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Hi guys! Today I’ll be reviewing the Rolex Deep Sea Sea Dweller (DSSD) Ultimate. I want to preface this review by saying that this is my first review on this forum. I’m a relative newbie when it comes to reps, but I have been a lover of fine watches for many many years. Being new to this there may be things I fail to cover or simply do not know, so please don’t hesitate to ask me other questions. And I am always open to suggestions on how to make my reviews better and more valuable to others. Background: I am not a Rolex enthusiast. In fact, I don’t care for the looks of most models of Rolex watches. There are a very few of them that I like, but the DSSD is certainly one of them. I love the look of this watch. It’s hard to pick out exactly what it is that makes me like this model when I do not like most Rolex watches. The ceramic bezel, the caseback, the rehaut and the face are some of the things I like most about it. I have never seen the gen of this watch in person, so my only comparison to the real thing is through photos and YouTube videos. The Dealer: I purchased this watch from Andrew at Trusty Time. He has been outstanding to work with and I plan on leaving a thorough review of my experience with him on his section of this forum later today. Please check it out if you plan to purchase from him. Here is the link to the watch I purchased: http://www.yourtrust...roducts_id=6579 This is the detailed description of the watch copied from the website: ROLSD017 - Deep Sea Dweller SS Blk Asia 3135 Ult V The Ultimate Version of DeepSea ...Same Deep rehaut as Genuine. Crisp Engraving within Lugs, Excellent Pearl and Lume on Dial... Correct 10 on bezel.....Updated Bevelled Edge Date Window....Parts interchangeable (Except Dial and Movt) interchangeable with the Genuine. Made with a Genuine watch as Sample... MOVEMENT: Swiss Eta 2836-2 Movt CASE DIAMETER: 43mm THICKNESS: 17.5mm DIAL COLOR: Black Dial, White Dot Markers, Blue Lume on hour markers and needles and Bezel Pearl. CASE MATERIAL: Solid 316F Stainless Steel BRACELET: SS Oyster Brushed Bracelet with New Design Divers Extension FRONT GLASS: Dome Sapphire crystal BACK GLASS: Solid case back with Titanium Seal, 2 piece case back BEZEL: Full Ceramic Bezel With sandwich numeral insert (modded to Correct "10", bezel RLACC01001, maintaining the Ultimate V's Pearl). Unidirectional rotating Bezel. HACK MOVEMENT: Yes CLASP TYPE: Flip Lock DATE INDICATOR: At 3:00 position (set via crown, beveled edge date window) OTHER REMARKS: Close 6 and 9, one-piece screw down crown with o-ring with thick crown tube (same size as genuine). M Serial numbers and model numbers between lug and rehaut. Waterproof from factory to 5 atm...50m Ordering/Shipping: I ordered this watch (along with a Panerai reviewed elsewhere) on Jan 13th through Andrew’s website. I received a confirmation email immediately. I received QC photos on Jan 15th. The watch arrived on Jan 28th but it had spent a full 5 days in the possession of customs at JFK, so taking out that delay the order-to-receipt time was 10 days which I consider to be excellent processing time from China to the US. The watches came well packaged. Each had a rubber bezel/case guard, was wrapped in thin plastic sheet, then folded up in a lot of bubble wrap and placed inside a thick Styrofoam box. The Styrofoam box was shipped in a standard cardboard box. You could drop this package off a 10 story building and the watches would be fine. First Impression: Talking the watch out, I carefully cut away the plastic film and removed the rubber bezel guard. I was amazed at how nice this watch looked in my hand. The quality of the appearance, and the fit-and-finish of this watch was way better than website photos or QC pictures could represent. This is a beautiful watch. I find myself sitting there like an idiot just staring at it. The watch is heavy and has a very solid feel to it, which I like very much. The top of the case and bracelet are brushed while the sides are polished. This contrast gives it a nice, quality appearance. The ceramic bezel is gorgeous. It is very shiny and the numbers and hash marks are crisp and clean. The case back is awesome and is one of the reasons I bought this watch. I thought that maybe the titanium alloy back would look cheesy in person, but I was wrong. It looks very cool. The band also looks very good. All of the links swivel nice and freely without having a loose feel to them. The