Gold has always been a representation of prosperity, grandeur, and divinity. It’s also long been associated with wisdom and is, of course, a symbol of achievement in sports or academics. It can also refer to a peak period in time or once life in cultural references such as the golden age or golden era. In watchmaking, it’s often reserved for the most prized Swiss made replica watches and known for its heft, shine and aura of luxury. But what if you’re not content with “simple” white, yellow or rose gold? What if you want a little bit more, I don’t know, pazazz? As luck would have it, more and more manufacturers are weighing in on the topic with special alloys that offer a different tone or even a higher resistance to shocks or scratches. With that in mind, let’s look at some of the finest and special golds available!
Replica Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Selfwinding Watches – Sand Gold
Next up is the most recent addition to the long-running and iconic Audemars Piguet Royal Oak lineage, the AAA UK fake Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Selfwinding 26674SG watches. This model uses the brand’s unique 18k Sand Gold alloy for the case, dial and bracelet, which mixes solid gold with copper and palladium. The material was introduced last year and has a unique champagne-like colour to it. Other than the difference in tone, it has the properties of gold alloys typically used in the industry. Nevertheless, the exceptionally subtle tone adds a discreet gold tone (and some proper heft) to one’s wrist! This newest Audemars Piguet Royal Oak copy watches for sale also gave us an improved and more practical QP movement, where everything is adjusted through the crown instead of through a series of correctors. The price is set at CHF 130,000.
A watch as legendary as the Speedmaster deserves not only a proper movement but also a proper touch of excellence on the outside. And with the best replica Omega Speedmaster Calibre 321 watches in 18k Canopus Gold, Omega certainly delivers in both aspects! The proprietary alloy is made of 75% gold, 20% palladium and 5% rhodium and platinum, which results in a material that’s more resistant to wear and fading. Virtually all exterior elements are machined out of this special material, which also happens to have a whiter brilliance than regular white gold. Inside, the faithfully recreated Calibre 321 is given a Sedna-gold-plated finish for a touch of contrast. The Omega Speedmaster 321 super clone watches UK for men in Canopus Gold retails for EUR 80,000.
IWC Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day & Night Replica Watches – Armor Gold
Next up is IWC Shaffhausen’s Armor Gold, in the shape of the rather splendid luxury wholesale fake IWC Portugieser Hand-Wound Tourbillon Day & Night watches. The beauty of Armor Gold, a special alloy developed by IWC themselves, is that it retains the lustre of conventional 5N gold yet has an improved microstructure that makes it more wear-resistant. It can be found in a number of copy watches site, ranging from several Big Pilot models to this stunner in the Portugieser collection. The black obsidian dial reveals a flying tourbillon escapement and a spherical day/night indicator, with gold-plated leaf-shaped hands to tell time. Fitted to a black leather strap made by Santoni, it retails for CHF 105,000.
Hublot Big Bang Unico Fake Watches – Magic Gold
Last up is perhaps the most resilient gold on the market, Magic Gold by perfect Hublot replica watches. This innovative material is a hybrid of gold and ceramic powder and was first introduced in 2015. Boron nitride is compressed in a mold and subjected to intense heat, creating a ceramic with a porous structure. Liquid 24k gold is then injected under high pressure, giving the composite material an 18k purity level and far superior properties when it comes to scratches and dings. The colour is also quite unique, as showcased by this 1:1 China fake Hublot Big Bang Unico chronograph watches. The muted yellow-greyish case is offset with black elements all around and an openworked movement. It retails for EUR 40,600.
Last year, AP bid farewell to one of its most historic movements. In 1978, the Caliber 2120/2800 was announced as the world’s thinnest perpetual calendar. It became the base for all AP QPs, and the caliber was modified and improved for 46 years before its (second to) last ride as the Caliber 5134 in John Mayer’s Limited Edition Royal Oak. But the perpetual calendar is AP’s most iconic complication, so there was no doubt they’d have something new coming. The day is finally here.
Today’s newly released perfect replica Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Code 11.59 watches house the new Caliber 7138 perpetual calendar movement, and it’s a big leap forward for AP. There are several new achievements for the brand in the new Caliber 7138 movement, but the most significant impact is that the entire movement is now fully crown-adjusted—no more mysterious pushers, no more lost styluses.
As Ben wrote about last week, one of the biggest pain points of most perpetual calendars (save some from the likes of IWC or Moser) is that adjusting the calendar functions usually requires engaging one or more small corrector “buttons” often located on the baseband. Yes, this is a generalization. But it was generally annoying.
