mbjoer

This may not be as bad as you think. I have had a number of packages from the US that all took a minimum of 2 weeks to arrive. Also I have yet to hear about a customs issue from the Americas to the UK. And if that IS the case, I would expect a note to arrive from the UK customs to the recepient. Add up min 2 weeks, a postal strike here, no note from the customs and the fact that I have x-ed my fingers, hopefully your parcel will arrive safely. Good luck!

Nice. Hopefully some good VC (and PP, Breguet and Lange) reps will come of this trend.

Nice. Surprised to see the two new ones seem the same size. I always thought the RB was huge.....:-) I too just had my Black Themes AR treated. Looks so much better. But now I want the cyclop treated as well. Not sure if possible.

From time to time I come across some pretty funny rep-blunders, and was wondering if you had any good ones to show here as well. To kick off here is a Vach...what??: And a Patek..... apparently made in Germany: And finally another Patek (where I could not lift the picture properly). Note how they count the seconds: http://www.repgeek.com/showthread.php?t=64073&highlight=nautilus

Perhaps we are discussing a range of issues here. One is the extent to which you can retain rights towards the holder of the brand, such as warranties. I do not think that was what was intended with the question. The issue I am focucing on is the brand holders rights towards others. To what extent can they prevent you from altering their producs or even copying them. Here I doubt that there are specific laws governing watches. So I would suggest that there is a sliding scale ranging from copying (illegal) to repair (legal - even with non gen parts). In between is the point where a franken moves from illegal to legal. Assuming that there is an attempt to sell the franken (with full disclosure of the work performed), I would suggest that the manufacturer does not retain rights beyond the point of the original sale unless any aspect of the product which is covered by copyright has been illegally copied. They can refuse you service, but not the right to sell it on. The problem Rolex might face in this context is the extent to which a part (say a watch case) is sufficiently distinct to be covered by those rights. I certainly do not think that changing the movement on its own would be enough for a case to be succesful for Rolex. I do think that a rep dial with the Rolex name and crown would be enough. In between is a huge grey area to be tested by the courts.

Has this ever been tested in a court room? I could imagine that Rolex' lawyer might make such a statement, but it sounds unlikely that US law should be so fundamentally different from other legal systems. Even if it is the law, it sounds rather uninforcable. Where would you draw the line? Not OK to franken a watch, but OK to franken a car? I would agree though that a full disclosure of any non-gen parts will have to take place to avoid claims of fraud and forgery.

There are a few legal precedents defining the borderline between fake and original. You are correctly identifying that the intent is an important aspect. If your intention is to deceive anyone for financial gain it will be illegal whatever the components. If however you make it clear that there are non-original components in the watch when selling it on the case becomes much less obvious. There was a case some years ago where a Schiele painting was sold by a major auction house as an original. It was subsequently proved to have been "improved" on, although the basic painting probably was original. In this case the painting was deemed to be a forgery and the auction house had to pay damages. But no criminal charges were brought in this case. If by contrast a VW was fitted with the Spirit of Ecstacy, no one would think it was Rolls-Royce and the worst that could be claimed would be trade-mark infringement. I am not aware of any cases where an infringement succesfully has been won against a party who did not infringe for financial gain. I may be wrong about this though, and the definition of financial gain could be rather wide (like when the improved VW is used for publicity). So as long as you do not attempt to pass your franken on as a Gen my guess is that you might be OK. In countries with strict trade-mark laws, it might require a substantial percentage of the total to be original. My guess is that any parts carrying the trade name or logo would have to be gen to pass such a test.

I have not been able to get in today. Had precisely the same problem on RWI yesterday. I guess 3 out of 4 is enough for 1 day.......

@ wombat: Agree, the dial is not my favourite. However caseback and in particular movement are very nice. So perhaps worth it asking if the dial/caseback pics have been mixed here. But looking closely I doubt it. @ fxr: What is your wife's watch?

I reset my password yesterday and it worked until this afternoon. Now I have a problem which I experienced on Repgeek as well. When I log in, the server initially confirms (Thank you for logging in...) but then does not do so anyway. This problem has appeared fairly recently on Repgeek, but when I mentioned it,it seems that not all members were affected. I think it is just some sort of over-load of the servers, and hope both fora will be sorted soon.

Good. And when you get it, pls post pics and a quick review!!! :-)

What is this one: Nicely decorated, but I don't know what it is. Description says Venus, but it does not look like the standard Sea-gull. Who makes it, and in which watches is it found?

I'd be interested.

Im back in now. The funny thing is that this problem seems only to hit some members. Hmmmmmmm

Yes, thanks me for loging in.....but then doesn't. At least the server is polite

But is the rep with moonphase or day/night?

I have seen that a quartz version of the 42mm Vacheron Constantin Overseas exists. From the description it looks similar to the automatic versions. So a couple of questions: * How does it compare to the automatic versions (except for the movement)? and * Is it a fantasy (the smaller ladies GEN is apparently a quartz watch?

Not aware of anyone in Germany, but there is a guy on Repgeek called hijack who I am considering testing with the same watch. I have seen some really quite hot results of a relume out there....

Interesting pieces. Great to see a collector with an independent mindset!!

Jeeez! When I see your photos, I (almost)forget about the watches. These pics are from another planet. Keep them comming!!

Recently got this one back from Domenico. Graphite treated and with AR treatment it looks great. AND it works......(at least for now......):

Just a thought: Has any rep actually been seen to increase in value over time?

Unfortunately this one makes Breguet seem positively cheap. But it is soooooooooo nice: Description: Ultra-Thin Perpetual Calendar - 37mm, handmade platinum case with an automatic winding movement. The handmade dial is genuine guilloche and features day of the week and month window, a date sub-dial, and a moonphase with up/down indicator. The 18kt rose gold hands are hand struck and finished. Watch comes on a black, hand sewn, alligator leather strap with a platinum tang buckle. List Price (used): $136,320.

Went to a very competent AD, who insisted that I wear the watches and look at myself in a floor to ceiling mirror, before buying. It was a very intresting excercise and really changed how the watches looked. So when some day I will have to thin out the collection, the big mirror will assist me to decide which to sell and which to keep.

May I suggest this one for the ROO Black Themes: Doubt that I was the only one finding that very useful.