gioarmani

Those won't fit the reps without mods (sanding) to the insert anyway.

Exactly.

These were well worth the read: http://www.amazon.com/China-Wakes-Struggle...TF8&s=books http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Jasper-Becke...TF8&s=books

*sigh*

Your opinion and two-cents are well understood and respected, but a lot of what you're arguing here is technically meaningless tangent & irrelevant trivia, that's distracting from the actual point. My point was to illustrate the simple fact that gen sales have not--and are not--going to decrease because of any direct correlation to the quality of reps. There is also no direct correlation between the quality of reps and this (or any) board getting a threatening letter from Geneva. And who on Earth with any taste has thought Polo on the "high side" since 1987? That's for the same people who still think that Hillfiger is staus sysmbol.

I doubt that will ever be a serious likelihood. I question whether this is even appropriate to be discussed; it's only going to cause the worrisome unnecessary fear, and fuel ridiculous rumors. It already sounds over-dramatic & speculative: If it does arise, the board can simply find some off-shore servers in international water.

I think that's mostly incorrect, with all respect. There have always been people who can afford both reps and gens, and people who will only buy reps because they can't afford gens. The same way there will always be people who can afford both, but would never "waste" money on a gen, or those who would only own gens, because to be seen with a rep would be tacky and classless--regardless of how good the quality of reps has become. We in the west (and those becoming "Westernized") live in an age of style over substance; plain and simple. To think that the better reps get, the less likely the general populous will be to purchase gens is an improbability and an equivocation. Low end, less expensive quasi-luxury cars are built much better than they were 10 or 15 years ago, as far as reliability & mechanical longevity are concerned, but that in no way means the market for the 7 series & S class is going to wither away. In fact just the opposite; for instance, you can easily go down and snap up a 25k "European sports-car" like the Mini Cooper--with a turbo BMW engine, Euro-engineered, and a car that will outgun the 911 from 0-60, etc., etc--instead of spending twice as much on the same engine in a 3 or 5 series. Yet, there are more top-of-the-line luxury cars on the roads than ever. A luxury item like a nice car or a nice watch isn't bought for monetary practicality; it's either bought purely for the status symbol, or an appreciation for the "finer" things in life (i.e., a gen's artistry or craftsmanship). The same goes for most luxury goods, including watches. Look at the simple sales figures in dollars (or units alone) for almost all high-end brands, and they've done nothing but go up over the past few years--even as reps have improved dramatically. Rolex, Omega, Panerai, Breitling--we've never seen better reps, and yet these companies have never seen better sales. And yet there are supposedly 20 rep Rollies for every gen you see on the wrist. Companies like Rolex have such a demand for their products, most aren't in stock or are on waiting lists that suckers will willingly fork over three times MSRP with a smile, just to get one on their wrist. They only put pressure on the counterfeiters for good PR & sales tactics. A friend at Louis Vuitton in Tampa says for every 100 LVs you see on shoulders, maybe one or two of them are gens; you can go practically anywhere on the planet and find an LV rep, and yet she still can't keep her merchandise on the shelf. $300 keychains, $2000 purses, $900 wallets, and most of it's on indefinite back-order. Like Rolex, Louis never has a sale--their prices only increase exponentially. A self-perpetuating cycle of style over substance. And you know what--they'll keep on buyin'.

Probably can't source just the pearl. Write any dealer and simply buy a bezel insert. They're only $15.

Well, on the bright side, if you have any papers blowing away on your desk, this should stop them.

Sorry for the bump--just saw this. Quite nice.

Maybe something behind the scenes to do with Steve Jobs?

No short cuts, and no way to do it without removing the movement. If you don't feel comfortable doing it, just have a local hole-in-the-wall watch shop move it a few mm for you.

Nautica is for lower middle-income guys who wear cheap boat-shoes and wish they actually owned one.

All questions answered in your same thread, here: http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showtopic=19257&hl=

Yes; happy b-day to you, good sir.

Lucky bastard...

Lmao!! Oh, good lord--that's hillarious

Up and down, up and down; it's like Humbert Humbert on Dolores Hayes...

You looking to adopt?

LMAO!!!

Happens when I suffer from low blood-alcohol.

(this could scar you for eternity) I found his homepage--it seems to have his profile picture posted: EDIT: Rule 15 No Adult or warez content please. Thanks Offshore

Bright orange might not go with everything you wear. Also depends on your wrist size. If you need it to look smaller (e.g., you have a smaller wrist and want the larger diameter piece, but don't want it to look overly huge), black does appear slimming. Although, I've never seen Al Sharpton getting out of the tub in the morning...

The last two pics you've posted are more accurate for most of the gens I've seen or owned: I think the too-big date window is a problem a lot of the reps have, trying to blindly follow the old wives tale that "the date window is supposed to completely fill the cyclops eye". But truth be told, sadly, the gens do vary slightly from piece to piece. When it's ridiculously over-sized, it's just as much of a dead give-away as a ridiculously shallow rehaut.