Front View
In this section we are paying attention to the general visual impression of these candidates without looking into details, we will review the bezel colour, dial colour and DW and Cyclops, we will go deeper into DW and Cyclops in the later sections.
Let’s look at the comparison first, one of them was not seen on the blind vote which will show better dial colour under direct lighting.
The comparison 1 as the ARF in AR3135 movement while the bottom comparison 2 has the ARF in A2824 movement and we found the cyclops and DW are different on the 2 so we did both. Honestly it is sad to find out the famous ARF Hulk has the lowest score but I cannot deny the other makers are doing a better job in the front view comparison. For dial colour, I see the ZF has the most accurate dial colour among the candidates while VSF has the best DW and cyclops, I can say ZF and Noob has similar DW and Cyclops while AR has too much blue tint and ZZF has not enough AR effect.
As we know ZF, ZZF, VSF and ARF are all using the Clean Factory bezel inserts but I will comment more on this in the bezel section, I want to say the Noob bezel colour looks closest to gen but I heard Clean Factory will release their new bezel inserts which will be the same or even better than the Noob bezel insert.
As I mentioned the front view mainly reviews the general visual impression of these candidates without looking into details and here is my score according to my own opinions:
ZF: 8
ZZF: 7
VSF: 8
ARF: 6
NOOB: 7
The 3 sets of comparisons were taken in different lighting conditions so you may find some differences but since the comparisons in each set were taken under same lighting conditions and camera settings so we can just look for the difference between each and the gen.
VSF has the best cyclops with similar AR colour, AR effect and distortion, same black hole effect as gen and tiny little bolder font than gen, lack of halo effect as all other candidates.
ZF has the second best cyclops and DW with very good AR effect and slightly thicker font DW.
Noob has similar cyclops and DW as ZF but the DW background is not as smooth as other candidates.
ARF has good AR effect but too much blue tint and the worst DW among all candidates.
ZZF has slightly thinner DW font and I think ZZF hasn’t even bothered to AR coat their cyclops.
Here is my score based on my opinions:
ZF: 8
ZZF: 6
VSF: 9
ARF: 6
NOOB: 7
Bezel Teeth and Crystal
In this section we are paying attention to the teeth shape, size and position, crystal height, rim finishing and the gap distance between bezel insert and crystal.
There is not much to talk about the crystal since they are all sapphire crystals and we are mostly looking at the cyclops until I found something very minor on the VSF crystal, here is the comparison:
I think all 5 candidates made their crystals in different crystal factories since they all look different, all the candidates have the crystal sitting slightly higher than the bezel insert and only VSF is sitting significantly higher than the bezel insert plus the rim edge of the VSF crystal is not rounded finished like the others, but this is a very easy fix and I think they can fix it very easily.
None of them has perfect bezel teeth but I personally think ZF has the closest teeth in size and position, ARF comes next, VSF and Noob follows and ZZF has the least accurate teeth.
Here is my score according to my own opinions:
ZF: 8
ZZF: 7
VSF: 7
ARF: 8
NOOB: 7
Bezel Insert
For the last decade the Hulk insert colour has been the most challenging task for the rep makers and things seem changed in 2020 when Clean Factory released their Hulk bezel insert with very close green colour as the genuine and they keep improving their bezel inserts and I believe they are now using V4 or V5 of their green inserts.
In this review, we are going to look at the insert colour, bezel numbers font and the platinum plating colour.
Let’s look at the comparisons first:
In these comparisons you can also see the crystal edge and bezel teeth size/shape that we reviews in the previous section.
As I have mentioned in the Front View section, the Noob bezel has the most accurate colour to genuine however Noob bezel has a sharp-angled font, ZF, ZZF, VSF and ARF all claim they got their inserts from Clean Factory, from the above comparisons I think they are telling the truth but the ARF has slightly darker platinum plating and sharp-angled font like the Noob factory. My conclusion is ZF, ZZF and VSF have the identical bezel inserts while ARF has a Clean Factory insert with darker plating and sharp angled font, probablly an early production of Clean Factory or maybe the sample I had was an exceptional, the noob bezel has the most accurate colour but the font is a bit off.
Here is my score:
ZF: 8
ZZF: 8
VSF: 8
ARF: 7
NOOB: 8
Hands:
For hands we are looking at the shape of the hands and the lume application, plus the second hand pinion.
Here are the comparisons:
After careful inspection, I found VSF has the best hand shape among all, ARF hands are good but they are different from the gen, none of them has the second hand pinion done right, we can also see the hands / dial lume colour in this comparison, I see ZF has the closest lume colour as genuine and matching lume colour, Noob also has matching hands / dial lume colour but they are greenish lume rather than whitish. I will just give my score and you can see by yourselves:
ZF: 8
ZZF: 7
VSF: 8
ARF: 7
NOOB: 6
SEL / Lug Fitment 1
For this comparison we are looking at the height difference of the SEL and the case lugs.
Here are the comparisons:
No one can rate this without magnified images like these since the height difference is so small to be seen with naked eyes, I think all the candidates are doing a great job in this aspect, if you really want me to say something then the VSF has very slightly larger difference and the AR height difference is not so consistent. Here is my score according to my own opinions:
ZF: 8
ZZF: 8
VSF: 7
ARF: 7
NOOB: 8
SEL / Lug Fitment 2
This is something many of you concerns and it is also something that most makers cannot fix, I will explain why later. We are looking for any space / gap between the SEL and the lugs.
