Received Joshua's New Sub

[fletch512]

My LV from Joshua came in today. I'll post my first impressions for now, and then upload pictures soon.

Pros: The dial looks pretty good. The fonts are all correct, including the m in 300m. The lume is really bright. The date magnification is excellent, perhaps a bit larger then modern subs, but I'd rather have a bit larger than a bit smaller. The crown guards are a bit improved.

Cons: Here's where it's one step forward, one (maybe two) step backwards. As has been mentioned earlier, the cyclops is too far too the right, maybe by 2 millimeters. If you look at the watch straight on, the date window touches the right side of the cyclops; you have to tilt the watch at an angle to center the date window. On a gen LV, you can see the minute markers to the right of the cyclops. In Josh's version, they are totally eclipsed. I'm a bit perturbed about this as Josh assured me the cyclops was correct prior to me ordering the watch. Next, the pearl is totally flat. It's hard to tell in Josh's photoshopped pictures of the watch, but there's not even a bit of curvature to the pearl. In fact, the whole bezel needs to be changed because the numbers are too close (touching) to the crystal. The crown etching at 6 o'clock is very obvious, unlike my other rep from Trusty, which has a more subtle etching. Next, either the large six o'clock marker is a bit off to the left, or the "swiss made" is a bit off to the right (this is pretty minor, though). Next, the bezel does not align properly at the 12 o'clock marker; maybe off by a millimeter. Finally, while I mentioned above that the crown guards are slightly improved, they are still far from perfect, and far from what I've seen in PT's ultimate sub. The crown guards are asymetrical, with the top one being closer to the crown then the bottom one.

Summary: Under normal lighting conditions, no one will probably notice faults from 3-4+ feet away. I have pretty good eyes, so maybe I catch things a normal observer would not. However, close inspection reveals a few dead giveaways that this is a rep. Specifically, the misaligned cyclops, the flat pearl, the bezel, and even the crown guards. I do love the date mag on this thing, and wish PT could transplant that over. Until then, the hunt for the "perfect" sub rep will continue for me.

[supermanx]

wow maybe you got a dud. Mine is very good, pearl seamed flat but completely covering the metal used an exacto knife and trimmed a hair all the way around the pearl and gives it a nice shaped (bought a illumidot from ofrei for $10.00 cause i was gonna replace it with that but used it as a template for correct size, one day i will put the illumidot in cause the color is more natural.) Mine doesnt have any of the dial alignment issues that you reported, and the cyclops i think is a little larger then gen but mine is centered to the date window (on gen the 15minute/3'oclock minute marker is covered). Crown guards are not bad but not mod'ed(Josh does offer a mod version that I would think would be compareable to the Ultimate). My bezel was actually aligned, but that should be an easy fix. I posted a wrist shot of mine on this weeks wrist check page 2.

Another thing I noticed before I got my lv browsing at a large AD in vegas is that even the rolex's in the same display case vary in the pearl and crown guards to some extent.

Josh was really easy to work with and comes highly recommended, im sure he'll be able to fix you up if you give him a chance.

Here are some of the best LV photo's ive seen in a while.

LV on Ebay