jens

...and pay VAT according to the estimated value of the gen ? .

For those interrested in gen omegas, the Omega thematic auction at Antiquorum takes place today and tomorrow. Auctions can be followed online (online bidding possible as well). http://www.antiquorum.com/eng/index_eng.htm

If in doubt, a customs officer will regard it as illegal unless the oposite is proven. For watches, I would say you dont have to be very clever to suspect a luxury watch to be fake when sendt ininsured from China with a customs value of 7.34 USD, no papers a.s.o.. In their eyes it's either fake, or you are trying to avoid duties, both a bad thing. Next to that, and more important, is that several countries in EU (even where legislation is not adopted yet) have created special entities dedicated to deal with counterfeit products who have cross-border cooperation and a common information system (CIS) where info is exchanged. And yes - they have a close cooperation with various industries, even some places decsribed as a 'partnership'. To learn more about the activities carried out in EU to fight counterfeighting, some general info can be found here: http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l11016.htm http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l26057a.htm

agree, I think they in this situation, as in general, are doing a very good job. I said it because some seems to be afraid to refer to e.g. current legislation and interpretation itself. But I realize that it's not their job to educate people in this respect

Of course, it's up to them. In my opinion, nothing else than already public/open info on legislation and how it has been applied has been discussed so far, and everyone who have valuable info should allowed to provide and discuss such info. If you openly discuss these matters with the intention to propose/find workable 'solutions' to keep status quo, that's a completly different matter. Maybe adm /mod could share their point of view wrt this ?

Very well said. I might be too paranoid at times, but I find it somewhat freightening to see that a lot of people for sure underestimate our 'enemy'. People who think typing '*' into the brand names will solve anything don't have a clue about what kind of tools the authorities are using in their wars on economical crime (as reps. are). All as part of the war against terror, which justifies and has lead to a massive implementation of different monitoring systems, and information is shared between countries. These people are not stupid, and they have state-of-the-art technology available. An example is a system used by the tax authorities in six EU countries: http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/01/72564 Furtermore, there is an ongoing process in EU on new legislation, which without doubt will make it very risky to be involved. US/China ->WTO. +++ Do we need more proof that times are about to change?

I fully agree with you. I'm quite new to reps and has been on this board for only a year. One of my first thoughts at that time was that this will come to an end in it's existing form quite soon. Why ? I think it's a mix of the following: - political enviorment wrt replica goods in general, e.g the US vs. China 'conflict', which is now a WTO matter. - quality of reps anticipated to be better and better by the (gen) industry - fools that just have to go to an AD and provoke the AD's by putting the rep under their nose - fools that provoke on gen boards I might be wrong, but I think some of the rep owners really have triggered some of the big guys this way - ref. the fake BB on TimeZone. Talking about that, could there be some connetion here - the CEO of Hublot promised to take action in that tread......

Maybe not new to you, http://www.antiquorum.com/new_website/vox/...2006_index.html A nice 43 page article on Omega

I think you are right in everything you say. The scene is set for the war against counterfeiting, now it starts, slowly but steady. For the time beeing other products than watches might have higher priority, but with Rolex high on the list of copied brands that might not last long. Maybe these guys have Rolex on their customer list ? :http://www.carratu.com/intellectual_proper...nterfeiting.htm

Tonton, I don't know this for sure, so I'm just guessing: Both SmoothOperator and TTK could be right. However, there is one detail that confuses me a little bit, and that is the brand name on the dial. On your watch the print says 'Vacheron Constantin' - to my limited knowledge older VC's have 'Vacheron & Constantin' printed on them. I don't know when this changed, but think it was in the early 80's. Looking in a VC catalogue I have from oct. '83, you can see both variants, but the majority is without the '&'. I have a gen VC bougt back in '84, and the dial printing on this one is 'V&C'. On the other hand the transition may have been spread over several years, so this might not be a good indicator at all. Inside the back cover you should find the case no.: it starts with 5 or 6 digits then a slash, and after this slash the case number itself is stated with a 4 or 5 digit number. You could also ask in this forum: http://www.network54.com/Forum/201111/ They have far better knowledge than me. TTK: That Piaget - one word - wonderfull

My similar bad German makes me guess it's a limited guarantee on a performed service or repair of the watch. Not for the watch itself, but for the labour and parts. Just a guess though

Congratulations, looks real nice Is it a replica ? I have the same one, however a little bit older. One of the few drawbacks is that at the time it get's real funny, you are at twice the speed limit

Be carefull, you may regret in a few years My daughter, who is 15, discovered the tiffany and bags section of one of these sites recently..... (looook daddy...)