Solid End Links (SEL) fit nicely into the case. The clasp works well and is easy to operate and adjust, but this is the first place I noticed a slight lack in quality. More on that later. Here's some photos: Further Investigation: The Crown - The first rep I purchased had a serious issue with the crown and the stem not engaging the movement correctly, so I had to send it back. So the first thing I did was to pull the crown out and test it. The crown unscrewed from the case very smoothly, and had a very solid feel. The crown pulled out nicely and had a nice tactile “click” at each position. Manually winding the watch (in the first position) is smooth with a nice resistance to it. Setting the date (with the second position) was also very nice with each day clicking by with a little snap at each change. The hands also operate very smoothly and without any slop when adjusting the time (at the third position). The Rolex Crown emblem (I think there’s another name for this, but I can’t think of it) looks good on the tip of the crown, and the grooves around the side of the crown are crisp and nicely machined. The Bezel - I then checked the operation of the bezel. It turns nicely without the very stiff resistance I’ve felt on other bezels. Not too tight, but not too loose. The clicking sound as you turn the bezel is also nice. I know it sounds strange, but I’ve turned some bezels and the clicking sounds hollow and tinny which gives an impression of cheapness. This bezel does not have that. The ceramic on the bezel is a deep polished black with a very high-gloss shine to it. I was concerned about the numbers on the bezel looking sloppy on the edges where the white meets the black, but with the naked eye, they are razor sharp. I’ve noticed that some pictures that are blown up very close will show some very slight irregularities, but this cannot be seen with the naked eye. The pearl also looks well constructed. It is perfectly centered in the triangle at the top of the bezel. It is raised with a tiny steel tube and filled with the lume. The top of the lume is rounded and polished and despite its tiny size, looks well made. The grooves around the outside of the bezel are also very nice. I will admit that this is one area I can tell the different between the rep and the gen. The gen’s grooves seem to be more precisely machined with sharper edges. However, in person they are so small that I think it would be very difficult to tell the difference without a loupe. With a high-res photo comparison, this will be one of the parts in which you can see a difference. The Case Back – Like I’ve mentioned, this is one of the things I really like about this watch. The dark titanium alloy back is held to the case with a stainless steel ring. It has a unique look that I’ve not seen on any other watch. The ring has engravings along the edge with “ROLEX OYSTER DEEPSEA – SEA-DWELLER 12800 ft = 3900m” written on it. The engraving is relatively deep and black in color. I don’t know how accurate the font is to the gen but it is crisp and spaced evenly between the edges. The grooves around the bottom edge of the ring are sharp and look well machined. The Bracelet – Like I mentioned earlier, the bracelet is brushed on the top and bottom and polished along the edges. It has nice quality feel to it. There are small screws holding the removable links vice pins, which made sizing the bracelet very easy. I was very careful in removing the pins because I didn’t know what the quality would be like. But when they were out I took a good look at them and they appeared to be solid and well made. The bracelet on the wrist is very comfortable and did not pluck the hairs off my arm like so many other watches do. The Clasp – The clasp on the DSSD is very cool. It folds down on itself and secures with an authoritative snap. Then a smaller clasp folds over the edge of that one to hold everything secure. On mine, this second clasp has a slight defect as can be seen in the photo. The top right arm of the clasp is bent slightly outward and leaves a small gap from the edge of the larger clasp. I think that I could probably wrap it in cloth and tap it lightly back in place with a hammer, but right now it doesn’t bother me very much. I also don’t want to risk damaging it so that it doesn’t work. If anyone has had experience with anything like this before, I’d appreciate your advice! This clasp has a very cool “Glidelock” feature where you pull out the top of the clasp and pull the end