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We used to have an "unwritten rule" that you always have to sell the rep cheaper than you invested. Or maximum get your own money back. In the old days I bought this franken-Explorer for 350 Euros from a fellow member. This had a GEN DIAL, correct hand stack and brilliant Noob case. He just wanted to sell it to me because I probably helped him in some other issue. Can't remember. But it was all about friendships and moving cheap knockoffs for cheap prices... and HAVING FUN. At some point it changed and standard out of the box reps didn't get much attention anymore. It had to be "perfect" franken and a lots of money invested. And the dealers increased their prices significantly. That's when I started to lose interest. Why buy a $1K franken when you can buy very nice gens for $2K? I bought my gen Bond Seamaster for 1000 Euros. People invest more money on franken-build vintage Rolexes that still don't fool the experts. What's the point? Trusty Time is asking $368 plus shipping for THIS. I mean really, I can understand paying that much money for a WM9 but this is a JOKE. And very bad one at that. I wouldn't pay $5 for this piece of shit. Let me see... they have installed spiky Submariner crown guards to a GMT and thick GMT-like crown guards on a Sub. That's just pure genius. Blind people could tell this is a fake... from another planet. This is just laughable. And $386 plus shipping. You gotta be kidding me!

Who remembers Paul's "CARZY SALE" (sic)? They were all $100. Then there was Kingwatch, Eddie Lee and River (who got the "better" TW stuff). And of course Neil (RIP).

You can put a 2836 date disk on a 2824 but cannot put a 2824 date disk on a 2836 2824 date disk part number is 2556 2836 date disk part number is 2557 There of course many variations of the two regarding date positioning on the dial, colours & languages.

What is with the factories that they can't make a proper vintage Rolex / Tudor? Very simple watches. How can they put Submariner crown guards to a GMT and have balls to ask $400 for that piece of dog turd?

"The OOB vintage reps are horrible..." Agree. Wearing one now, cartel '5513' with a Seagull ST16. Put a Clark crystal and DW bez kit on it and drilled the lugs. It looks a little better. Not much. It might fool a kid who had never seen one. Got tired of it running down overnight so I removed the winding rotor/plate, 'pullybone' etc and hand wind it. Now I wonder what will wear out first...winding guts or crown/tube? "...and I have seen some people trying to part with high end franken’s on here lately with no success." I have noticed they are not selling in a hurry and it does worry me a little because I have a few. May have to part them out later on. Otoh a guy looking at an average (or below average) 5512 for $12k might pay $2500 for one in an MBK case with 1570 etc and wear it for years with little ri$k. Look who's talking...I'm wearing the cartel '5513' to keep from banging up the '5512' Franko... Insanity.

I stopped buying reps this year after 6 years in this game ! Then i decided to go gen...like this one below 😉

Many who joined this hobby years ago knew that the quality of what was being offered was worth $100-300 max. The joy was connecting to other members and modding the watches to our tastes and in regards to the gen article. Remember the old Pams? Having to buy separated crowns, crownguards, dials etc etc. It was joy in itself and within decent price ranges. Then came the change in the pricing strategy in the gen world. After 2010, demand for luxury watches went through the roof, and so did the pricing in both the modern watch and vintage watch world. This spilled over to the rep game. But this increase can also be partially put down to the fact that rep factories have improved tremendously to give us watches that are near perfect out of the box. So much so, that i would never buy the gen article of certain reps. I,e. many Pams, some IWCs and Blancpains etc etc. I stick to reps that are reasonably priced, well made and out of people's eyes.

Buying "gen" is rarely motivated unless the price is really good. Replica items from either China or Vietnam have attained such high quality standards nowadays that I find it hard to justify making a Genenstein-Franken. If you want-gen-gen-gen. Buy gen. It will in the end still be a fake watch, non grata at Rolex Geneva. So why not invest in "new" aftermarket parts worth the price?

I love the honesty of you guys! I wouldnt pay more than $300 (my max) for watches now. I learnt too. Cheers Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That bracelet both clasp and links looks lite aftermarket. Engravings all wrong. :( 6?2? H18 means that it uses 18k gold. Where? :)

Just remove the cover plate and the wheel can be lifted off without removing anything else. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm genuinely considering purchasing one of these SA4130 clones. I have always lusted after a Daytona but can't bring myself to plunk down the $10-12k for a nice one. My gen range is in the $3.5k to $5k range, that's where I live. That said, I'd be happy with this until someday in the future I can discreetly just "swap it out" for a gen... https://puretime.io/watch-brands/rolex/daytona/daytona-116520-noob-1-1-best-edition-904l-ss-case-and-bracelet-white-dial-sa4130.html#

Well, I did some stupid moves in this hobby like putting 2K of parts in a franken that doesn't even had that much gen parts. Money wise, it's insanity and I would never do it again neither buy a rep over 200 if I had still some decent income. But I had a great time here with some of you guys building these great watches. I owned gen, for example 1680 or 16800 and had reps build of the exact same models: I would go for the reps I sold here rather than the gens at the prices they are now. I paid my 1680 (White, full box, paper, service history...silver date wheel, 9315....) less that 4 k (€). They go for 10k to 15k now....ridiculous. My rep 1680 which is the last one I sold costed me around 1,700 and in my humble opinion was as good/nice as my gen was. Gen vintage is too high now anyway! If I ever want and can afford a 1680, I would buy mine back (if the buyer would sell it of course) 😂 In the end I wonder why I went for gens, wasn't it to feel superior, better than, show off ? For sure, what attracts me in a watch is the design, not the "in house movement" rather than a cheap Chinese one. For the record, a friend of mine from RWG offered me what he calls a cheap Chinese Rolex recently. It's running within COSC standards and it has the design even with the various tells for your expert eyes! And guess what: two persons came to me to tell me I had a great vintage Rolex (which never happened with my gens by the way). One of them even told me "It's a 1978 one I think, you shouldn't have it polished" Go figure 🤣 Bottom line: out of the box rep, 2-300€ is fine, more is ridiculous. Photos of My 1680 and 16800 and 16610 and so on

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Yeah the prices have gotten ridiculous! I would say the value is in owning for your pleasure and when you’re bored flip it. So @By-Tor are you officially out of the rep game? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk