Before showing you the pictures of comparison between Daytona 126518 and 116518, I would like to announce a good news from BT factory, which is they have lower down the prices of their Daytona replica watches, I do not know why they take this action, they want to beat Clean and gain more customers with this method? This is a wrong action, they can not beat Clean by this way. Customers do not mind spending $50 or $60 more to get a better super clone Rolex. Actually BT factory can win more customers if they make a better ice blue Daytona 126506 with crystal back, currently Clean does not make this watch and the one made by QF is not a super clone, many watch fans like this Daytona, this is really a opportunity for BT.
Well, back to our today’s topic, let us see the comparison pictures between 126518 and 116518, both are made by Clean. Many people including me did not like the new Daytona watches when Rolex just published them, but now I love them, especially the two models with black rubber band, the more times I see, the more I like them. Besides Clean, ZF and AR+ also published the replicas of the new Daytona, however, ZF made a wrong case, AR+ uses a not good movement, I have explained what real movement inside the AR+ Daytona. For a super clone with correct case shape, good dial details and good clone 4131 movement, currently the only trusted source is Clean.
I felt so happy when I firstly saw this replica coming out from our market, but then a bit disappointed about the watch because it is not made by Clean factory. This is a new Daytona replica watch with a see-through crystal back, many people are expecting this watch, they are expecting a super clone, not this one from QF that is not a good replica but sold at a very high price. I did not hear QF factory before, some reviews saying they specilize in manufacturing replica Rolex watches with increased weight, this Daytona from them has a weight more than 177 grams. However, I do not suggest you guys buy this Daytona from QF, it is not a super clone because of its movement.
I did not see genuine Daytona 126506 watch and can not compare the case shape and dial details between it and this replica, but I must say the movement is a big flaw on the replica. QF claims that they use Dandong 4130 movement in this replica Daytona, but this is not the same Dandong 4130 as the one used by Clean Daytona. The movement in this QF Daytona is uni-directional winding, while the Dandong 4130 in Clean Daytona is bi-directional winding, two different movements, the one used by QF is not good, but QF still selling this replica Daytona at the same or even a higher price than the Daytona from Clean, that’s not fair. So currently do not buy this Daytona from QF, you can wait, I think Clean will publish it soon.
In one of my articles published in the end of last year, I talked about the friendship between ZF and APS, today, more interesting stores about APS factory will be shared.
First, have you heard of BF? I thought it was a new factory when their AP ROO Diver 15710 and 15720 firstly appeared in the market in 2021, but BF has been in the market for more than 5 years, even has a much longer history than APS, there is a relationship between APS and BF. Their bosses are cousins. BF introduced APS into this industry.
The relationship between ZF and APS is very solid, we talked about this in the article https://www.susanreviews.com/2023/12/23/the-bromance-between-aps-and-zf/. In the early time when APS just entered this market, almost all replica watches were using Asia clone ETA 2824 and 2836 movements, they wanted to use better movements to create better replica watches, so they focused on researching and developing movements at the beginning, absolutely the new movement development process is mainly completed by Chinese traditional movement factories. Take the Portuguese 7 Days Power Reserve as an example, the earlier model with old movement looks werid, check the picture below.
The Portuguese with old movement
Then APS cooperated with a movement factory in Dandong and developed a new movement, after being installed, the Portuguese 7 Days Power Reserve below with new movement looks very nice. At that time, APS only sold this Portuguese 52010 movement to ZF. But one or two years later, APS realized that they could not earn enough money by only developing and selling movements to other factories, then they started to sell the Portuguese 7 Days Power Reserve replica watches by themselves, with the latest 52010 movement they owned, but under another name “AZ”, someone also call it AZF, so, APS and AZ are actually the same team.
