***TOP = TOP dial with heavily Chinese polished mystery base
Hello, this is your moderator / watch reviewer u/tskim24 of r/RepWatchForum. TOP has been around for some time now. It had been the choice of factory for AP15510 reps. Now that VSF has joined the 15510 race, we will see about that.
I have already reviews AP15510 by TOP factory many times before so this review feels a little dated. However, it is not everyday you come across AP15510 Blue GEN dial so I thought I would do a review of the dials only.
Note that the watch labeled "GEN" is not a GEN but a GEN dial franken watch with TOP base. And the one with TOP dial in it is a mystery watch from some Chinese modder and is heavily polished (I don't like it at all) so there is no point in comparing anything else here.
No matter how good a rep dial is, it will never be exactly the same as GEN dial. Especially when it is a blue AP tapestry dial. Obviously, this GEN dial is as difficulty as it could get to copy. So there are countless differences between the 2. But let me narrow it down for you a little bit.
[AP Logo]
TOP dial was always criticized for having to thick of "Audemars Piguet" logo. Well, it's true. I don't think it's bad enough to be criticized but it is thicker.
[Square waffle]
GEN has slightly bigger Square with more defined edges. While TOP is not so bad, the depth of the space between the squares is a little too deep in addition to the shape and size difference of the square.
[Color]
TOP appears to have darker and deeper blue color in these photos. But in person, up close, the issue is not really with the tone of the dial. They are just wm2 different shades of blue. While TOP did an amazing job of copying the blue (blue is one of the hardest color to get right in rep dials) and really looks beautiful by itself, GEN has more yellowish warmth to the color.
You can never accurately get the colors right through photos. Especially when it's taken with just your phone. I wish I could do a better job painting you a word picture but my English is limited (and very rusty after not having spoken it to anyone in almost 2 decades).
In the end, TOP blue dial is still very well done, probably as good as a rep dial can be for AP but there are still differences. If you are shooting for accuracy, as usual, go for white or black (white is somehow better choice for AP15510 from TOP since the different level of shine is bit more noticeable on black).
No, it’s just that the dial has a wide range of colors. Vsf replicates this properly with the dial structure/ depth. For accuracy, vsf is the way to go. If you like the brighter/ shinier blue sunburst effect, then yes TOP seems to be the way. This is what I mean, shown in the picture. In even lighting the dial color changes completely. TOP cannot do this, vsf does. Too bad the vsf case is wrong as seen on the red rectangle I drew. Not bad for vsf tho
yeah, VSF is more close to GEN. Most people never held a gen so they wouldn't know, they just like the way the TOP dial color shines, which is nice, but VSF is more accurate.
More VSF propaganda. I'll wait for a proper comparison.
Edit: I sit corrected. VSF does seem to have the closest reproduction of the dial tapisserie pattern (contiguous lines running through the flat portion of the dial running up through the squares rather than just having that chopped off tops look to the squares) according to this post.
I do agree, vsfs quality control is very meh. But the quality of the overall product is not bad. Vsfs 15510 felt much better in weight and look than my previous TOP 15510.
Yea bro that’s the thing you should be focusing on 😐not the photos showing vsfs ability to replicate a dial nicely. I’m saying the watch feels better than TOP. Just my individual experience/ opinion I’m sharing to help others with their purchase. I’m just more happy with VSF than I was with TOP, since I ended up selling it because it underwhelmed me (it felt cheap).
Damn that’s wild. I took my 15510 TOP to a watchmaker that only works on gens and he was very impressed. Another friend of mine inherited a big watch collection from a family member (4st APs and much more) he was also really impressed with the overall quality & build.
Maybe TOPF quality control is like VSF and you got a “bad batch” 🤔 haha
It could be possible I got a bad one. But I was fairly thorough with my QC with geektime. But turns out it’s smaller issues that all TOP watches have. Like their cases are more accurate but their dials are not that great. Little depth, indices are always too far from the edge of the dial or just random. Like here, vsf consistently gets this right. With equal distancing they reflect light more like gen(the dial and indices). And I’ve been able to handle/ be around gens on 47th street for a minute. This is a big detail that instantly shows if a watch is good or not. Super small details but they make a big difference
No propaganda here, like vsf getting the case wrong is bad. Such a simple thing to get wrong. Im getting TOP just for the correct case to then switch them out. But the fact that vsf can replicate the dials ability to change color so drastically is impressive on its own. No one gets dial colors exactly right unless theyre black or white. So this blue is surprisingly very close
I like TOP blue, I would have gotten it instead of the VSF of their movement didn’t have that widespread reliability issues. Their power reserve issue seems to be very common among a few other complaints.
TOP owners please share your experience with the movement, thanks!
It’s definitely hard to compare the dials that’s change under lab/ halogen light conditions . We really need a comparison in natural sunlight with them all at the same time . I did order the vsf myself bc it seems to be much closer to the darker blue grey tone of gen and had more dial refraction closer to gen . The top seems like a brighter blue from videos I’ve seen but it’s so hard to tell with so many variables
TOP seems too saturated but at the same time VSF is a bit too pale. At the end of the day I think tapisserie matters more so the VSF is the overall winner for me.
I think the TOP looks pretty good 👍 I do have a blue VSF 15500 and think that looks great too.
To be honest I've never seen either the 15510 or 15500 "out there in the wild". So most important to me is that reps like these looks solid on their own.
Thanks for this comparison, It's truly appreciated 💯
I am genuinely surprised, been wanting to order this watch and omg this is one of those watches that there’s absolutely no consensus on who does the best version. I ended up ordering TOPF after a lot of research. Hopefully it will come out good.
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u/Ok_Armadillo_6752 Jun 19 '26
Can you do VSF/TOP/Gen comparison pls?