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There has been som problms with both TapaTalk and Forumrunner for the last couple of days. I have fixed the problems now, but it could still take a couple of hours before everything is working 100%.

Many older industry USA CEO's do wear Rolex. They tend to be 50-65 so they first encountered watches in the 60's and 70's. When they were growing up it was the status watch. No one in the USA wore the haute horologie brands. And there is a whole generation of CEO's for whom a Gold Rolex means you have arrived. But most of those folks own only one watch. It was either a gift or bought as a simple status item. From my own observation very few foreign CEO's wear Rolex. I most often see IWC. The next most popular are AP's and after that I see a smattering of Jaeger's, Patek's, etc. Also age is critical. We all forget there was a 10-20 year stretch where a thin quartz watch was the it watch. I have to agree that most of the folks with really interesting watch collections are entrepreneurs, traders or just younger wealthy people. And on the younger tech CEO's many don't even wear a watch. They have a cellphone or blackberry.

Many people put a gen strap on a rep. Many people put a rep strap on a gen. Straps are available from MANY sources. It is all about the hunt.

I've been into reps for about eight years now. I got into it because I love beautiful watches but hate the idea of paying more than a grand for one. The irony is that if I tallied up all the money I've spent on reps, I could have easily afforded something in the $6,000-7,000 range. Would I be happier? Absolutely not, because I would be kicking myself for spending that kind of bread on a watch. But spend that amount of money on 20 or so watches with essentially the same skin as their more expensive counterparts, and I'm not particularly bothered. I get to wear a different beautiful watch 2-4 times a week and have to be fairly diligent to make sure that every watch is worn at least once during the month. Reliability has been pretty darned good. The only watches that have actually died during my rep adventure were $100 "what-the-hell" cheapies. A few others have had minor problems, but nothing that required major effort or investment to fix. A few that I am particularly fond of have been serviced by The Zigmeister. A few others, if they died, I'd be annoyed but could replace them easily for probably less or the same cost as a service. To be honest, the last few years I've been kind of burned out on reps. I haven't bought a watch in more than a year, and I'm not sure what model would get me excited again, unless perhaps I sold a number of pieces from my collection. That's also why I haven't been around here very much and let my VIP status lapse. In any case, I think reps satisfy a genuine need, because luxury goods are obscenely overpriced and the playing field needs a leveling agent.

I want one. Very handsome and simple.....