mbjoer

You may have to sign up with RWI. But that is no bad thing. It is another excellent rep-forum which complements this one very well.

Get your budget clear. Find some you like. Do a seach on each of them. For the more popular models you will get plenty of info. Then look for a dealer you like the sound of from the "collectors" area on the forum. For your first watch you would probably want one that is pretty good out of the box. So avoid any with a leather strap. In the rep-world only rubber and steel seems to be OK, and a good leather/croc/gator strap can be expensive. When you have done all that, and received your first succesful acquisition, go and book a space on the re-hab. From now on you will be addicted...

One day - with a bit of luck - the wise men of RWG will figure a way of calling dealers dealers. That will make life a lot more simple for new members.

Fakemaster has a really good list of scammers on RWI: http://www.replica-watch.info/vb/showthread.php/replica-watch-scam-dealer-list-44299.html This one is not on the list, but I have just asked him to add it.

Back to the question, why many reps instead of one gen? I know a lot of people who really wonder why you might want more than one watch at all. To them the one watch is a fundamental part of their image and being a Rolex person or Patek person is very different to them. I am not like that. I have a very wide range of brands and models. The watches are accessories and I happily change to fit the mood I am in. - And what I wear. There is no way I would do that with Gens. In most cases their prices are rediculously inflated. By hype, advertising and profits. So I have reps. And they are great. Yesterday I was mr Patek, now I am mr Breitling. Great fun. Most (but not all) of my reps are really high quality watches, and now that I know how to get information about reps I am happy to Ohhh and Ahhh when I find an even better one to enhance my collection. Yet I have recently found a Seiko which is both affordable and to my liking. So in the lower end I may still play with gens.

Ohhh. That would be nice!! Anyhow, well done for surviving the first year. Always the most diffciult. Long may it continue.

I have a ROO sec@12 with some issues. Now I am considering to get a quartz version (so-called similar to 7750)and use parts from there. But I am not sure whih parts are the same. In particular I am wondering about the dial. Anyone knows?

There are quite a few reommended dealers here. Look up the collectors forum and use the searh funtion to see who suits you best. My recommendation will be Mary @ Watchinternational. She is here as apprentice collector. (Collector is the mis-normer used on the site for dealers - apprentice here becuase she is new. I used her before she appeared on this forum). Her service is really good, her communication the best I have had and her pricing is reasonable. But you may have other criteria like location of the dealer or website. Hope this will help you. And good luck with your initial purchases.

Here are a couple of AR's he had made for me (he does not do it himself):

Hmmm Not the most detailed answer here....

Not that long ago I thought that I noticed a new name on the dealers list, enjoywatches.com, Apprentice Collector. Seemed they had a couple of things that I would be interested in, but now they are gone again. Does my memory fail me? Were they never there? Or what happened?

A few others appeared on the Geek and RWI today: Weekday specials: and Omega Seaspeed:

There is now a new dealer here. Or apprentice dealer. And where does one find this new one - and the old ones? Under......Hmmmmmmmm......What???........Collectors????????????????? A collector keeps his stuff. Like you and me. A dealer tries to get rid of his. Why not call them what they are and make it easy for noobs to navigate this forum? The current heading is a complete mis-normer and I do wonder how it got that name in the first place..... :)

Thanks for that. Guess I will have to. Irritating.....

Yes. But the Royal Mail sias it can only track when it is here (or not lost here...) and so far they cannot trace it. Does the Royal Mail track as soon as it is in the UK (ie before customs) or only when released from customs?

I have dealt with quite a few dealers on the various fora. And I can genuinely say that Mary has been the best I have come across by far. She is helpful, pro-active, her English is excellent and her pricing competitive. A very unusual combination. It is very good news that you have now discovered her as well, and all I can say to her is: Wellcome here and keep up the excelent service.

I am awaiting a packet from the US. All the USPS tracking says is Item accepted on Oct 5. Then nothing. The Royal Mail tracking system does not recognise the tracking no. How long does it normally take? And at what stage will the USPS tracking state anything more?

Just clicked on the links to rwg and they no longer direct to the correct place. Guess there are other aspects of the guide that also have changed over time....... Time for an update?

How about using it as a belt buckle??????? :D :D Shame about the size though. If it was half the size it would look really good.

What's the longest it has taken to send it? Normally it takes a couple of weeks with USPS, but I am now past 3 weeks with one, and all the tracking says is that it was sent on 5 Oct...

Is there a fix?

Sometimes the wrapping is better than the contents....:-)

How about blowing life into this idea? It seems that there may be interest from outside the UK as well. So perhaps somewhere near Heathrow airport? How about 1st weekend in December?

Just reading makes me loose my breath. Not only an outstanding collection, but excellent pictures. Highly useful for those of us who still need to make up our minds. Or not perhaps. I now want a lot of watches I previously deleted from the list..... PS Which of all these watches do not get wrist time???