jkerouac

It all depends. In some situations I will be perfectly candid about the provenance of my rep. It can indeed be a good conversation starter. A few years ago I was buying a new car and the negotiator turned out to be really into watches. He had an IWC and told me about the Panerai that he planned to purchase. So I had to poo poo the Pam 192 on my writst even though he was practically drooling over it because I needed him to think I was really stretching my resources to afford the car. (OK, I was going to pay cash except they had a 0% three-year loan offer, which I took because.... why not!) Perhaps I should have offered him my rep in exchange for knocking a few grand off the price! In other cases I downplay the name (for example most people have never even heard of an IWC or Chopard, so if you say the name matter of factly they might just say "Oh, nice watch" -- and go on from there). For a brand that is more familiar (i.e. Rolex, Breitling, Panerai) and where the other responses are problematic, I might say the watch was a gift. That would address issues of whether you are wearing a watch that is beyond your means or they consider excessively showy. (I happen to have both an Omega and a Rolex that I received or inherited from my father, so I don't consider it a slight to my father's memory to use the attribution.)

I look at the watch case periodically when I go to Costco. Always interesting to see what they have on hand. I believe Costco sources their high-end watches overseas, which the manufacturers are unhappy about. So Keep in mind that you wouldn't have a US warranty.

In college a friend who was very successful with the ladies turned me on to Royal Bay Rhum. I bought some and started to wear it myself when I took my first job out of college. But then a co-worker came into my office, sniffed the room a bit, and she said: "I smell fruit cake!" Somewhow I never really cared for Bay Rhum after that. Over the years since then my favorite scents have been: Chanel for Men Issey Miyake Dior Homme (and most recently) Bleu de Chanel

I have no complaints with delivery times from USPS. Their bureaucratic procedures and lines at the post office can be a pain, but their delivery service is actually pretty good. Shame that the service itself is disintegrating due to the decline in first class mail. We complain about junk mail, but that's probably all that keeps the USPS afloat.

I haven't purchased a watch from Costco, but have seen Breitlings, Tags, Cartier, Ferrari, and a few other high-end brands -- over the years, mind you, not all at the same time. I am fairly certain these watches are grey market, as verified in the Omega case. But my understanding was (not sure where I heard or read this) that Costco would extend their regular warranty terms and arrange for service if needed to duplicate the terms of the original manufacturer. If this is true, then you would have to balance the value of the OEM warranty and papers vs. the Costco warranty and the potential cost savings.

I have a rep rubber strap that is closer to the vanilla scent. But I prefer the metal bracelet. You might be able to get one of the dealers to sell you one separately from the watch itself.

I've been into reps for about eight years now. I got into it because I love beautiful watches but hate the idea of paying more than a grand for one. The irony is that if I tallied up all the money I've spent on reps, I could have easily afforded something in the $6,000-7,000 range. Would I be happier? Absolutely not, because I would be kicking myself for spending that kind of bread on a watch. But spend that amount of money on 20 or so watches with essentially the same skin as their more expensive counterparts, and I'm not particularly bothered. I get to wear a different beautiful watch 2-4 times a week and have to be fairly diligent to make sure that every watch is worn at least once during the month. Reliability has been pretty darned good. The only watches that have actually died during my rep adventure were $100 "what-the-hell" cheapies. A few others have had minor problems, but nothing that required major effort or investment to fix. A few that I am particularly fond of have been serviced by The Zigmeister. A few others, if they died, I'd be annoyed but could replace them easily for probably less or the same cost as a service. To be honest, the last few years I've been kind of burned out on reps. I haven't bought a watch in more than a year, and I'm not sure what model would get me excited again, unless perhaps I sold a number of pieces from my collection. That's also why I haven't been around here very much and let my VIP status lapse. In any case, I think reps satisfy a genuine need, because luxury goods are obscenely overpriced and the playing field needs a leveling agent.

Daily Mail: That's one expensive car crash: Hapless blonde crashes her £250,000 Bentley into a Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari and Aston Martin The article and pics Fortunately if you can afford the car I think you can afford the repairs. But hiring a chauffeur might be cheaper.

