There's been a couple of threads about these recently, so posting this just in case it's of interest.
I'm a bit of a fan and have been picking them up (mostly from eBay) over the last 4 or 5 years and have a reasonable collection of various types, colours and widths.
They're becoming increasingly difficult to find now, especially at a reasonable price. While there are a number of 'type', 'style' and 'identical to' versions available, there are also quite a few known suppliers and manufacturers now producing their own version. Most notably are the Synchron group who also have ISOfrane and Aquadive within their portfolio and have either retained or acquired the Tropic brand name. See this thread for links https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...e-TROPIC-strap
Back to the point; there's an HK company called Lobtime, who are also producing a strap with the Tropic logo (no doubt they'll be hearing from Synchron's lawyers soon). I picked one up, really to see whether we're likely to see lower cost alternatives masquerading as the real thing . I don't think there's anything to worry about, but hopefully the following comparison will prevent anyone from buying something that's not what it should be.
The red one's an original, the orange the copy.
The sizing and hole spacing are pretty identical.
https://i.imgur.com/vEoGIWa.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/GPengjT.jpg
The first differences don't picture too well; the copy is much more 'rubbery' and smells like an old school pencil eraser. It's certainly less pliable, but this is down to the thickness as well as the material. The texture on the copy is a a little more pronounced.
One of the real giveaways is the pronounced seam, both along the whole side and within the holes. Also, the original one tapers in thickness away from the spring bar hole, while copy is a lot more gradual and the copy spring bar hole appears to be a slightly smaller diameter.
https://i.imgur.com/EC72kBB.jpg
The keeper is a lot thicker, again with a pronounced seam:
https://i.imgur.com/xhFPOAg.jpg
Other noticeable differences:
- The text is quite different - much smaller on the copy and a different font
- The copy is missing the product code (23320) under 'water proof' at the bottom of the non-buckle side and 'swiss made' on the buckle side
The copy has a generic SS buckle, the original seems to come with either INOX or ACIER branded versions (although the appearance of a generic buckle doesn't necessarily mean the strap isn't original).
Other versions that seem to get promoted as Tropic, but I'm not convinced they are, have either double keepers or a rounded keeper end.
This comparison is of the Tropic Sport (large hole) type; other versions are the 2000 type (slotted), Tropic Star (pinhole) and weave type (with either straight or curved ends). I'll pop some pictures of these up later.
:eagerness:
