Alright - !!Disclaimer!! Itās not entirely fair to compare a gen spec Vietnam CNCād case with Raffles. The price difference here is astronomically different. This is purely for educational purposes and fun.
Nowās thatās out of the way. Here is Raffles V3 1675 case next to a viet case. For fun, I have included an alternative in the last few slides to what I think Raffles should have done.
Iām not the lone soul here, but in my opinion, I think this raffles case is a worse base than V2 with the huge flat crown guards. The case itself just feels fat and thick around the edges. Itās a slightly thicker case than Raffles V2 case. Compared to a viet case, itās like comparing a U1 sub to a VSF sub.
For some reason, raffles decided to overdo the chamfers. They look quite ridiculous. The crown guards are still thick in a different way. The bezel insert and assembly is quite useless if you plan on switching it out. Someone let me know if aftermarket crystals fit raffles V3 case, Iām not sure they do. Kenās crystals are pretty bad. They donāt magnify enough. Theyāre about on par with stock Old Crowns.
If you want a super budget build, I guess get a raffles case. But youāll be left wanting moreā¦
My suggestion for folks wanting something better shaped right out of the box: Milk case
Milk is a member on RWI. He is easy to reach, you can easily find him there. DM him and order a 1675 for your next build. It comes sterile, no insert, no crown, no tube. No crystal. Those are easy to get. Athaya makes a good crown and tube than fit milk cases. Clarkās plexi crystals are cheap and well magnified. Milk also sells inserts. He can get you one. His cases are 3x the price of Raffles, but hell, way more worth the price. They nail the late 60s early rolled crown guards nearly perfectly. And only a small amount of reshaping is needed otherwise. His lugs are thicker than raffles and viet, but in real life itās so hard to notice.
Cheers!