Comparative review of the DeepSea V2, V3, & V4 with the gen

[gioarmani]

I know this topic for may seem redundant to some, but it still seems to be a matter of great discourse.

Hopefully, this might go a bit beyond repetition in order to illustrate some overlooked facts that I've seemed to notice between these models; quite often these differences tend to go unnoticed, or at the very least, unmentioned by most members in their questioning and reviews of the DSSDs.

I should also give a thank you to 3 members in particular, rustyrussel, accutron67, and Jimbean (as I'm about to use some of their photographs ). I thought these were well shot and their threads were well done which is why I chose them for comparison.

It seems the most often discussed aesthetic differences or discrepancies between the different releases of the DSSD, are the usual; date-window, lume color, bezel thickness, insert font, etc., but there were a few factors beyond these that I thought were of equal importance in deciding which model to buy, and what to do in order to mod it. For instance, the bezel is a bit better on the V2 than the V3, but the V2's HEV looks more like it belongs on a SSD rather than a DSSD, whereas the V3's HEV looks damn-near spot-on.

Now, whether or not you choose to mod your piece is your choice--as some people accept them straight from the box. Below, I chose to point out these differences for observation & comparison sake only. I have no intention of thumbing my nose at one model over the other as they all have pros and cons, but rather to point out what were the deal-breakers for me as to which piece to buy for myself. And the only reason I choose to do this now is because I don't see these points talked about, and if they were important to one person, they might be important to others as to which way to swing their wallet.

I'll skip the V1 of the DSSD, as everyone seems to agree it was a mickey mouse piece.

To begin comparisons, I feel it's best to familiarize one's self with the genuine article, as the best way to list pros and cons between them is to play a game of "spot-the-difference".

The gen:

Let's start with the V2.

Again, most know the obvious differences between the V2 & V3, but for posterity there's a modicum of difference in the thickness and the cut of the bezel between the V2 & V3, and the bezel insert's font being too thick on the V2 as opposed to a too-thin font on the V3.

Too thick:

Too thin:

On the V4, the bezel font is thicker than the V3 (premodded) and a bit closer to the genuine article, but only a slight hair on the thick side (e.g. the "40" & "50") :

But what you may not have noticed are other subtleties; such as the dial print. Just as on almost every single dealer/manufacturer's version of the Submariner, these can vary greatly in crispness & sharpness of the dial print's quality, to the actual thickness of the font itself.

Mind you, as far as the crispness and quality of the dial print, these are all fantastic compared to what else if floating around out there, but you will notice the V2's dial print is thicker than what's on the V3. This is most noticeable on the prongs on the crown at 12 o'clock, and on the words DEEPSEA and ROLEX (specifically the horizontal, bottom portion of the "L" in ROLEX).

You'll notice the V3's dial print (in thickness & size) is almost dead-on to the gen:

Another feature that I don't see pointed out, but concerned me as far as my purchase, was the wording "ORIGINAL GAS ESCAPE VALVE" & "RING LOCK SYSTEM", on the inner ring beneath the crystal. On all the V4's and most of the V3's, this print seems to be engraved into the ring, then painted, as you can observe in the pics below, from the way the light reflects off the indentions left by the engraving:

Now here's the gen again, which you can observe the indentions (if any) are nowhere near what's pressed into the metal rings above:

However, there are variances--the latest version of the V3 being shipped out doesn't seem to have this; the words seemed printed/painted directly onto the ring, similar to the gen. Below is my V3 (originally from Andrew). The V2's were quite good in this regard as well:

As to the more recent models (since the V2 is practically unavailable except by resell), the one change that is a bit disheartening about the V4 is the misshapen case; the V3 was closer to the gen, but you can see where the case on the V4--which seems a bit too wide--tends to stick out further on the sides compared to the gen or V3:

Original V3:

Recent V3:

The crownguards also seem too rounded off on the V4. With respect, a good number of the V3's tend to have the proper CG shape, but are just a bit too long. I've recently had to sand down & repolish mine.

All in all, as stated, these are subtle difference of course, but differences I seemed to notice and wondered if anyone else had as well. As far as the overall quality of the DSSDs go, these are uncannily good straight from the box, whichever version you may have or intend to get, and can be made even better with a bit of modding (then again, what can't).

I hadn't seen a thread like this as of yet, so I decided to just throw it out there. Of course, nobody--including ourselves--sees a watch on our wrist with the naked eye the same way we see it in macro photographs (with every little nuance broken down to the lowest common denominator), but God knows we love to pour over them; almost religiously so. So here's a few more for you to obsess about.

Edited April 8, 2009 by gioarmani

[Toadtorrent]

I love comparisons like this. Very interesting reading. Thanks a lot for this!!

[Member X]

This should be a sticky!

Thank you for taking the time to write it!

[freddy333]

It seems to me that you could probably construct a pretty accurate rep by combining the best of the 2 best versions. Of course, that would double the purchase price, but, as they say, the 1st 90% towards perfection always costs you alot less than the last 10%.

[asf]

What an excellent write up!!

[hiker01]

@gio............................thanks for taking the time! Excellent comparison!

[mikellem]

Excellent comparison Gio...

Thanks for all your hard work...

MM

[TeeJay]

That's a fantastic comparison, thanks for taking the time to put it all together

[krpster]

Great comparison! You have a good eye for detail (well two I suppose ). Definitely an excellent resourse for someone shopping for DSSD. Thanks.

[DaniM4]

MR. DSSD

i hope you don't mind me calling you that.

Great job man.

thanks

[Guest carlsbadrolex]

You are correct in that a thread like this for the DSSD is not available anywhere. You have taken the comparative review to an entirely new level when you start collecting pictures of all versions and a gen.

What you have accomplished is taking all of the leg work out of someones search for the best DSSD. You have made it clear that they each have their own benefits and drawbacks and you have clearly stated what can be done to make each better.

I was a little surprised to see your interest in this particular watch, but am thrilled that you have shared your insights with us.

Thank you for everything!

T

[Stephane]

Thanks Gio, this is a very usefull review.

It makes me like my V3 more even without it's pearl

[Watchmeister]

Gio-

Fabulous thread. Much thanks for what I know was a lot of work.

[dluddy]

Great eye for detail Gio.

Sounds like there is a forumla here to make a very accurate version, but as Freedy said, twice the price

Thanks for taking the time to post this.

[morlock]

Great review, down to details. Thanks for point out some un-notice points.

[TK471]

Awesome!

[BRONTE500]

Amazing my man. Ive been pondering over this watch for ages and glad you put that together. Think the latest edition of the v3 is the one for me. cheers

[cheswick]

This is an extremely helpful resource! My head was actually starting to spin as I was looking at this rep, until I bumped into this thread. Thanks Gio!