rolex series 4: how big is big? what's the size?

over the years spent online and reading watch forums......a question will pop out from time to time.......what's the size of this model...??....and there could even be arguments about the sizes of different models...

here's a table to answer ALL such questions....



all thanks to the japanese.....they pay so much attention to all the details....

rolex series 3: the white gold daytona 116509

do you like the rolex daytona, the most sought-after stainless steel chronograph in the world....:P

well if u are a daytona fan, i think u will like the white gold version..... for many years, the white gold daytona was available only with a leather strap but never with a bracelet...... somehow i never found the daytona attractive with a strap...... the watch was made for a bracelet and it's a match made in heaven.... hehe....


when rolex launched the white gold daytona on bracelet, there were only 2 dial options...... the silver and the matt black (more grey than black actually)..... current list price is S$39399....

as far as i know, the first few pieces of the 2 watches were traded at premium prices........ as time went on, dealers sold the watch at list price and now you can get them at a discount.......... well, it's not everyday that ppl will buy a S$40k watch right?...... after all the rich uncles and aunties have bought their share, who else...?? of cos the demand would drop and hence, selling prices also dropped....

one simply have to handle this watch to understand what is it about........ it feels substantial and hefty.......well, gold is heavier than steel.... since the whole watch is white gold, it certainly feels OOMMPHH!.... once on the wrist, it will constantly remind you that you are wearng a GOLD watch hehe..... no doubt about that...

internally, all daytona watches are the same..... as in they all use the 4130 movement, rolex's first in-house chronograph movement (with 72 hours of power reserve! go rolex go!)......... the models differ in materials, strap/bracelet and dial options.....

my favourite white gold daytona is the one in black dial...... the red hands look so beautiful against the matt black dial .... the contrast is strikingly HOT..... so far i have never seen anyone in the streets wearing this.......

in recent years, rolex have added more dial options for the white gold daytona on bracelet....... there are now the mother-of-pearl dial and the meteorite dial, not forgetting the diamond dials......... more choices for the bling bling crowd........ all very yummy and very nice......esp the black MOP dial...... haha, maybe u can't wait to own them all..... but that will take quite a load of cash....

rolex series 2: where to buy rolex watches in singapore

very often, ppl ask the above question when they wanna buy a rolex watch.......or maybe they wanna know where is the store with the best discounts........who is selling at a cheaper price...and so on....

i would usually tell them.......there is no answer to that ....cos the same salesperson would quote a different price for his regular customers..... another price for tourists, another price for walk-in customers, another price for rich indonesians.... etc.....

so even if i tell you that i can get a model at one price...... there is no guarantee that you will be offered the same price if you approach the same salesperson.... it could be more or perhaps less.... who knows haha

hee...... so where do i usually recommend ppl to go if they wanna buy a watch..??? here's my favourite stores...in random order....

The Hour Glass (Raffles Hotel)
Watch Palace
Kee Hing Hung
Cortina (Raffles City Shopping Centre).....

i dun mean to say that rest are no good ......just that i have established the rapport and relationship with the sales people there.....

well just for info's sake.... here is the list of rolex ADs in singapore

The Hour Glass (Tang Plaza, Lucky Plaza, Takashimaya, Raffles Hotel, Peninsular Plaza & Millenia Walk)
Watch Palace (Lucky Plaza)
Tai Hong Hung (Lucky Plaze, People's Park)
Kee Hing Hung (People's Park)
Cortina (Raffles City Shopping Centre)
Dickson (Wisma Atria, Paragon and Centrepoint)....not sure if the suntec city outlet is still open
Lee Chay (Peninsular Plaza)

and of cos Roy Eastern is no longer a rolex AD....

stay home day.....

today is saturday.....was in bed till almost 1 pm......hee did i get the time right..??...not too sure lah cos my eyes abit blurry when i looked at the watch.....ah yes, i wore a watch to sleep......

