kanerich

I live in Japan. Short of being a drag-queen pretty much everything passes as heterosexual male fashion here (including Panerais, which are highly esteemed), so this discussion would be incomprehensible here. And vice versa.

A watch with broken hands for which you can't source parts is worthless. It doesn't really matter if the original costs $13,000 . . . if you get something worthless for $600 all you did was waste $600, you did not "save" $12,400. You may as well argue that any time I'm in the mood to buy something that costs $50 I should flush $10 down the toilet instead and save myself $40. It simply is neither here nor there.

Yes, but it's a 1:1 PERFECT ULTIMATE sapphire glass superb lumed Asian Swiss Valjoux 7750 clone copy homage replica of a gen forum. Confuses some people.

Hot dang. I don't know if it's exactly my cup of (green) tea but it's mighty impressive regardless.

There's nothing wrong with Shabber's point . . . I agree with him completely, although mostly because I don't feel that strongly about it. But I will probably still buy five reps instead of one gen as long as there are reps I want. The gens will be waiting for me whenever I want them, I know that for sure. Great reps, on the other hand . . . who knows what things will be like in 5 or 10 years. I make no excuses about how much practical sense it makes, but I like having a bunch of reps. Same reason why I spend time on this board . . . I could be doing lots of more productive things, but I don't. Oh well. Frankly, I'm too old and too often wrong and nevertheless pretty happy with my life to give a crap about justifying everything I do all the time. So you want to say I should be buying reps, I will agree with you. You say I should be buying gens, I will agree with you. You think I should only buy gens over $3000 and reps under $200 or only reps with simple movements and only vintage gens or only reps of Pams and gens of Sinns and Eternas or whatever else the various people on this board seem to feel, that's all fine with me. And if you pay for what I buy, I am more than happy to let you make me practice what you preach. Otherwise, I'm probably still buying reps. That tendency is probably why I browse TZ and post here, after all. Also, I would note lots of members including myself own both kinds, so the gen vs. rep debate exists only in relative terms to us anyway . . .

That's so darn true and non-judgmental (which I thought was what Maxse was annoyed about in the first place, or maybe only when it's not hypocritical) I'm surprised it's not the eleventh commandment or something. Between this and big gay confused can't spell Stephanie desperate Trevor (not that there's anything wrong with one of those things) I have certainly never been prouder of being a member of this board.

The guy was being an a-hole, but he was right, your watch was fake . . . so you're kind of stuck. Yes, he probably eyeballed you and whatever combination of age and other impressions he took into account, decided that your watch could not be real. It happens . . . if I'm at Vegas and an 18-year old is wearing a PM Daytona and buying in at a 10-dollar table I'm going to assume the watch is fake. Now I wouldn't make an issue of it, but it's just common sense. To me, this is the inherent problem of wearing Bentley or Ferrari watches . . . if you don't have the car, just the watch you're going to get crap from somebody sooner or later. Next time go with the SuperOcean, you'll get less grief. Also, once you engaged him and demanded that he show you why the watch was fake . . . you lost. Look, guys who wear $5,000 watches laugh off that kind of [censored], they say "hey don't hate the player, hate the game" and go do something more useful with their time. Nobody with a gen asks people "how can you tell it's fake," they pat the playa-hata on the head and enjoy life.

Awesome Yeah, I tell my co-workers everything about myself even if they don't ask, people love that.

I remember one time I got a watch from abay in 2004, the customs form said "toy wristwatch." Man, he wasn't even trying back then. I know you don't like us giving away "inside" tips to our enemies, but I couldn't resist.

I agree that the outcry over prices seems a bit strident . . . we were paying $350 for Pam Luminor Marina reps two years ago that weren't particularly accurate compared to what we're getting now. I paid around $350 for the Asian Pam 187 when it came out last summer . . . this IWC is a better rep. Yeah, $400+ is steep for a rep but you can vote with your wallet, and I'm sure we should all be pleased to have as many options as possible. I'm not interested in the Big Bang but I'm glad rep makers are putting out creative quality reps either way. Yeah so everything is not quite as cheap as we'd like. But that's true in all facets of life, why should reps be different?

Well said, I'm totally with you on this one. I would also note that it is possible to just IGNORE people instead of making a big old hullabaloo about things.

Glad to hear it worked out! Sounds like Honpo has got its game on . . . but I still prefer to deal with dealers shipping from Taiwan. I'm just curious, where are you Japan-based members at? I'm in Kyoto. Representin' the 075 babee! No reps here but the chicks are classy and the city's nice -- not too frenetic, not too boony. Osaka's more fun but Kyoto is a lot less grungy . . . and when you're happily married (i.e. wife watches you like a hawk) probably not so much fun Japanese style is a good thing . . .

Non-cartel dealers were regularly selling the UPO for $179-189, so I don't see why $200 for a Casino Royale PO would be some kind of outrageous bargain.

If you want to buy reps in Japan, try to find dealers in the EU or Taiwan. In my experience (and other Japanese rep fans) customs is tighter concerning packages from mainland China. My wife's cousin works for Japan post and he tells me it is a policy they have in place. As a foreigner you can just deny any knowledge of any shipment if you get caught, but if it happens several times eventually immigration will get on you. Basically, my advice is that if you want reps, go ahead and order them but if you get caught once, give it up. It's not worth it. And your chances of getting caught will be less if you find a dealer who doesn't ship from mainland China. I've bought a bunch of watches from EL and River (who both ship from Taiwan) w/o problems.

Because I've got a bunch of them and I bought them to wear them, not to gather dust. I often switch watches several times a day -- if I'm home puttering around i might wear half a dozen over the course of a given day. Hey why not. I generally don't worry much about what I wear when and where, except when I think for some reason I can't even risk the 0.001% of getting caught when I can't afford it (important client meeting, etc) then I wear the gen Exp II. When I'm doing pro bono or something I go with the Seiko Monster, doesn't go with a suit but that doesn't bother those types. I never wear my TT datejust (heirloom from my dad) for any reason -- maybe when I make partner. Otherwise it's all reps all the time, and I tend to fall in and out of love with the ones I have. Right now, I mostly rotate the Ultimate PO, Pam 212 on custom Aaron Tan lizard strap and the IWC Inge chrono as they seem to cover most needs.