Tommy Sky 15 Posted February 19, 2023 (edited) Hello Rep people. I am coming here today from r/reptime with some disturbing news, or I may say - revelations. Or whatever you wanna call it. One of reddit users brought up an issue with recently QCd C+ GMT Master II. This rep is advertised as using VR movement (C+ claims it is 3285, but we all know it was VR3186, just rebadged). Unfortunately. it looks loke the factory decided to cut some costs without informing TDs (probably) or clients (for sure). Now, I am not a movement specialist. All of this "investigation" is based on rep Rolex movements descriptions posted here, on other forums and on reddit. This is what VR3186/3285 movement should look like - as far as I know: While hearing about this, people started opening their C+ GMTs to check movements. This is what they sent: As far as I can see, these movements DO NOT LOOK like VR movements, they look like SA/SH3186 variants, known for being unreliable timebombs. If anyone can check these posts and confirm what we at reddit fear: that C+ decided to save some money at expense of unaware clients. And if this confirms to be the case, please be aware of this issue and properly check the movements in your QC. Unfortunately some TDs do not play fair (one claimed that he cannot open the caseback to make movement pics because that would void factory warranty SIC!) but others (love you, Steve!) try to cooperate as much as they can. This issue may be going back as far as October 2022. So, please check the pics, confirm or clarify, and most of all: be extra careful. IMPORTANT EDIT: As per Major Williams (mod @ reddit and watchsmith) and others, this is in fact OLDER VERSION of VR3186 movement. So, and I think this is a good news, these are not SA/SH timebombs. Edited February 24, 2023 by Tommy Sky 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tribefan 6,768 Posted February 19, 2023 I don't follow Rolex's generally and especially GMT's, but I was just over at pure time and counted 20 different alphabet soup factories for GMT. That itself is a big red flag to me. Never heard of C+, but they were on the list....... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tommy Sky 15 Posted February 19, 2023 C+ were offering one of the best reps of GMTs, aside of CF. But now it turns out they play dirty. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GenTLe 1,511 Posted February 20, 2023 Got one for a colleague, from Mary. Same movement inside, and it's already acting up :( The balance bridge height is a tiny fraction of mm too high and so sometimes the impulse jewel jump over the pallet fork and lock the balance. Fixable but it's a super precision and delicate task which I'd gladly have avoided! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trailboss99 997 Posted February 21, 2023 Unsure who C+ are TBH, the number of factories is getting out of hand. Just wait a week or so, there will be big news on the GMT clone movement front 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
APjumbo 3,032 Posted February 21, 2023 I hadn't heard of C+ before until there was rumor of them releasing a 226570 explorer II soon. Really unfortunate news. I guess the movements can be swapped for a VR but another $150, ouch. The regulator adjustment thingy looks different between the pics. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GenTLe 1,511 Posted February 23, 2023 On 21/02/2023 at 01:45, trailboss99 said: there will be big news on the GMT clone movement front Actually I can't get why they haven't yet done a clone of the 2893... They already have the base Seagull ST1812 (which is the clone of the 2892A2): And from the 2892A2 to the 2893 there are just minor changes: Kind of a mistery of why they haven't done it yet, considering the amount of watches with this inside... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
