The Rise and Fall of Clean Factory

This will be the last time I talk about Clean Factory on my blog because, as I said in my previous article, Clean will not be returning; yes, that's true. So, do not trust anyone in this industry who says they can bring you a watch from Clean, otherwise you will be scammed.

Here I introduced many watch manufacturers such as ZF, AR, VS, APS. I think most of you have also read the stories I told about Clean Factory in my articles How did the Clean factory achieve this success so quickly? and The development of the Clean factory. Clean has a truly illustrious history and has produced so many great watches for us; Now let's see how this watch manufacturer started and then fell.

Strap, Buckle and Comfort

There are many watch markets in the Zhanxi district of Guangzhou; They used to have a very good business, there was great activity in the past, everyone came here to buy quality luxury products such as watches, bags, bracelets and perfumes. In 2016 or 2017, a man came to Zhanxi and sold watches; He was initially making Nomos replicas, and the workshop he opened at that time didn't even have a name. Later, Roger Dubuis produced Excalibur and Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, so the green Submariner 116610LV is not the first product in Clean's history. But when he faced competition from Noob on the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms replica, he couldn't make enough money just selling Nomos, Roger Dubuis and other unpopular watches.

Case and Body Workmanship

He wanted to make Rolex, but at that time Noob and AR were the bosses of this field, it was difficult to compete with them; But both Noob and AR's Rolex Submariner also had flaws, especially the bezel of the hulk Submariner 116610LV: the color was not the right green, the pearl was too white, and the bezel markings darkened easily. He realized these problems and turned to making ceramic bezels. In the first batch of ceramic bezels produced for the Submariner, the platinum inlay on the markers was finally no longer discolored. At this point, Clean was born, producing only watch parts such as ceramic bezels and dials.

Dial and Hand Details

After it became popular, many people bought their AR Factory Submariner and replaced its bezel and dial with Clean's bezel and dial. After selling watch parts for a while, he produced the Submariner himself and sold the watch under the name "ZZ", but ZZF's Submariner still could not compete with AR and Noob. At the same time, Clean was also producing bezels for Daytona.

Movement and Caliber Performance

ZZ continued to develop its Submariner and updated it to the V3 version with the SH3135 movement inside, but its Submariner was facing another strong competitor, namely VS Factory, which came with a better DD3135 movement. At that time, Noob had updated the Submariner to V12 and AR to V3; ZZ couldn't compete with Noob, AR and VS.

In April 2021, Noob was raided and closed, AR and VS were also affected. People couldn't find Daytona's anywhere, some dealers who still had Noob Daytona watches in stock sold them at high prices; watch enthusiasts had to pay over XXX to get a Noob Daytona, a ridiculous price but people had no choice. Clean took this opportunity and took over the DD4130 movement from Noob; At the end of 2021, Clean released Daytona with DD4130, its price was slightly higher than the previous Noob Daytona, but eventually returned to normal. After its release, Daytona watches sold out instantly, Clean was a success. During the period when AR and VS were closed, the stock of the ZZ Submariner also ran out very quickly, after which they sold both the Daytona and the Submariner under the Clean name. During this period, Clean also acquired the DD3135 movement and updated its Submariner.

One success builds on another. Then Clean improved the DD3285 movement and released the super clone GMT-Master II, which became another bestseller; By now, Clean had almost dominated the super clone Rolex market. VS was back in business and since they had the DD3235 movement they still had a certain market share, many people bought the VS Datejust. So in the later years before Clean's closure, the competition in the Rolex field was between Clean and VS; Before Clean could complete replacing the SH3235 in their Datejust with the DD3235, this factory was raided and closed. Who is the boss of the super clone Rolex space now? Absolutely…, you know.