# Clean Factory: true legend or just nostalgia?

**URL:** <https://superreps.net/t/clean-factory-true-legend-or-just-nostalgia/18>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Tags:** discussion, historical\
**Created:** [October 20, 2026, 4:57pm UTC](https://superreps.net/t/clean-factory-true-legend-or-just-nostalgia/18 "2026-10-20T16:57:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![deepblue\_patina](https://superreps.net/user_avatar/superreps.net/deepblue_patina/32/7_2.png) [@deepblue\_patina](https://superreps.net/u/deepblue_patina)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2026, 4:57pm UTC](https://superreps.net/t/clean-factory-true-legend-or-just-nostalgia/18/1 "2026-10-20T16:57:26Z")

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Every era of watchmaking has its names that slip into legend. For those of us who love vintage divers, it’s the red-writing Submariners or the first 62MAS. In the rep world, it seems, the name that stirs the most nostalgia today is Clean, a factory the community reports was shut down after a police raid and is no longer active. For a long stretch it was the go-to factory before the newer ones took over.

Someone started a thread “in memory of Clean Factory”. There is more detail in [the thread on the big factory raids](https://superreps.net/t/the-big-factory-raids-which-factories-went-quiet-and-how-the-map-changed/139). They showed a Clean Pepsi bought a couple of years before the raid and admitted, quite honestly, that the current VSF and perhaps Rich may well do better now. The discussion that followed is worth retelling here.

**Those who miss Clean** say that:

- for some, the Clean bracelets were even better than VSF’s;
- a few consider them the closest to gen, and say they’ve compared them side by side with originals they own;
- they’re now “a piece of rep history”, like the old Noobs, and more than one person advised never selling them. More on this in [Noob V5 Submariner 116610LN](https://superreps.net/t/noob-v5-submariner-116610ln-why-was-it-the-reference-back-then/131).

**Those who suspect rose-tinted glasses** reply that:

- the crystal, movement and bezel action wouldn’t hold up against a current VSF;
- many of the Clean pieces you see around are heavily modded, with deep crystals and polished rehauts;
- there’s also a technical back-and-forth about which movements were used on which models (SH3235 versus DD3235/DD3285; one comment says Clean’s later GMTs used the DD3285 right up to the raid). That part could do with firmer confirmation.

The thread also mentions a supposed new factory, “C+”, said to have picked up Clean’s legacy, though nobody offers any real evidence. If that is your question too, see [Is Noob back](https://superreps.net/t/volvio-noob-la-new-noob-factory-explicada/146).

Faded bezel inserts and patinated lume are my weak spot, so the debate is a reminder that an object’s value is made of its story as well as its precision. Still, it’s fair to ask how much weight each one deserves.

👉 If you own a Clean made before the raid, would you keep it or swap it for something current? And do share it, stock or modded, with a line or two about its story. I’d love to see them all together.