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Terrific shots of the PO, iCoop! Omega for me, too:

My boss had exactly this rant at me when I told him a watch that I was wearing was a rep. The funniest thing is that he couldn't see the paradox of saying this whilst he was wearing a gen Omega and a fake tan. Apparently, it's all wrong to wear a watch that isn't the 'real thing', but quite O.K. to lead people to believe that your tan came from a sun-kissed beach in the Bahamas, and not out of an aerosol made in Hong Kong. It's a funny old world........

Testing a new type of bund strap (canvas-leather):

Talk about frugality, buying reps had made me realize two things: 1) I don't ever want to buy a genuine watch (other than a vintage patek philippe dress watch) 2) that I'm never really satisfied with the quality of replicas when I know that I build a better one . This led me to the path of building my own reps &frankens, often with expensive parts and equipments. So for the past 2 years, I've attempted to make my own dials, only to find that my equipment needs some upgrading to do it more consistenly, my methods take too much time and has a failure rate more than 80%. I think I can build parts for my pad printer to increase its consistency with a good enough lathe but that's another topic. I see myself 10-20 years down the road building an atalier in my basement with watchmaking lathes trying to re-create a patek philippe movement from scratch and this will be very expensive. Call me crazy, but that's what I enjoy doing. That's after I establish my own career first of course. I'm trying to emulate Dan Spitz, who left his music career to pursue watchmaking. Oddly enough, he doesn't collect the expensive watches even though he could. But by being a watchmaker, he can appreciate the art of watchmaking more than the wealthy collector who normally see nothing more than the case, dial and provenance. Here's his interview from hodinkee: http://www.hodinkee.com/interview-meet-dan-spitz-anthrax-guitarist-turned-master-watchmaker

I can very easily afford the real one, and I don't feel the need to justify buying a rep. I buy it because I want to - that's all the justification I need.

WOW WOW! Very nice job! Uwe knows how to do it for sure! I would say in many cases dial and crystal go hand in hand. If the crystal has no AR or bad AR, then there is no use of changing a gen dial. But true, genuine strap is so much easier than getting a gen crystal or rep ARred.

Hi Guys, I really like the look of having the rounded ends of sub springbars sticking out a bit from the lugs but I couldnt find any that did. Plus the fact that I kept breaking my 1.3 drillbits didnt make things easier for me too. So I made my own using stainless steel paperclips....Yeah you heard me..its quite embarrasing but its the best I could do given my tools and parts available. Anyway here's what i ended up with. Its an MBW budget build 1680 turned 1530 with Josh's 5513 dial and a crystal from an mbw 1665 If anyone knows where i can get springbars that'll get this effect let me know.

It has been said that many buy expensive genuine watches to show others they have the money to blow on shiny little trinkets. Well...they do not have the $$ any longer because they blew it on a watch that is probably worth a fraction of what they paid for it. If a 'Fashion Blaster' type of guy can wear a different expensive genuine watch every day...evidently he has/had the buck$. If the same type of guy wears the same watch every day...looks to me like he really does not have the buck$. Maybe what pizzes off many of the genuine watch guys is that the replica watch guys get the same mileage for a fraction of the buck$. (I could wear a different watch every day but they would have to be dollar watches after a few days)

OK, I'll play!

I have always felt that the gen world is largely about bragging rights... sometimes silent bragging, but bragging al the same. A few watches and a few people I can believe really merit a lot of value in their function and appreciation of said fnciton. But most of thje haters I suspect hate becasue they bought luxury watches to join an exclusive club... only aftger paying their entrance fee they look out the window and see next door some schmoe who paid a $5 cover to get into a bar with almost the same quality chairs drinks and food... they feel ripped off but admitting it means admitting they were willing to pay for prestige, not value of product. Since it's a hard thing to admit to yourself you are shallow, it's far easier to hate on otehrs for making you feel that way and realize you are the one making you feel that way.

Holy missing crystal, Batman! That's awesome. I personally love it. How many SDs do you see in the wild vs a Submariner? The average Joe has no clue about AR or no AR. The only thing left is that bugger of the LEC at 6 o'clock. Too bad the AR didn't remove it!

Good. No need to spend money at that dealer or any dealer that try to pull a fast one. As teejay said.. its insulting. Last watch i ordered (from another td) i asked for a pic with the watch on a timegraph. I did get that pic. But only showing the timegraph.. not including the actual watch. I give up with thees edealers. I just want to find one who is 90% honest and that td will get all my future business.

Hey Dave. What's up? Late reply but I just wanted to make it clear: The whole rep vs. gen thing has never been a big deal for me. I'm passionate about my favorite watch models and I wanted the gens of them because I genuinely love those models and you're absolutely correct: the replicas can't hold a candle to them. For a hardcore enthusiast gens are the only way to go... when it comes to your favorite ones. It's nice and practical to have reps of some liked, but lesser loved ones. I still wear my reps too (I have a few of them). The reason I haven't been around is that I lost my passion for watch reviews and photography. Maybe I got burned out a bit. To be honest, I haven't followed the watch scene at all (rep and gen). I think I needed a break... now I'm getting interested again. Still... I don't really care what other people think about my watches. I also have a gen Rolex but I still wear my Submariner WM9 regularly and only one person ever commented. He automatically assumed it was a genuine Sub and I didn't bother to correct him. That didn't make feel like a "dishonest person"... maybe I lost my morals somewhere along the journey. It's just a watch and very few people would ever notice it. It's no big deal... they just cost a few thousand Euros. What's the big deal.... any working adult could afford a Rolex... save the people who are flipping burgers at Ronald McDonalds.

Wearing this: Would rather be wearing one of these: Soon, hopefully....

Haha, me too. Plus that gives Panerai another excuse to raise prices that are already insanely retarded.

The best documentary of all time is "The Making of Gigli". Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...