mbjoer

Thanks for this. Breguet gets too little attention on the fora in my opinion. I am always wondering to what extent the watch feels right. Not how accurate the placement of dials or date font is, but the extent to which it has the intricate detailing to make it feel plausible as a Breguet. I have a Breguet chrono rep. It has one of the most beautiful dials I have seen in the rep-world. But the case and crown are not up to standard. So a really nice rep, but not totally convincing as a Breguet. Things like lume and AR can be done subsequently. But if the dial hasn't got the detialing and the case looks cheap that cannot be corrected. How is all this on yours? Does it feel like a Breguet?

An amazing no of watches there!!! I thought I was a serious case of compulsive rep shopping, but this has beaten me hands down. And I am certain that I would not have persisted if I had had so many problems. As to my experiences, I have had almost no problems with the ones I have bought from my preferred dealer, Mary @ Watchinternational. You should try her. She really does inspect the watches prior to shipment and is a nice person on top of it. But nor have I had issues with timeshop, Hont, Aoobuy or Watcheden, from whom I have also bought watches. You have been very unlucky, I think. Here is a little write-up about a specific experience I had with Watchinternational:

@Ubi: Maybe your collection is small. But it is very select and your pictures are great. This is how I thought I would have liked it. - Intead I ended up with many more watches, and more on the wish list. Addiction???

It is a pretty watch this one. Unfortunately there are very few decent reps of high end watches, but strangely there are quite a few pretty bad ones in $100 bracket. Strangely because these watches so obviously are fakes whereas there are a great number of excellent reps of much cheaper watches. What to me makes them bad is not issues like the placement of lume dots or subidals. It is rather the extent to which the rep really looks and feels like a top end watch or just a cheap watch with a fancy name stuck on to it. Deep engravings, detailed dials, perfect placement of numbers, etc. Personally I have a problem with rep chronos that are not chronos. That alone will keep me away from this one. A main thing about high end reps is that they should be plausible. It is not plausible to me that AP would introduce a watch with numbered weekdays set by a separate button. Also I have yet to see an AP, Breguet, Lange or Vacheron at this price which has a nice case, dial and crystal. There are two unfortunate things in this game: * One is that high end watches cost money, even when they are reps (although a top rep can still be had for a small fraction of the Gen). If it is a high end watch they replicate it would make some sense if it costs more to replicate as more attention will have to go into the detailing. * The other is that the repmakes mostly make top reps of high end sports watches. I guess that dress watches are not selling that much. This means that if you are looking for a dress watch, you may have to look a bit further. Not impossible, but don't expect miracles.

I have one too ... It works at the moment and looks great. Mine has been graphite treated, serviced, AR treated and given an alligator strap. So I hope it will continue to work for some time. In these threads the warning about the standard reps must be repeated. The reps are of an exceedingly poor quality and should only be sold to people prepared to spend considerable amounts of money sorting their watches (or be prepared to use them as paper weights...) Personally I do not use mine much as I expect it to crash on me any minute.

Great and informative review. Unfortunately it may cost me money.... Small questions: Have you had it pressure tested? And how is AR?

He is in Thailand at the moment, so will find out when he is back. But thanks for pointing that out to me.

QC for sure. In particular have the watches pressure tested. There is no bigger tell then having to take off a sports watch to aviod it getting wet. This test would not cost much, but avoid considerable additional costs afterwards. Also (although this may be an issue for makers rather than dealers) get proper straps. Rep straps suck. And it should not be nessecary to pay more for the strap than for the watchhead.

@ Gran: Only saw your posting today..... - a bit late. Sorry!! I admit not to know too much about movements. However I have in my hand a Zenith el Primero with moonphase. The dial configuration and the movement appear totally similar to the one shown here and it is a proper and well functioning moonphase watch. Hence my assumption that the one shown here is also a proper moonphase movement.

It certainly does. Thanks. Will shoot him a PM straight away.

Thanks for this. Guess that is the remaining part of Oracle's activities??? Anyhow have decided for a hornback. It just looks so good. But from where? HKTan seems to have a good name, but how well will his strap fit?

I have had mine waterproofed by Domi. Never actually tried the chrono under water, but other than that it works well. As to pressure requirement, the 5 atm is the standard recommendation. My own experience is that of a cheap chrono (not an HBB) which I have swum with regularly without any problems. It was finally tested a couple of months ago and only passed 2 atm. I still use it and still have no problems.

I fear that may be the case. This has not worked for quite some time, so was hoping there was another link....

Thanks for this, guys. Do you have a link to Oracle handy?

I have just received an MBW Safari on an SS bracelet, but would like a good strap. Is there anything I need to be aware of before I go ahead and buy it? And any inspirational pictures??

