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elmerlo

Rolex Submariner 114060 NoDate Hands-on

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elmerlo

Hi guys,

 

decided to make an investment on a Rolex Gen, bought this morning.

 

So far I had no less than 8 reps of this watch, all gone for a reason or another. I even made reviews in the past which can be found on the forums.

 

What to say about the Gen compared to the Reps? At the moment of writing the most popular version of this one is the Noob V7, which has an obvious, big, flaw that you can spot at a distance: the platinum effect on the bezel is plain wrong.

 

The Gen has a very, very little amount of "shiny powder" on the bezel indexes, but it's not greyish as Noob now does it, in any way. The indexes basically look white, and IMHO, the previous versions of Noob, before this platinum frenzy kicked in, were way better.

 

What else to say? Not much! And this is the good part. :)

 

If you look close, very close, well, ok:

-bezel indexes are thicker and deeper. Go with a loupe and you'll see the perfection in the cuts;

-inner indexes have thicker profiles and the 3,6,9 ones are narrower;

-the white gold hands look very different from the rep ones.

 

But, as I said, you must be at loupe level to spot that.

 

And, let's debunk some myths along the way:

You go anal about bezels that have some play? Also the gen has it.

904L steel? WTF? Hello! It's steel! Not much difference here. Marketing crap! While buying it I tried a full-gold GMT Master II, well, THAT is a difference.

Squeaky bracelets? Oh yes, The gen squeaks as well :D

 

So, all in all, we are quite well-placed with our Chinese friends. Only a couple of minor adjustments and we will be definetely there.

 

Updates on original post:

- weight, reduced to my size (10 total links) is 153 grams, noob V7 A2836 is 143 g. (146 g. the Date version).

- the rotor doesn't make ANY noise. That is really amazing. Even with the best Swiss ETAs 2824-2836 I have (Hamilton, Steinhart), if I move my ear close to the case and flip the wrist, I can hear the rotor. Not to say the 7750s or worse the Miyotas 9015s, which can be heard across a silent room. :( With this, even if you glue your ear to the case and flip it as hard as you can...nothing.

 

One pic of the baby:

 

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Edited by elmerlo

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Duzza

This is also largely my experience from owning genuine Rolexs, though I cant agree on the bezel engravings. Definitely silver to my eye.

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k3rm87

Great pickup and a keeper for sure.

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Duzza

just had look (not to but I might add) at a gen lv in watchfinder and the bezel markers looked printed not engraved is this correct ?

http://www.watchfind...6519/item/83718

Thats an older submariner, pre ceramic. 16610 vs 116610

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elmerlo

This is also largely my experience from owning genuine Rolexs, though I cant agree on the bezel engravings. Definitely silver to my eye.

 

As soon as I receive a macro tube for my lenses I will try to post better, detailed, pictures (also if Photobucket is slightly less crappy), but it's white here, bright white. There is a silver accent, but not plain gray as Noob now makes it. No way. Some days ago I had the chance to put the two side by side and took a cellphone pic. Let's hope I find it and I will post it here.

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elmerlo

Great pickup and a keeper for sure.

 

Thank you mate! Yeah looks good a timeless piece: my hope is that it goes up in value. For a while I will keep it in "as new" condition, then I will decide... ;)

 

...next step: buy another Noob V7 and whiten the bezel indexes (20 € job) for day-to-day use! :D

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Duzza

This is also largely my experience from owning genuine Rolexs, though I cant agree on the bezel engravings. Definitely silver to my eye.

 

As soon as I receive a macro tube for my lenses I will try to post better, detailed, pictures (also if Photobucket is slightly less crappy), but it's white here, bright white. There is a silver accent, but not plain gray as Noob now makes it. No way. Some days ago I had the chance to put the two side by side and took a cellphone pic. Let's hope I find it and I will post it here.

 

I don't see the grey colour in the latest noob models, it's definitely a metallic colour, similar to the genuine article. Though not as complex in its shades.