You’d have to search for a small stylus, pin pusher, or pen, sit and click away for a few minutes, and hope to get everything lined up correctly (the moon phase is the most annoying—is it a bit more waxing or waning?) without scratching your case. All while remembering the function of each tiny button.
As someone said in the comments of Ben’s story, hitting the right buttons in the correct order was almost like trying to remember the Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start – in case you forgot) to get your “smart mechanical” watch to do its intended functions. With IWC’s crown adjustment, you couldn’t go backward if you went past the date (or worse, the year). You’d have to let your AAA UK fake watches sit unused or send it to IWC to be adjusted. AP has solved for this, and then some.
Of course, AP launched the Caliber 7138 in its two main collections: the Royal Oak (obviously), which includes a pair of 41mm by 9.4mm steel high quality replica watches with a blue dial and a sand gold watch with a color-matched dial, and the Code 11.59, which has a 41mm by 10.6mm white gold case.
I spent two days earlier this year wearing, fiddling with, and just living with these copy watches wholesale UK, so let’s examine them, starting with the biggest change.
On the movement side, it’s obvious that there are changes when compared to the last generation of the 2120/2800-based calibers, the Caliber 5134 movement. The new Caliber 7138 is based on the 7121 introduced update to the “Jumbo” Royal Oak ref. 16202 from 2022. The biggest clue is the two bridges over the balance wheel and the mainspring barrel, made of 22-carat pink gold, which offers a contrast against the other rhodium-toned components of the movement.
The perpetual calendar layer is hidden under the dial side. I have to assume that AP will launch a skeletonized (or SQ for squellete) version of the movement at some point in the not-too-distant future, which would show off the technical achievement.
Let’s get technical. At 29.6mm by 4.1mm thick, the new Caliber 7138 is only 0.6mm wider than its predecessor 5134 but 0.4mm thinner, and yet it runs at 28,800 bph versus the 19,800 of the 5134, with 15 more hours of power reserve (55 hours total).
Some improvements trickled down from the Caliber 5133 movement in AP’s Royal Oak Selfwinding Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin RD#2. That Swiss made replica watches also had all perpetual calendar functions in one layer of the movement, with an end-of-month cam similarly integrated with the date wheel, and the month cam is combined with the month wheel. The crown adjustments are in a second layer, which keeps the whole thing thin.
When the original 2120/2800 launched in 1978, it was only 0.15mm thinner than the new movement (although 1.6mm smaller across). The Caliber 7121, in the modern Jumbo, is 3.2mm thick. The Caliber 2968 – the tourbillon movement for the RD#3 – is the same width but 3.4mm and has been fit down to a 37mm case. That’s a lot of numbers, but I’ve been mulling over these measurements for the last few weeks for a specific reason. Keep them in mind – I’ll return to them later.
AP has also adjusted the dial layout for the perpetual calendar. The moonphase is still at 6 o’clock, but the full moon is now centered on the 12 o’clock axis (a fact that I never realized wasn’t the case until this release). The day and date have been rearranged to what the brand calls a “European” date display – day of the week at 9 o’clock, date at 12 o’clock, and month at 3 o’clock.
The first week of the year now sits at 12 o’clock on the rehaut, and the first day of the month and “Monday” are placed similarly at 12 o’clock on their subdials. A subtle tweak you might not otherwise notice is that the date display will always land on the center of every numeral, thanks to a date wheel with 31 custom-made teeth, with each size different to adapt to the width of the digits in the printing.
There’s also a 24-hour indicator with a red-printed “no correction zone” between 9:00 pm and 3:00 am. However, due to the technical improvements in the movement, if you try to set the date during this time, the date may not change, but it also won’t desynchronize the day/month/leap year balance – itself a big benefit.
I made this comparison last year, but I would call the new Sand Gold Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar the “Loro Piana” edition. I don’t care if folks say quiet luxury is dead; I feel so calm in a room of beige on beige on beige, so why not a beige watch on the wrist? This is AP’s third cheap super clone watches in sand gold—a material I covered last year—after the Self-Winding Flying Tourbillon Openworked and the [RE]Master02.
I think this is where the material feels most at home, in a more toned-down execution than the skeletonized tourbillon substituted for a Grande Tapisserie dial in matching sand gold, snailed subdials, and just the little bit of color from the moonphase.
