panerai153 Posted January 18, 2014 Report Share Posted January 18, 2014 after a real nail biting saga I finally got my V5 yesterday. It got hung up in Customs in LA, they wanted more information and a revised invoice as they said the watch was not a 50.00 USD watch!! Got that sorted out and it was released, then FedEx took and extra day to get it to me, thought it was lost again. But, all's well that ends well. I got a chance to set up my camera and a few lights and decided to take a few photos of the V3 and V5 side by side. This really isn't a review, but I do have some thoughts about both of the divers. First off the FC diver is obviously much lighter, the V5 feels like a paperweight after handling the V3. The S/S V5 seems to fit well, and is comfortable. Although I believe that they are both have about the same dimensions, the S/S V5 definitely wears bigger. It feels bigger and it looks bigger. Some of this could be due to the weight difference. I wore it to work today, and I was pretty happy with it. I haven't really timed it to see what it's doing as far as accuracy, but it seems to be around 3-4 seconds different from my V3 after about 24 hours. The new rubber strap is pretty stiff, can't remember if the V3 was that stiff right out the box. Hopefully, this won't be a problem as I have a Sharkskin strap that I bought for the FC V3 and decided to leave the rubber strap on , so it will go on the S/S V5. Another thought on the rubber straps, they attract a lot of lint and dust. I live out in the country, so we probably have more dust in the air, but they sure seem to attract tiny bits of dust and lint. Comparing the two watches further, the dials both look nice to me, they are very, very similar. Cases are obviously completely different. While both are the same shape, One is Forged Carbon, the other a hunk of Stainless steel. The AR on the crystals seems to be Good, but both of them could use a better AR coating on the Cyclops. They are not nearly as bad as my older Rolex watches with no AR, but they could benefit from a better coating. As you can see the lume is almost identical. This lume was from the light used for the photos, no additional "charge" to the lume. While neither lume is in the "Torch" category, it seems adequate, my FC V3 is dim but readable in the early AM after being in the dark for 6-8 hours. From what I've read, the genuine versions do not have bright long lasting lume either. While the two watches share the same heritage, the same layout, the same rotating bezel mechanism and the same straps, they are really two very different watches. If I had to characterize the two, I would put the FC Diver more in the "Tool Watch" category and the S/S Diver more in the "Dress Diver" category, although I would seriously doubt that there are going to be many folks scuba diving, with either one of these 20K + watches. Either one of these would be a great watch for casual wear, jeans and t shirt , polo's, khakis, etc. The S/S would be fine with a sport jacket, maybe a suit, but the size could prove to be a problem under a dress shirt. Here are the photos: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coolfire Posted January 18, 2014 Report Share Posted January 18, 2014 Nice comparo there! <br /><br />Sent from my SHV-E250S using Tapatalk 2<br /><br /> 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dutchguy2 Posted January 18, 2014 Report Share Posted January 18, 2014 Nice pictures and very nice watches.Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panerai153 Posted January 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 Nice pictures and very nice watches. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD Thanks very much. I'm quite happy with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJC Posted January 20, 2014 Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 Nice congrats! If you want to sell the FC diver let me know in the meantime, enjoy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chronus Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 The caseback of the FC one is really titanium ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maju Posted January 31, 2014 Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 great write up dude! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nlnlnlnene Posted February 1, 2014 Report Share Posted February 1, 2014 GREAT thread!! you can see clearly that the v5 bezel font is totally wrong Reps Here are the two gens. http://www.watchcollectinglifestyle.com/home/insider-royal-oak-offshore-forgedcarbondiver Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
folex Posted February 3, 2014 Report Share Posted February 3, 2014 Thanks for the comparison. On a side note, isnt the inner bezel for the H factory closer to gen than the V3? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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