There’s no easier way to humblebrag about your success than by wearing a Rolex watch, and that’s probably why the brand is also synonymous with knock-offs and replicas. Why pay tens of thousands of dollars for the real thing when you can get a close facsimile for less than $100? And why even spend that much when you can just get a 3D printer to churn one out?
That’s what Franc Falco did, and his 3D-printed Rolex Submariner replica would be hard to spot as fake were it not 300x the size of the real thing. Ironically, since Falco’s replica actually relies on a cheap $US6 quartz movement, it probably keeps more accurate time than an actual Rolex, so it’s not a complete waste of plastic filament.
Falco’s even gone to the trouble of posting the 3D model on MakerBot’s Thingiverse for anyone to download if you’re interested in 3D-printing your own. To avoid a messy lawsuit he’s removed the Rolex branding from the publicly available model and refers to it as a desk clock, but if you’re handy with 3D modelling software there’s no reason you can’t just shrink his plans down and 3D print yourself a new ‘luxury’ watch on the cheap. [Thingiverse via A Blog To Watch]