I'm probably not the only member of the board thinking this, but ....... would you adopt me??

quote name='AlexBPM' timestamp='1308372336' post='986037'] Well I think it's a great piece. And looks great with a suit. It seems every time a watch gets great reviews, it becomes extinct shortly after. This is the only Ebel I would even consider getting. Guess I'll have to look into getting a used one

Happy Birthday, Gran. Perhaps you can dub this one Gran Master, V x.

For a case, try Amzer: http://www.amzer.com/Apple-accessories.htm . Nice cases, good prices. For a thin, scratch-resistant coating try Ghost Armor: http://www.ghost-armor.com/index.php . You can apply it yourself, or better yet, find one of their locations (they appear to have three in MA) and have them apply it.

I think it's a pretty sharp watch as well, but I still wear my Mile Miglia panda regularly, even after some years. One big benefit of this thread: it reminded me that I have a rubber strap with deployant similar to the one pictured for this watch, along with the bracelet. I haven't worn the rubber strap in years, but I think I'll be changing things up later this week.

Jetmid would only buzz the Grand Canyon if he could do it using his personal Concorde and spreading shredded $100 bills over the minions watching from below.

Great brand promotion for Breitling. This guy does amazing flights. I'd love to see a longer video, from his perspective.

When I saw this thread I at first considered suggesting that the forum's moderators serve as brokers. But that would be messy and a pain. So here is an alternate suggestion: Continue to leave it up to the "free market," but have the purchaser make the donation on behalf of the purchaser. Then, the seller sends the watch only after they receives confirmation that both the donation and the seller's portions have been paid.

Seems to me one or more good JLC reps have been overdue ever since I joined the boards. Sigh....

I hope you realize that most eyeglass frames are made by just one or two companies (shades of the Swiss watch and luxury goods conglomerates). Even the quintesentially all-American Ray-Ban is made in Italy (found this out when I needed a replacement temple for my Daddy-O sunglasses). For my regular eyeglasses I just got an Armani frame, which I am very pleased with. My previous frame, which was surprised to learn I hadn't replaced in almost 10 years, was from Flexon, which is titanium and virtually indestructable. I wear glasses full-time and can't really understand why people compromise on looks and quality on their eyewear when it becomes one of your most defining fashion accessories -- then don't flinch at spending $100 or more on a shirt or pair of jeans that they might wear once every two weeks and replace in a year.

Awesome phone. Had it for a week now (the Samsung Focus on ATT)and the pluses (incredible screen, extremely easy to use, simple to configure among them) greatly outweigh temporary minuses (I am hoping for copy and paste and custom ring tone fixes to appear in the next few months, along with an ESPN sports score app for Saturdays and Sundays when I need to be out and about during interesting games)

