RobbieG

Must say I'm interested myself. I know I got the total auction price right, but I would love to know what he paid for the watches.

4? There is no number 4 - you mean #1?

These are the final choices I have made for rotation on the new homage piece. A nicely weathered dark brown bomber leather, a suede finished light tan leather, and a hand distressed Louis Vuitton leather - which is my current favorite. Which is yours?

Beats me, maybe I heard the number wrong. I'll call him today and ask him again about it.

These two today...

Not yet but I think I'm gonna order a 00098 GMT/Alarm real soon...

It all comes down to volume and how much reps affect the balance sheet. But it of course would never happen because due to fixed and variable costs such as advertising there is no way they could ever really compete with rep pricing. That is why they try and squash them if they can. It is a very real threat and it gets worse as the quality continues to increase though. Rolex in particular loses a TON of sales to reps - and not here either. Sites like Idealwatches and Bestswiss and the like do a HUGE business selling Subs for $1000. And a lot of what they sell are the same highest quality Sub reps we see here. Those sites are proof that there are legions of consumers who think it is a fair deal to buy a watch which is 99% accurate with a good movement in it for less than 20% of the cost of the real deal. That business is really big. I forget what I heard once, but Tom at Idealwatches sells a staggering number of watches.

Yes, I forgot about this. Great point Ubi. I always wondered why they never updated that system. All the service guys are always complaining about that. There are some who say that the service business and income is so great for Rolex that they don't update certain things like that so as to continue to get more service income. Planned obselecence as it were. Who knows...

Yeah, I can't see them buying one of these unless it gets insanely popular. Too early yet. But they may take off and Rolex is the rep worlds bread and butter. But look at the Masterpiece. I doubt if the rep factroies would have reucouped if they bought one of those but I could be wrong. If The DDII gets big they will do it though and they may do it anyway just not a 1:1

Hey did anyone ever think of switching to password protection or something. I mean I know the community wants to stay fresh with new members and all and I don't want to open a can of worms, but I'm just wondering if it was ever talked about for security reasons. Anyone know? I mean, RWG is the place for the most experts and is clearly the leader of the forums in my eyes with all the old school members (like you Freddy!...and Bytor and Pug and Ubi and even me I guess even though I can't hold a post candle to any of you). Anyway, just wondering if anyone ever disucussed taking it underground?

No he doesn't call it that - I do though. But Rolex does have a box of reps. Why would he lie to me about it? I've known the guy 20 years. Yes, I'm sure they have them in a vault, but they obviously transfer them to a box before showing them to the dealers. I too have heard the box-o-reps story for years myself from different sources. When I hear the same story over and over from reputable people I tend to go the other way and start believeing it might be true. Maybe Rolex likes to show fakes to dealers on every factory visit? Makes sense to me. But hey, if anyone wants to refute what I say just for the sake of a debate, be my guest. This is after all the internet so I expect nothing less. I just try to report the news as I'm hearing it and I wll continue to do so whenever my Rolex friend has one...

Well that is just the point though. I wouldn't be relaying information about canal street reps. Rolex hasn't cared much about those for years and neither do many of the other brands from what I am told. Sure, they litigate and seize and destroy but the point being that they don't see them as a threat to the brand. My AD told me that his "contact" at headquarters when he was there recently (who dumped the fakes on the table) said, and I quote, "These are the ones that scare us..." The fact is - and the point of this post, is that the stuff being flashed at dealers and shows and on the internet these days IS teh good stuff and it is going to be the death of the industry one day you mark my words. Someday soon, Rolex in particular is going to make news by delivering a crippling blow to this industry. I don't know in what capacity, but it will be something big like some huge joint cooperative thing with the Chinese government or something and all these sites, etc. all at once or something crazy. Conspiracy theory? Maybe. But how long do you think they are going to sit back and see these watches being rubbed in their faces? And in the case of Rolex in particular, these great new reps ARE majorly hurting the sales numbers. The numbers are staggering. They are everywhere. Even I see them on the street. I see more fake Subs here in Florida than real ones. And they aren't Canal Street specials. They are first rate reps. And the people I see wearing them are professionals with above average and in some cases high incomes. Look, the members here arent the only reasonable consumers on the planet. A HUGE number of potential genuine Rolex buyers would never buy another Submariner from them if they had knowledge and easy access to a Noob factory Sub for $200. And Rolex KNOWS it trust me. A guy like me who buys only gens because of an appreciation of all the stupid little anal quality differences and is willing to pay a 1000% premium for them is the MINORITY these days. Everyone with any sense at all loves to save money and sacrifice 1% of a quality difference for a 500% or more decrease in price. If any of us needed a new washing machine and we knew where to get a 99% accurate rep of a Maytag for $70, Maytag would be in deep sh*t.

