Of course I had to help myself to another Rolex...But the choice of rep Submariners, Datejusts, Day-Dates, Daytonas was too overwhelming and I wanted to save asking "Wat is best sub" for a rainy day when I want entertainment. So, I figured a Sky-Dweller will do for now.   The Watch Ahhh such a divisive watch. I've seen roughly equal numbers of people who love and hate it online. Unlike the unifying rally against Hublot or Tagheuer. Another good reason to have a look at the Sky-Dweller and see what the fuss is all about. The Sky-Dweller is a newcomer compared to the other popular collections, unveiled in Basel World 2012, this watch houses a very complicated and impressive movement. The time, GMT time, date and month could be adjusted by using the crown and bezel. While some would consider the watch ugly, I'm sure almost everyone could agree that the gen movement is a masterpiece! The Sky-Dweller comes in various colours and materials, standard Rolex combinations. I decided to go for a rep of the white gold case black dial version. RRP for this model: GBP 10,600   The Rep I bought the Sky-Dweller from Reg while looking for the Snowtrooper. Top marks to the member who can shoe-horn "Reg" into the name "Sky-Dweller"! After doing some research, I knew that there were no reps with the full functionality of the gen. Furthermore, I'm not the sort to pay 400-500 pounds for the "like gen" end links or lugs. With Reg, you get the most watch for your money, and this is no exception   I paid GBP 108 for this beauty... Thankfully I have yet to develop the any level of attention to detail. To my untrained eye, this is good enough for me. My wallet approves!   Dimensions The gen case diameter is 42mm, case height 14mm. My rep measured out to be: Case Diameter: 41.6mm Case Height: 12.9mm Lug Width: 20mm Lug-to-Lug: 50.3mm The gen thickness surprised me when I first found out about it.  That's pretty chunky (for me).   Dial   The Sky-Dweller has a busy dial for a Rolex, let's go through the various features   The coronet and brand name looks decent. The triangle... apart from reminding me of road hazards is actually an arrow pointing to the GMT hour. The gen arrow has a sharper red and better defined colour borders between the white and red....on close up. At a normal distance, that difference is indiscernible.  Almost perfectly aligned rehaut...  The white squares is actually the month indicators. More on that later... The date is pretty shit, but acceptable for a cheap rep. First of, the magnification is off.  And I suspect the DWO is a good distance away from the date window, which would explain why the date look very "far away". Unless you're looking at the date at right angles, the cyclops pretty much obscures the date. The cyclops is also highly reflective, which further obscures the date when you're reading it. The usual essay on Rolex dials. Only Rolex can get away with such a blob of text on their dials... There's even a serial number on the rehaut. The LEC is very visible on the photo. It's not obvious under normal indoor lighting conditions. But definitely more visible than the subtler LEC in gens/high-end reps. I'm not sure if there are any reps of the Roman numeral hour indices, but I feel that would be too much  on an already busy dial. The stick markers works well here. Another delightful feature is the hands: cutout holes so that you can see the GMT hour wheel. Simple yet genius I'm very please that this feature was repped. The hour wheel font is close to gen. I say close because I can't say for sure as I'm terrible with comparing fonts, @Glaude would know Always love these low angle shots   Movement The movement is a Seagull ST-3855. Here you can have a nice pic of the case back. I cursory google search yielded little results about this movement. I know of the ST6322 , ST1622 and DG3804B. The GMT can be set independently which is brilliant. It is visibly a low beat movement, based on the movement of the second hand. If you squint really hard, you could see the movement underneath the caseback.   Case & Bezel Lovely Oystersteel  Practically mirrors. The long and straight lugs increases the wrist presence of this 42mm case watch. It looks just about ok on my small wrist. The bezel is fixed, unlike the gen. The gen bezel plays a role in the quickset and adjustments.     Bracelet & Clasp Side links are brushed with polished midlinks. The bracelet is comfortable enough. With the clasp having the typical engravings...           Functions In the gen, the bezel (aka Ring Command) is rotated to switch to different quickset modes. Very impressive stuff. Hodinkee has a good article explaining this with some extra info. I'll let them do the job: Called RING COMMAND, it is the bezel that allows the wearer to set the date, local time, and reference time, all from the crown. There in fact three different positions on the rotating, fluted bezel, and that allows the crown to have only one setting position. This patented bezel control ring consists of 60 individual components, the heart of which is a double cam and levels that engage the various gear trains inside the movement. With the fluted nature of the bezel, few would have any idea that the bezel has been turned to set the date, local, or reference time respectively. This is super clever, and arguably the most impressive attribute of the Sky-Dweller.   Of course, my rep bezel is pretty stationary. The little windows by the hour indices are month indices. 12 months to 12 hour markers. In the gen, a red square moves from window to window as the months progress. From Hodinkee: The annual calendar inside the Sky-Dweller is based on a mechanism called SAROS, and its genius lays in its simplicity. Only two gear ratios and four gear wheels were added to the traditional Rolex date calendar system to make for a full annual calendar (which, by definition, requires re-setting but once per year - at the end of February). Called SAROS after the Greek term for the 18 year cycle between the sun, earth, and moon that is responsible for both lunar and solar eclipses the Sky-Dweller's annual calendar mechanism is designed around a fixed planetary gear wheel (ie the sun) at the center of the movement. A satellite wheel (aka the earth) engages the planetary wheel in one month, driven by the date disc. The satellite wheel (the moon) is fitted with four fingers, for the four 30-day months (April, June, September, and November). At the end of each 30 day month, one of the satellite's finger receives an extra impulse from the date-change mechanism, which causes the date to jump two days with in a few milliseconds. The month is indicated via a small rectangular aperture on the outside of the hour track, with January being representing by 1 o'clock, February by 2 o'clock, etc.   As you would expect in the rep, the red square stays on August forever. It'll be correct for a month every year On the rep, the crown has the usual functions. First position, rotate clockwise to set date, anti-clockwise to set GMT time. Second position to set time.  Pretend to rotate the bezel to pretend you have the gen.   Some weak lume on the rep, didn't expect it to have lume anyway! Probably why you're leaving the reps for gens eh, @McGilli? There is no lume for GMT time but that would probably be too confusing if they did that.   Accuracy COSC certification for this watch. You will never miss a flight with this bad boi.   Overall Personally, I find this watch, in this specific combination to be aesthetically pleasing. The gold versions with roman numerals  looks all over the place and I can see why people would find it ugly. This specific rep has a good GMT function and sleek dimensions all for a reasonable price. So far no reps have a functioning month indicator, so why spend any more than this for the Sky-Dweller rep? If you have to get the rep, just go for this version! Just bear in mind the date is not very legible from most angles due to a "deep" DWO.   Again the LEC is too visible under photo lighting conditions Final wristshot