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Hey guys, I've been working for quite some time on this and finally had the chance to post some photos of my straps. I'm able to deliver straps for your timepieces. My main inspiration were the straps from Hermes. As you will probably notice. Here are some finished ones. This is a thread just to get a feeling if there would be any interest. My aim is to offer high quality straps only. Almost every type of skin is available, with Elephant being the most expensive one. I have not produced any buckles yet as I'm still undecided to start selling straps or not. Let me know your thoughts and if you'd be interested or not. The straps are all 100% hand made. Thanks. 1. Calf leather, cognac, will age beautifully 2. Etoupe, calf skin 3. Buffalo skin, honey color 4. Ostrich skin, dark brown 5. Alligator leather, grey Some straps upon request and other finished ones:

Gentlemen, and Ladies, (I've seen one or two here I believe)... I'm curious what everyone thinks about the near future of laser cutting your own parts to DIY movement replicas. I design jewelry as a hobby and am ASTOUNDED as to how precise the 3d printing is getting. My models that are printed in a SolidScape Max2 are smooth as silk. With all this talk about 3135 replica movements that do not even interchange with gen. parts yet.... It got me wondering...... Is laser cutting of metal sheet almost precise enough to build a 1570 or other movements, minus the hairsprings and other parts? It will be precise enough soon, in not already. The idea..... someone creates a "kit" of files that you upload to the cloud service/printing/cutting service, and then they are sent to you with a list of the parts you will still need to buy. (like aftermarket springs, etc). I would think whichever movement is the simple would be a good start. Main plates, gears, rotors, maybe bridges.... all of these things can be laser cut I would think if not now, in the future. We already have desktop laser cutters. The high precision should be cheap soon as well. What are your thoughts?

Looks to me if any watch keeps accurate time, it could not be a 'fake' watch because a 'fake' watch would have to always show the wrong time. Question...if you take a genuine rolex 16610 and stamp 'Dickwatch' on the dial...is it still a genuine rolex, or is it just another Dickwatch?

I'd do this: Noob bezel & dial, JF case, BP bracelet The bezel of the noob is better than JF but not perfect.

How about Ssteel? He's in the EU or close to it, correct?

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I'd say 'fake' watches are the cheap crap that you buy whilst holidaying in certain parts of the world. Ones which get thrown in the draw when you get home. Many people here build their own watches. Ones which are near identical to the gen version. For them, it's as much about the journey of gathering knowledge, parts and experience as it is the destination of the finished product. In essence: whatever floats your boat.

seiko LMs are great watches! good one

That's definitely one of the stranger crystals I've seen on a Seiko or any watch (frankly), thanks for sharing the photos.

Champagne PVD DSN Egi

Welcome to the forum Calico Jack. I have more Seikos than I can shake a stick at, but not one of those.

Be patient, basically there is a slowdown for shipments out of china due to the lunar new year. Your shipment is most likely safe and the tracking is just slow to update. I tread softly along the fine line separating raving insanity and lucid moments of ingenuity. The issue is I've no idea which is which mostly.

[emoji632]

I think all are valid points, and I would like to point out one more. When I am not enjoying my fake or semi fake (franken) watches I do reconstructive surgery. I give cancer survivors fake breasts, faces and revise their scars. People are imperfect to begin with and it took me a long time to understand the extreme frustration of a beautiful patient wanting to be perfect as opposed to the subdued request of terribly deformed patient wanting just to be made whole. Wanting to fool others takes a lot of effort and it sheds light on the darkest parts of your soul. whereas appreciating the aesthetic of the imperfect and accepting the things you can modify and the price payed (in scars, pain, medical treatments) builds character and enables you to accept the change and embrace it as your own. I feel the same about my watches and other posessions. I feel better wearing a vintage franken or watch I have brought back from the brink than wearing a well crafted gen. and I am certain every other craftsman feels the same about his work, accepting that some may do better and some may do worse.

than again, an [censored] is an [censored] is an [censored]. And the watch you wear or how you lie about it or not don't make a bit of difference in that. I have gen vintage rolexes, frankens, complete fakes. Gen pams, fake pams, etc etc. cheap gens. expensive fakes and vice versa, etc; heuers, swatches, g-shocks, tudors, omegas, and I am aways the same dude regardless of what I wear. If you have issues about what you are wearing, then save your money and buy something to impress everyone with. Anyone can get a credit for 6K to buy a [censored] gen submariner, if that is what you need to feel good about yourself. also, don't believe the hype. All of these "luxury" brands are selling a fantasy. Hublots are not worth 10k. APs and Patek with their fragile movements and super expensive services are just status symbols. Why should a rolex daytona cost 12k and a tudor chrono 4k? 30k pams with 6497s in them? Vintage daytona fo 50k with valjoux 72s in them? All marketing and story telling. The owners of these brands are laughing their asses off when they have budget and pricing meetings. Let the sheiks buy their [censored]. Buy what you can afford and be happy with it.

Interesting that this pops up now because I have done some soul searching as to why I buy reps recently. I can see how somebody comes tot he conclusion that fake watches are bought to gain social prestige without being an unconscious bloke. I assume that the majority of reps are bought for exactly that reason. Just look at the fake watch buster posts with kids flashing their canal street reps and brag about the money they allegedly coughed up to buy them. At the same time I have learned that there are other motivations to buy reps, and I have learned that this is true for most of the members of this forum. I definitely do not buy reps to gain social prestige or flash them in public as gens. I also buy a lot of micro brands that would only be recognized by some real watch enthusiasts. Plus I own many gens, not in the 5-10000 USD area but the likes of Anonimo or vintage Omega. The net worth of my watch collection could easily buy me a nice Patek. So if I was out for prestige I would buy a Nautilus and end of story. But what I really enjoy about this hobby is diversity and the process of building a collection. Like to have a watch for every shirt color and every occasion. Having said this there are a lot of smaller and affordable brands out there that are even technically innovative and have better and more reliable movements. I am talking Anonimo, MKII and others. Just yesterday I stumbled over a UK brand that uses Tritium tubes instead of lume. So diversity is no valid reason to buy into reps as well. So why don’t we all buy micro brands or sterile homage watches instead? Obviously the famous watch brands have a lot of appeal. I often read the argument that the genuine brands are overpriced. But the price for something is made by the market and all luxury items are decoupled from the material and manufacturing cost. Why should the brands sell at a price below the market? The brand itself has a value and it was build by real people that earn their living from doing so and pay real taxes. It took decades of work, a lot if ingenuity and billions of dollars to get there. If you feel the brands are overpriced why buy them? It is not like food or medical supplies. Nobody needs a Rolex or a Patek. Another motivator: The hobby takes over and the obsession to correct the small flaws that still distinguish the reps from their gen counterpart. The hobby itself can be very fulfilling. So there are lots of reasons other then being fake or gain social prestige. Ultimately I came to the conclusion that I indulge myself into the thought of owning something I crave for and could not or would not afford otherwise. At the end of the day there IS some hypocrisy involved in this hobby. Face it! Probably not the kind of post guys want to read in a rep forum, but at least my "genuine" thoughts.

Ben Franklin said, " the worth of a man is not determined by what he has, but rather by who he is". So based on Ben's statement, real or fake, doesn't matter. The question is Who are You. lol