as smooth. The KH dial is a work of art and is what carries this tightly executed package. The lacquered sheen on the dial, the silver surrounding the dials, the print on the dial is executed to an incredibly high standard and is what sets the TC v6 in a different league from the others. The lume is perfectly applied and glows in the same colour and intensity as the gen insert! That cannot be easy to do! The latest DWO is also fantastic, being slightly raised, and with a slight gloss, it really does "scream gen"! The crown is excellent too, as well the CGs. Difficult to distinguish from a gen, even when placed side by side due to the variances between the gen production series'. I have felt compelled to wear it every day since I received it and can't stop looking at it. It's like wearing a piece of art on my wrist. Oh and lastly, it keeps great time too
- 20 replies
-
Dear fellow RWG members, Before I start, I would like to thank all of you who participated in this thread http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/162344-sick-of-tcs-subs and pushed me into purchasing TC Sub. You did a good job I finally placed my order at the end of the august 2013. After numerous considerations about which TC Sub to choose I decided to order classic 16610. At that time Thomas started a new thread on his blog about new KH dials, so my choice was clear. I asked him if he could build for me V5 16610 with KH dial. However he had no idea about turnaround time and said that the wait will be longer compared to usual order. On the other hand the new KH dials were looking so good from the initial pics that I wanted to give it a chance. The wait was on and after nearly four months I finally received a nice small box There were many unpacking/unboxing photoshoots, but I have to honestly confirm, that this packaging is just perfect. Sorry for the pic quality, they were made by a coconut. My first thoughts after unboxing this little piece were WOW. Even if there were crappy lowlight conditions in my room, I could clearly see the stunning level of detail. Only think I could think of at the moment was that the wait was worth it. Overall build quality is just awesome. DWO is perfectly aligned with cyclops, SEL fitment is nice imho, there were no scratches on the bracelet or case, crystal was bearing protective film as well as the caseback, bracelet and clasp. I remember some threads over on RWI where some guys were complaining about some dings, scratches, dust under the crystal, dial tilting to either left or right, misaligned DWO and some other things. None of these happened with my piece and Thomas did a really good job on this one. I have nothing to complain about. My only disappointment came when I tried to install gen insert. Gen insert is a piece of craftsmanship itself if you take into consideration that you need no glue because insert is hold in the bezel thanks to its shape that provides tension that holds it in the bezel. However I could not persuade that small piece of s**t to click in even if I used the edge of the table. Bezel press was needed so I had to ask my local watchsmith to do this one for me. If you are interested how much he wanted for just pressing the insert in, he charged me 25 EUR which is about 30 USD (I hope he dies in a terrible longobongo death). Now let’s go to the details. TC Sub is not a gen, but it is very, very close to it. Dial: KH dial is awesome, but there are few differences compared to gen. Almost everyone knows, that TC Subs are based on V Series case, but with rehaut engravings sanded off the case is closer to Z or Y Series 16610. If you compare gen Z Serial dial to KH dial, you will find the first difference in “1000ft” script as number 1 is different as well as the “ft” spacing, which bring the dial closer to pre-2008 models (according to Submariner Story book). However I did a little research and found out that there are variances in Z Serial dials and most of them look exactly as KH dials. But you can make your own idea: (from top: first three are Z Serial dials, last two is my KH dial. If you wonder why the font is bolder on one pic, Nr. 4 was made with ISO 400, Nr. 5 was made with ISO 100) Swiss Made script looks good itself, but I see that it should be positioned little lower. The two on the top are Z Serial dials; the last one is my KH dial. I would like to point out also the difference in positioning Swiss Made script between the two gens – the first one has more space under the script. From this pic you can also see that Z Serials have LEC crown on 6 and no AR on cyclops. You can also see that minute markers are correct – bolder markers on the left, middle and right and thinner markers under W and A. The difference is not that noticeable, but you can see it. Also there is nothing like “slightly grayish colour” of the minute markers between 5-min markers. They are just thinner. If you have ever seen how a dial is printed, you know, that nobody would care to print it with two different colours. They are all of the same white colour all around the dial. Here is another one: Finally Rolex logo looks the same to me as well as OYSTER PERPETUAL DATE spacing. No problem here. (gen Z Serial on top, TC KH under) So in my opinion KH dial looks with no doubt very gen like and even all those indices are just perfect. Forgot to mention that lume is strong and evenly applied all over the dial, so no problem (and it looks amazing). So all in all maybe the only thing that would make it different from gen lumi dial is position of the Swiss Made script. Also I do not recommend comparing the placement of indices at 6 between LN and LV dials as LV is not only bigger but always placed significantly closer to Swiss Made script (please refer to Submariner Story book). Crown: Crown is OK. No need to write much here. I did also 0 shots of it as I could not get a single satisfactory photo of it. But there is no need to change it. Bezel: Bezel teeth need some wear to be more gen like. New TC Sub bezel is also very stiff and is not very willing to