my fren sms and jio me go eat timsum but i abit lazy haha.........so just stayed at home and did the weekend usual......i.e. make a cup of coffee and read the papers......

later in the afternoon also did my laundry.... just handwashed the 2 polo shirts.......i usually prefer to handwash polo shirts cos they are quite fragile and dun stand up to machine wash that well......the next problem is when u hang the polo shirt to dry......the wet and heavy (heavier than dry!) material would stretch the fabric out gradually......so what to do?...my solution is to hang the polo and flip the lower end over the top.....tada!....instantly there is less weight less stretch and longer life for the polo shirt.....

after that......on the tv but after channel surfing for quite awhile, decided to go to the coffeeshop for a late lunch ...and also to buy 4d....hehe.....

now comfortably on the bed and writing about the day.....so far that is....

intro: my audio system

1st day of june.....

suddenly realised that it's almost at the mid-point of the year.....so fast huh, seems like jan and feb was just days ago.....time really flies, time and tide wait for no man......gone means gone ......

grow older day by day, week by week and then finally year by year......my birthday month was may, and it's oredi over in a flash....

ok lah back to the topic......this morning quite straightforward.....just list the various components i am currently using.......can refer to the pics in the link....

http://www.audiocircle.com/gallery/index.php?cat=48747

source:

california audio labs delta cd transport......

i like this shoebox-sized transport very much.... it's affordable and sounds great..... comes with S/PDIF, Toslink and AES/EBU digital outputs....... during its production years, it used to sell at about S$1500.......

the original piece developed a problem after years of loyal service and also could not read cd-r discs properly...... approached the dealer and was offered a mint display set for a small change....... it's still in service today haha...... great work cal.... too bad they are not around anymore....

msb link iii full nelson and p1000 power supply........

before this dac, i was using an audionote dac1, a simple but pretty good dac with a tubed output stage...... the AN used 2 sovtek 6922 triodes..... and way before that, was using audio alchemy dde....... haha, can anyone remember that classic???..... small in size but had big sound, big reputation and relatively small-price....

pre-amp:

adcom gfp-750

this classic preamp was designed by nelson pass for adcom....... i think at first not many people paid attention to it until it was reviewed and awarded a class A rating by stereophile..... overnight it gained a BIG reputation and it was also the cheapest preamp to get that rating back then...

well other than the hype, i must say it's really difficult to identify the sonic characteristics of this active/passive (user selectable) preamp..... it just sounded like nothing at all....... compared to a straight wire passive attenuator, there could be just that tiny weeny bit of transparency lost....... very very minor.... negligible especially if u need the gain.....

again it's out of production......

power amp:

channel islands audio d100 mono block:

100 watts per channel at 8 ohms..... hypex-based class d analogue switching amp...... each one smaller than a loaf of gardenia bread.......... while i could try to attempt to convey how good the amps are in words, i dun think i can do a better job than wes phillips of www.stereophile.com

so pls check out his review......

loudspeakers:

polkaudio LSi-15

3 and 1/2 way 4-driver floorstanding loudspeaker......... this is another major steal ..... at the display set price, it's almost foolish to ignore this pair of loudspeaker..... even if the dealer were to order a brand new pair, it's still worth every penny.....

well at the risk of being accused of believing too much in reviews..... i suggest you read what wes phillips has to say about the LSi-15 at http://www.onhifi.com/product/polk_lsi15.htm .......

other items:

pls visit http://www.audiocircle.com/systems/index.php?systemid=592

today is vesak day

ah ha today is vesak day.... public holiday so there is no need to report for work ....had a good sleep and woke up close to noon time.......power lah, recharged and feeling refreshed....

1st stop: x audio ......

met up with a couple of friends there......since the acrolink 4030 was such a success i thought might as well buy another one to try.....

so this time round, bought 1.5m of the AC power cable...... and decided to use the oyaide gold-plated plugs..... again hee...... although the rhodium-plated plugs are slightly cheaper, i was thinking i like gold a little bit more......... this time more damage than 1m of cos.....a little bit more lah....

came back home not too long ago and first thing first, plug in the cable to the CAL delta transport and let it run for a couple of hours....... i'll let u know how it goes in a couple of days.....with more hours, things usually do improve.....