Fascinating article from the NY Times--jk September 12, 2010 Chinese Remake the Made in Italy Fashion Label By RACHEL DONADIO PRATO, Italy Over the years, Italy learned the difficult lesson that it could no longer compete with China on price. And so, its business class dreamed, Italy would sell quality, not quantity. For centuries, this walled medieval city just outside of Florence has produced some of the worlds finest fabrics, becoming a powerhouse for Made in Italy chic. And then, China came here. Chinese laborers, first a few immigrants, then tens of thousands, began settling in Prato in the late 1980s. They transformed the textile hub into a low-end garment manufacturing capital enriching many, stoking resentment and prompting recent crackdowns that in turn have brought cries of bigotry and hypocrisy. The city is now home to the largest concentration of Chinese in Europe some legal, many more not. Here in the heart of Tuscany, Chinese laborers work round the clock in some 3,200 businesses making low-end clothes, shoes and accessories, often with materials imported from China, for sale at midprice and low-end retailers worldwide. It is a Made in Italy problem: Enabled by Italys weak institutions and high tolerance for rule-bending, the Chinese have blurred the line between Made in China and Made in Italy, undermining Italys cachet and ability to market its goods exclusively as high end. Part of the resentment is cultural: The citys classic Italian feel is giving way to that of a Chinatown, with signs in Italian and Chinese, and groceries that sell food imported from China. But what seems to gall some Italians most is that the Chinese are beating them at their own game tax evasion and brilliant ways of navigating Italys notoriously complex bureaucracy and have created a thriving, if largely underground, new sector while many Prato businesses have gone under. The result is a toxic combination of residual fears about immigration and the economy. This could be the future of Italy, said Edoardo Nesi, the culture commissioner of Prato Province. Italy should pay attention to the risks. The situation has steadily grown beyond the control of state tax and immigration authorities. According to the Bank of Italy, Chinese individuals in Prato channel an estimated $1.5 million a day to China, mainly earnings from the garment and textile trade. Profits of that magnitude are not showing up in tax records, and some local officials say the Chinese prefer to repatriate their profits rather than invest locally. The authorities also say that Chinese and probably Italian organized crime is on the rise, involving not only illegal fabric imports, but also human trafficking, prostitution, gambling and money laundering. The rest of Italy is watching closely. Lots of businesses from Emilia Romagna, Puglia and the Veneto say, We dont want to wind up like Prato, said Silvia Pieraccini, the author of The Chinese Siege, a book about the rise of the pronto moda or fast fashion economy. Tensions have been running high since the Italian authorities stepped up raids this spring on workshops that use illegal labor, and grew even more when Italian prosecutors arrested 24 people and investigated 100 businesses in the Prato area in late June. The charges included money laundering, prostitution, counterfeiting and classifying foreign-made products as Made in Italy. Yet many Chinese in Prato are offended at the idea that they have ruined the city. Instead, some argue, they have helped rescue Prato from total economic irrelevance, another way of saying that if the Italian state fails to innovate and modernize the economy, somebody else just might. If the Chinese hadnt gone to Prato, would there be pronto moda? asked Matteo Wong, 30, who was born in China and raised in Prato and runs a consulting office for Chinese immigrants. Did the Chinese take jobs away from Italians? If anything, they brought lots of jobs to Italians. In recent months, Prato has become a diplomatic point of contention. Italian officials say the Chinese government has not done enough so far to address the issue of illegal immigrants, and they are seeking a bilateral accord with China to identify and deport them. Some Prato residents suspect that the flood of immigrants is part of a strategy by Beijing to exploit the Italian market, though the Chinese government does not generally use illegal migrants to carry out its overseas development plans. Italian officials say Prato is expected to be on the agenda when Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China visits Rome in October. China in Italys Backyard According to the Prato chamber of commerce, the number of Italian-owned textile businesses registered in Prato has dropped in half since 2001 to just below 3,000, 200 fewer than those now owned by Chinese, almost all in the garment sector. Once a major fabric producer and exporter, Prato now accounts for 27 percent of Italys fabric imports from China. Resentment runs high. You take someone from Prato with two unemployed kids and when a Chinese person drives by in a Porsche Cayenne or a Mercedes bought with money earned from illegally exploiting immigrant workers, and this climate is risky, said Domenico Savi, Pratos chief of police until June. According to the Prato mayors office, there are 11,500 legal Chinese immigrants, out of Pratos total population