kramerica2

Thanks.. The AR is like on the POrikaa, one sided and not very strong, but it is evident and comparing to a non AR crystal, it really makes a difference giving the watch much more prestige. It doesn't compare however, to double sided AR (that has its own disadvantages).

I don't want to double post, but I'm not sure how many of you check the Omega forum. So if you're interested, check it out:

Battle of the Values Breitling SOSF Vs. Omega PO I love value watches, those ~100$ reps that offer great quality and fitted with a cheap, but reliable and accurate Asian automatic movement. Two of the most popular watches in that section are the 42mm Omega Planet Ocean by Narikaa and the Breitling SuperOcean SteelFish. These watches has been reviewed over and over again in this forum, so in order to add a bit more, I decided to make a little match-up between the two wonderful pieces. The contenders: 1. The POrikaa: The 42mm PO that is sold by Reg (aka Narikaa) became very popular instantly. There was a huge demand for a cheap PO that will offer great quality for those willing to sacrifice some accuracy. For more info, visit the monster POrikaa thread: 2. The V2 SOSF: A rather new version of the very popular Breitling rep. This version differs from the old and more popular V1 by having a sapphire AR crystal on the cheap Asian model like you get with the pricier ETA model. The price you pay for this is accuracy. IMO, the AR is more important than the accuracy issues, that are mostly loupe stuff anyway. You can agree with me, or not, your choice. I should also mention that apparently there is a V3, sold by PWC/T4D that also has a sapphire AR crystal, and is a bit more accurate. However, it has the arrow seconds hand instead of the block. For more info, visit this thread on the dark side: http://www.replica-watch.info/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=203&t=55903 Round 1: Accuracy (25%) Both watches are not very accurate. You can read all about it in the threads I linked to. If you know what to look for and look closely, you could spot the flaws rather easily. For this test, let's look at real life situations. 99.99% of the people you meet, don't have the slightest idea how to spot a rep. The other 0.01% that know a thing or two about watches, and maybe even own the gen, would have a really hard time spotting the flaws in real life situations. Of the 2 watches, I'd say that considering you meet someone that knows what to look for, and tries to look for it on your watch, it would be easier for him to do so on the PO. The reason is simple, the flawed pearl is something you could spot from about 40 cm (15 inch), and perhaps even you could spot the wrong placed He valve from a similar distance. The SOSF doesn't have any flaw (even the date font), that you could spot from less than 20 cm (8 inch) in real life. The winner is the SOSF with 6/10 points, the PO gets 4/10. Round 2: Quality (25%) Since I can't really judge the watches' quality by any empirical measures, I'd have to go with feeling. Both watches look and feel very lucrative. The weight is good on both, the materials feel "right", and overall you get the quality you'd expect from a good rep. However, the PO's crown and bezel feels better than on the SOSF. On the PO it's easier to set the time and date and the bezel clicks feel better. The winner is the PO with 8/10 points. The SOSF isn't far behind with 7/10 points. Round 3: Bracelet and clasp (20%) The bracelet is an important part. A well-built and comfortable bracelet really makes a difference. In terms of accuracy, both SS bracelets are very good. They replicate the quality feeling you get from the gens quite well. That's probably the reason why the PO's bracelet is a bit better. Omega's bracelets are better than any competitor at their price range, and the reps are no different. Like the gens, the PO's clasp is much more comfortable and unique but could have problems in the long run. The SOSF is much harder to take off your wrist, but seems like it could hold forever. The winner is the PO with 9/10. The SOSF isn't bad at all and gets 8/10. Round 4: Appearance (15%) I'm not gonna judge what's the better looking watch. Each with his own taste, and personally, I like them both the same. However, I can judge the presence. This might not be important for everyone, but some would like their watch to be a "head turner". Sometimes, its nice to have a watch that people would notice, and would look different. While they both radiate prestige, the SOSF is definitely more distinctive. It's thickness, busy dial and many details, give him a more unique look, and if noticed, would get more attention than the Omega. However, although not the case where I live, in most countries Omega is a more known brand outside WIS circles and its something to take into consideration. The winner is the SOSF with 8/10 points. The PO gets 7/10 points. Round 5: Lume (10%) High-end or entry-level, most reps don't have a very good lume. No wonder that one of the popular mods around here is re-luming. That's the only way to get to (and many time surpass) the gen lume level. On these watches you can find your typical rep lume. The PO's hands lume is better, but the SOSF is better on the markers and pearl. The PO charge faster, but the SOSF lasts a bit longer. Looking at gen lume shots, you could say that the SOSF is closer to the gen by looks and quality, simply because the gen Omega lume is better. Overall, I can't find a distinctive winner, both get 5/10 points. Round 6: Gen value (5%) Most reps with a similar movement cost about the same, disregarding how much their gen costs. I don't pay much attention to this, but many people do, and for obvious reasons. You're paying ~100$ anyway, but the "value" you get is different. The SOSF retails at ~2800$ and the PO retails at ~3500$. Pretty much in the same ballpark, but a slight edge in favor of the PO. The PO gets 8/10 and the SOSF 7/10. Conclusion: I'll start by saying that you can't go wrong with either. You know what? at these prices, I'd simply recommend getting both. They make a great bargain, and you as long as you buy from a good dealer, you won't be disappointed. Regardless, this is a match-up, and every match-up must have a winner. You can imagine that the results are very very close. The winner is the SOSF, with 6.9/10, the PO came very close with 6.75/10. If you must buy only one of them, read and decide for yourself what's more important to you.