2nd stop: the hour glass at takashimaya.....

wah public holiday hor..... the orchard road traffic is one kind of .... F*****......turned left at crown hotel.....and WAH.....paragon carpark full.......the ura carpark full......hotel carpark full..........everywhere full sia.......damn! cannot stand the waiting so i took a quick turn and end up at cairnhill art centre........ haha..... in the end save money...... but of cos walked a little bit more...

go hour glass there see see look look...........the whole shop so crowded huh and how come so many ppl into watches ah..... some crowded around the rolex displays, cartier display and so on so on.....

nothing much interesting...... other than a few gerald genta jump hour watches.... hmmm swee!.... i also took a good look at the glashutte original watches.......quite nice quite nice.... let's not forget the jlc ewc rossi edition...... got the number 46 on the dial leh...leh...leh....... haha if u are a rossi fan of cos look nice..... if not others would think it's idiotic...

after awhile, approached a salesperson and asked him about the richard mille rm005-fm......well, he said, can be arranged......... so next question, how much?.......so he tapped tapped the calculator......ehhh, 20%..... that's the max..... factory controlled......

hee ok mission accomplished.... i said thank you and let's go....

ok lah.... i better go listen to music and see how the acrolink performs...

rolex series 1: how to tell if it's a "folex"

a folex = fake rolex.... and in the coming days and weeks, i will try to document my knowledge to help newbies distinguish the features of a rolex and a folex.....:)

one of the most popular rolex watches is the submariner, the iconic dive watch that almost everyone else attempts or have attempted to copy........ therefore we will limit ourselves to this classic model that have defined what a dive watch is all about....

there are 3 versions of the stainless steel submariner, namely:

• rolex submariner 14060M aka non-date submariner (list price S$6447)
  
• rolex submariner 16610 aka submariner date (list price S$7444)
  
• rolex submariner 16610LV aka green submariner (list price S$7976) .....pls see previous posting for pictures and more...

so here we go........important features to look out for:

• 1
• there are 120 clicks per complete 360-degree revolution of a real rolex sub bezel........... however this feature alone shd not be used to judge whether the watch is authentic or not...... some folex could be pretty well-made and the bezels do have 120 clicks........ the clicks should be firm and smooth..... it should also turn with more ease when u press it down and turn
• 2
• for the 16610 and LV.... the cyclops magnify the date 2.5 times..... this is a common fault of folex watches and most have yet to perfect the magnification..... the date should sit right in the middle of the window and i mean exactly in the middle, not abit left or right or up or down.....
• 3
• as the text on a rolex watch dial is laser-etched, you can easily judge the quality by looking closely at the edges of the text, especially the coronet at 12 o'clock....... it shd be very well defined, even with a 10x loupe....
• 4
• the luminova should be flat and has a uniform glow.... it shd appear more whitish than green..... check the lume by exposing the dial to a light source and then observe in the shade.... all the luminova on the hour markers and hands must glow...
• 5
• the hour marker surround for the ss submariner is made of white gold...... check the shape, it should be complete and perfectly circular.....
• 6
• the 14060M is equipped with a rolex 3130 movement while the 16610 and LV uses the 3135 movement...... they are fundamentally similar, the only difference is the date complication in the 3135........ to see the movement, you need to use a proper tool to unscrew the ss case back
• 7
• modern rolex movements beat at 28,800 beats per hour and the sweep of the second hand is very smooth....... there are folex watches that uses el cheapo slow beat movements, so u can probably see that the sweep is not as smooth and exhibits some jerk.....
• 8
• however, it's not uncommon for folex watches to use swiss eta or china-made eta clones that also beat at 28,800 bph......... be very careful....
• 9
• all rolex submariner watches has a triplock crown.......it is physically larger than the crowns for the oyster datejust watches (which has a twinlock crown)........... how to tell whether it's a triplock??.......... well, look at the crown and you will see 3 dots below the coronet.........
• 10
• for a triplock crown, u will also see a black rubber o-ring on the crown tube when you unscrew the crown..... the o-ring is functional and you will be able to feel the crown compressing this ring when you screw the crown in.......... this is one feature that provides additional water resistance to 300m or 1000ft....
• 11
• to wind the movement, u have to turn the crown clockwise after you unscrew the crown...... do u find a slight resistance as compared to the feel when you turn the crown CCW..??
• 12
• to adjust the hands forward, you have to turn the crown clockwise in the last position..... this is also a feature to ascertain the watch as some fake movements advance the time by turning the crown CCW.....
• 13
• gently shake the watch..... can you hear or feel any wobble??...... the rotor of a rolex submariner watch pivots on a jewelled bearing and is totally silent.... you shd not hear anything..... or feel anything.....
• 14
• there is no engraving or text on the case back of a rolex submariner....
• 15
• the 14060M comes with a non-SEL bracelet while the other 2 models come with SEL....
• 16
• rolex submariner watches do not come with clear caseback.... genuine rolex watches come with a green hologram sticker ...... the model number is printed on the hologram and it will wear off when the watch is worn...
• 17
• there is a minute coronet that is laser-etched onto the sapphire crystal of a genuine rolex watch at the 6 o'clock position....... it's quite faint and difficult to pick up with the naked eye...... however, u can still see it clearly if the angle and lighting are right....
• 18
• all the 3 ss rolex submariner watches come with the oyster bracelet and the middle links are hollow...... if u see solid middle links on a ss submariner, it's a fake......
• 19
• both the 16610 and LV comes with a quick dive suit extension link....... from the inside of the clasp, u can see a small 'O' on one of links....... press it firmly and the link will pop out...... the 14060M has a different type of extension link.....
• 20
• for late-model 16610 and LV, the watches come with a one piece SEL. watches using this SEL will not have any bracelet number engraved on SEL links.....
• 21
• for late-model 16610 and LV, there are no holes on the side of the watch case. if you remove the bracelet, u will be able to see 16610T on the case at the 6 o'clock position........ t stands for "no-hole case"....... the 14060M still has holes on the case....
• 22
• the pearl on the bezel will glow .....
• 23
• the watch serial number is laser-etched on the case at 12 o'clock position.......it is very clear, obvious and well-defined....

haha overall very lengthy but still not 100% exhaustive.....but i hope this is helpful

a pictorial: rolex submariner 16610LV

first launched in 2003, the green bezel submariner was introduced to commemorate the 50th year of the rolex submariner....


so what is the difference between this and the black bezel submariner (16610)...???


well......the most obvious is of cos the green bezel.......

other differences are:

bigger hour markers (also called a maxi-dial)

a wider minute hand

list price of the watch is S$7976....... but it is usually sold at a premium in authorised dealers (AD).....so what is the market price? well about S$9000.....

so is it worth the extra over the black submariner (S$7444)? well, only you can answer that....:)

heard that when it was first launched, ADs were making big bucks selling this at prices near S$11k....!! ouch ouch ouch!..... this was partially fuelled by the rumour that this was a limited production, but alas.... turned out the lv is a regular production model...... so when the demand waned, prices also tumbled..... it's a sad thing if you paid more than S$10k for this watch but then there's a price to pay for being the first few to own it right haha.....

some ppl have reported that in europe and usa, there are dealers giving discounts for the lv..... it's still not happening in singapore.... i wonder when will it happen....... will the new ss gmt master 2 (116710) usurp the position of the lv..???...... let's see if that happens...

FYI... the new rolex airking, rolex oyster perpetual and rolex oyster perpetual date are in the stores .....all are now certified chronometers, come with new case, new dials, new bracelets (all brushed....WOOHOO!!).....