of 187,000. But the office estimates the city has an additional 25,000 illegal immigrants, a majority of them Chinese. With its bureaucracy, protectionist policies and organized crime, Italy is arguably Western Europes least business-friendly country. Yet in Prato, the Chinese have managed to create an entirely new economy from scratch in a matter of years. A common technique used, often with the aid of knowledgeable Italian tax consultants and lawyers, is to open a business, close it before the tax police can catch up, then reopen the same workspace with a new tax code number. The Chinese are very clever. Theyre not like other immigrants, who can be pretty thick, said Riccardo Marini, a textile manufacturer and the head of the Prato branch of Confindustria, the Italian industrialists organization. The difficulty, he added ruefully, is in finding a shared understanding of the rules of the game. Pratos streets have slowly become more and more Chinese, as the Chinese have bought out Italian-owned shops and apartments, often paying in cash. Public schools are increasingly filled with Chinese pupils. Hypocrisy abounds. The people in Prato are ostriches, said Patrizia Bardazzi, who with her husband has run a high-end clothing shop in downtown Prato for 40 years. I know people who rent space to the Chinese and then say, I dont come into the center because there are too many Chinese. They rent out the space and take the money and go to Forte dei Marmi, she added, referring to the Tuscan resort town. A short walk past the citys medieval walls, past the cathedral with Filippo Lippis Renaissance frescoes, lies Via Pistoiese, the heart of Pratos Chinatown. Here, shop signs in Chinese and Italian advertise wedding photography, hardware, electronics and gambling parlors. Outside a supermarket selling foodstuffs imported from China, an electronic job board flashes a running ticker of garment-industry jobs. The work long hours at sewing machines takes place in back-room workshops with makeshift sleeping quarters. The heart of the fast fashion sector is an industrial area on the outskirts of town, Macrolotto, filled with Chinese fashion wholesalers. Here, vans from across Europe line the parking lots as retailers buy Made in Italy clothing to resell back home at a huge markup. By buying in relatively small quantities and taking advantage of the fluid borders of the European Union, most manage to avoid paying import tariffs. On a recent afternoon, a couple from Montenegro loaded racks of cotton summer dresses into boxes in the back of their van. The wife wielded a label gun, tagging each dress Made in Italy. Just blocks away, Li Zhang, who immigrated to Italy in 1991 from Wenzhou, a city in southeastern China known for its global network of entrepreneurs, explained how his clothing company, Luma, produced on-demand fashion. He showed off bolts of fabric, which he said he bought locally or in India or China. He often buys white fabric and has it dyed and cut by other Chinese companies in Prato before giving the pieces to subcontractors to produce the requested items 1,000 green skirts, in a typical example in a matter of weeks, if not days. Mr. Zhang and hundreds of other Chinese like him are at the center of Pratos so-called gray economy, whose businesses are partly above board in that they pay taxes, and partly underground, in that they rely on subcontractors who often use illegal labor. (Asked if his subcontractors used illegal labor, Mr. Zhang laughed and said, Youd have to ask the subcontractors.) Since founding Luma in 1998, Mr. Zhang said, he has exported clothes to 30 countries, including China, Mexico, Venezuela, Jordan and Lebanon. He said that his biggest order was for the Italian retailer Piazza Italia, but that he had also sold to wholesalers who said they had sold to Zara, Mango, Top Shop and Guess, European retailers specializing in bargain chic. The raids, he said, are hindering business, unsettling the local Chinese community to the point that many workers had gone into hiding. People are afraid, Mr. Zhang said. This was a political decision. At first, they left us too free. Now they are tightening things too much. The New Sheriff in Town Much of the tightening comes from Pratos new administration. In 2009, the traditionally left-wing city elected its first right-wing mayor in the postwar era, whose winning campaign tapped into powerful local fears of a Chinese invasion, and who seeks a broader European Union response to Chinese immigration. How can China leave a mark like this in the E.U.? the mayor, Roberto Cenni, asked. Noise, bad habits, prostitution. People cant live anymore. Theyre sick of it. An elegant man in a well-cut gray suit, Mr. Cenni is a former president and a current shareholder of Go-Fin, a Prato holding company that is behind several midrange Italian fashion companies. At least one of these, Sasch, has moved much of its production to China within the last 10 years. Powerless to reverse the broader economic currents, the mayor has instead focused on small initiatives, including new rules that prohibit drying fish on balconies and require all Prato shopkeepers to speak Italian. These have won him praise from some local people, but also criticism for bigotry. The mayor has also stepped up raids on Chinese businesses. Critics say they are little more than media spectacles, but