of the bracelet in and out for fine adjustment by 1.8mm lengths. Pushing it back down engages teeth in the clasp that holds everything steady. It works very well. It is designed for divers to quickly adjust to the thickness of a wetsuit sleeve, but it also works extremely well to fine tune the precise fit of the bracelet. The very edges of this “glidelock” clasp are not machined very precisely and have a sloppy edge to it. This would be extremely hard for anyone who is not specifically looking for it to notice. The fold out parts of the clasp is probably the one area of this rep that I think could be improved. The build quality is fine, but the printing of the Rolex emblem looks very cheap. You can judge for yourself in the photos. This concerns me very little because the only way anyone would ever see them is if I removed the watch and handed it to someone to inspect. Even then, I’m not sure it’s bad enough to immediately draw attention to it. The Crystal – The crystal looks beautiful. It is not as “domed” as I had anticipated, but it is slightly domed when looking at it from the side. Visually, the crystal sits perfectly. However, if you run your finger around the edge of the crystal (where it meets the bezel) it is not seated exactly flush. I had heard that this was common with this rep, so I was looking for it. Had I not read about it, I may have never noticed. I think that this might be able to be fixed with a case press, but that’s just a guess. Anyone else who’d like to chime in on this, please do. I may try to fix it in the future but as it is now, no one would ever notice this in a million years. Before I received this watch there was some question of whether the rep or the gen had the small “Rolex Crown” etching on the crystal. Well I’m here to clear that up. They both do. It is very, very difficult to see with the naked eye, but if you hold a powerful flashlight at the right angle, it’s there. I managed to catch it in one of the photos. It’s hard to see, but when you can see it, it looks well done. The Face – The face of this watch is gorgeous. It’s very simple which I like. I’m no expert, but everything looks nicely aligned and positioned. I cannot speak to the accuracy of the fonts, but the quality is excellent. Everything is crisp and clear. The lume has a nice blue color when freshly charged, but is not very bright. There are really three levels of brightness on the lume of this watch. The brightest is the hour markers, then the hands, then the pearl. I charged the lume with an extremely powerful aviation flashlight (185 lumens) for 30 seconds. The hour markers were adequately bright and the hands were also adequate but noticeably dimmer than the hour marker. The pearl was barely lit at all. If you wanted to mod this watch, I would say the lume is the first place to start. However for me, it’s not that much of an issue. I will probably leave it as is for some time. The lume also dims down to nothing within about 30 mins. My attempt at the lume shot (I need to get better at these!) The Fit – I have exactly a 7” wrist. I’m not sure how that fits in to the world-wide average, but I feel my wrist is average to slightly below average. The watch looks very well proportioned on the wrist to me. Unlike some of the larger watches such as U-Boat and Panerai, I would imagine that just about anyone could wear this watch without it looking too big in diameter. I will say that the watch is fairly thick and if anything, the watch sits up high off your wrist. But it’s no show stopper. You’d have to be analyzing it to notice this fact. Conclusion: I spent $408USD on this watch. Considering the gen costs more than $10,000USD I’d say I hit a gold mine! I’ve heard that Rolex watches are among the most widely (and cheaply) repped watches around. Even people with gen watches are constantly asked if their watch is real. However, this watch screams quality. I think just about anyone who wasn’t a Rolex enthusiast or AD who took a close look at this watch would have to determine it was real. The watch is absolutely beautiful. The things about it that are not accurate are so minor that they almost don’t warrant notice. I am very happy with this purchase, and very happy with my experience so far with Andrew at Trusty Time (www.yourtrustytime.com). Again, if there’s anything in my review that wasn’t clear or if you have any additional questions I can answer, don’t hesitate to ask. I hope you've all found this review informative and helpful!