Sand gold is still a neat trick in the light, and while I was photographing at the office, a few members of the team walked by and had the same reaction I did last year: “Is this steel? Oh no, it’s white gold. Oh wait, no… rose?” On the wrist, the heft of the gold is apparent, especially if you just wore something in steel, but it wears as well as any gold Royal Oak QP before it and has the identical measurements of the previous generation.
The Code 11.59 by Audemars Piguet (to use its full name) has come a long way since its launch. Some might say people didn’t give it a fair shake. Others would say the 1:1 China replica watches needed a lot of work to get where it is today. There’s probably a bit of truth to both perspectives, but the new dial language of the collection is leaps and bounds better than the first iterations.
Last year, AP announced a few new shakeups to the Code 11.59. Along with releasing a perpetual calendar with an aventurine dial and white gold case, they announced that white gold would only be used for copy watches for sale more complicated than a chronograph, e.g., tourbillons, repeaters, and perpetual calendars. So it makes sense that the new Code 11.59 Perpetual Calendar would be in white gold, and it looks quite good with the smoked blue PVD dial.
The 41mm by 10.6mm fits fine on the wrist, but the extra thickness is a bit unfortunate, as I think AP could continue to push a bit in terms of thickness. It’s possible that the dial texture and design add a bit of depth that makes thinning the case impossible (in the same way that the RD#2 couldn’t be made with a tapisserie dial as it originally had on the prototype).
Whether it’s this Code 11.59 or any others in the collection, there’s probably not much I can say to sway your opinion on the collection. Secondary market prices for the entry-level models have stabilized around 20% less than retail. We’ve gotten used to many Swiss movements replica watches that trade above retail, but people have to get past judging watches by that alone. There are a lot of very nice pieces that now “trade” below retail, but they’re still good watches—for example, a Code 11.59 Perpetual Calendar ref. 26394OR with aventurine dial at $55,000 on Chrono24 is a smoking deal by a lot of metrics.
There are actually six releases in the group. In addition to the three standard models that I photographed, there are also three limited “anniversary” editions with a vintage “Audemars Piguet” signature in the subdials. The stylized script signature is inspired by historical documents, and while it might be divisive, it’s the kind of little extra touch that someone like me (a history nerd and AP fan) really likes. Would I want it on every AP? No. Do I like it on these best quality fake watches? On the Royal Oaks, I do. There will be 150 of each model made, each labeled as “1 of 150 pieces” and with the “150” logo for the anniversary.
The ref. 26674ST is the most versatile option and the one that will probably be the most iterated upon. The Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar is (and always has been) nearly the perfect watch in steel. Past black ceramic QPs were pretty outstanding, as were the rose gold blue dial and the titanium “Japan Edition” with salmon dial (all in my top five). However, the steel has the right balance of weight and wearability, which makes the Royal Oak the most wearable AP “grail” for most people.
I’ve been lucky to have some hands-on time with a number of perpetual calendars over the years, and a good portion of my list (yes, a physical list) of grail replica watches site are perpetual calendars. I’ll never forget the first Patek 5270P I ever saw in the wild wasn’t set anywhere close to the actual date. The owner said he couldn’t be bothered.
The Caliber 7138 is remarkably easy to set. There are four positions for the crown. First position – all the way in – allows you to wind the watch toward 12 o’clock. Position two (one click out) allows you to set the date toward 12 o’clock and to adjust the month and the leap year in the opposite direction. Pull the crown out again (position three – the furthest out), and you can set the time. The most interesting thing is that position two is a secret fourth position. Pulling the fake watches paypal fully out to position three and then pushing back in one step, you can set the day of the week and week (toward 12 o’clock) and moonphase (turning the crown toward 6 o’clock). Even without instructions, it is incredibly intuitive to fiddle around with it for a few seconds and learn how the calendar works.
I have two critiques about the new Caliber 7138 releases, one more serious (or curious) than the other. The first concerns the movement measurements I listed before. When the first 2120/2800-based Royal Oak perpetual calendar (ref. 25554) was released in 1984, it measured only 7.5mm thick. To improve water resistance, the model 25654, introduced in 1987, had a reworked case and measured 8.3mm with a solid caseback. That’s only 0.2mm thicker than the current Jumbo and it lacked the “week indicator” of the modern QP. So, let’s do some math.