What is the one watch, you really think is worth getting as a gen? It could be for several reasons, maybe it's rep isn't good enough, maybe it didn't get repped at all or maybe you just appreciate it so much. I think that my unaffordable would be a Breguet Grande Complication 3755PR. Being more realistic, something that I'm actually going to buy would be the PO. I guess you can say it's for sentimental reasons. I never had any real interest at watches, until it caught me while passing next to an AD's display. At the very same day, I started looking at reps and once you go that road, there's no coming back. What would be yours?

This, hard to find, but excellent thread is a must for all sensible buyers: I only buy reps at under 150$ or so.. It's not that I can't or don't want to afford a watch at 300-400$, I'm willing to spend that and much more than that on a gen. It's a principal, I don't think that any rep is worth that much, and I'll explain exactly why: 1. The Asian movement is so cheap, you can replace it whenever it fails (and usually it won't fail so quickly). Even if your ETA watch would last 3 times longer than the Asian, the Asian would still be cheaper in the long run. 2. When buying a rep, you're getting little if any warranty. If your 350$ rep fails after 3 months, it's money down the toilet. You could fix it, but it will cost about 150$ more if you're lucky. Any gen can fail anytime (and it happens), a rep is much more likely to do that. 3. Auto chrono movements in high end reps, simply suck. Tons of problems, no matter would they do. Many times its also very flawed compared to the gen, because of bad sub-dials spacing. If you want a chrono watch, buy a quartz. Usually it will come in the same case, be a lot cheaper, much more reliable and more true to the gen. Of-course it's still a quartz, and if the gen is auto (which isn't always the case), you have what I consider a very minor flaw, but many will consider a major one. Like I said before, take your time, do your research, read and ask, and you can find great value watches. Just a word, I really like this forum, and I even support it, but take into consideration that many times people would look down on you if you're looking for the cheaper reps. Maybe it's just me, but this is the feeling I got, when asking similar questions at the beginning.

You can find watches that the Asian version is inferior, but there are many watches that the Asian version is exactly the same except the movement. Sometimes the dealers would mention that a certain Asian model is same as ETA version, and sometimes you'd have to research a bit before.

It's amazing how it differs in different parts of the world.. not only Europe/America/Asia, but even in regions within those continents. Around here for example the most famous brands are: Rolex, Omega and Breitling by far from any other luxury brand. The funny thing is, this has almost nothing to do with advertising. Tag Heuer are advertising much more than the rest, but still, most people don't know them and certainly can't recognize their watches. It's also much easier to find dealerships that carry Omega and Breitling than Tag.

You've started a great topic. Until not long ago, I really didn't pay any attention to what I was wearing and when. I took the one I want in the morning and that's it. But then, at a business meeting, I got called out in a very rude way: While it ended in a very good way, It got me thinking and I became much more aware to what I was wearing. I've decided that when going on meetings with people that I don't know and don't know me, I'd only wear the less known brands (less known to the general public of-course). Around here Rolex (obviously), Omega and Breitling are very known brands, and it's quite common to run into someone with a gen of those brands, So, I'll wear a IWC or Ebel for example. The odds of running into someone that even knows those brands are quite slim, and I never met anybody that wears them.

I'm gonna visit the US for about 3 weeks, and I want to bring 2-3 reps with me. Should it be any problem? And another question that might sound stupid, is there any risk by wearing a rep while entering the country? Are they even looking at things like that? If so, which brand would be the "safest" to wear: Omega, Tag or Breitling. I'm aware that you might think I'm being paranoid, but its gonna be my first time leaving the country with a rep (I only got my first rep a couple of months ago), so try to understand my paranoia... I've also heard some horror stories from countries like Italy, so I'm trying to be as careful as possible, while enjoying my watches..

