Review of ROLEX Explorer II 16570 Frankenwatch

[By-Tor 0]

I bought my first white Explorer II rep in May. The writeup is here. I fell in love with the watch immediately. Unfortunately that watch had grey/silver hour marker surroundings, and datewheel/cyclops positioned too right. Another problem with the hour markers was that they were positioned too close to the seconds markers. The GMT hand was way too dark as well.

 

To get rid of the dial flaw I bought the black version, which has been reviewed here. The rep was brilliant, but besides the hour marker issue, the other problems were still there. And the black one didn't "speak" to me as much as the white.

 

Actually, when I wrote my reviews I wasn't aware that the factory had somehow screwed up this rep at some point, and introduced these annoying flaws later. This finally dawned on me when I saw avitt's picture of the old, much nicer version. Here's Avitt's brilliant photo of his watch:

Being the geek that I am, I absolutely needed that best version. Traded my old ones, and I requested it from almost every single dealer. None of them were able to source it anymore. Only the new and inferior correct hand stack version was available. Bummer!

 

Be careful: Some dealers still use factory photos of the old version, but can only source the new one. I'm sure this is not intentional, because for an average guy the differences aren't so apparent.

 

Even the older (better) white version used those "gun metal" greyish hour markers. Though according to member reports the problem wasn't as bad on the old version. But either way, I had to rule the white dial out (unfortunately)... and settle for the black one.

 

So... I started to track down the members' Explorer II's, and PM'd Avitt, FEDERolex and a few other guys who owned this particular version, and tried to buy their watches. I think my offers were fair, but the guys didn't want to sell. Can't blame them, really.

 

Finally, I found out that a member Kingkitesurf wasn't wearing his franken-Explorer II anymore, and considered to sell it. He had installed a genuine white dial into his watch, which was the best solution I could ever imagine. Black Explorer II is very nice, but like the seconds at '6 Daytona, white is the purists' only dial choice for the modern Explorer II.

 

So we negotiated a deal. The deal went smooth as a silk, just like all my other member trades during the years. Big thanks to Job, who's a perfect gentleman and a great guy to deal with! I was the new owner of his beautiful franken now.

I was really happy to finally get this rep. Genuine dial was a fantastic addition, and the rep overall is extremely accurate. It has good crown guards, excellent date mag/font, perfect long and thin (and not too dark) GMT hand, and correct cyclops position.

[/center}

 

Because this ExpII comes from the same factory as the amazing "Noob" GMT Master II's. It has the same problem: Oversized crown, which should be replaced with a gen part. My watch has thinner and more accurate bezel numbers than Avitt's, but they're positioned a bit too close to the bezel edge. If you want perfection, you need to install the bezel from the new version (the number position is pretty much perfect, see my reviews).

 

Here's a photo of my genuine dial. Once again: Notice the perfect rehaut thickness and its cylindrical shape, which is characteristic for the "Noob factory" Rolexes. This is very important detail for me. Another thing that I never spotted before are the thicker "5 seconds" markers.

My watch has replica hands, which you can see from this photo very clearly. Compared to the Super Luminova coated hour markers the lume on the hands is utterly pathetic. Hands should be superlumed, and I'm considering to buy this mod eventually.

Explorer II has never been a huge seller in this community. I'm quite amazed that the black (old) correct hand stack version went virtually unnoticed, even when it was still easily available. Along with the correct hand stack "Noob" GMT the black version is (in my opinion) the best "out of the box" Rolex replica ever produced. That is the exact rep that was used to build my franken, and according to Job the genuine dial was a straight fit.

 

This review doesn't offer much for the members who are interested in the ExpII, because this version is almost impossible to find. I didn't even bother to discuss the (potentially) problematic correct hand stack ETA modification in this article. That was already covered in my two previous Explorer II reviews.

 

But there's (probably) some good news for the ExpII fans: According to Angus (Puretime) there is a new version of correct hand stack Explorer II coming. I really hope the factories use this old case and construction as a base, and Angus has forwared my request to the factory.

 

Yep, not much of a review. I just wanted to enjoy my new amazing white franken-beauty, and share the joy with you. I hope you liked the photos. I got some brilliant watches in 2007, and this ExpII was the perfect way to finish yet another year of rep collecting.