local Chinese have seen them as unwarranted attacks. On a rainy recent morning, a team of police officers, tax collectors and other state officers swooped in on two Chinese workshops in a residential and industrial area just outside Pratos downtown. Tucked behind apartment houses, the garage-like space was filled with rows of sewing machines, with white fabric strewn about and lace shirts lying unfinished on the concrete floor. The police rounded up the workers in the courtyard. A woman in plastic flip-flops carried a black bucket filled with urine downstairs, accompanied by a young boy wearing only underwear. Pantaloni, she told the officers in broken Italian, Pants. O.K., let him put on pants, an amenable officer agreed with a shrug. Next door, the police brought some Chinese workers in a small, windowless bedroom to be identified. A woman in a blue T-shirt sat on the bed and sobbed uncontrollably. The officials sorted through paperwork. This is the last name, right? one asked an interpreter. Between the two workspaces stood a little house with hydrangeas in the yard. The Italian couple in the doorway did not want to reveal their names. Its an ant colony, the man said. Who knows how many? They closed the door and covered up the windows. His cautious wife tugged on his arm. You cant get into these discussions, she said, drawing him back inside. Soon an owner of the workspace came in from his home down the block. Paolo Bonaiuti, 73, a tall man with white hair, blue eyes and a look of unflappability, waved his lease, showing that he rented out the space for $2,220 a month. To judge from their expressions, the police officers did not look as if they believed it. Italys Immigration Woes But crackdowns like these can only do so much. In the first half of this year, the authorities raided 154 Chinese-owned businesses out of more than 3,000. To do the job, Wed need an army of people, said Lina Iervasi, the head of the Prato Police Departments immigration office. Earlier this year, several officers in that office were arrested on charges that they took bribes in exchange for granting residence permits. We dont go on the hunt for the illegal immigrants. Were not so crazy as to do that, said Mr. Savi, the former police chief. But we seek a balance between norms and reality. That balance has been strikingly hard to find. Many illegal Chinese immigrants arrive by bus from Russia or the Balkans, and either destroy their passports or give them away to the organized crime groups that help bring them. Many others overstay their tourist visas. Italy has a 20th-century immigration law; it tends to think of immigrants as a phenomenon linked to work, in which people move from poor countries to rich ones, said Andrea Frattani, a former social welfare commissioner in Pratos previous center-left government. Instead, he argued, what Italy is witnessing in Prato is a precise strategy on the part of the Chinese government to create an economic foothold in Europe. Asked at a recent public appearance if that was the case, Chinas ambassador to Italy, Ding Wei, said only that Prato had been a central issue in his portfolio since he arrived in the spring, and that he had sent advisers to investigate. Ive been very attentive to resolving the question of Prato, which is unique and particular, he said in late July. It should not have an impact on the cooperation between our countries. Italians in Prato are feeling less sanguine. At 20, I was sure the world was mine, said Mr. Nesi, 45, the culture commissioner and a writer whose family sold its three-generation, high-end textile business in 2004. Its hard to accept that all this happened in a short time, he said, bewildered. It makes us feel old and without hope. The problems will not be resolved easily. Theres no plan, said Xu Qiu Lin, a local entrepreneur and the only Chinese member of Confindustria in Prato, echoing a widespread sentiment. Theres no plan; thats the problem. Gaia Pianigiani contributed reporting.

My first rep was an Omega Speedmaster, at 40 mm. For a year or so I seldom wore it because I leaned toward the 42-44 mm watches (I also have skinny wrists). The last year or so I enjoy the Speedmaster more and the largest Pams a bit less. The Speedmaster is another awesome watch for you to consider.

This article from the Wall Street Journal left me speechless. --jk Only in Japan, Real Men Go to a Hotel With Virtual Girlfriends Dating-Simulation Game a Last Resort For Honeymoon Town and Its Lonely Guests By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI ATAMI, Japan

Sold. Heck, I'm just curious how he determined that it was "in 93% condition." Not 91%? Not 95%? If gen and in 90%+ condition, then he's giving it away. Beware.

The EEC expanded too quickly and should have maintained stricter admission standards. They're paying the price, which is severe for the poorer and richer members alike. It even impacts those of us in the U.S. who own stocks or work in businesses that rely on trade with the EU countries. But those setbacks will be less severe and shorter than the setbacks experienced by our European friends. What I most wonder about, though, is what the consequences of the EU crisis will be for European non-member countries such as Switzerland. Will they fare better because they stayed out of the EU, or will they be dragged down along with their neighbors?