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Medphreak! As I live and breathe.... man there are a lot of the old names here. Madas, By-Tor, Neil... all we need is Bricky and Demsey to come out swinging again.

CrazySaleMan (is he Paul??) does pop in from time to time. I remember a few years ago I forgot my watch at home and in my moment of panic he showed up and offered to save the day with his New Wrist Wrap Watches. https://rwg.cc/topic/57992-crisis-panic-emergency/

"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)." I still have some watches from Watchlover David, Paul, and River. WLD...sapphire no date sub (swisseta) Paul...vintage sub, sapphire exp I, sapphire GMT, 36mm 'too big' sapphire AK, 1655 (all swisseta) slightly oversize manual wind Daytona (ST19) River...sapphire exp II, 16600 SD (both swisseta)

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).

"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.

Gen/Athaya 700/702 crown and tube fit without problems. Phong/ nam/ gen pusher don’t fit without drilling and retapping the holes afaik. Cheers

Yeah I always loved Neil. Amazing photographer, great character. But we had our little fights, too. He once flamed me in private message and told me that I'm a shitty admin. I replied that I know some of his "super intelligent" patent insults were actually copy-pastes from a site that provided flames and included that site link with a question "Do these look familiar Neil"? That shut him down. But RIP. I miss Neil too. It's not the same without the grumpy old man.

Paul screwed up the CARZY SALE (sic) badly. I think he just wasn't prepared to that kind of flood of orders. Then someone flamed him because he never got his watch (or received a bad watch) and Paul replied that "I don't care about the negativity. I just drive my Porche (sic)." And what about the BigRedJoe scandal? Now that was something. He had like 100 watches in his possession, stopped responding to emails and got mysteriously "sick". Ziggy called him out. Now that was drama. Haha.

No kidding, man I miss some of the knock down - drag outs they used to have here. Bare knuckle watch collecting!

Flame on!

100%. Nice to see you, @By-Tor

Neil was terrific.

What we know is what we see our trusted dealers were the first wave of online sellers but the demand increased, production reacted and most of all, China’s industry had started the QC cycle - within the next 10 years they will bury the old paradigm. As for the rep prices I guess they react to the market targets and, again, they are based on demand and on online sales. Last year in Kuala Lumpur I was taken into an apartment that acted as a “swiss” showroom. They even dad two in-house watchsmits. Base prices were high but after some good discussion lowered a bit, even so lower than the prices we are used to. there are some places in Saigon (street stalls) where one can find very decent frankens for 2** bucks or source the so called vietnamese dials for 4*bucks. sometimes watches have the same origin of the ones offered by online platforms, other times one gets surprised with an oddball. In the end we are still talking about reps... and cheap or expensive a rep will still be a rep. But it is still a watch anyway

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.

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

Guys as you know from my rare post of pics I buy mostly gens. I recently picked up a Ball for a wee bit more than a rep. Lord knows I still have plenty of reps but in truth my cheap quartz ones are just fine to play with (surely have high end ones also), now they may be obvious to our guys but out in the real world just fine. If your going to blow 2-3 grand on a vintage that cost 60 to 100 k well that makes sense to me ( been there done that many times) blowing 4-7 hundred on a V whatever not so much. If I felt I really had to have a gen Rolex or whatever I could sell off a good chunk and get it, WTF is the fun in that I am a WIS I like to have many & my interest changes like the wind it's like trading baseball cards.

I say that whatever makes you happy and nobody is being hurt here including yourself - then go for it! If I had to choose between starving my family and spending this kind of money on a rep or genuine or any other non priority, then we all know the answer to that one! Lets face it, these ridiculous prices for genuine vintage timepieces as well, are very irrational when one reflects that all they are is a chunk of steel fabricated into a product no more than 100grams! As for ones made of precious metals, then the subject is slightly different!! BUT as with any item that commands a high premium, it is market driven by the same old law of demand and supply! Period!!!! Coming back to the discussion of a replica, it is basically the same thing minus the quality control factor, which for me a replica made of same material is no less than a sterile brand watch with an eta mechanism, which is fancied up with having some label on the dial! A replica with a Swiss quality eta fitted with a sterile dial would be the equivalent to a low end Tissot! I therefore would only pay as much for a replica as I would for a low end Tissot! As for dressing it up by putting a dial from any other brand or trimming the case to imitate the genuine image would be additional features that should cost accordingly! This would be my limit and would be far cheaper than a months supply of cigarettes!

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#

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I just spent $658 usd for a 904l 116520. As much as i believe that sanity should kick in at certain price points (especially for franken projects), i am willing to pay that much for the one-of-its-kind 4130 clone movement - it's a milestone and it's unique to everything that i have ever owned. Also, the feedback received from RWI's watchmakers is very positive so far, and not to mention, $658 is just a small percentage of the overly-hyped market price of the gen equivalent. People used to pay similar prices for WM9 and TC too

Who would pay that kind of prices for reps? $658 is a laughable price for a Chinese knockoff. You can get a nice used vintage Omega for that kind of money. Personally, I just stopped buying them. They are fun watches for $200 or $300 but that's where the limit is (for me). Reps are fun but they have no real value and even finding someone who services rep Rolexes can be tough. And while some of the reps are very accurate they will never have the details of a gen.

@By-Tor...good to see you're back m8, I loved those legendary reviews from the old days...

Enjoying the fun of a watch is what it's all about [emoji3526][emoji1745]🏻‍[emoji3603] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Cannabis legalization day Smoke em if you gotum. [emoji1063][emoji41][emoji1362] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I paid 80 Euros for this YM with Asian 21J movement back in the day (from Narikaa). This was the REAL Noobfactory version which was only ever surpassed by the WM9 version. But this was awesome rep. I'd probably still have it but I never cared for the YM personally.

On favorite tactic used by all dealers is to inform you that the watch you want is in stock (regardless of actual stock position) and take your money first. What happens thereafter is always a problem to be left for later.