Here is the comparison:
I see ZZF did the best job on this, VSF follows and the remaining 3 are similar.
Why none of the makers can do it well because in most cases, the case and bracelet makers are different makers and they have different error tolerance so if the case maker makes the lug slightly wider and the bracelet maker makes the SEL slightly smaller and there will be a significant visible gap there. I know some makers already start to have the case factory to make the SELs and passes the SELs to the bracelet factory to assemble into complete bracelets and this could fix the problem eventually.
So my score according to my own opinions:
ZF: 6
ZZF: 8
VSF: 7
ARF: 6
NOOB: 6
Rehaut Engraving:
The reheat engraving is another thing that no makers have ever made it right, I think the replica case factories do not have the right machines to do this and the factories with the right machines will not help them to do this because it has ROLEX engraved on it.
Let’s look at how the candidates do their reheat engravings:
With no surprise that none of them did reheat engravings right. The ZF got the font right but the crown wrong, ZZF has wrong font and crown (sitting too high); VSF has double lined engraving which is wrong and font too thin and crown, too; ARF everything too fat and Noob has fairly better engraving but still wrong crown. I think there is still a large space for rehaut engraving to be improved, really hope the maker can step up in the game.
Here is my score:
ZF: 7
ZZF: 6
VSF: 5
ARF: 6
NOOB: 7
Pearl:
The pearl is another part that is very difficult to manufacture because it is so tiny and it consists of 3 parts, the metal holder, sapphire crystal cover and the lume inside, for the pearl we are looking at the pearl shape, color and the pearl holder.
Here is the comparison:
Just like the rehaut, it seems not many are pleased with the pearl, I think VSF has the best holder but the sapphire cover is too flat, ZZF pearl lume too greenish and the VSF has the best color but the others are not bad either, Noob has the best pearl. Here is my score:
ZF: 6
ZZF: 6
VSF: 7
ARF: 7
NOOB: 8
Caseback Teeth:
According to the makers, the casebook teeth is not difficult to do but very costly, if you want to make the teeth clean and consistent and you have to replace the tool very often and the tool is not cheap. Let’s look at the comparison:
I think ZZF has a perfect teeth but not a gen like teeth, VSF has a perfect gen-like teeth to me, ZF got the teeth shape right but it seems they didn’t change the tool for a long time haha, same for AR, noob has the worst teeth. Here is my score:
ZF: 6
ZZF: 7
VSF: 9
ARF: 6
NOOB: 5
Lug Engraving:
Engravings between lugs, only visible after the bracelet is removed so I think it is an important indicator but since we have removed the bracelet and let’s take a look, we should look at the font and the technique used for the engraving.
I took another set of comparisons to demonstrate the lug engravings, we are looking at font and the engraving technique, honestly ARF has the best engraving despite it is thicker than the gen engraving, ZF is also using the same technique as gen but the font is a bit weird, ZZF is clearly NOT engraved but etched, Noob looks like using similar technique but the engraving is too shallow and the font is distorted, so here is my score:
ZF: 6
ZZF: 4
VSF: 5
ARF: 7
NOOB: 6
SEL Engraving:
Same as the lug engraving, not important but we take a look, we are also looking at the font and engraving technique.
VSF and Noob has the best engraving, VSF is a bit too thin and darker, ZZF comes next and ZF / AR have the worst.
ZF: 6
ZZF: 7
VSF: 7
ARF: 6
NOOB: 8
Clasp:
Clasp is one of the most complicated parts in making Rolex reps, the clasp consists of the cover, folding tongue and clasp engravings, now we look at the comparisons:
ZF clasp engravings looks the best in real life, it’s sharp and clear and very close to gen, while the others are too shallow and some are small, the polishing of the tongue is also better on ZF but the crown on the flip cover doesn’t look too good on ZF’s, here is my score:
ZF: 8
ZZF: 7
VSF: 7
ARF: 7
NOOB: 7
Dial:
Actually we have partially reviewed the dial in the Front View section, I have taken some detailed images on the dial so we can see better. We should look at the dial color, explosive pattern, dial markers and dial printing, here are the comparisons:
I think some of you may have already noticed the difference in the front view comparison, ZF has the best dial color, Noob has the worst dial color, VSF has the best dial markers and ARF has the worst since they haven’t updated for a long time, dial printing is similar on ZF, ZZF and VSF, Noob printing is a bit too thin and ARF is completely different, the maker said it was from an old gen but we don’t have the gen dial for reference, so we cannot comment on the ARF printing, the ARF has the best explosive pattern, Here is my score:
ZF: 8
ZZF: 7
VSF: 8
ARF: 6
NOOB: 6
END
This is the end of the review and thank you for taking time to read this, I would say they are all good replicas and it is not easy to tell which one is better in real life, but since this is a “Who has the best SUB” review and we must have a winner, now I am going to add all my scores together and we will have the answer to the ultimate question.
After the calculation of adding up all 17 indicators and we got the final G (Gen) Points:
ZF: 125
ZZF: 114
VSF: 125
ARF: 114
Noob: 116
Oh we have a double winner here! Congratulations to the unofficial winners of the Ultimate Review “Who Has the Best Hulk” – ZF and VSF!