Patek Philippe Aquanaut has been popular for many years in this industry, in the past, people only knew the replicas of Patek Philippe Aquanaut made by 3K and ZF, and since the 324 movement was exclusively used by 3K factory, they have occupied nearly three-quarters of the market share of replica Patek Aquanaut before. Because it had exclusive control over the 323 movement, 3K Factory made very few upgrades to its Aquanaut models. There were noticeable flaws on the color, dial and movement engravings, this also explains why 3K was able to sustain a number of watch parts suppliers at that time, because many buyers would purchase a 3K watch and then source replacement dial, date wheel and hands from parts suppliers like SW for further modifications. Look at the picture of the Aquanaut 5168G green watch, it is made by 3K, there is a big color difference between it and the genuine, 3K published it in 2023, but the color issue still has not been corrected, can you believe it?
Since 2025, the 324 movement is no longer exclusive to 3K factory, a lot of new names have appeared in the replica Patek Aquanaut field, such as BBF, DDF, APW, these factories made Aquanaut replicas 5167 and 5168, on the replicas Aquanaut from them, we can see they indeed have corrected the flaws that could be found on 3K Aquanaut, especially the 5168G green Aquanaut, you can see the picture below, it is the Aquanaut from BBF, its color looks much better and very close to the genuine.
Feeling the pressure, perhaps in 2025, 3K Factory made improvements to the movement engraving and the color of the lume fill on the dial, but in these two aspects, it still didn’t do as well as BBF. I do not want to say BBF Aquanaut is perfect, no replicas in the market are perfect, if you compare it with the genuine, you can also find flaws on BBF, for example, the hands are slightly narrower, the engravings on the lugs are not as neat as that on the genuine and some differences on the dial.
These flaws could not be avoided on a replica watch. I suggest you replace the dial with SW’s dial and date wheel, but now I do not think it is necessary, because after being replaced with SW’s date wheel, some date fonts will not aligned very well.
Genuine Aquanaut 5168G is made with white gold, so whether the replica is made by 3K or BBF, there is a weight difference. The one from BBF has a weight of about 103 grams. There are indeed increased weight version of the 5168G Aquanaut, they are made by three factories, including DDF, APW and Victory. Their prices are very expensive, for example, the one from APW has a price that is nearly 300 USD higher than the BBF model, it is about 120 grams, now I realize that the profits of these factories producing weighted watches are truly enormous.
