A bit of history. Before ARF, Clean or VSF entered the Submariner conversation, the name in almost every 116610LN thread was Noob, and specifically the V5. It’s an older version, long out of production. If that is your question too, see Noob V9 vs ARF Submariner.
I’d like us to piece together what the forums actually said about it at the time. What made it the reference, and what did people still complain about?
Related threads: What do V5, V9, V10 mean in old threads and Is Noob back: the New Noob Factory explained.
And when the successors arrived, the V5 was compared with them directly. One comparison thread says the newer version had a darker bezel and more even spacing on the ft/m markings. That shows where the V5 had its weaknesses.
Rispondo in inglese. The crystal comes up again and again in those threads. One post describes a cyclops with a strongly blue tint and a crystal that sits too high above the bezel. One reply gives figures: the Noob crystal about 2.0 mm thick against 1.8 mm on the genuine. Confidence: medium, it’s one reply, but it matches the “high crystal” complaint elsewhere.
And the fix discussed back then was a mod: a thinner aftermarket crystal plus a lower gasket. People also swapped date wheels, aligned bezel inserts and replaced crowns. The V5 was treated as a base to improve, not a finished watch.
The version naming was messy too! One thread says a dealer called it “V6”, while others considered it a V5.1 revision with corrected spacing on the depth markings.
And timekeeping varied. One post reports one gaining more than five minutes a day, and the replies suggest regulation by a watchmaker. Fine on one, poor on another.
It was the norm for those movements. High variability, and regulation by a watchmaker was the most common answer.
So why was it the reference, if it had all these flaws?
Here’s the honest answer from the threads of the time:
Why it was the reference
- The forum treated it as one of the most complete Sub-C reps available then. One reply calls Noob usually the best out of the box.
- A strong base for mods. The common advice was simply to get one, service it and mod it.
What people still complained about
- A strongly blue cyclops and a crystal sitting too high.
- A lighter bezel insert and uneven ft/m spacing, the points later versions were said to improve.
- Date alignment and bezel insert alignment.
- Variable timekeeping, sometimes needing regulation.
[[PHOTO: Submariner 116610LN in profile, showing how high the crystal sits above the bezel]]
Today
- This batch is no longer produced, and it stopped being the reference once newer versions and other factories arrived, as the V9 vs ARF thread shows.
- Read old V5 threads as history, not as current advice.
That’s exactly what I needed. Old threads make sense now. Thanks subdial_junkie, deepblue_patina and occhiodilince!