The Portguese with new movement from APS
The clone IW52010 is a great success for APS, they wanted to develop another great movement now, especially after seeing the release of Dandong 4130 movement by Noob, APS took the action immediately. They also cooperated with Dandong and developed two movements in 2020, one is JL925 for the Jaeger LeCoultre Master Moonphase, the other is JL938 for the Jaeger LeCoultre Reserve De Marche. The first batch of clone JL925 movement was sold to YL factory, later APS also equipped JL925 in their replicas of JL Master Ultra Thin Moonphase and sold under name of “AZ”. Later this clone JL925 movement was also supplied to ZF and GF two factories.
Next, it is the 3120 movement used in 15400. We know 3120 was developed by JF before, but JF was closed, later the 3120 was improved by a movement factory in Shanghai. Then APS seized the opportunity and accepted all 3120 movements from Shanghai. Now we can see the 3120 in Royal Oak 15400 made by APS is very stable. Later APS offered a small amount of 3120 movement to ZF. And then APS and this movement factory in Shanghai developed the 4302 movement together, we can see 4302 is now used in Royal Oak 15500 made by ZF and APS. The last movement from APS I want to mention here is the 5134 used in Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar 26574, this movement is also very stable, for AP 26574 replicas, I still recommend the ones made by APS, which are more stable than those ones just published by BBR a few weeks ago.
All news are about replica watches with increased weight in recent days, actually it is the hottest topic people have been talking about since the second half of this year. Nowadays, replica watches are made closer and closer to genuine watches, but people are still pursuing perfection, so some persons in the market will do custom-made jobs on these replica watches made by famous factories like Clean, ZF and VS, I think they are the first to use the case with increased weight on replica watches, and then the factories found this business opportunity and also participated in. The two factories that firstly make replica watches with increased weight are GM and GS, which published the Day-Date replicas with increased weight, in my memory, they were very popular once being published to our market.
Then another factory appeared, its name is TED, they make a YachtMaster 226659 replica with increased weight, it is said TED is a sub-branch of VS company, but I think it is just a small studio opened by somebody that has a good relationship with VS, so he can sell this watch in the name of VS.
Now the factories we discuss the most is Gold and APS, Gold factory makes replicas of Daytona and YachtMaster with increased weight, APS makes replicas of Daytona and Royal Oak 15400 with increased weight, Gold seems to be more popular. There are some rumors about Gold factory in our market, someone said that Gold is operated by Clean, most people said that Gold is a watch part factory that makes cases and has been in the market for years, I choose to believe the latter one. Now Gold factory only makes the Daytona and YachtMaster models with rubber band. Today, I choose the Daytona with gray dial and rubber band from Gold and APS to take some pictures and make a simple comparison between them.
Both Gold and APS use tungsten steel in the case, but not all pure tungsten steel, the case is made with tungsten steel alloy material, or it is too hard. The weight of the APS Daytona is 145.2 grams, while Gold is 142.9 grams, this Daytona from Clean is around 109 grams, so each Daytona from Gold and APS is more than 30 grams heavier than the Daytona from Clean or BT. However, there is still a weight difference because genuine watch is around 160 grams. Because of the added tungsten steel, the case of the Daytona from both factories may not be polished as well as the one of Clean Daytona, this is true, you can check the case back and the lugs, because tungsten steel is harder and is not easily polished as smooth as the stainless steel.
The biggest difference absolutely lies in the movement, Gold Factory uses a Dandong 4130 movement in this Daytona, while APS uses Shanghai 4130, I still prefer the Daytona with Dandong 4130 movement, because this movement has been tested to be very reliable for years, while Shanghai 4130 is still new to us, currently it is only installed by the Daytona replicas made by ZF and APS. Well, this may be the reason why this Gold Daytona is much more expensive than the APS Daytona.
The case shape and size on the two watches are very similar, I assume that they came from the same watch part factory. The gray dial is slightly different in color, I can not say which one is better, but both are not as good as the dial of Clean Daytona. On the clasp, the engravings on the APS Daytona is thicker and deeper, both Gold and APS use 904L stainless steel on the clasp. At last, please check the pictures of the Daytona from both, the one with a dog head icon is from Gold factory, the other with a green sticker is from APS factory.
