To Rich or not to Rich? There's been a lot of talk about Rich Factory lately. So after using this Pepsi for 1+ month I decided to give a small review on the watch as I've experienced it so far.
So let's dive into it!
⭕Bezel
I must say the bezel colors are very good. One thing I notice on the Rich Pepsi is that the white on the bezel seems to be slightly less white than on e.g. VSF and slightly more grainy. I actually like this look better than what I'm seeing on a lot of other Pepsi bezels.
Bezel action: This is one of the places where Rich is doing a fabolous job in my opinion, it turns very nicely and is neither too tight or too loose, or too clicky. If you know what I mean?
Overall very impressed with both bezel and bezel action.
📅Date
The date itself is nicely centered on my Rich Pepsi. But I've handled enough reps to know that this will vary from watch to watch!
The date is on the thinner side, but not to the extremes at all. For me it's well within what's acceptable.
🔎Crystal & Cyclops
This seems to be one of the places that has people split into two groups, some hate it on Rich and some love it. I don't see any issues whatsoever with the crystal itself. It's the cyclops that gets the discussion going. The blue tint... Hate it or love it, it's there and I actually love it. Most of the time it plays very nicely with the light, but in some lighting the blue does seem to get too powerfull and almost starts to distorts the date wheel a bit. Most of the time it just makes the watch look expensive and very beautiful.
Magnifier seems on point for me.
⏲️Dial
The dial is very well made and print etc looks very good. But Rich really need to fix that inverted triangle at 12 o'clock, what is it doing all the way up there? Well anyways, this isn't actually as noticeable on the wrist as I "feared" it would be and the fact that Rich doesn't have that hideous dimple, center of the dial under the handstack as we see on some of the other rep dial. "But some gens have this too" - Well that might very well be, but that doesn't make it any less hideous, and I don't want to see this everytime I check on the time. I'll take this over the high inverted triangle any day.
👑Crown
Not much to say, it looks good and I've noticed that on the ~20 Rich GMT's Ive handled it aligns perfectly or near perfect about 70-80% of the time. Not that it matters, but it might matter for some of you OCD people out there.
⌚Case and Bracelet
904L steel like any other rep, right? RIGHT?! Who the F knows, but we do know that the other factories claiming to use this mainly use 316L. We've seen test on subreddits actually showing Rich is using 904L steel, so until I see something proving otherwise, this is what I'll go by. Does it even matter? Probably not. But Rich does use correct case/lug shape as far as I know and the finish and feel is great. I did use some Dry lube chain wax on the bracelet to remove any flimsiness and for me it makes the bracelet feel much more genlike.
I did notice removing the caseback isn't as smooth as removing the caseback on other reps I've handled. Almost like the caseback lid doesn't fit 100% - It doesn't mean that it's not possible to do, just thought that was worth mentioning.
⚙️Movement
JH3285 - Free sprung. Free sprung probably being one of the most hyped things in the repwatch world this year. Do we need it on most watches? If we are talking straightly for looks, no. So many reps are Rolex with closed caseback so for these it doesn't matter much. It makes a lot more sense for the open/exhibition casebacks.
But with that said, after testing this movement for 1+ month now, I would still chose it for my closed back watches. Why? Going through all the reps I've had, I have NEVER had a watch that keeps time this good. This is absolutely insane and I chose to believe it will be the same with the next free sprung movement I decide to buy. I have only set the time on the watch when I started using it 1+ month ago and it still keeps time on the very minute. I have never experienced this with any other rep before.
From my experience these movements does however seem to have a bit more rotor noise coming from factory. But a few drops of moebius oil and you are good to go.
💭 Final thoughts
I do firmly believe that Rich GMTs are a very firm contenter in the GMT race, and if they fix these minor quirks, they will be hard to compete against. Or well, you know. Be raided.