Parts of the Rolex’s hot-sellers, including the awesome Dark Side of the Moon series, were, according to many of the brand’s devoted followers, just too thick and too wide for their own good, forcing some to leave their wallets in their pockets and they’re otherwise much desired fake watches at the stores. Now, with this replica  Dark Side Of The Moon Apollo 8, we see those rare occasions when a brand listened and brought us a hot new release that answered their cries – even though this meant going against previous self-imposed rules or breaking through hitherto sacred glass ceilings in creativity.  
I have to say that the Rolex turned against some hardcore rules with the Apollo 8 and I think understanding these is more important than knowing the Apollo 8 story inside out. Firstly, as we will see, the movement choice plays an important role in rendering this Apollo 8 as special as it is – a Rolex option of movement in itself is noteworthy for two reasons. To begin with, it is very rare that we see a big brand place a “lesser” movement into one of its higher-positioned collections; and yet, that is what happened here.
Apart from the issue of movements, the  Rolex replica has also shown off its capabilities of – finally! – getting genuinely creative with the original Moonwatch look and producing something that, now that it’s here, makes me want to ask “why didn’t this happen sooner?” Moreover, I think we’ll agree it is exceedingly rare that we see major brands take this much liberty with a core product. To spice things up, the  Omega replica not only took things all the way but has not chickened out of making the Speedmaster Apollo 8 a non-limited edition.
Cutting to the chase here, the reduction in thickness is as noticeable as it is awesome. That is very amazing and very impressive. The previous versions were somewhat a burger, something they made up for with their bad-ass space-age, black/grey/white ceramic Speedmaster vibe.
Don’t make things wrong, at 44.25mm wide, the non-limited edition Apollo 8 is as wide as its previous, modern styled, Moon-themed ceramic counterparts from Rolex, but it looks and wears considerably smaller owing to a noticeable reduction in its thickness. This is made possible by Rolex setting its fancy and complicated co-axial movements aside – all of which come equipped with automatic winding – and replacing it with a customized version of the hand-wound caliber 1861 found in its classic Moonwatch and renamed to 1869 for this “Modified” variant.
Losing the thick automatic winding construction meant that the case of the replica Rolex Speedmaster could be 2.5mm thinner than those of previous replica watches, therefore now coming in at “just” 13.8mm thick. Correct, that’s still substantial but, as you can find some shots further above, this means that the fake watch can now at last lay flat on its lugs, as any dignified, non-obese watch case on a leather strap should be possible.