A friend asked why the SH4131 movement was almost out of stock, while the VS customized 4131 movement was belatedly launched. Because the development paths of these two movements are different.
VS customized 4131 movement is directly developed according to the original 4131 movement. Reasonable design and good stability. 95% of the accessories are interchangeable with genuine movements.
The SH4131 movement is based on the 4130 movement made with 7750 technology, and then modified from the 4130 movement. Only the external appearance is similar, and many of the internal parts of the movement are pieced together with the technology of domestic low-end movements. Not to mention the so-called standard that accessories can be interchanged with genuine movements, which is also exaggerated propaganda. You can look back at the previous disassembly and comparison publicity of SH4131 movement and genuine movement on the market.
In fact, the workmanship and completion of the SH4131 movement are about the same as the “blue hairspring” 3135 movement in 2018, but it is still rough.
VS factory Daytona 4131 movement front milling details
When everyone plays replicas, they all want to buy a similar, good and stable one. However, for the replica 4131 movement on the market, so far, the workmanship precision of the SH4131 movement, which is commonly used in the market, and the milling treatment on the appearance of the movement are the same as the stainless steel basin/stainless steel table used at home. The milling texture is very shallow and unclear. Even if you look at it from different angles, the texture is very low-end.
Rolex has a dense bottom design, the precision of workmanship of the movement, and the difference in appearance of the movement are usually invisible to everyone. However, the difference in the level of movement processing is essentially the difference in the strength of the movement manufacturing factory, the processing equipment and technical personnel of the factory. If a factory cannot even handle the simple milling process, can we believe that this factory can produce high-precision, stable-quality movements? It can’t be. Just like many domestically produced cars, if there are no car companies that can’t even do the details of the body shell well, there will be almost no car companies that can build domestically produced engines well. This level gap determines the level and quality of its products.
VS factory Daytona 4131 movement back polished details
The details are too small, if you are interested, you can read them yourself. It can be clearly seen that VS Custom 4131 has a genuine texture.
The processing technology of SH4131 currently on the market is rough. Don’t underestimate this gap. In the world of movements, a slight difference in accuracy means a huge loss in quality.
Seeing this, some people may ask whether they used any manipulation to make SH4131 so dark and rough. Don’t worry about this. If you look at the comparison pictures of other details below, you will find that the fact is quite rough.
Take a look at the comparison of the details on the back of this genuine 4131 movement and the SH4131 movement. You’d be surprised, right? So rough! The SH4131 movement is seriously inconsistent with the previous so-called publicity. The milling and polishing are indeed so rough!
VS factory Daytona 4131 movement shock absorber structure comparison
VS customized 4131 movement and genuine 4131 movement are both real shock absorbers, with the same appearance and structure and real functions. The SH4131 movement is equipped with fake shock absorber splints and domestic low-end movement shock absorbers.
Fake no card. Completely different from the genuine movement. More importantly, the stability and drop resistance of the movement will be much worse than the genuine ones and VS.
After removing the automatic rotor winding module, you can see the secondary main board of the movement. Here, the “little cleverness”/cutting corners of the SH4131 movement is again! again! again! Again, replacing the shock absorber that was supposed to be there with a regular ruby. Replace the shocks with gem pieces since the customer/you can’t see them either.
The reason why the stability of these high-end Rolex movements is so great is that there are many amazing design details, such as the use of shock absorbers at key positions to avoid quality problems such as breakage. VS’s new 3135 movement is invested in and equipped with the same shock absorbers as the original ones.
The 3135 movement on the market is only equipped with an ordinary gemstone, and its appearance is completely different from the original. The stability and drop resistance of the movement will be much worse than the original and VS.
VS factory Daytona 4131 movement gem hole details
From the detail processing of the gem hole, we once again looked at the “little cleverness”/cutting corners of this universal SH4131 movement. Where you can see it, go for the same look, but where you can’t see it, cut corners!
In the genuine 4131 movement, there are two rubies in the gem hole at this position to fix the transmission shaft. In the new VS 4131 movement, there are also two rubies in the gem hole. In the SH4131 movement, there is only one visible ruby, which causes the transmission shaft to shake to a large extent, which will cause quality problems such as instability of the movement. The winding is light, but the gears are easily damaged, leading to quality problems such as no winding.
VS factory Daytona 4131 movement escapement wheel structure comparison
In fact, many of the accessories of SH4131 are not developed according to the genuine movement, and they are used with the accessories of the 7750 movement. For example, this escape wheel detail. VS customized 4131 movement and genuine 4131 movement are both Rolex’s unique herringbone escapements. The SH4131 movement still uses the T-shaped escapement used in domestic movements such as 7750. There are also many different accessories, such as the limiting structure under the balance wheel and the shape of the horseshoe.
This small accessory is installed under the balance wheel. It is nicknamed a horseshoe.
The horseshoe shape of the VS customized 4131 movement is the same as that of the genuine 4131 movement, and the functions are the same.
The gourd-shaped belly limits the escape wheel. The SH4131 movement is different from the genuine product and its functions are not good. It is necessary to add two small cylinders to have the limiting function.
VS factory Daytona 4131 limit structure comparison
VS customized 4131 movement and genuine 4131 movement, there are no two extra columns under the balance wheel. SH4131 has two extra columns under the balance wheel, and the structure is different from the original one. The function of these two columns is to limit the position of the horse wheel, a technology from the 1980s and 1990s. Nowadays, high-end phones no longer use it, but low-end phones still use this technology. Friends who are interested can take a look at the two antique movements in the picture below that I put on the bottom of the box:
Travel time of VS factory Daytona 4131 movement after disassembly and assembly
VS customized 4131 movement. After being disassembled and reassembled, the swing can be up to 300. After adjusting the error, the running time is perfect. The genuine 3135 movement has been disassembled and reassembled without any adjustment, and the travel time data is still very good. Very cool.
The SH4131 movement was disassembled and reassembled, which proved that domestic movements, especially low-end machines, cannot withstand the curse of disassembly and assembly. After disassembly and assembly, the swing cannot go up, hovering around 200, and it is already semi-disabled after disassembly and assembly. This is also the reason why many domestic movements with average quality have quality problems and cannot be repaired, are repaired repeatedly, and become more and more damaged as they are repaired. (The processing precision of movement parts is not high enough, and the connection between parts is not tight enough)
SH4131 is limited by the production equipment and technology of the movement factory, as well as the “clever”/cut corners attitude in the details of the internal structure, accessories, etc., which destined it to have unstable quality, many problems, and a high repair rate. A thousand-mile barrier of quality is destroyed in an ant nest. It does not change the quality of the movement, but only repeatedly selects those movements with good travel time data. This approach of individual factories is a bit deceptive. It can only ensure that the travel data looks good when shipping. After the customer receives it, whether it is stable or not depends only on the customer’s character.
VS factory Daytona 4131 movement disassembly and comparison between genuine and SH4131
