AP finishing: the ultimate tell.
I’m genuinely surprised by how little attention AP bracelet/case finishing gets on this sub. To me, this is the obvious instant tell on APs - over bezel shape, crown, and especially, dial, which is something that everyone here seems to hyper fixate on when it comes to these APs.
Bit if a story/rant - TLDR bad modder experience turned me off APs, but caught bug again: I had a ZF that I had the privilege of comparing to gen. The finishing was so disgustingly bad, along with the bracelet connecting links being completely the wrong geometry. It was so bad in fact, that I commissioned a very well reputed AP modder in the community to mod to a different-factory AP rep to “gen spec” brushing.
This modder - one that is basically a top name in the community - was insanely condescending and rude the entire time that we were going through the process. I would ask simple, very non-confrontational questions, and be met with being treated like I was a piece of shit.
Now, I can deal with that, if the work speaks for itself. Watch making attracts a pretty autistic community, so a lack of bedside manner is fine if the finished product is worth it.
The finishing didn’t even come close to gen - it was basically identical to the stock ZF. Specifically, for the particular size/model AP that I was at, the genuine finishing is very fine - you can very easily see a fingerprint on the brushed metal if you handle it after eating a bag of chips. With this modder’s work, none of that was true. The finishing was coarse, and again, looked no better than a stock rep.
I believe that maybe his brushing uses a different model of AP as reference, as the size/model I had the work done on was a less sought after/desired one. The problem is, he is so condescending and gatekeeping about this stuff, that it was impossible to point out that difference without him taking extreme offense to it.
That experience turned me off to AP reps. But with that said, I’ve caught the bug again. This time, for 37mm.
So I have to ask. A) are there any in-depth analysis of brushing/finishings in the rep AP space? B) has anyone gotten their watches modded by various modders and compared the work? C) has anyone put their reps side-by-side to gen APs and been able to find the ones that are most like gen - SPECIFICALLY in the case of brushing/finishing?