I do... IMO it's the nicest way to put them while not wearing them, unless of-course you got dozens of them.

Just a question, that is sort of related to the topic. Does the ETA quartz movements also suffer from the slow date change, like the Miyotas?

I've had a mixed experience with Hont.. The Bad: First of all, his prices are fair, but he only ships with DHL/EMS, which makes his shipping prices very high. I hate DHL, it's actually slower and IMO riskier than regular airmail, the package went through a very weird route, with way too much custom checks on the way. The way I've ordered from him: I showed him the exact watch I want in different websites, and asked if he could make it cheaper. I told him many times that I want that exact watch with swiss ETA quartz movement, and he assured me that indeed its the exact same watch. The watch I got was a bit different. The logo was printed differently than what the pics on other sites shown, and the movement I got was a Japanese quartz, and not ETA. I asked him about that, he's claim was that this is the watch all the websites sell at the moment, and the one shown in the pics is not available anymore. The Good: Communication was great all the way, he replied all my e-mails, and usually pretty fast. After clearing payment, he sent the watch right away. The watch itself (apart from the logo thing), is great. Works perfect, with all the functions of the gen, as promised. I prefer other cheap dealers like: Narikaa (my default dealer), Time4Direct (PWC) or Watch Eden.

Got the same error ("The member cannot use the system"), and since I never had any contact with The Zigmeister, I don't believe I'm blocked. Is there any other way to contact you?

Nice answers everyone, but you took the thread to the wrong direction. I'm not saying that you better spend 300$ on a Seiko/Citizen rather than on a rep. All I'm saying is that those reps in terms of quality comparing to the cheap gens, aren't worth 300$. I mean, you wouldn't pay for the exact same watch, with the exact same design and features, but without the logo/brand name more than 50-100$ at best. And the factories would still make a nice profit at those prices. But I guess that manufacturing cost isn't the issue at all, as long as people would pay 300-400$, they would charge it. BTW, I get the feeling reps are getting worse in the last couple of years, and I think its deliberate. Just some examples that pop in my head: 4th gen 42mm PO is no longer made (or at least very hard to find) and has been replaced with a worse model, the "Old school" SMP is much better than the current one, we start to see SOSF of new generation that are worse, etc....

You forgot to attach the pictures, but I saw them in the previous thread, and that's not hebrew either. It's not even close to hebrew. Now, I don't understand arabic, but I know how the letters look, and it could be some weird arabic font, as I can identify some of the letters. On the other hand it could be something totally different like Thai, or Laos.

I totally agree (hey, that's why I'm here), but it was just an example to show the profit margins...

This has been discussed around here every now and then, but I'm trying to get the true info from someone that's maybe involved in the business. I began my search for a rep after a friend came back from Thailand with a cheap Breitling rep, that to my un-trained eyes back then looked identical to the gen. Of-course that now, although I'm not an expert by any means, I can tell that it's a rep from 5 feet away. At first, I was shocked to see that people are buying reps for more than 200$ (how naive, ah?) and figured that they must be identical from the outside to the gens. I was truely surprised to see those prices for chineese made watches, that are in most cases far from perfect. Of-course, after diving into the world, and understading a bit how things work, it made a bit more sense, but I decided that I'll keep my reps under 150$ and so far, lived up to my decision. What intrigues me is what are we really paying for? You can get an automatic Seiko for about 100$ with warranty, which is what rep dealers are selling virtually no QA nor warranty chineese made cheap auto or quartz movement for... Not to talk about the 300$ reps, which could stop working a week after you buy them, and the only thing you can do is pay another 100$ in order to fix them. So, assuming Seiko are making a nice profit, even when they provide warranty, QAing they're products, spend money on advertising, probably pay more to their employees, using better materials, etc... the profit margin those rep makers get must be huge. Now, I believe that there are two reasons why reps cost so much: 1. People are willing to buy them for that price. 2. The quality rep market, and specifically the private quailty rep market is very small. Without a very big profit margin, dealers wouldn't bother selling to private buyers and would only focus on wholesale. What do you think? Are the prices reasonable in your opinion?

This isn't the case with all quartz chronos... I have a 120$ quartz chrono, that works exactly like the gen does. Button at 2 starts/stops, button at 4 resets. when crown is at set time mode, buttons change the zero point, each it's own subdial.

