Hi Everyone,
I am very excited to join this community and wanted to introduce myself.
Only in the past few years have I started to really appreciate watches but the only watches I had were two quartz ESQs, which I really liked at the time. However, my interest started to grow (though not my budget) and the ESQs just weren't going to cut it.
Luckily, my in-laws decided to buy me a watch when I got married in 2007 and they asked me to pick one out. After months looking at catalogs/web sites and trying watches on for size I chose the Ulysse Nardin Big Date 42mm (http://www.prestigetime.com/item/Ulysse-Nardin/GMT-Big-Date-42mm/243-55~91.html).
Now it seems to me this isn't the most popular watch out there but I really like it and appreciate it's complications. (As an aside, is there any particular reason this watch isn't repped at all, at least that I have seen? Is it just that there isn't enough demand?)
So after wearing this watch every day for over two years I realized it probably wasn't such a great idea to wear a watch with a leather band every day. Once I realized that the leather is irreparably damaged I started looking to replace the band with a steel bracelet. However at close to $1000 (discounted from the retail price of I believe 1400) it was out of my budget.
In the course of researching this, I discovered the rep sites (the scam ones) and almost ordered a rep of my watch just to get the steel bracelet at a fraction of the price. Fortunately, my common sense took hold of me and I discovered this site and the "other" one, and have spent most of my waking hours immersed. I now know that the sites I was looking at are mostly scams. My plan now is to replace the leather band on my Gen and supplement it with reps so I don't ruin my band again. I can't seem to find a rep for my watch (as mentioned above) and I'm not too sure I want to put a rep band or bracelet on a gen anyway. Any thoughts?
My wishlist at the moment (still pretty general) includes a submariner, a PAM, IWC BP, and a UN diver. Still trying to narrow down to exact models
I was about to jump in and buy my first rep to get my feet wet, but at the last moment (after reading about how difficult it can be to maintain and service the reps) decided to google watchmaking course and found the TimeZone Watch Course and ended up ordering it from Offshore, who has been very helpful. Going to order the tools when my next paycheck comes around and can't wait to dig in.
I know I may not learn enough from the course to truly service my watches, but hopefully it will be enough to allow me to begin to diagnose any issues. Also, anyone know of any reputable watchmakers in NYC that will work with reps?
I'm going to stop rambling now. Thanks for reading, if you still are, and I look forward to getting to know all of you.
Best,
Clark