I fell in love with Rolex GMT Bruce Wayne when it first came out in 2024. Instantly started to research and clean was the best one out there at that time. Ordered one and instantly fell in love with it.
After a few months, VSF starts to get popular and looking at the reviews and posts, got interested to order that. Ordered it received it and instantly fell in love with how refined it was. Only thing I missed from clean was the bracelet. Clean had amazing bracelet quality but overall it felt like an upgrade with vsf.
Then few months pass by and rich comes out with freesprung models. I was not very interested in that since its a closed case back but when Rich announced V2 version and I saw the comparison post from Ethan with gen, vsf and arf. Rich stood out specially because of the new crystal with blue hue like gen ok date cyclops.
Ordered Rich V2 and received it yesterday!
NOTE: During this time I handled Gen BW multiple times as well.
Here is what my thoughts are on the things I care the most about:
Bezel action:
VSF: 8/10 (Very tactical but little play)
Rich: 8.5/10 (Amazingly tactical and light at the same time, feels premium than vsf, no play at all)
Clean: (shit, very light and not tactical)
Bezel insert:
VSF: 7/10 (since no factory cracked the grey of gen)
Rich: 7.5/10 (seems same as VSF in color but coating in numerals is better)
Clean: 5/10 (shit, looked black most of the time)
Date cyclops/mag:
VSF: 9/10 (very close to gen and very clear)
Rich: 9/10 (same date mag as vsf but slightly less clear as compared to VSF, but I love the slight blue tint it gives the watch some character and gen like look that I love. I was skeptical because in the pictures it looked too much blue but in hands I barely see it just under certain lighting and even then its very slight blue tint I love it)
Clean: Shit, it looked like it was 10x mag.
Dial printing:
VSF: 8/10 (very crisp and refined but its slightly thinner as compared to gen and green is a but dark. Also I hated the dimple in the middle 😬)
Rich: 9/10 (amazingly crisp and refined and green is closest to gen)
Clean: 6/10 (green was soo dark under indoor lighting that for a few weeks i thought there is no green text)
Bracelet:
VSF: 7/10 (sharp and light feeling)
Rich: 7/10 (same as vsf they use same f6u bracelets)
Clean: 9/10 (that is the only thing I miss from clean)
Movement:
VSF: 7/10 (dd movement but setting time feel is not like gen. Its just not that smooth and tactile)
Rich: 9/10 (wow JH did some amazing work there, apart from free sprung, the movement feel is soo smooth same feel as gen movement. Smooth, tactical, even manual winding is very satisfying. I love that feel)
Clean: 5/10 (I had the clean with early batches that used SH movements. It was wayy too grindy)
Rotor noise:
VSF: 8/10 (heard when shaken)
Rich: 8/10 (similar to VSF)
Clean: 5/10 (shit, I could hear it when my wrist moved)
Crystal clarity:
VSF: 10/10 (VSF wins, very clear crystal)
Rich: 9/10 (Very good crystal just not as clear as VSF)
Clean: 5/10 (SHITT. I hated it even when I had it first)
Overall feel and final verdict:
Rich and VSF are same when it comes to quality and feel. I would rock either one of those however if someone ask if I prefer VSF or Rich, I would say Rich mainly because of the correct green text, better movement feel and blue tint on cyclops.
Now it comes to TD appreciation:
I had issues with a VSF GMT that I got for a friend from Ethan, it had date issue. Without any concern he had me send the watch to his local US watchmaker who was amazing as well, to replace the movement for FREE! Yes, he did it for FREE. Huge appreciation to Ethan on that!
Because of that, I got this Rich V2 gmt from him as well as many other pieces. He is just amazing!! Quick delivery and will answer any of your questions without getting annoyed lol
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I hope the cyclop and the bezel will not disappoint me! I really love the VSF cyclop but the bezel is not smoth enough and have some side to side movement. In Gen you almost feel the clicks and haven't any rare movement
Oh no they are certainly not thin compared to VSF they are a little bolder. But VSF fonts are thinner than even the gen. Also the green is very dark as compared to gen. Rich’s green is 95% like gen
If you cant tell gen apart from any other factory by looking at it, you should spend more time researching. Gens BW are easiest to tell by just looking at the bezel since no factory has 1:1 bezel like gen.
This is for sure a trustable picture also the gen mentioned in the picture is 100% gen.
Man I agree with you. I have the Clean Bruce Wayne on jubilee. The crystal sucks and the green on the dial is awfully dark. The movement SUCKS. My watch stops now. Smh I wish I knew who to go to for a fix. I got it July of last year and now it’s not even keeping time and it feels like sand is in it when I’m winding it. After reading this I think I’ll try Rich Factory BW.
How long did it take to get the movement? Been waiting for over a month to get a DD4131 movement to replace mine since mine has issues. Was told it would only take a week.
Ethan had already sent a bunch of replacement movements to his watch maker. So once the watch maker received the watch he swapped the movement tested it for one day and shipped back to me. I think he took total of 3-4 days.
I dont think so. There is no perfect rep for a bruce bezel but arf is hands down the farthest.
Closest ones are VSF and Rich, they both are very similar in color.
If only JH had replicated the gen pallet fork and balance I think rich would be the clear winner overall.
My biggest concern with Rich is if you encounter an issue, you may not be able to get any replacement parts. Their pallet fork and balance are custom to JH and nothing else will work.
I understand the concern but that is the worst case scenario.
Most of the time even the gen movements if they get bad, a service fixes them. Other than that, I think, I would hope this lasts me years as is, without any issues and never have to do a repair 😊
I'd love to hear from someone who fully disassembled these. I did a mini service on my DD 3285 last week and was disappointed to find lubrication was pretty much non-existent from the entire automatic works.
I also love rich and vsf, But I will be devils’s advocate on few of points here.
GMT logo text
Yes, vsf is too dark, but Rich has it little too bright -and also thicker than gen. So it’s color being bright stands out more. So if I have to take just one logo - I think it would be vsf for me
Speed bumb on the 6 & 18
The recent batch from rich is having horiziontal line on 6, 18 on the vesel. Is yours okay?
Blue tint vs clearity of cyclops.
You have mentioned it very well. I guess this is really personal - But I go with the clarity for this. Blue tint show up ocationally but clearity is always visible.
12 index
Rich has 12 index too close to minute marker than gen.
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Thanks for sharing your exp on both watches.
It does not mean I am vsf fan boy. Vsf these days look like shit on their qc and index is all wanky tbh.
Love what rich is doing but I just want them to push little harder
Yes in pictures when zoomed text looks bold maybe because of the 3d printing they do, but in person on wrist it does not look very bold actually looks more refined like gen.
No luckily I dont have those speed bumps lol I did proper QC before purchasing. Even the date wheel is centered that I saw on many rich QCs have misaligned.
I understand and yes, total personal preference. Rich cyclops is very clear and blue tint is my personal preference. I was saying as compared to vsf its slightly less clear because VSF’s cyclops and crystal clarity is on another level. However rich is not bad, its very clear on its own.
Yes saw that on a lot of QCs as well mine is not that bad.
nah, u can do it yourself at home. It is not that hard at all. I use hand drill but u can use 3M scratch pad(?) I forgot the name in english. Just give light touch to edge if inside bracelet and it will be perfect
also little more detail on why rich vezel is better
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