ammandel

Wow, thats an incredible gift to recieve.. Did you know you were going to recieve it or was it a surprise?

I have to disagree guys, the cyclops AR (or lack of) is extremely, extremely noticable. When you say 'gen owners' thats like a huge generalisation isnt it. Sure, I know gen owners who arent familiar with the latest Rolex line up, I showed my Gen GMT2C to a friend of mine who owns a 16610 and he seems to think it was below the Sub in the range and didn't even realise it was a latest design. Alternatively any gen owner who is familiar with the latest ranges and has even seen/owned Rolex with the cyclops AR, it is extremely evident, there is just no glare from the cyclops at all. Comparing the cyclops gen 16610 vs gmt2c there is just no contest, 16610's glare almost obscures the date alot of the time. edit: Oh but to add, aside from this.. incredible, incredible replica. Amazing that they got it so right really. Shows you what they can do if they are *really* trying

This is one of my favourite wristies I've ever taken. I'm not sure whether I'm seeing something special about it that just isnt really there since its my own work. The idea was to really give the truest to life impression of the watch and its settings. I wanted the photo to show how my eye really sees it, exactly how it sees it. I liked showing the whole arm in the photo as you would glimpse at your watch in the daytime, in its real, true environment, with a size relative to how you would view it in person. On my 19" 1280x1024 monitor it displays at almost 1:1. The other really important factor for me was to really capture the clarity of the GMT IIC, a feature that I rarely see captured in pictures of it, including my own. When you look at this watch on a sunny day, the whole dial just has the most immense 'jumping out' feature. It's different to AR, and something which I find superior to AR, the jet black with pure white markers and the crystal that Rolex use is just truely unreal. There is absolutely no distortion and the way it handles glare is incredible. That along with the AR'd cyclops make for extremely clear legibility and capturing that whole sense of contrast was really what I was going for.

A wristie marking my return home from holiday and return then, to the boards!

I just burst out laughing reading this.. there has to be alcohol involved here.

TJ, I apologise for patronising you. I simply don't believe that involvement in the rep world in general goes hand in hand with hatred for luxury goods. To me, it looks like you are aspiring to own a Rolex.. and if you aren't then I don't understand why you have reps in the first place? There are plenty of other watches out there that look similar. Surely searching for luxury items/replicas is how you ended up here in the first place? I think this discussion *is* complex, because you are critising other peoples actions in certain ways. I think that other's actions is causing a secondary effect that you are linking to items. I'm having trouble trying to explain this, and explain it in a diplomatic way.. My observation (and not that it means much obviously..) is that you seem so affected by others bragging/flashiness that this behaviour is leading you to dislike the items and what they they represent to your perception of that individual. You don't want to think that you are like 'that guy who wears the Gen Sub and thinks hes something special because of it'. But this is going beyond the item itself and really linking it to other individuals rather than items. I don't suppose this is really worth getting deep into, I certainly dont want to insult you at all TJ. I just find your views very unique given the subject matter of our niche.

I don't think the feeling of owning a gen can be realised 'trying it on' in the AD, if you had owned one then sold it a little while later.. I would have understood. This is a complex point to discuss, perhaps you like the 1680 dial not because of the design but because of the associated heritage of the original piece itself, branding, marketing and all! You'd really have seen a normal

Interesting topic, and discussions like this come up over and over. It's kinda part and process of the whole essence of our hobby. That beyond the items themselves, they hold a secret intruige! So, let me start by saying; we on this forum sometimes take it way too far. Because watches is our 'thing' we forget that most people simply don't notice what watch your wearing in the first place. Beyond that, I think I could ask numerous amounts of people if they knew what 'Hublot' and 'Panerai' are, to recieve no response. This is an extremely important factor, because while you're worrying about what wearing a rep is gonna do for your image and credibility, you're forgetting most people won't ever even notice. Think about it; before you had the interest in watches you do now, did you really look at other peoples wrists in public? It was my understanding that most of us at this stage in the hobby (actual replica 'collectors') quite simply love watches, and good watch design. People are buying the designs they like as if they had the choice and money wasn't 'so much' of an issue. I don't think theres any question that if we could all own gens of all the watches we wanted we would (bar the exception of the modding few that really love being part of the process). Wearing replicas is purely aspirational, people love something to aspire to after all. I had to giggle abit when I read this, and it's meant as no offense.. but are you actually suggesting 65-70% of Americans are middle class? In an ideal world this is how it would be, and actually its this type of distribution that Obama talks about constantly. 'Spreading the wealth' as it were, to get that kind of figure. As it stands however, that is highly inaccurate. TJ your input always interests me, because I feel like you feel slightly resentful towards gens and the gen industry in general. Yet I wonder why you don't purchase sterile dials if you are not guilty of the same emulation and aspiration to the branding and aspiration to the luxury goods market in general. I think you personally promote the idea of utilitarian usage and enjoyment of the products, however ownership of Replica Rolex and Louis Vuitton would go beyond this! Because after all, it is the wearing the rep of a Rolex that has contributed highly to Rolex's renowned global brand status in the first place.

hahahaha busted!

