Diamonds are nice too, but given some people wont wear watches with ANY gold on them, I can imagine they have an air of "look how much money I have" to them.
I bought a noobmariner from eurotimez, cant wait to receive it. I was wicked impressed by the drilled bracelet link showing the solidity of it. I might just do that myself since I generally need to take 2-3 links out to fit me properly anyway.
Yknow I forget exactly where i read it, but I think all replicas are made in asia, something along those lines... but some have swiss eta movement, albeit made by the japanese. I have yet to try a rep in water, and thank GOODNESS i found out the crown had one more spot to screw in a little further, otherwise this thing would be demolished.