Leaderboard

You're getting ahead of yourself... you don't realize you've created the world's first GMT Moonphase dial!

Seiko beater i picked up last week.

UPDATE: Since I am waiting for the crown to arrive, I finished my 1675. I still could not sit still so I tried a new method of polishing. I used different sand papers and polished with water. I just used cape cod for the last finish. Now it really has a good mirror finish and you could literally see me mirrored in the chamfers when I was taking the picture. Now I just have to be patient....

The other day I had a meeting with two business partners. In my line of work people are traveling a lot also to China. So everyone has plenty of occasions where they can buy a rep. Both guys were sporting a Portuguese Chrono. At one point during a casual conversation I said to one of the guys: "It's a nice Portuguese you have there." He looked at me in confusion. He did not know what a Portuguese is. No way someone buys a watch of this caliber and don't know its name. The other guy sporting the same watch quickly chimed in and said: "Yes, yes, IWC." :-) I looked closer and both watches to my disbelief had a quartz movement with a jumping seconds hand. Of course I never said a word and left in at that. Now I wonder: How many times have I been silently called out with the other guy knowing and never saying anything about a watch being a rep.

Hello to all, I'm finding the forum a fantastic place for information, advice, recommendation and opinion, so thank you. I'm on an extremely steep learning curve at the moment but am enjoying the experience. I've found myself in this position by accident really. I've always loved watches and had various Swiss automatics over the years but only ever one at a time. I've always loved the 'tool' watches, particularly divers, so naturally have gazed at the various Rolex and Tudor incarnations over the years. However, I've never been in the position to afford one. Currently, I have an Omega Seamaster America's Cup Chronograph, which I've had for what must have been nearly 20 years. I have never had it serviced at all during that time. Feelings of guilt about the neglect I've shown it recently made me determined to get it done. For that reason, I started to look at reasonably affordable automatic watches that I could buy to wear while my Omega was away having the service. This was a real 'eye-opening' experience. I naturally started looking at Swiss and Japanese watches due to me being familiar with those as a starting point, bearing in mind that I hadn't looked at anything for around 20 years. From there, I started to further investigate 'tool' divers on the web. This completely changed my thoughts about current automatic watches and showed the huge range of exciting products that now exist. From this point, I had well and truly been 'bitten by the bug' again. I started to gain an understanding of the 'indie diver' market and the companies that produce quality automatic 'homage' watches. Over the subsequent few months, I got a couple of Steinharts and a Helson, which all perform as well as any Swiss watch I've owned. As part of my investigations, I came across information about the rep market. This again was a truly eye-opening experience. In my mind, reps were cheap, tacky knock-offs that family members picked up on holiday, which usually resembled something out of a Christmas cracker and lasted for a few weeks at best. Wow...things have changed! Looking at what is being produced now, in terms of range and quality, is truly breathtaking. However, for me this created another dilemma. The idea of having reps of this kind of quality made me feel a little uneasy and made me look at what was being offered for sale as supposedly gen in an entirely new light. This is where this forum has been a fantastic reassurance. Reading about the philosophy of forum and the rules and guidelines made me realise that people here are genuine enthusiasts who have no intention of engaging in any unscrupulous activity but just appreciate the engineering, beauty and excellence of quality watches. Seeing how members will 'call out' people who are attempting to pass things off as gen on popular auction sites, thus saving unsuspecting buyers what could be literally thousands, shows how serious you are about protecting the enthusiast community and the public at large. Seeing the lengths people will go to to modify and perfect pieces, particularly the vintage watches, is amazing and the results are stunning. I am looking forward to continuing my journey and further developing my knowledge and understanding and by turning to this forum I can feel confident that I will be in the presence of genuine experts who clearly have the members' best interests at heart, so again, thank you!

Love the bevel work!

Yes please do. I'm interested in this watch myself

How about a brass/copper coloured spray paint after filling the holes?

That happens quite often. Last weekend, I was eating at a crowded bar in a local restaurant wearing 1 of my Newmans & the place was packed with people waiting for tables. I became aware that there were several people peering over my shoulders & whispering things like 'Look, that guy has 1 of those Rolex Daytonas!' & 'Yeah, that's a rare watch, I've never seen a real 1 before.'

This has been discussed many times over the years & the consensus has generally been that for every person who calls you out there are probably 20 times as many who identify your rep as a rep & remain silent. The next question being - 'How many people know the difference?' is a bit more tricky, because, these days, I think you would be surprised at how many people, especially young kids, are seriously into watches & know the difference. This was made clear to me several years ago when 2 teenagers (16 or 17-ish) walked up to me as I was getting into my Z & asked if it was for sale? During the conversation, 1 of them spotted my 6536-1 & stunned me by reciting the correct model number & caliber. They both said they were big Sub fans. I have also had experiences sitting in a restaurant wearing either a gen or franken & overheard people around me whispering (among themselves) about the 'rare Rolex' I was wearing. Pretty incredible.

Cross7, welcome aboard! We embrace true enthusiasts here... and don't care if it's Timex or Rolex. Every brand has something to offer, as does every member. And we're all on a learning curve of some point so a little grace for each other is well understood (and appreciated!) You mentioned the amazing builds our members have put together. This evening I saw a watch on eBay priced at $175,000 that's *supposedly* genuine, although there are things about it that belie that claim. And a member here has put together a build of almost exactly that piece, and his build is better in every way than that eBay piece. I'll leave it to you to do the sleuthing and see what I mean. Welcome! You're among fellow WIS here.

Welcome and congrats on a great 1st post/intro. There's so much to learn and see. enjoy. Regards AJ

What you did is very much frowned upon. This is a ban offense with some forums. Just because the folks at the AD didn't say anything doesn't necessarily mean they didn't know. Another thing, there is a difference between you, who knows better and knows that your watches are reps and the guy who buys a watch off eBay that was sold as a genuine. What you did is certainly not as bad as going on a genuine forum and posting photos, but why take a chance on being embarrassed by being called out. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Welcome to the forum and thank you for such a long and interesting first post.

Different, interesting, cool and very, very nice. I hope you get years and years of pleasure form that one mate.

hmm... http://watchguy.co.uk/review-stp-1-11/

I've touted the water slide decals since 2008, and while it's not easy, it isn't really difficult to do. It's more using computer photo programs to enhance and improve the print. You've done a wonderful job of it. I did the 'exclamation point' dial for my 1960 1675 cornino.

Welcome - the Chi is strong and friendly on this forum!

these are my current favourites

yeah, thats why i like leather shoes too....they never die!!! sorry for the threatcrap...