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Love my postie today.......

Ssteel suggested that I post pictures of my collection. This is way less than half so I guess my original estimate of 100 was on the low side. If you guys would like me too I will take pictures of the rest and post them in a couple of days. Please keep in mind that a lot of these date back many years when reps were not so accurate. As you can see they are grouped by brand as much as possible.

As I said earlier I’ve been into reps for nearly 20 years. In a way I’ve kind of grown with the industry. I don’t believe that good replicas really change the bottom line much at the gen manufacturers. A long held theory of mine has been largely confirmed during my short time so far on the forum. People who own reps, especially good ones, also own gens. Reps are a matter of practicality for many for who can't afford to own 20, 50, or even a 100 genuine expensive watches. However, when I wear a $300 Submariner the vast majority of people who see it, do not suspect that it’s not real. It just makes them want a real one. As a result I feel that what we do is actually a form of advertising, which promotes the brand. I’ve been a restorer and collector of classic cars for most of my life. Most of the cars that are restored are done, at least partly, by amateurs using poorly made reproduced parts. Amateur labor and poor reproduction parts combined meant that most restored cars fell far below the pinnacle of a “Concourse Quality” restoration. However 99.9% of the people who saw them at a typical car show considered them to be like new and were unable to see a difference between them and the show winning perfect car. As a result, after restoring several of these “concourse quality” cars I fell back to much less expensive ordinary restorations which seemed to give me the same amount of satisfaction. I think it’s the same with replica watches. I can pick out microscopic imperfections on a restored car as well as some of the experts on the forum can pick out small flaws in replica watches. I take pride in that ability and appreciate that someone can and will do that on the watches. I too gravitate toward perfection but, as I learned on my cars, perfection costs a lot of money. I would rather have ten, slightly imperfect cars, instead of one perfect one, which I can’t drive anyway because I might reduce its perfection by doing so. Perhaps a good compromise would be to have one perfect one, to take to shows on a trailer and win admiration from experts, and 9 slightly imperfect ones, to use every day in public, for which I get the same amount of attention from the masses of uninitiated admirers. I read most of the reviews on the forum especially Breitling which is my favorite brand. I appreciate that someone took the trouble to do these reviews and take great pride in having learned from this. The truth is however that probably 999,999 out 100,000 people you meet, even with the Navitimer and it’s numerous flaws, would not be able to spot the replica, even with a 10x loop and plenty of time and I think this goes for most owners of genuine Navitimers. In fact I believe that over 2/3 of watch makers would not know the difference with a cursory examination. I’ve owned several real Navitimers, as well as several other brands, down through the years and what is most obvious is the evolutionary changes, even on gens, over that period of time. This was especially evident after mass production started and many parts, especially dials, were sub-contracted, so just as on production automobiles, things changed slightly over years or even months. It’s great that someone is interested enough to find and record the history of these changes but, once again, the average Joe, even rich ones who have no problem spending $30,000 on a watch, would not know the difference. That’s just my opinion folks. I’d like to hear yours.

I just finished those two and have a third case lying around...but real life has priority now Watches how they arrived: The gen as the desired outlook: *pictures taken from VRF, not mine The modifications: Case reshaped and aged, edges softened Athaya 8mm Brevet crown and tube installed Lugholes drilled to accept genuine springbars Dial aged and given a tropical brown look Hands aged Dial and hands relumed Pearl relumed Insert aged Seconds hand painted - white Bracelet aged and endlinks modified to take genuine springbars Sternkreuz tropic reduced in height and installed O-rings greased The outcome: I hope you like them Cheers Akira

Hmm... That is actually quite bad.. No need to even start to list all the errors. :-( Disappointing, considering the list of recent, excellent replications. What is currently the best version of the old Explorer 1..?

Brown is the new black I saw this one on vrm yesterday for 990 euros, ouch! You came very close, for a fraction of the price, congrats

They are both super nice but I love the darker one, mmm chocolate!!

Predictable? sure, but the Deep Sea is just so Bad A$$

Hey guys just finished aging this Blancpain Fifty Fathoms for someone and thought I'd share Such an improvement over the stock dial (pity its too dark to take some good photos). Think I'll be off to buy myself one now, really fallen in love with the FF.

Big things start with little steps...

Been wearing this almost non-stop.

Saying hello from CONUS (Colorado)... TC Sub!

Does tc only have LV version to sell now? Why is everyone using maxi dial with black insert?

The best bit of advice in circumstances like these I heard was " the people that care don't matter and the people that matter don't care ". I recently purchased another rep and it cost the 10th of the price of the gen. It's bonkers to place such value on the majority gen watches ,seriously worry not.

BMW 328i 2009 Buttttt I just put a deposit down for a 2003 audi rs6 with only 41000 kilo's! Ill be taking possession next week.

I am usually not much into Panerais, but the "8 Days" with its horizontal power indicator has caught my eyes for some time. Looks as it is finally a decent replica of it.. Not much info yet. Asian movement. I like the GMT-function and date.. Is it a day/night indicator on the seconds subdial? What does the experts say? http://www.joshwatch.com/0141-p-5206.html