If the width of the RD#3 movement could be used down to a 37mm case, the same width shouldn’t be a limiting factor on the 7138. The ratio between the case thickness and movement thickness on the ref. 25654 is about 2.1:1. If the same ratio holds – and with better manufacturing and materials technology of the last 40 years, I’d imagine it could – the Caliber 7138 might theoretically fit down to a 39mm by 8.6mm case size with a solid caseback. It’s not quite Jumbo sizing, but it’s damn close. With 50m of water resistance, maybe shaving down the size would result in 30m of resistance, or removing the week indication, but it’s a tradeoff I’d be willing to make.
But the biggest critique isn’t really a negative. The technical refinements of the movement are so good, so straightforward, and so simple to operate that it almost doesn’t feel as big of an achievement as I know it to be. It would obviously be bad business to release a bad watch that doesn’t work well. The complete opposite – a watch that’s simple to use and works great (while hiding much of the incredible engineering) – isn’t the sexiest thing either. But it’s the kind of thing we need to bring us back to the halcyon days when folks just liked watches for being great luxury replica watches UK. No hype, no unnecessary marketing, just great watchmaking.
At the tail end of May, Audemars Piguet released replica watches for sale that took people by surprise for a number of reasons. Many people, myself included, thought that AP’s vintage-inspired [RE]Master collection was a one-and-done proposition. A limited edition chronograph made in 500 pieces, inspired by one of the brand’s great vintage pieces, it came out right at the start of the pandemic in May 2020. I watched anxiously to see what else would come out of a collection that I saw as a potential third pillar to complement the Royal Oaks and Code 11.59 (which at the time had a pretty lukewarm reception). It seemed desperately needed and it just didn’t seem to come.
To be fair, production, development, marketing – everything wound down during the early months of the pandemic and took a while to get going. Four years later, we have the next watch in the collection, the [RE]Master02, and the Swiss made fake watches they chose as inspiration was its own surprise. Among a myriad of other options at their disposal, AP went with a re-imagination of a shaped, very asymmetrical – dare I gamble on saying Brutalist – watch. Limited to 250 pieces and priced at $47,200, I expected a lot of pushback from the commentariat because of size (41mm by 9.1), burnout on “shaped watches,” its limited nature, or the cost.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the response was much more mixed. It sounds like the commercial reception has been the same. I’ve heard that AP is getting a lot of inquiries from people who don’t collect vintage cheap UK replica watches and maybe have never seen the watch that inspired the new [RE]Master. On the other hand, I know several people who passed on this watch. But I hadn’t seen the watch in person, so I tried to reserve judgment. Now, I have thoughts.
But I also wanted to give my colleague Tony Traina, a vintage lover extraordinaire with plenty of thoughts of his own, a chance to break down the watch and vintage AP in general and – not having seen it in person – tell us what he thought from afar. You might actually recognize the inspiration for the [RE]Master02 from a story Tony wrote earlier this year about looking at what AP offers vintage collectors that don’t rhyme with “Loyal Bloke.” I figured that out of anyone, he might have thoughts about what the brand got right or where they missed the mark.
[Re]Master02: Shaping Its History
“Experimentation with design and shapes, often connected with complications – but not always – has been a constant at AP,” Sebastian Vivas, AP’s Heritage and Museum Director, said when we spoke in January.
While we were talking about vintage AAA wholesale copy watches, it should’ve been obvious that Vivas wasn’t talking only about the past of AP, but also its present.
Because the [Re]Master02 is really an experiment. While it’s based on an asymmetrical vintage watch in AP’s archives, almost everything else is different: size, material, finish, and movement. Experimentation was also the driving force behind the inspiration for the [Re]Master02, reference 5159BA, a watch so rare it doesn’t even have a proper name.
After World War II, GIs came home with round wristwatches on their wrists, and every other shape was forgotten about while they went to college, bought houses in the suburbs, and had babies.
“But AP kept a rich creativity,” Vivas said. Throughout the Brutalist architecture movement and the retro-futuristic Space Age, AP continued to explore shapes.
Vivas mentioned that AP had recently studied its “golden age” of asymmetric luxury replica watches, from 1959 through 1964, and found that it produced more than 30 different shapes just in this five-year period, most of them in less than 10 examples. AP experimented with rectangular, cushion-shaped, asymmetrical, and other shapes that defy the traditional polygonal naming conventions of the Euclidean geometry that tormented your high school years. The Brutalist, sharp lines of the ’50s and ’60s gave way to soft edges with the hope of the Space Age in the ’70s. And it wasn’t just case shapes, but components like crystals and dials, too.
