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My first replica experience


Junglecat

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Thought I'd write a little review of my first rep order even though I'm a noob, so hope nobody minds :). I stumbled across this forum a few weeks ago and was hooked pretty much straight away! However, as I'd never owned/shipped a rep before I decided to start out with something cheap and cheerful. As such I ordered a noob factory sub from Josh and I can't recommend him enough. It's obvious why he has such a good reputation here as his customer service was superb and I received my rep in 7 days, (shipped 23.55pm on 19/08 and recieved at my house 7.35am 25/08 - no problems at all). I know he is slightly more expensive than some of the other sellers but I am quite happy to pay the little extra for the service provided.

The watch was very well packaged and arrived in the same condition that it appeared in the QC pics.

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My immediate impression upon getting through all the packaging (which took quite a while), was that it was quite heavy and generally just felt solid and well built. Part of me expected it to be poor quality as it is a rep (and one of the cheaper ones at that), happily this is not the case.

All in all I am very happy with it! I appreciate that I am new and don't really know what I'm talking about, but for the time being the noob factory sub is more than good enough.

I love the rehaut engraving and the fact that it has the etched crown at 6, also the crown guards (although far from perfect) are not the worst that I have ever seen. The crown is a bit big and perhaps the rehaut is a little wok like but to reiterate, at this stage this isn't a problem for me considering that I didn't even know what a crown or rehaut were until I joined up here :D. Although the Bracelet is a little stiff in parts and the some of the edges are quite sharp, this shouldn't be anything a little dry lube and sandpaper can't solve.

I'll attach a few pictures even though I don't think they do it justice at all (terrible photographer/camera/small file sizes).

I am now officially hooked and following my painless and successful first foray into the rep world, I can't wait to order another one! I'm thinking GMT II with an ETA 2836-2, so expect lots of noob questions about those in the near future lol.

Cheers, Chris :).

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Edited by Junglecat
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Interesting! The more things change, the more they stay the same. The noob is over 5 years old and it's changed and yet some things are still the same. Your crown is too big again, original noobs had big crowns then they got smaller, closer to gen and now it's big again. The crown guards need work still, I've seen better cg's on noobs out of the box. Pearl looks decent, 4 years ago noobs were notorious for the 'zit' pearl. Date font is thin, it used to be thicker. But date mag looks ok, maybe a tad strong. Crown on the clasp is typical noob, could be a little better, but it is what it is. I've heard the new batch of noobs are back to weak lume, it wasn't too bad 5 years ago, but it has never been stand out. SN is M092117- yep that's the 2nd gen noob w/ rehaut engraving

Nice pics and enjoy your new watch. With a smaller crown and a little trimming of the inside cg's, it could look pretty good.

Here's a whited out pic of my old beat up noob, 4 years ago.

P1000210-1-1.jpg

trimmed the cg's, installed a gen crown and AM tube

WM pearl,

note the thicker date font

it was a good beater in it's time, and was WR.

Now days it's been replaced by a Euromariner

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Cheers mate, your crown and cg's do look awesome! It's a shame what you say about the crowns being smaller in the past but nevermind. It obviously doesn't compare to some of the higher end/modded reps out there but I didn't really expect it to. Just glad I got the first one out of the way :D. I doubt I'll mod it or change much on this one though, as I only have the Asian ETA (??), I assume this is the DG2813. Seems silly throwing money at such a cheap movement. For a noob like me it's perfect haha.

Edited by Junglecat
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Wow you've only been here 10 days, you have your first rep, you know how to improve the bracelet, know it's called a Noob Sub and take very decent photos indeed ..

What a fast learner!!1!

The past few weeks have been a toss up between browsing the forum whilst drinking copious amounts of tea or writing my dissertation on EU foreign policy... Choice was an obvious one :thumbsupsmileyanim:

Edited by Junglecat
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Welcome and congrats on your noob jungle!

Yeah I know...right now it looks great, but the longer your here and the more watches you look at and learn about... sooner or later you won't be able to look at that crown..so the hunt begins ..ta da! Gen crown off the bay for 50$! Might as well get that tube for it too!

What a difference that made! Then it's of to get a better pearl and sand down the insert! :)

just sayin....:)

:whistling:

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Interesting! The more things change, the more they stay the same. The noob is over 5 years old and it's changed and yet some things are still the same. Your crown is too big again, original noobs had big crowns then they got smaller, closer to gen and now it's big again. The crown guards need work still, I've seen better cg's on noobs out of the box. Pearl looks decent, 4 years ago noobs were notorious for the 'zit' pearl. Date font is thin, it used to be thicker. But date mag looks ok, maybe a tad strong. Crown on the clasp is typical noob, could be a little better, but it is what it is. I've heard the new batch of noobs are back to weak lume, it wasn't too bad 5 years ago, but it has never been stand out. SN is M092117- yep that's the 2nd gen noob w/ rehaut engraving

Nice pics and enjoy your new watch. With a smaller crown and a little trimming of the inside cg's, it could look pretty good.

Here's a whited out pic of my old beat up noob, 4 years ago.

P1000210-1-1.jpg

trimmed the cg's, installed a gen crown and AM tube

WM pearl,

note the thicker date font

it was a good beater in it's time, and was WR.

Now days it's been replaced by a Euromariner

What exactly is an "AM" tube ?

Will it go into the Noob case without having to do any mods to install it ?

And when going to a gen crown can the rep stem be used or is a different stem needed ?

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AM tube is an aftermarket tube- it's a copy of the gen tube and fits a Rolex crown.

In the old days the crown and tube on noobs were not copies of the gen assembly like they probably are today.

The tube installs in a noob case, but it is always a good idea to clean out the hole with a 3.0mm x .35 tap- this is a Rolex tool that you can find at Ofrei or Jules Borel or at a machine parts sales place.

The stems from rep movements all fit gen crowns.

The asian eta is not the same as the DG2813. the asian eta is the chinese copy of the swiss eta, not quite as good as a swiss eta but better than a DG2813, IMO.

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Yeah I know...right now it looks great, but the longer your here and the more watches you look at and learn about... sooner or later you won't be able to look at that crown..

Its bothering me already lol, probably a bad sign :D.

AM tube is an aftermarket tube- it's a copy of the gen tube and fits a Rolex crown.

In the old days the crown and tube on noobs were not copies of the gen assembly like they probably are today.

The tube installs in a noob case, but it is always a good idea to clean out the hole with a 3.0mm x .35 tap- this is a Rolex tool that you can find at Ofrei or Jules Borel or at a machine parts sales place.

The stems from rep movements all fit gen crowns.

The asian eta is not the same as the DG2813. the asian eta is the chinese copy of the swiss eta, not quite as good as a swiss eta but better than a DG2813, IMO.

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I'm still a little confused. Is the tube/stem the same thing or two different parts?

Edited by Junglecat
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the tube..well is a threaded tube that screws into the case and stays there. the stem is the longer skinny part that connects the movement to the crown. someone will be along and say it alot better :)

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Argghh gen crown and tube ordered, let the real fun begin. I can already tell that this lovely little forum is going to damage my credit card! To think all I wanted a few weeks ago was a rep that told the time and didn't have fauxlex written on it.

Edited by Junglecat
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Argghh gen crown and tube ordered, let the real fun begin. I can already tell that this lovely little forum is going to damage my credit card! To think all I wanted a few weeks ago was a rep that told the time and didn't have fauxlex written on it.

Lol. You're hooked already! Hope you have deep pockets...this addiction is like no other. Proceed with caution.

:pimp:

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