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Genius

Great pickup on the gen, interesting idea getting a rep of it as a beater although I'd probably just wear the gen, spending that kind of cash I'd want some use from it..

 

If the noob bezel bothers you for your beater go for the mod the Taiwanese bloke on RWI does re engraved and platinum plated they look 100% gen

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MAJ75

Firstly congratulations on a beautiful aquisition.

 

It is refreshing to see someone reporting/celebrating how close the rep equivalent is when being in possession of the genuine article.

 

As per Genius above I would wear the gen daily so it gets proper use & also because it is a piece that can stand everyday life & takes on more personality as it ages & aquires the look of being lived with............

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ilovepepsi

Wear it in good health!

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NCRich

Very nice. Enjoy and thanks for the post.

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Jjm1016

Great watch, what do you notice between the bracelet on the v7 and the gen? are they pretty similar?

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UmpaHimself

Congrats!

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Mike on a bike

We go a bit over board on things and your honest assessment is much appreciated and welcome. Case and point from Mr elmerlo, gens are not perfect either...................even Rolex.

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Daywatch

Congrats on definitely getting the right watch and thanks for the refreshing impressions on it.

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elmerlo

Great watch, what do you notice between the bracelet on the v7 and the gen? are they pretty similar?

 

First of all thanks everyone for the kind words: you are tempting me to wear it! :)

 

About the bracelet: when I first started getting NoDate reps I think we were as far back as v2, and those were plain wrong, as the gen has only three fixed links, while that one had 4, so you were called out on... a simple count: One, two, three, REP! :D

 

That was solved around v6,5 or v7, I don't remember, OK, on to the quality. The only noticeable difference is that the Gen has a more refined Glidelock: it runs very smoothly, whereas the Rep sometimes is rough and not so easy to operate. Of course that varies greatly (I handled quite a few reps, since I also had a couple of Hulks). But nothing that can't be solved with some use.

 

The security lock is stiffer than the Rep, but also here, experiences are greatly different: I remember once I had one of the two pins who hold in place the security lock stuck, no way to make it work: it flipped open very easily. Recently I bought a Daytona 116500 which flips open as it's not sized correctly and the pins are unable to reach their holes... We all know that QC in this area is pretty much careless, to say the least, so it's cross fingers, every time. :(

 

A curious note about the bracelet: I said to the AD that I could resize the bracelet for myself, and he said no. I asked why? He told me that when they resize, they put a small quantity of a Threadlocker which holds the screw in place, otherwise, as happens with our beloved Reps, the screws come loose. :)

 

I suggest everyone does this: it happened to me once that one of the Glidelock screws came loose. At that point you are pretty much screwed, because you can't operate the mechanism, as the screw gets stucked in the Glidelock "channel" and you can'y lift it and you can't access it.

 

To recover from that I remember that I nearly destroyed the clasp... :(

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elmerlo

This is also largely my experience from owning genuine Rolexs, though I cant agree on the bezel engravings. Definitely silver to my eye.

 

As soon as I receive a macro tube for my lenses I will try to post better, detailed, pictures (also if Photobucket is slightly less crappy), but it's white here, bright white. There is a silver accent, but not plain gray as Noob now makes it. No way. Some days ago I had the chance to put the two side by side and took a cellphone pic. Let's hope I find it and I will post it here.

 

I don't see the grey colour in the latest noob models, it's definitely a metallic colour, similar to the genuine article. Though not as complex in its shades.

 

Well, yes, kinda tough to describe and explain :)

 

Today, with the sun finally out, I could realize that is somewhat metallic as you say, but more towards white than silver/grey. The last Noobs I had, were far too grey, almost "disappearing" in low light conditions.

 

Head to the pics thread: there you will see the hue. Amazing that the platinum deposits can be seen only with ultra-macro photos or a loupe.

 

But, again, Noobs were closer to the original when they were white, not now, IMHO.

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