freddy333

Mike - Generally speaking, I agree with you. But when emotions start heating up, causing private email addresses & other personal information to get posted, especially when I am not convinced that a scam (which I define as knowingly & purposely misleading a buyer into purchasing an item based on a fraudulent description) has occurred, I think little good can result. Especially, in this case, where the issue has nothing directly to do with RWG (the transaction in question occurred on another website). I realize others may view this differently, but that is my take.

Gentlemen - Am I the only 1 who holds down a full-time job &/or cannot just pull old sales records out of a hat? Like I said, I will leave the thread open until the end of the day (another 10 or 12 hours) to give him time to publicly respond.

I have 2 questions that would clear alot of this mess up (please keep your answers short & concise) - 1. For edgematic1 - Why did you originally tell me you never received the item from sql_pl & then tell me it was not gen? How did you know you were scammed if you never received the item in the 1st place? 2. For sql_pl - Are you selling rep items as gens?

robertb - Maciek said he would look into your claim, so please give him the chance to do so. All - The more I discover about this the less I understand. Look, scammers take the money & run, they do not hang around to debate & answer questions. It seems to me that Edgematic1 (& possibly others) was on the receiving end of a less-than-satisfactory deal & I can certainly understand your frustration. But we, the RWG Mod team, were not involved & the transaction did not even take place here on RWG. So this is what I recommend - since Maciek seems willing to address complaints, anyone who purchased something from him that was unsatisfactory, please PM him directly. Maciek, please be reasonable in addressing whatever complaints you may receive. If both parties are unable to come to a mutual agreement, please either move on or refer the complaint to the site where the transaction took place. 1 more thing - if 1 of the other Mods do not beat me to it, I will be closing this thread at the end of the day.

In general, I think Logan & Automatic are both correct. There is definitely a market for older Rolex movements & movement parts, which the Chinese (& others) will eventually address, if they have not already done so. However, as is the case with most time-limited legislation, Rolex is often excepted from the rules. Although their patent may have run out some time ago & in spite of the fact that they neither make, service, nor provide new parts for their older movements, my guess is that the US & EU will continue to treat clones (with or without Rolex branding) different than clones of other Swiss-made movements (eg, ETAs).

edgematic1 - Along the same lines, how can you be certain whether a strap is gen or fake if it never arrived? Did I miss something?

Just past midnight here, but I will probably end my work week wearing the 6241

Assuming you have the tooling, cloning the movement is relatively easy. But creating an accurate clone that can be sold for $200 (the average price of a good rep) is not quite so easy.

Nice pic. Too bad you were not wearing a GMT. Please do not repost an entire set of pics just to add a line or 2 at the bottom.

Ditto Alligoat (as usual). I would BIN. I remember being able to pick up 10 mint/used 703s for $100. Ah, the good old (pre-Revolution) days.

I have a DW as well, but, due to the laser etched (as opposed to engraved) lettering, it would never pass as gen. I have not tried to install DW's, so I cannot say whether it fits any better than Phong's.

Yes, that was the word I got from Ziggy.

As there are 2 sides to every story, I have invited edgematic1 to read (& respond, if he wishes) to this thread. Based on what I know, no rwg rules have been broken & there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that anyone purposely meant to scam anyone, so I would recommend everyone just move on. Feel free to contribute your thoughts, but please be respectful of everyones' feelings.

I have 1 of Phong's bridges, but it does not fit the V72. I had Ziggy try & he was unable to install it. When I have more time, I will see if I can shape it better to make it fit.

This is probably not news to many of the senior members, but I think 2 posts from this thread were interesting & insightful -

2 or 3 digits.

Looks great, but these pre-Comex casebacks had numbers. Either very small at 6 o'clock or moderate-to-large numbers in the middle of the caseback Check out Ubi's (or mine) current pre-Comex caseback for an example of a small Comex number.

That was clearly radium rage resulting from overexposure to a bright dial Since '42s tend to have little or no glow & have been proven to be safe, it must have been another watch. Perhaps, an OPD

I am pretty certain they all use the same bezel components The only difference between the 5513 & 5512 is the rating of the movement & text on the dial (they share the same case), but I have never disassembled a gen 1680, so I am not 100% certain about its construction.

Not vitnage(sic), but here is a GMT in an airplane cockpit

I think the assumption there was that, if everything but the case is gen, pretty much any decent rep case would be undetectable from normal viewing distances Around the same time that thread began on VRF, there was a thread here on rwg where someone replaced the case from a standard GMT rep with a gen. My 1st thought was why would they do that since everything else in the watch -- dial, hands, crown, bracelet -- was easily identifiable as standard rep fare. Cases that most better quality reps come with are the least likely part to be identified as a rep, so a gen case is probably 1 of the least cost-effective places to put your money since upgrades there result in the least improvement. That said, once you arrive at the point where everything else in the watch is gen, you would be crazy not to swap the case out for a gen.

Like you, I always assumed the albino '42 was a myth, until I read Stefano's theory all the way through & considered the facts he presents with an open mind. I think he makes a compelling case for the model's existence. Of course, no one can be 100% certain on matters like this without formal Rolex verification. But, as Rolex always refuses to verify questions like this, we are left to make our own decision & I am 90% convinced by Stefano's very thorough & in-depth detective work.