New Trend – Replica Watches with Increased Weight

Recently, all the news is about replica watches with increased weight; In fact, this has been the topic people have been talking about the most since the second half of the year. These days, replica watches are getting closer and closer to the originals, but people are still chasing perfection. That's why some people in the market do custom-made work on these replica watches produced by famous factories such as Clean, ZF and VS. I think they were the first to use weight-increased cases in replica watches; Then the factories saw this business opportunity and got involved. GM and GS were the first two factories to make weight-increased replica watches; They released Day-Date replicas with increased weight, and as far as I remember, they were quite popular at one time when they were introduced to our market.

Then another factory appeared, its name is TED. They are making a YachtMaster 226659 replica with increased weight. TED is said to be a subsidiary of VS, but I think it's just a small studio opened by someone who is on good terms with VS; so he can sell this watch under the name VS.

Now the factories we talk about most are Gold and APS. The Gold factory makes weight-increased Daytona and YachtMaster replicas, while APS makes weight-increased Daytona and Royal Oak 15400 replicas; Gold seems more popular. There are some rumors about Gold factory in our market; Some said Gold was run by Clean, while most said Gold was a watch parts factory that produced cases and had been in business for years. I prefer to believe the latter. Currently the Gold factory only makes Daytona and YachtMaster models with rubber straps. Today I decided to choose the Daytona with gray dial and rubber strap from Gold and APS, take a few photos and make a simple comparison between them.

Case and Body Workmanship

Both Gold and APS use tungsten steel in the case, but it's not all pure tungsten steel; The case is made of tungsten steel alloy material, otherwise it would be too hard. The weight of the APS Daytona is 145.2 grams, the Gold is 142.9 grams; This Daytona from Clean weighs around 109 grams. So each Daytona from Gold and APS is more than 30 grams heavier than a Daytona from Clean or BT. However, there is still a weight difference, as the original watch weighs around 160 grams. Due to the added tungsten steel, both factory Daytona chassis may not have been as well polished as the Clean Daytona's; That's right, you can check the case back and the lugs. Because tungsten steel is harder and does not polish as smooth as stainless steel.

Movement and Caliber Performance

The biggest difference is definitely in the mechanism. Gold Factory uses the Dandong 4130 movement in this Daytona, while APS uses the Shanghai 4130. I still prefer the Daytona with the Dandong 4130 movement, because this movement has been tested for years and has been found to be very reliable; The Shanghai 4130 is still new to us, currently only fitted to the Daytona replicas made by ZF and APS. This may be the reason why the Gold Daytona is much more expensive than the APS Daytona.

The case shape and size of the two watches are very similar; I think they come from the same watch parts factory. The gray dial is slightly different in color, I can't say which is better, but neither is as good as the Clean Daytona's dial. On the buckle, the engravings on the APS Daytona are thicker and deeper; Both Gold and APS use 904L stainless steel in the buckle. Finally, look at the Daytona photos of both plants: the one with the dog head symbol is from the Gold plant, the one with the green label is from the APS plant.

Daytona photos of the Gold Factory plant.

Photos of the APS Factory factory in Daytona.

Comparison photos between them.