I see this issue a lot. People click on a link, and due to the format change, it doesn't really work. So here's how to get to the linked page. Click on the broken link. It will send you back to the main page, but the address will appear in your address bar. The old link format is: "http://www.rwgforum.com/yy-yyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyy-tXXXX.html"'>http://www.rwgforum.com/yy-yyy-yyyy-yyyyyyyy-tXXXX.html" where yyy-yyy--yyy represent the topic title and XXXX represnt the topic number. You need to change it to the new format: "http://www.rwgforum.com/topic/XXXX-yy-yyy-yyyy-yyyyyyy/"'>http://www.rwgforum.com/topic/XXXX-yy-yyy-yyyy-yyyyyyy/" Sounds confusing but maybe an example would clear things up: Let's say the link I'm clicking is sending me back to the main page and in the address bar I see: "http://www.rwgforum.com/Omega-Smp-007-old-School-t9242.html"'>http://www.rwgforum.com/Omega-Smp-007-old-School-t9242.html" This is the old format, I'll change it to the new one: "http://www.rwgforum.com/topic/9242-Omega-Smp-007-old-school/"?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent> Step-by-step explanation: 1. Original link - "http://www.rwgforum.com/Omega-Smp-007-old-School-t9242.html"'>http://www.rwgforum.com/Omega-Smp-007-old-School-t9242.html" 2. Add "topic/" after "www.rwgforum.com/" - "http://www.rwgforum.com/topic/Omega-Smp-007-old-School-t9242.html" 3. Cut the number at the end, paste it before the topic title and add a hyphen after the number - "http://www.rwgforum.com/topic/9242-Omega-Smp-007-old-School-t.html" 4. Delete the "-t.html" at the end, and put a slash instead - "http://www.rwgforum.com/topic/9242-Omega-Smp-007-old-School/" 5. Now the link should be fine.

I guess you have a point, but I'm not in the position of choosing business partners... Anyway, In situations like that, I always try to look at things from the other point of view. In this case, I can somewhat understand the guy's frustration, here he goes and spend 1.5K$ on a nice watch, and I come and steal his thunder with a 100$ watch. That's not an excuse to behave the way he did, but it is frustrating... BTW, only after wearing some nice reps I came to the conclusion that 99% of the people doesn't notice nor care about the watch you wear. It's the feeling you get, and not the way people look at you that matters.

Before I tell the story I just want to clarify a few things: 1. When I'm asked politely by a friend/co-worker, I'll always tell it's a fake (a great conversation starter). 2. I only answered the way I did because the guy was rude, and I had the feeling that he doesn't really know how to spot a fake. So, I was at a business meeting with a few guys, wearing my 42mm PO. One of them wore a gen Seamaster bond, and I could see that he can't stop looking at my watch. We had a very friendly chat, and on the way to the car he grabs my wrist, giggle the bracelet and shout out to the world: "It's fake". Now, on some models there is a gap between the case and bracelet which is a fake tell. My watch doesn't have it. I was pretty confident that you can't tell it's a fake by shaking the braclet, so I took the watch off my wrist, gave it to him and said: "No it's not, check out for yourself". Now, this might have been a very foolish move, my watch is a POrikaa which has it's flaws, and if you know your way around replicas you could spot them pretty easily. But, as I mentioned, I was so shocked by his rudness, and really thought that he has no quality fake experience. He checked out the dial, the case back, the bracelet and said: "I'm sorry, it is a gen" and gave it back to me with a red face.... I'm not saying my move was the smart thing to do, and I could've managed the situation much better even without addmiting that it's a fake, but I'm so glad that things turned out this way...

I was looking at this: http://www.watcheden.com/omega-seamaster-gmt-working-with-black-dial-i-15225-p-1.html And I have to say that it does look very familiar, but I couldn't find the matching gen. So, is this a fantasy model? and if not, could someone post a pic or a link to a gen?

I would check the SMP GMT version if I were you.. The most annoying thing about those reps is the pearl. Not only it's far from looking like the gen, it's ugly on it's own. The GMT advantage is simple, it doesn't have the pearl at all...

On the other hand, walk into an AD of some sort and wear a nice rep (not one of the brands the AD is selling of-course), you'll get a VIP treatment... I'm a grad student, and at my spare time probably dress and look like a typical broke college student. I do like to try many gens before I decide which rep to get, so I bother ADs quite a lot... The different attitude I get if I wear a nice watch is amazing, and actually I get better price offers like that. Of course, I could get the same results by wearing a nice suit, but simply wearing the watch is so much easier....