Saw this fantastic thread over on the other RwG and asked semaj if he minded me posting it here too, it's a great place to read up on the current 'Super Reps' that are available, enjoy Ok, let me start off buy demystifying the term “super-rep” because it’s banded about on the forums waaaaaay too much. The only way IMO it should be used is to describe a rep that is 99% 1:1, no rep IS 1:1 or they’d just be gens. This is instead, more of a list of “super good looking and quite close to gen” list. This list is the cream of the crop, the best of the best in terms of accuracy and also as a direct result, popularity. I don't want members, especially new members, thinking this is a list of all 1:1 watches, no, instead this is a list to help guid you to the cream of the crop but always remember that a rep watch will always have its flaws. I have used MemberX’s original list as a base point and built on it. I have included the majority of his original choices, especially those which I’m not familiar with such as Concord etc I have NOT included modders builds such as RA/Phong. I have only included those who only specialise in one brand, BK/TC/Concepta etc the watches listed are for the most part “out of the box” Movements; Asian 2836 or swiss, unless the case back is see-through you get the same thing. All watches advised would contain either swiss or asian clone movements unless specified otherwise Cases: I have included a few watches with gold/white gold/platinum cases in the gen. Obviously, the weight of the rep and gen will not be the same so keep this in mind. I don’t profess to know this stuff as well as some other members, this is just based on my 2 years collection and reading online. If you have something to add or think something shouldn’t be there, shoot me a PM and I can update the thread. NB some are better than others in terms of closeness to gen, however all are recognized as being very, very good and close to gen. Small differences from later versions may improve the overall 1:1 propensity of the watch but the earlier version, if applicable, should still be considered very good and accurate. Small differences to the gens such as the placement being off by a few millimeters of the “Swiss made” mark etc are inconsequential. please note: Those marked *under review* are on the cusp of being removed from the list due to popular consensus that they may may not/should not be classified with the rest of the watches listed. This is a peer reviewed list and majority rules. The more people we have here giving input the better the list will be and more accurate. The "list" Audemars Piguet (AP): All the AP chronographs advised have seconds at “12” unless specified otherwise AP ROO Diver V3-3.5 AP Montauk v2 & v1 AP Safari (updated version with silver outlined numerals and rounded pushers) AP Rose Gold Rubber Clad (updated version with gold outlined numerals and rounded pushers) AP Stainless Steel Rubber Clad (Updated version w/ rounded pushers) AP silver theme (Updated version w/ rounded pushers) AP chronopassion (Updated version w/ rounded pushers) AP White themes (Updated version w/ rounded pushers) AP grey themes (Updated version w/ rounded pushers) AP black themes ((Updated version w/ rounded pushers) AP Rose Gold Don Ramon de la Cruz (Updated version w/ rounded pushers) AP Royal Oak Jumbo (current new version) *under review* Breitling: Seawolf v2 all colours Super Ocean Steel Fish (SOSF) v2 Super Ocean Heritage non-chrono v2 Skyland Avenger chrono v4 Super Ocean Abyss 44mm Super Ocean Abyss 42mm Super Avenger chronographs v4 Cartier: Santos 100 ultimate chronograph and chronometer Ebel: 1911 discovery chronograph white panda & black Rolex: Anything from TC and BK Rolex explorer II – N factory Ceramic sub –BP factory Sea Dweller - BP factory Ultimate DSSD Ultimate “Super” sea-dweller (SSD) Day-date 2 – N factory Date-just 2 – N factory Current versions of explorer 1 both 36 and 39mm MBW/MW9/MBK sub Panerai Too many to list, see below link for an in-depth model analysis done by Ale on RWI http://www.replica-watch.info/vb/showthread.php/reference-pam-review-107365.html?t=107365 Chopard Chopard Mille Miglia GTXL Chrono – grey IWC Ingy Laureus (blue) N-factory Portofino Ultimate Version (all colours) Mark XVII v2 Mark XVI v2 Big pilot 5004 *under review* Pilot chrono 3717 latest version Top gun chrono 3789 latest version Aquatimer Cousteau diver 2006-08 versions 3707 Ti Chronograph ingy (old version) w/ lello DWO Anything from Concepta Patek Nautilus 5711 ultimate SW (blue and gray) Nautilus 3711 ultimate SW (black) Omega Ultimate Planet Ocean (UPO) 42mm PO (latest ultimate version) Planet Ocean Professional (Ploprof) v2 Ceramic Planet Ocean (latest version from N-factory)*under review* JLC Navy Seals Diver (NSD) Concord C1 Vacheron Constantin Overseas (latest ultimate Swiss ETA version w/ correct date wheel window) Sinn Sinn U1 Sinn U2 Sinn UX Sinn U1000 SoleBox U2 Graham Chronofighter Dewitt Academia Chrono Bell & Ross Bell & Ross BR02 Bell & Ross BR03-92 Bell & Ross BR03 type aviation swiss quartz Tag Heuer Tag Heuer Aquaracer Chrono TAG Heuer Link Calibre 16 Chronograph Aquaracer 500M Calibre 5 Hublot Diver 4ooo – v4 ultimate caviar v6 hublot Big Bang stainless steel I’m sure there’s more but I know very little about HB’s, others input is needed. Montblanc Montblanc timewalker chrono (new N-factory version) These are available from our trusted dealers subject to availability and continuing production. Some are no longer being made. Do NOT PM me asking where you can get blah blah blah etc, ask one of the Trusted Dealers. You can buy these reps here http://www.rwgforum.net/links/category/3-dealer-websites/ Your input on the content of the list is greatly appreciated guys and I will try to keep it up to date with semaj thread too, thanks and a big shout out to James for getting this list going it takes time and effort to do it

Hey guys, This thread is something that some of you were waiting for. A thread about my ultimate franken. I feel I have taken this franken to a much higher level compared to the current existing frankens on the forums that we know off. Basically the story starts in June-July 2012, I wanted to build my own franken so I started looking for parts. Sourcing a dial was easy, in fact I bought several dials, being a blue classic baton dial, grey dial, black rubberclad dial, safari dial, white rubberclad dial, black themes dial. All of them except the safari and white rubberclad dial were sold to nice members here. I even assisted two of them with their build. After studying the current frankens I was not pleased with them. They look close but in fact they are not that close. All of them have the flaw of the mid case that is too thick. Next to that, all of the frankens around have thinned rubber gaskets between the bezel and the midcase, which is wrong too! The replica rubber gasket is 1:1 as per gen, believe it or not, both on front and on the back of the case. So I wanted to keep this correct. Above you see an example of a current existing franken compared with a gen on top, notice the differences?! To me these are huge differences, but I’m a nitpicker. Offcourse I knew this would make the project more difficult but it’s an adventure and I’m a perfectionist so I wanted to find out how to. I was able to buy a gen rubberclad bezel with gen screws, then I also bought a gen crystal and crystal gasket set as well as genuine rubber gaskets (not really necessary). The gen bezel cannot use rep screws. It also needs a gen crystal. Here you see why: (gen on the left, rep on the right) (gen on the left, rep on the right) The gen screws are smaller at the head and have a thicker head as well. Another important thing about a rubberclad bezel is the fact that AP uses a stainless steel bezel with a rubber coating on top. The rep rubber bezel is pure rubber and plastic. The difference in quality is big imo. Here you see some comparison shots: (gen on bottom, rep above) (rep) (gen) (rep on top, gen on bottom) Also, on the forums there is a lot of whining about the gen crystal having AR etc. Well, I have a gen crystal and it does not have any AR!!! So AR’ing your crystal might look nice and does look nice imo but I don’t like it as the AR hue makes it a huge tell. If you however decide to AR your crystal, get a proper coating on the inside of the crystal. Some pics of gen vs rep crystal: (gen on the right) (gen on the right) (gen on the right) (gen on the right) I also bought a gen set of pushers and a crown, but I decided not to use these as the pushers sit too deep in the case which makes it less gen like. As you can see the gen and rep screws are slightly different: I started off by milling my mid-case to the correct height as per gen. Therefor I used a gen piece and measured everything side by side. A cool feature is that there is a slight difference in