turn. You have to use significant force to make it turn. After 5-10 circles it turns like a charm. But the first turn is pain in the a**. You need also bezel press to install gen insert in it (at least I did, but many other members used just their fingers). Bracelet: Bracelet is one of the things to improve. With no doubt V4 is currently the best one available on the rep market, but … There I thing I like, and also few that need to be improved. I like V4 clasp, as the coronet is nice, nice stamping on the blades and also the diver extension looks great. The brushed finish could be slightly better imho. SEL need some work, shave it a bit. And also 93250 number on the back of it may be missing. I understand that maybe Chinese are not willing to stamp it, but it surely is one of the things that make it easy tell from the gen. Everything other is spot on. There are so many details like diver extension circle marking on the bracelet link, clasp holes on the side of it, nicely brushed caseback, clasp blades are the work of art itself, TC 2824 movement with H4 cannon pinion that makes the gap between the hands more gen like, Cyclops magnification, DWO print, dial print quality, so many details. You have to see it in person to know what I am talking about. It is few days since I have it and I am getting still blown away by these little things. I had no problem with movement as well and it is running at +1 sec per day (real average rate after 5 day testing – dancing, jumping, running, oils, sweat and watter ). Good boy. On the last word, for those, who are picky about crown guards. There are so many differences between them, that nobody can tell if it is gen or not. All of them are 16610 and there are many differences not only between M, V, Z and Y case but also between the same Serial cases. Whatever you think the look OK to me. But feel free to discuss this and maybe we will find out something new (from top: 1-3 are Z Serials, 4-5 are M Serials, 6 is Y Serial, 7 is V Serial and 8 is TC reviewed here) That is all folks. TC is king. Bracelet needs some work. And I hope you enjoyed this little review and maybe it will help somebody. And big thanks goes to TC for this wonderful piece.
-
Hi guys, I took some pictures of my first Rolex. It's a TC 16610 LV with a genuine pearl. Enjoy!
-
I ordered the 16610LV from TC 2+ weeks ago and it finally arrived yesterday. It was packaged very nicely. It came bubble wrapped and sealed in a silver poly bag inside a small brown box. Just for fun, I re-unboxed it in a Rolex watch shipping box. I have many of these available, if you are interested in purchasing a Rolex plastic shipping box, shoot me a PM. Anyhow, on to the watch reivew... *Sorry in advance for any moisture, dust, or lint on the watches Dial/hands: The dial printing is excellent as usual with TC subs. The font and color looks great. The marker surroundings are quite good for the round makers, but there seems to be a bit too much lume for the 12'o clock marker. I have an extra TC LV dial and its also the case with that dial. The maxi dials have the same width for each of the surroundings whereas the 12, 6 and 9 markers are a bit thicker on the 16610LN models. The hands are quite good, in these macro shots, you see a bit of extra lume around the edges of the hands. This is pretty invisible to the naked eye. The dial and hands are superlumed. Sorry I didn't get a pic, but I can assure you it glows like gen! CG/crown: This has been covered in other reviews. Gen like CG shape. Excellent cut and finish. The crown is very gen like as well. I had a few gen crowns but I didn't even bother switching it. I think it's that good! Date/crystal: RSH pointed out that the DWO (v1 and v2) are a bit left justified. I can confirm that this is the case with both of the TC watches. The LV came with v2 DWO, the background color is more white, but the left justification is present. Its more apparent for numbers in the 20s. vs I also noticed at the TC crystal seem to magnify the date a bit too much. The TC 16610LN has a Clark crystal installed and the magnification is similar to what I see on my gen GMT IIc. There is no LEC at 6'o clock. The crystal does have a softer edge than Clark's (TC crystal is more gen like). Pearl/insert: (gen insert on the LN version) The pearl is excellent on this insert. It's superlumed and seems to have some sort of covering. The pearl surrounding isn't as neat as the gen pearl but its quite good. The insert itself has very accurate shade of green compared to the gen. I did notice that the triangle above the pearl is a bit thin. It has a small crease present. This crease is also on other member's TC LV subs that I've seen. The edges of the insert is pretty clean, but the outer edge is not painted or smooth like the gen (only seen when removed). (moisture around 35-40 markings) Bracelet: The watch came with the V3 bracelet already installed with 1.8mm spring bars. TC also included 2 2.0mm bars. I decided to try swapping the spring bars and it worked flawlessly with the 2.0mm bars. The fitment with the 1.8mm bars had very slight play, its very tight with the 2.0mm bars. The SEL fitment is excellent. It's even all around. My only complaint about the V3 bracelet is the clasp shape and operation. I bought 4 v3 bracelets from TC and each of the clasp caps open and close differently from one another. Either its too tight or too loose, but its easily fixed. I do however think the clasp from the V2 has a more accurate shape. As seen in this photo, the clasp's corners are not "square" enough. It has a tapered look to it. I tried finding pictures of a gen clasp with this shape but almost all of them have sharper corners. The V2 clasp did not have this flaw (although the coronet and swissmade was incorrect). The backside looks pretty good as well. The next version should thin out the backside of the SEL piece so that its flush with the casing. Here are some more pictures my TC 16610LN (gen insert, clark crystal, still has the v1 dwo, v3 bracelet & clasp) and the newly acquired LV