longshot

so? you can't figure out how to put a bracelet on watch. and you can't afford the $15 to have a watchmaker do it. but you only wear $500 designer sunglasses with your $75 asian movement reps while constantly traveling to europe and vail do you hate frat boys so much because they are actually in college and don't spend their work days asking people if they would like to supersize their order

these are a little less busy than the 600m diver btw the bezel on the gmt is sapphire for no scratches!

COSC chronometer spec (like rolex's with superlative chronometer on the dial) is -5 to +6 seconds a day. that's for a genuine swiss made watch from rolex, omega, breitling, iwc, sinn etc. seiko (who invented the quartz watch) and citizen have both produced long since out of production and quite expensive models that were accurate to less than a minute a year. but seconds a year may not be possible. primarily because just tempreature differences can cause a bigger variation than that. here is one of my favorite articles on the search for the ultimate in accuracy http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=42169

the grading system is a myth that was settled on the various rep forums years ago. "chinese, japanese, swiss" or "A, B, C" or AAAAA++++++ are all just tools used by the scam sellers to sell a $200 rep sub for $800 if the high end market is in the west, where are they being sold? the scam sites do not have big bangs and ferrari pams and BCE's. there has been much discussion with the dealers when they still used to post a lot and none of them seem to be shipping even as much as a few dozen watches a week. thousands of the high end reps have to be being sold somewhere. but it's not on the rep boards and probably not by our dealers and not on the scam sites.

that would account for lot's of gold and bling datejust's and patek's etc. but not necessarily steel divers and sports watches? i have often wondered if there is a huge underground rep market in japan though? of course the japanese are just strange just look at all the giant fluffy sock anime schoolgirl porn

i had considered that and read the same thing long ago. but even if the prices are substantially lower in china, the last time in was in beijing (2004) i did not see very many people who looked like they could, or would spend, even $200US on a watch. a mechanical watch is really a luxury item after all

i work in the controllers office of a large newspaper chain and one of my degrees is in economics so maybe i find this kind of thing more interesting than most. but looking at the new generation of high end reps has me thinking... the new pam ferrari is $350. the easy diver just over $300. the big bangs over $400. and the dealers have offshores at $1000US. i'm guessing the chopard XL MM will be over $300. it just does not make economic sense for these to be built unless they are built in the thousands, or more. does not matter if it's tennis balls or F-22 raptors, the more you build the cheaper the unit cost and the higher the potential profit. we have been told repeatedly that the forums represent a tiny portion of the rep market. i believe that. so exactly who IS buying the high end (and costly) reps and driving this market??? i just can't imagine the non WIS tourists at street stalls in china or bangkok or hong kong spending $300 on a chopard or an easy diver when he can buy an omega or rolex (brands that he has heard of!) for $100/$150 and impress his friends back home? but someone is buying these in large enough numbers to justify the risk and the production costs i just can't figure out who it is, and where... anybody else thought about this and have any theories? i would love to hear from neil and some others who have been there and been around longer!

the seller said they would not ship out of the us, the buyer is in australia...

nope the mods here do a great job. electing mods is just plain dumb. sorry, but i've seen it done and have never ever seen it work. i've been a moderator and being invisible is much more difficult than it look RWGII ain't broke

i cannot believe neil just referenced 'heathers'??? but he is right. they had begun to take their whole 'dark side' shtick far too seriously over there and the whole "the dealers are doing us a favor" vibe was getting tiresome

but, uh, err it's uma thurman. she is totally forgiven in my book

zodiac used to make some pretty cool watches. like doxa cool but a few years ago the name was bought by fossil and their newer watches are quartz "fashion watch" crap (IMHO) a shame as the vintage seawolf's were really nice!

reported

i generally don't like avant garde watches but that is amazing. i have to wonder what the movement looks like WOW!

i am wearing that 5218 on an OF cognac cordovan 24X24 right now and can tell you it looks better in person it really looks (IMHO) like a carefully kept gen with just the right amount of wabi. and the crown (mine somehow snapped in half while wearing it???) that chris replaced feel far better than the original ever did! just trying to decide if by budget will handle sending my old school 036 in for the new combo super lume this week or next!

decent vision and great eye hand coordination and a lot of knowledge would probably be a big help too that's why i'm never gonna try any of this stuff!

what i really don't get is... the guys on tz or mwr etc are so anti rep[/b ]but if eddie copies the case, dial and hands and crown and doesn't put the logo on it than it's all perfectly ok? i had a PRS-1 and a dreadnought. the speedbird was too small for me and the dreadnought was just too big and clunky. i did make money on the dreadnought (i sold it when the price had almost doubled ) and that was cool. but that is the only one of his watches that's not pretty damn close to being a rep? i find the replica vs homage thing to be a pretty thin line. if there really is a line at all

and we appreciate it! the turnaround on my 5218 was awesome and chris was a pleasure to deal with. plus the pics rock. can't wait to have it back on my wrist cool to know the funds are going to such a good cause these are his pics, mine won't be nearly so good:

i am soooooooooooooo waiting on the new rep of this one... just need to decide on black or white and see (gulp) the price joshua says it's from the hublot bb and bce etc factory and to expect it to be pricey...

personally i think he and fliplockbuckle can go start their own forum. we don't need them here

call me dumb (shut up pug ) but i was under the impression that the reason i paid more for my 5218-201a from davidsen was to get the swiss movement version and not the asian? afaik david has both movements available? of course it took three tries to get a good one and then the crown and stem decided to part ways while wearing it (?????? with the crown guard latched) for about the 5th day... but that's another story

yeah you do! because your pics are soooooooooooooo lame

i did the same with the new vc overseas and the ingy and the link chrono and the link gmt and a few others i almost pulled the trigger on the steelfish 3-4 times but just think it would be too blingy for me. same with the navitimers and the too busy dial. i always go back to the simple classics. sub, black smp, black planet ocean, handwind pams i will probably try and force myself to wait at least a month after the chopard mm comes out and will look at lots of pics!

me ex got hooked on knitting... now that was more expensive than crack

besides a couple vintage seiko's (a near nos 6138 chrono with the silver dial and blue/gray subdials and a mint H558 'arnold') the only rep i miss is my stainless seawolf avenger. was stoopid to sell that one after a lume and bezel tightening by The Zigmeister. but i needed the $$ and had no idea they would disappear!