height on the mid case, this on the outside of the gasket channel and the inside of the gasket channel. So, after the milling the midcases got blasted a second time and there I had my 1:1 thickness midcase. The cyclops I bought from Uwe 2 years or 3 years ago (with purplish blue AR, closer to gen!). Since I was building a white rubberclad my datewheel window had to be matte black as per gen. So I disassembled the Dubois Depraz 2000 module from the ETA2892 movement, pushed out the window, sanded it, painted it and installed it back. (on the photo above the incorrect datewheel is visible. It’s quite good but not close enough to me) In the meanwhile I was able to install my gen spec datewheel as well. This datewheel is also part of my project and to help other members with their build. Everyone was using the LWO datewheel which is always wrong. I wanted mine to be correct as per gen, what is the point of making a franken? So I did the datewheel production, which was a success. After installing mine I was even more pleased with the project. I was able to install the hands, datewheel, cyclopse and dial on my own. The tachyring was easy to install as well. But for the drilling of the case, to replace the crown tube I needed a competent watchmaker. Therefor I contacted a German watchmaker (not Domi ) to do the work. He is the watchmaker of a watch customizing company. He agreed to do the work as it was a very nice project. I also asked him if he was able to change the caseback engraving, he said he would take care of it. He also suggested to make a custom movement ring as he felt this watch needs it. Imo it does need it. The gen piece also uses a movement ring. So, after a while he finished the job of the assembly and I received my watch. The only thing I have to do now is blast the caseback, brush the caseback with the circular finish and then it’s completely done! I can attest that my AP White rubberclad has a thickness of 14.52mm, gen is 14.50mm in height. I did not shave any rubber gaskets, only caseback and midcase. Which makes my piece amazingly close to gen. Specs: - Gen bezel - Gen gaskets (all of them) - Gen screws - Gen crystal + gasket - Gen hands (all of them) - Gen dial and tachyring - Rep crown and pushers (closer to gen dimension wise) - Rep midcase with my own milling mod + sandblasting - Rep caseback with custom engraving - Rep rubber strap (no need to go gen, I sold my gen rubber strap) - Sead’s deployant. Imo the best one available as it has the proper stamps - LWO 283 movt. NOS with custom Edge datewheel Total cost is about €3250 - €3500 (USD 4.485 - 4.850), but the joy I got with this build is priceless! That’s about it. I hope you guys enjoyed it and I hope it was a helpful read. Any questions, just shoot. Thanks!

Hi RWG, I recently picked up a Planet Ocean 42mm Ultimate (OMG0154) from Andrew of Trusty Time and am currently having a bit of a conundrum. When I first received it, I loved it; it looked great and worked really well thanks to the Swiss ETA 2824-2 movement. However, I found within closer inspection a small mark on the inside of the sapphire crystal (which the QC pics didn't show); from what I can tell it seems that it was a smudge that was a result of the AR coating applied to both sides of the crystal. This didn't bother me too much since you really had to look hard to even see it and my gen SMP 300M chronometer has a small mark from dropping it on the crystal (which is also not noticeable unless you look for it). What is really bothering me is the crown of the UPO. When I set the time initially, it took a bit to get used to the resistance of unscrewing the crown as well as screwing the crown back into the case. The other night when I finished setting the time on the UPO, I pushed in the crown and started to screw it back into the case but it pushed back out into the first position. It took a few tries and I was able to seat the crown back into the screwed down position. However, now the crown can be easily be put into the first position by touching the crown with enough force instead of unscrewing it. Now the question is, should I take this to a jeweler to have them see if they can fix it, or should I email Trusty Time to send it back and have it fixed there, or should I just leave it be? Note, that Trusty time does not do refunds or exchanges. Any input would be greatly appreciated and thank you for reading, I realize that it was a rather lengthy post.