Maybe he doesn't see your invitation. According to the news here in Norway the web in Thailand has been closed down in some areas.....

I'm quite new to rep collecting, and have only bought a few sofar. Haven't had any problems yet, but I expect it will be more difficult in the future (I'm located in Norway). European countries are gearing up their efforts to stop replica products of all kinds to enter into EU (or to be sold inside the union), it's on the agenda in every country now I think. Customs in a lot of countries have invested heavily in equipment like mobile and stationary x-ray scanners, thus their ability to check more goods in an efficient way has increased compared to only a few years ago. In the longer term this will for sure influence our hobby, making it more difficult to get products into the countries, not to mention the risk following new legislation in this area. This adds to the increasing difficulties to get them out of countries like China. Double trouble. I don't think the idea of stickers/paper to hide the dial text etc. will help in the long run, these guys (customs) are not idiots. I do have some thoughts and ideas on how to deal with this situation in the future and reduce the risks for both dealers and customers, but for obvious reasons I will not share them on an open forum. And it might not be possible at all, so I will shut my mouth now

Corruption

No, you are not the only one, the Reverso is one of my favourite watches, but it seems to be very difficult/impossible to find a good rep. This one seems to be an improvement with respect to the case finish and mechanics (flip mech.), however the dial doesn't impress me (might be bad picture quality), the JLC logo is missing and the hands are very far from correct. Personally I would prefer a brown leather strap, but that's not a big issue. That said, I might buy one later on as it's seems to be the best rep currently available (at least to my limited knowledge). Sorry that I couldn't help with a review, just wanted you to know that you are not alone jens

Sorry to hear this. This is the reason why I convert to reps. I have a genuine VC dress watch, simple and without any chrono's or other fancy stuff. For a regular periodic service they will charge approx 800 -- 1000 USD plus S/H (some drops of oil is included in the charge i think), and the watch will be away for at least 8 months ! Such customer service stinks, you get far better service as an owner of a 50$ food processor. Another example is authentificaton, for which they charge 850 CHF + VAT and S/H. If you need the value for insurance purposes, they can tell you the original list price at a charge of 150 CHF + VAT. I simply don't find this reasonable, and I don't want to feed such companies with my money. I will never buy a genuine watch that is more expensive than I can afford to throw it away if it breaks down outside warranty. So as you correctly say - Gen watches are awesome.......But jens

Tracking is nice. I'm tracking a DHL shipment right now, and can provide breaking news to this exclusive forum: A DHL aircraft is lost somewhere between Hong Kong and Europe. It left 04:09 local time the 13th of may, and there are no signs of life afer that .

Ok, thanks a lot for your feedback. I think I will buy a couple since you seem to agree that it's not a waste of money. A feasible way to do a 'test run' to see if you really like a certain model in real life. jens

Hello Antonio, and welcome ! I'm a newbie too, and I can advice you of only one thing, as pointed out by others: Read, read,read.........and learn learn learn. And you will be confused, confused, confused. Just the moment you think you start to get a clue, you will read just a couple more threads, and realize you didn''t. If you wanted to by a car and stumbled accross a site like this, you would end up with no car in two years but a lot of knowledge about engines, transmission, suspension, chassis, maintenance, strong and weak points, possible dealers, their families, where they live and how they run their business . So, be patient and you will find your way to the promised land! jens

http://www.uhr-kraft.de/

I can only speak for my country (Norway). I got a watch from you some time ago, sendt as registred mail. The registred Thailand post reference no. is registred in the tracking system of the Norwegian post as soon as arrives in the country, and therefore traceable from this point. This means that I can see the if it's stucked in customs, when it arrives at the local post office and so on. I didn't know this in the first place, but my local post office couldn't find the package when I showed up.When the girl used the tracking system to see what was wrong, using the Thai post reference, I asked her and she told me this. So the Registred mail ref. no can be used when the package has entered the country. Maybe this is the same in other countries as well, I don't know. jens.

I'm 80% sure you are wrong. She told you in a polite way that she knew what it was, and that she didn't intend to involve herself further in the matter as you could be a potentional customer. She had learned her lessons, you have not. Never underestimate other people, you end up making a fool of yourself. I agree with 'retep' above, I really don't see any point in doing this, unless you want to harm our hobby. jens