One of those asymmetric perfect fake watches was the ref. 5159. According to AP, just seven examples were produced and sold in 1960 and ’61. The yellow gold example photographed here is now in AP’s archives, originally sold to Elco Clocks in the U.K. in 1961. Its polished yellow gold case measures just 27.5mm. Next to the [Re]Master02, it looks like a Mini Cooper to the [Re]master’s Cybertruck. This isn’t to say one is better than the other: The Cybertruck has had four recalls and the Mini Cooper’s defining moment, as far as I’m concerned, was 20 years ago in a Mark Wahlberg heist film.
But these shape-shifting designs helped lay the groundwork for AP’s most iconic watch.
“Asymmetric, Brutalist design prepared the way for the Royal Oak,” Vivas said. “There’s a clear link.” It might not have been clear to designer Gerald Genta, but his eccentric and expressive sports watch had its roots in an entire generation of shapes. AP’s experimentation with shapes dates back even further – look to its design in the ’20s and ’30s and you can find chronographs and calendars that are far from round.
In many ways, this history makes the modern [Re]Master collection a sensible way for AP to continue its experimentation with shapes. The [Re]Master01, introduced in 2020, explored a similar corner of AP’s history – its early, pre-WWII chronographs. Similar to its asymmetric 1:1 online replica watches, this is an era before AP had serialized production, and all of its complicated watches were essentially unique. In the first half of the 20th century, AP only made 307 chronographs. Extrapolating out some numbers, I’d bet they made a similar number of asymmetric watches during the golden era that ended in the early ’60s.
Like the [Re]Master01, the 02 is not a reissue or an homage of a vintage watch. While it evokes the ref. 5159 of the past, it’s otherwise a contemporary watch. It uses the latest material innovation (sand gold), a thin automatic caliber (cal. 7129), and that size. Disagree if you’d like, but AP is certainly the most contemporary of watch brands – who else is putting music equalizers on its dials? – so this is the approach.
With that, let’s get hands-on with the [Re]Master02.
Hands-On With The Audemars Piguet [RE]Master02
There are a few blind spots I’ll readily admit come with writing about and handling sometimes dozens of different fake watches shop a month. Pricing is always a hard one to pin down because there’s a massive part of “value” that can come down to personal taste. What makes one watch wear well while similar dimensions on another watch might not – that’s another tough one to keep on top of because two similar-sized watches can wear differently for a number of reasons. Right now, I struggle to tell if we’re in the middle of a shaped-watch renaissance or if the [RE]Master02 is an example of a good idea that came just a bit too late.
I am a big lover of Swiss movements Audemars Piguet replica watches for a lot of reasons – its history, its experience with complications, the fact that (regardless of how hard it might be to get an AP at retail) the brand feels a little more culturally accessible than the walled-off world of Patek – but no brand is without faults.
Unfortunately, the Code 11.59 launch was lackluster, but the collection has gotten stronger. While the Code collection is starting to pick up traction with some collectors, I still don’t know if it’s a watch I would pick over anything else at the price point. The Offshore also has a ton of solid offerings – some I like quite a bit – but I could almost certainly point to several Royal Oaks I’d rather have first. The Concept line is one of my favorites, and I’m lucky to get away with wearing one with my taller frame. But those last three collections, I think rightfully, get grouped together in people’s minds as Royal Oaks. And if Royal Oaks are one thing, they are iconic, design-forward pieces. So when looking for a second watch to be the third leg supporting the brand’s collection, why go for another brushed, Brutalist design, especially when the time has possibly passed?
Well, let’s make the argument in favor of the decision. The [RE]Master02, at the very least, is an incredibly striking watch and an example of creativity that often feels lacking from major modern catalogs. The case measures 41mm wide (at the longest angle) by 9.7mm thick and is the star of the show, as it would be in almost any shaped 2024 China super clone watches. It’s also made out of sand gold, Audemars Piguet’s newest alloy that first appeared in a Royal Oak Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon earlier this year. As I explained in that story, it’s a material that works best in cases like this with hard angles that will react to light differently, all at the same time. That allows the case to shift from pinkish hues to white, as the material will want to do.
It’s the kind of combination of materials science and design acumen that Audemars Piguet is known for, even if it does draw from history. The entire case, save for the faceted edges on the caseback, is either horizontally or vertically brushed. I have a feeling that that kind of texture just further accentuates the color shift of sand gold and its definitely more modern than the polished case on the vintage example.
The shape of the crystal follows the facet of the case. The hard lines intersect thoughtfully, and if you look at the lugs, you can imagine a world in where that half millimeter of width on each side could have been thrown out to make the lug width just one millimeter wider and the lugs easier to shape. But AP has accentuated the design by leaving that little hanging edge next to the strap.
Even the buckle feels like it mirrors the case shape, even if it’s the same as the buckle on the Code 11.59. The strap is a nice, soft, matte alligator that matches the dial color – which is another place AP got a lot of the details just right.
The burst of radial lines from the center post acting as hour markers carries over from the vintage models, acting as hour markers and rendered in sand gold to match the hands and the logo. But that radial pattern continues to the “Bleu Nuit, Nuage 50” toned dial (taken from the original Royal Oak dial color). Up close, the texture almost looks like wood marquetry. Another thoughtful decision from Audemars Piguet was to line the logo up such that, when viewed from above, the crystal hits the break between the two words.
The last little touch I barely noticed, but it’s worth pointing out. If you look closely at the top, bottom, and left side of the dial, the case has been shaped slightly under the bezel so that the minute hand can easily make a full turn while being long enough that it makes practical sense. All this comes together in a package that feels either very timely for the growing demand for shaped replica watches site, or is slightly overdue. It’s hard to tell if a moment has passed, so I think this [RE]Master02 will be the ultimate litmus test for whether the Renaissance is over or has just begun.
If there’s one big criticism you could levy on the [RE]Master02, it is the size of the watch. It’s not so much that it’s a thick watch. A lot of the thickness is just a necessary part of the very angular shape. The movement inside – the self-winding Calibre 7129 – is the same as in the 16202 “Jumbo” Ultra-thin Royal Oak and only 2.8mm thick, so in theory the watch could be thinner, but then it just wouldn’t be the same thing anymore. The rotor is also made in sand gold, which is a nice touch, but raises the question: could (or should) this watch have been a hand-wound movement?
The original watch was significantly smaller, and while I didn’t measure the thickness – I wasn’t expecting to see the original so I didn’t bring calipers – it was a relatively dainty watch with a hand-wound caliber inside. But I don’t really think that would have made much difference.
I’m not alone in my assessment that the watch is probably too big. I’ve heard from a few friends who got to try the [RE]Master02 in person, and they all (with no exception) felt the same way. That’s not to say they didn’t agree that the design was great – I’ve had friends who collect vintage fake watches paypal that loved the idea of the [RE]Master02 – but it’s hard not to feel that this execution is a bit unwieldy.
The measurements on paper don’t seem that large, but the case is very flat and has to be strapped so tight that it’s immobile on the flattest spot on the top of your wrist. With other watches, a little looseness or play isn’t always bad if the watch rotates back and forth or up and down on your wrist. The design of this watch doesn’t accommodate that. It also doesn’t allow the watch to move anywhere below the wrist bone if you wear it on your left wrist. The case would dig into your hand if you bent it.
That said, if you’ve got a smaller wrist, you’re probably better off with the vintage piece below – except for the fact that only seven were ever made, and this example belongs to AP. You also don’t get all the thoughtful design decisions that bring this watch into the 21st century.
The watch didn’t wear uncomfortably or bother me on the wrist, but it felt pretty apparent that the watch would likely have been successful somewhere between the vintage sizing and the new – maybe around 37mm. As much as I love vintage Swiss replica watches, there’s no world in which the vintage model – measuring 27.5mm – would be appropriately sized for me. But the new watch? I’m not convinced, either.
This is what makes vintage-inspired reissues such a tough nut. There’s so much wrapped up in the things that make vintage best quality replica watches great – nostalgia, size, design – and a lot of that is so hard to create. With too light a touch, the watch is an homage. If a redesign is too heavy, the result can get away from you.
With all that said, I don’t think I think AP will have a hard time finding clients for this piece, even if it’s not the same ones that bought the [RE]Master01. That’s actually probably the greatest success here: how AP uses a watch like this to keep broadening its audience. With the demand for vintage fake watches store slowly getting bigger every day, I don’t think it will be long before we see a [RE]Master02 on the wrist of someone like Tyler the Creator or another celebrity who appreciates both thoughtful design and vintage aesthetics. Then the [RE]Master02 will take on a life of its own and we’ll look back to see how silly my criticisms look in hindsight.