A second hand Gen can be had for about $3,000. Such a watch is likely to keep its value pretty well and will be possible to sell anywhere. For better or worse, even the best Franken versions will remain reps. I have a problem paying about 1/3 of the price of a Gen for a rep. Even though it looks like Concepta makes a beautiful and workable one, that is just too much relative to the Gen.

If it is pressure tested there should be no problems. If you can trust your watchmaker to have done so, why any concerns? I have generally found that reps are not waterproof out of the box. Some are, but most have to visit Briciola before I take to the water. So far I have had no reason not to trust him. As to what pressure you will need for normal swimming, my own experience goes against the recommendations provided by the factories. For years - before I went mad with res - I have had a beater which almost daily went swimming. Then because I was concerned about reps I had it pressure tested together with my reps. It turned out only to be able to take 2 atm. That is well under the 5 atm recommended for swimming. However it has never taken in a droplet of water and I still use it (I keep it in my gym bag for when I wear a formal watch which will not go swimming with me ). Needless to say it still performs. Still, best to make sure that it is tested to at least 3 atm. But don't panic if that is as far as it goes.

Great thread this one! Quartz is unfairly a step child of the fora. And the rep makers. In my opinion all collections should have some quartz. If you have too many watches (like more than 3...) you will need a winder or a quartz to have at least one watch that tells you the time. Wearing one does not make you look more of a poser than wearing any other incorrect rep. And as we know, all reps are incorrect. The main issues are how incorrect and to what extent the incorrections irritate yourself as an owner. Personally I only expect a rep to be plausible. So I assume that any Rolex is very recognisable and a quartz Rollie is therefore not plausible. But nor is an automatic Daytona with faux chronos or any Rollie which is not waterproof. In fact having to take off your sports watch to avoid it getting wet is a much bigger tell than a ticking sub-dial. Most makes are pretty unknown to Joe Public. So if the watch is well built and looks good it is plausible even if it is quartz. And some of the purists here might be surprised to know that there are quartz versions of most top brand Swiss watches. Even Rolex. In fact the most valuable Gen I have is a gold IWC with a quartz movement. So back to recommendations: I just received the following two watches: B+R without seconds subdial. No way you can tell if it is automatic or not. Looks good, but will need waterproofing: http://www.watcheden.com/bell-ross-br-02-94-working-chronograph-with-black-dial-and-rubber-strap-new-version-i-16073-p-1.html Corum Admiral's Cup with incorrect dials but small seconds. I am not concerned about the placement of the dials. They look good as they are and the watch is nicely built, even if this too needs to be water proofed: http://www.watcheden.com/corum-admiral-s-cup-working-chrono-with-blue-dial-same-structure-as-7750-version-high-quality-i-29359-p-1.html Now I shall look forward to even more recommendations on this thread. Perhaps it might even lead to a Quartz sub-forum?

Domi uses FineDD on RWI. I have had a few done there and am pleased with the result, even though I cannot compare to what others make.

On this list should be any WM9 non-Rolex(Nautilus and Royal Oak). I recently bought a Nautilus said to be from WM9, but could find no references to this one or other non-Rollies. So I am really not sure. Anyone has information/pictures??

Agree really great rep. But think still available from Timesshop. I got one from there a few months ago.

Not sure I understand the question as there seems to be quite a few reps out there with a Seagull (often referred to as Lemania or Venus) moonphase movement. I have a Zenith El Primero chrono like this one:http://www.perfect-hour.com/zn10002-primero-chronomaster-ssle-white-venus-chrono-p-4559.html It seems to keep track pretty well, although I have not managed to keep it going for a full month to test the accuracy. It has a button on the side to set the moonphase so none of the problems mentioned with the PP Nautilus above. But as the rest of the movement keeps time pretty well I have no reason to suspect that the moonphase would not do so as well.

Good to hear that there are success stories out there. Still the survey on RG showed a failure rate of move than 50%. That is in my book totally unacceptable.

Generally I would not consider a gen over a rep if a good rep exists. But that is frequently not the case. There may be no rep at all or just plain bad ones like the IWC Portuguese which looks good but has a crap movement. Also consider that if you buy a carefully chosen gen second hand, it is unlikely to loose much value (it might even increase in value) and easy to sell later. Reps are pretty impossible to sell (unless you can do so on one of the fora) and as such are pure consumption. What I really dont get is $1,000+ frankens. They are at times not much less than the second hand gen and remain fakes even if some bits are gen.

Agree that this is not a good rep, but not because there is a problem with the movement. It is a Lemania based Seagull ST19. As Breguet actually owned Lemania for some time this one makes some sense here. The movemenet supports moonphase and not day/night. And it has a good reputation for reliability.