cyberface

Heh. Point taken. I do tend to ramble at times. Anyway question answered, so to speak. Regarding the 'solid' YG Rolex my mate rather fancies... simply work out the volume of the case and bracelet on a genuine (if it's identical in size, as it claims to be) or simply get the weight of a genuine full YG Rolex Day-Date, that info must be available somewhere. Assuming that's all gold, the monetary value of the gold for 9 carat and 18 carat can be worked out, and if both figures are higher than the cost of the replica watch, then it's a scam. Nobody is going to sell gold for less than its scrap value, especially with the current state of the financial markets. Short version of the first part of my question - how good (i.e. how long does it last looking good with regular wear, no abuse, desk job rather than a brickie or mechanic) is the quality of gold plating used by the main 'accurate' chinese replica makers sold by many of the dealers here. Watches in the $250 -> $380 price range, ETA movements, no 'jewels' or other flash. Example - the rose gold Franck Muller Cintr

OK I'm new here, being a keen watch enthusiast since the last 20 years or so, I've just discovered the world of 'decent' replicas... I've always been a steel sports chrono fan and my 'most-wanted' as a twentysomething was predictably a steel Daytona - which I eventually achieved, having gone through a few Omega speedmasters, seamasters, an Explorer II and finally the Daytona (all genuine). Bad luck befell my business last year and I had to sell off the watches, keeping some of the more inexpensive but still interesting pieces like my Sinn 356 II with the copper face. As things picked back up I thought about buying watches again, but part of the problem behind my profitability interruption was due to closed-shop 'rip the customer' practices... and as my watch knowledge increased, I saw more and more top brands selling very expensive watches with ETA movements in them. The finishing would be of a higher level, but there were very few people outside the haute horlogerie heavens making their own movements in-house (save Rolex, who sell a LOT of watches). This seemed a bit like a rip off to me... so I did some more investigation about replica watches with ETA movements (or, as it turns out, exact copies of ETA movements). My initial thoughts were that the quality of the replicas must be appalling, because the replica is simply an ETA movement in a stainless steel case and bracelet, just like many of the genuine watches from the mid-high end brands, and there's a 10-fold difference in price. So, having decided that any money spent on genuines must now be spent on special movements or base movements with special complications, I got a steel Breguet Type XX flyback and 'invested' a couple of hundred quid in a couple of replica Submariners from a dealer recommended on these forums. One bottom-end one ($110, which is about