Rolex Explorer II Review
What the hell? Didn't I just review an Explorer II?
Yes I did. The review is available HERE. So you can call this part #2.
My white ExpII developed a problem. The seconds hand got stuck with the minute hand once every 24 hours or so. Naturally Precious Time replaced it without any problems whatsoever.
I've never been a fan of the black Explorer II and I still think the white version has more character. Rolex produces so many black dial watches and black Explorer II doesn't really offer anything original on the table. So it would be only natural to get another white ExpII to replace the defective one, right?
But as always, we have our short honeymoons with the new reps, and during that honeymoon the flaws don't bother us so much. I'm not too anal about small flaws, but as excepted the weird grey hour markers on the white dial version started to bother me after a while. Most of the time they look correct, but when the light hits them from certain angle they simply look... well... grey.
I should have listened to bklm1234, who owns the black version. The dial of the black version is a beauty. The print is extremely crisp and the finish is lovely. Strange that the GMT hand on my new black version now has the correct red color as well. Looks like the GMT hand is now a bit shorter too, but not enough to bother me. The EXPLORER II font is a bit off on all reps, but it's very difficult to notice without zoomed pics and straight comparison with the gen.
The rep of the black version is very close to the genuine article. The only "noticeable" difference is the 6'o'clock marker which is placed a bit too low. However, there was a production run of this rep which has it placed correctly. The crown guards and winding crown aren't 100%, but close enough.
I got lucky with this rep. Unlike my white version it even has the beautiful "bevel" on the lugs (as per genuine). Once again we'll see that these watches have subtle differences, even when they come from the same factory.
I don't really bother going to the details with this review, because I already did it with the previous review of the white version. All I can say that this rep is most likely going out of production, since the correct hand stack GMT Master II has already disappeared. The movement apparently has 2 different versions: Good and bad. Or to be frank: "Working" and "non-working".
The hand problem on my white version was somehow related to this modification, I'm sure. I'm again crossing my fingers with this one. I was willing to take another risk, because the rep is remarkably good and accurate. I seriously doubt the factories can surpass this replication, especially now that the correct hand stack modification seems to be a dying breed in the rep world.
This "mini-review" took only about 2-3 hours to put together (including the pic post-processing). It's a record, and not bad considering that Puggy has now used a year to put his IWC Guide together. :) All pics were shot in one "take". I'm getting fast.
Let's end this with a "pair shot". ExpII poses with another nice (although not quite as accurate) rep I recently reviewed: The "TW Best" GMT Master.
