mbjoer

Good to hear. Will provisionally book for 8 persons. However I have to have confiations. I will then respond tomorrow morning to everyone who has responded. By 10 am you will know if it is on.

Here is a suggestion: Lunch on the 24th. If we meet at about 1 we should have time for all to get there and get away when needed. I do not know many places in or near Paddington, but there is a very good and not too pricey Italian reasaurant in Little Venice called The Red Pepper. The area is a very charming part of London and walking distance from Paddington. PM me if interested.

Seems that there is not much enthusiasm for this initiative. What a shame!! It would be great to meet some other geeks and certainly the Chief in town is a great occation. But I do wish the chief a great time in the UK and hope that he will enjoy it!!

The watch market is not that different from the arts and antiques markets, and in all these original versions of clearly recognisable names commands an enormous premium. However beautifully made there is no museum which will exhibit a Picasso which is not by Picasso. And none of his paintings reach their acution price because the materials used are valuable. Similarly a non-Rolex will never hold a long term value the way a genuine will. However well it is made, the market will always prefer the original by a wide margain. So here is a problem with frankens and other reps: Over time they will depreciate to 0, sometimes very fast. Genuine watches however may well hold their value, and even increase over time. The value of Reps remains that they are cheap and look expensive. So in that way they are fun at least. But whatever you spend is basically a sunk cost.

Reading the above it seems that the 24th would be best. It's fine for me. I would suggest to meet in a central London location, not too far from a tube station. Knightsbridge would be fine for me if that suits other memebers.

Picot today. The blue tint works well with the yellow strap:

Alvinado has procured a good set of pictures demonstrating diferences between Gen rolex versions. Go to the very end of this thread: http://www.replica-watch.info/vb/showthread.php/pick-expensive-one-54347.html

I just found this review by Pix of the Portuguese quartz: http://www.replica-watch.info/vb/showthread.php/iwc-quartz-portuguese-cure-7750-22327.html Perhaps that can help you?

The Gen does not come as a quartz. Also the quartzie has a different sub-dial placement and mineral crystal. I have never seen it in real life. The automatic you found is the one which has issues. Be prepared that it could cost you a fortune. It is pretty though.....

As you seem to have discovered the automatic chrono rep is one of the most problematic watches discussed here. Beautiful and totally unreliable. The one you have found is probably as good a quality as you will get. Quartz is very reliable. If you like it, go for it. For the price you will certainly not risk much

Breguet time in England. I don't really like the bracelet, so soon it should have a leather strap instead.

Once a date is fixed I would be very interested. Could lend a house for the occation, but I am an hour west of Paddington. It would be great to meet the faces behind the avatars.

Sorry not to agree with this one. Your statement almost makes the seller seem clever. Scamming is wrong and unforgiveable and only the scammer can be blamed here. That is why so many members here support anti-scamming activities.

OK - Did so, for the first time. This is the automated reply I received from Ebay: We'll review what you've reported for violations of our replicas, counterfeit items, and unauthorized copies policy. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We'll review the listing or post carefully. If we determine that it violates eBay policy, we may: -- send the seller a warning -- remove the listing -- limit the seller's buying and selling privileges We usually won't suspend a seller's account unless the seller has violated our policies multiple times. To protect the privacy of our members, we don't share what actions we choose to take. We may also send your report to the rights owner for review. If the rights owner believes that the item is infringing, they may choose to send eBay a formal request to remove the listing. To find out more about how eBay protects intellectual property, please visit: http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/programs-vero-ov.html For more information about our replicas, counterfeit items, and unauthorized copies policy please visit: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/replica-counterfeit.html

Any rep strap is far inferior to the watch itself and should be changed. So if $200 is your budget I would go with a Portuguese 1939 or an F A Jones (from Trevor or Mary) and get a strap from the Watch Boys. This way you will get a great and good looking watch within your budget

On a photo it is not obvious as MBW has the same dial lay-out as the sec @12. In my book that is the greatest negative with sec @ 9. I hate incorrectly functioning dials. What they should have done is to change the dial lay-out so it was clear that the dial @ 9 is the seconds. In that way the watch would be fully plausible, if incorrect. Practically no one would know the difference. Now it really looks fake. Any untrained eye can tell that the secs are running on the wrong dial. I have one and wear it with the chrono running. In that way the small second is much less noticeable. And the above rant aside it is a nice watch.

Agree. The other issue is if it is well done. I am sitting with my Black Themes on a grey day in England, and the lume looks really good. Or would do so if it was nicely done.... But on the basis of what you said, I think I just might do it to the Paris. Now just need to get it first....

Thanks for this input. I am considering having it sent off for AR treatment immediately (have already had my Black Themes and Jumbo AR treated and it was well worth it in my opinion) and just wondering if I should have the lume done at the same time. It would make it cheaper than having it done later. Now not really sure if it is worth it having a re-lume if you say "just OK". Would you do it?

I really like this one. Congrats!! I think it is based on a titanium and smaller Gen with white datewheel so not sure if that qualifies as fantasy... . Thinking about getting it myself. But how is the Anti Refelx and the lume on it?

Funny one that one. The tourbi may be real, but the moonphase is not...

Here are some I came across earlier: http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2009/10/27/nice-watches/ and http://blog.perpetuelle.com/index.php/watch-news/narco-bling-the-watches-of-mexican-drug-kingpins/

Sure: Hope that helps.

We all start somewhere with this hobby and not all our purchases are equally succesful. As one of my first reps I bought a Patek Nautilus from Watcheden. As I remember it was a special offer $20 cheaper than normal (....but without the option of deducting $20 as I could have done had it not been an "offer" LOL....) I think I paid something like $80 landed in the UK. Prior to buying this I had never looked closely at the Nautilus series. And this one looked pretty good on the website. So I bought it and received it without any issues. This is what I got: For the price there are limits to what one can expect in terms of replication, but how does it stand up on its own? In my opinion it is a visually pretty watch. It has 21J movement, white dial with hour, minute and second hands and a light blue subdial with 3 hands which are non-functioning. The case is nicely made, if a bit chunky and the dial looks really good with slightly unusual colours. All set off nicely by the deep red leather strap. The crown is not too bad: The back of the watch is interesting. The rotor is decorated and the caseback has hallmarks. So full points for trying. But unfortunately it is all very basic. So while it can be made to look good on a picture, it could never convince even an untrained eye that this is a white gold Patek. The buckle is etched and not engraved: The strap is leather and not alligator, and somewhat rough where it meets the watch head: And here is what I have found the funniest: The number sequence on the subdial: That has mostly sounded rather negative. Non functioning hands, cheap case back and funny dial. Why do I still have it? Well...... Because I actually like it! With all its faults I keep remembering that it was really cheap. It works well. And if you just look at it as a piece of accessory without trying to impress anyone it actually looks good. So I wear it. And from time to time get a laugh when I show others my rep. Would I buy the same watch today? No, definitely not. But now that I have it it has been used and abused and I have been satisfied with the investment so far. However I will need to get a new strap sometime and am not sure how to get a decent one without paying more than this one can justify. The odd shape could just make it too expensive to replace the existing one. Finally a few wrist shots:

Take a look at this thread which shows the strap you ask about and comes up with some other options as well: http://www.replica-watches-guide.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2089&st=20

In that case .....MORE PICS PLS!! Also tell: How is the AR? It is really nice this one.