One on the right looks gen to me. I'd even go as far as to say it looks like it has the gen 'finish' and shine.

This thread made me laugh a little.. A norweigan politician flashes a rep! Does this mean he will be a liar and a fake!? I havn't had time to really study the photo but it looks KINDA gen to me, hour markers look good and the SELS have a great fit and CG's look good. The date.. however, looks a little bold (perhaps its different on the TT), took a pic of my gen with the date set to 25 for you to decide: but the AR'd cyclops can look like this at certain angles. I think if the cyclops didnt have AR at this angle the date would actually be obscured by glare (like a Submariner). Now I come to think about it, I'm a little undecided!

This is exactly my point, these features arent actually part of the watch itself, so rep makers are making exactly the same thing.. Why? Don't they have the same complications and tolerences?

Off the back of what you've just said Ubi. Surely the real problem is that if the chinese rep makers can make the same quality pieces as these 'refined swiss experts' then we are simply paying too much for Gens, or believing too much in them. What I mean is, the real 'tell' should be the fit, quality of finish and 'feel' of a Gen. It 'should' be unreplicatable to be worthy of its status.. All the gens have huge marketing jargon behind them: "This piece was individually forged by hand in the depths of mount doom, and has taken 10 years to complete", but if the Chinese can make exactly the same watch bar the movement then surely something is wrong here! Really if anything, the rep industry is now basically exposing much of the gen watch market for its overinflated pricing and self important marketing. You know; I've used this example before.. but I'd like someone to really point out the real reason behind owning a gen 16610 over a WM9 without regurgitating Rolex marketing Jargon, talking about resale value, or mentioning the servicing. (Lets overlook the End link fit) ..and thats using a Rolex as an example. A name synonomous with 'perfection' that constantly tells us how much effort and great machinery it takes to create their pieces. At this point, aside from the whole 'zen' of gen ownership which is essentially created by marketing, I cannot begin to think why I would purchase a gen yellow seawolf. What can the gen possibly offer me that the rep does not. What would Breitling say it offers me? The ability to send it in for a

Nice entry db2! I think its great that your putting in an entry if you've never done anything like this before! Incredible!

This thread is gettin no interest! Time to kick this up a gear..!

I'm really picky when it comes to the details; so I've made another amendment to my entry:

Had a great idea, but this is kinda badly executed. Shoulda used my 5D Mk II and some nice lens filt.. Oh wait - I don't have one..

Happy Bday KB!!! Congrats!

Wow, this post is absolutely incredible. Thankyou so much for sharing your wonderful pictures and stories.

I've changed my mind, there was something niggling me about that last image. It was the reds.. This one is better: Yeah, this is better I think.

I'm not gonna make a full set of them unless the design gets picked, because its just too much work. Obviously, trophys and colour pallettes would differ for each place, #2 would be Silver, 3rd bronze etc Lettering would change for each place obviously, and I'd come up with a tagline for each award. Expert #1 = "I'm the Super Shooter", Expert #2 = "Call me The View Finder". I dunno.. stuff like that. I had a couple of other ideas too but since you are making this into a 'competition for the competition' I guess we should limit entries to 1 each.

I'll see what I can come up with, thinking of some concepts at the moment

Abit confused with life generally, I thought I'd make use of todays beautiful sun and see if I could cheer myself up with a combination of things I enjoy, photography and watches! Thought I'd share with you guys, having the ability to share my photos of watches with people that are actually interested to see them is something I really appreciate. So thanks for giving me a wonderful opportunity through use of this forum guys! Still using a camera phone, I really need to get around to buying a DSLR at some point, I just want to know that I've taken myself as far as I can with the camera phone as a photographer, using angles and lighting in this "prime lens" (no zoom) manner before I make the leap! I wasn't sure which of these photos were better? You decide and let me know! I love the serifs on the date wheel! Does the rep have this? Hope you enjoyed! Tell me what you liked and didn't. I can take the critisism and it'll help me to grow as a photographer, you can never see your own pictures the same way others see them unfortunately!

Having abit of a difficult time at the moment, but still trying to keep my forum activity up! GMT IIc still

GMT IIc obviously doesn't really suit your tastes imo Teej, you'd just get it and want to mangle it and thats not really the right look for it Go vintage, its definately more 'you' and utilitarian.