Yeah what a coincidence. And yet as you know, I was called a liar for relaying what my AD told me about suspicions confirmed to him by Rolex themselves. Through all of that, none of my critics stopped to think what I could possibly gain by making it up. Anyone who thinks that the heat will not rise as the quality of reps does is delusional. That watch in particular has cause the whole battle to kick up a major notch. That rep has crossed over to the gen world at full steam. It is the most famous rep right now. And NO one rep had ever been famous until the Big Bang. Switzerland has its "eye" fixed on reps again. You can feel it in the air. The heat has been dormant for a while but it is back again. Rolex dumping out dozens of recent countefeits from a box on a conference room table in front of dealers during a factory tour at the home turf is pretty good evidence of that heat if we continue to discount all the rest of the recent stories...

The problem is that you can't though. You always run the risk of the guy not knowing his watch is a rep. What if he got it as a gift from his dead Brother - or he bought it on ebay for 4 grand. The AD can't risk losing these otherwise good customers. He has nothing to gain and everything to lose by calling out a watch. And yes, Corgi, it is a sad state of affairs and very shallow but unfortunately if anyone thinks you have a lot of money - or if you do have a lot of money, either one, the simple fact is that you WILL get better treatment EVERYWHERE and from everybody. Cash is king and has been for as long as I care to remember in this little free market society we call a democracy. Some people call it America too. LOL. Maybe the rest of the world is not so bad. AD's, restaurants, car dealers, you name it. If you have cash you get treated like a God. Sucks, but it is the way it is...

Yeah me too man. Just amazing. Both UN's have the highest level of fit and finish of the watches pictured. Just holding the MMD would blow your mind. Actually, the Fish is not far behind and is another stand out in that regard. Believe it or not the Aquatimer while easily the most comfortable is probably the second to lowest build quality on the list. The PO easily beats it for half the price - and so does the 1900's enamel dialed homage. I still love it though as it is REALLY comfortable as an everyday watch. The best bracelet around for sure. But the little details like how the crown feels while winding, the marginal AR and lume and 7750 rotor noise start to become more obvious with stuff like the MMD around. No contest in the quality department. IWC is funny that way. Not beating up on them - I mean hey, I own it right. But some of their range is world class and others aren't. I used to have the BP and it is amazing and world class. But the AT's, the non-7day portugese watches, the other pilots, etc. are all pretty marginal. The higher end Portugese watches, the new vintage line, & the Ingy are really nice though.

Hi Guys, I have been trying to find the time to shoot more and more watches. It is getting easier as the collection is shrinking - although I doubt it will shrink much more. I currently have 11 pieces and I have shot 7 of them so far. 4 more to go and you can see the complete list in my new Signature. Two of those will be likely sold though and replaced with others so I really only have two more to shoot in the permanent collection - The UN DualTime 42MM and the Sinn 757. In the meantime, here are the seven I have done so far:

Thanks TJ. You are one guy that always appreciates my stuff.

Oh yes, both those ETA's are closely related to the 3135. i have several watches with 2892's and 2824's as bases and they are great movements and also very strong. Again, the main thing I wanted to get at is those major impacts that we hear about. You know the ones our Rolex shop guys at the local AD's are telling of war stories of broken Rolex watches they have fixed over the years. The soccer player who gets mad and kicks it into a concrete wall. That kind of thing. So now you will have an better idea of why Rolex movements seem to make it out of the most incredible accidents alive more often than not without significant parts replacements. A big part of it is the safety bridge which protects the movement from both maker side impacts and bottom impacts that might dislodge the rotor and send it into part of the balance.

Well I thought someone might appreciate the illustrations and and understanding of what contributes to stability in the most simple sense. The bottom line is that as a tool watch that is likely to be dropped, knocked or otherwise abused, Rolex has an edge over many movements due to the bridge construction as illustrated. All other things being equal, you would want to bet on a Rolex still running over almost anything else if the watch were thrown against a wall. It is wild how many great stroies there are to be heard from nearly every Rolex watchmaker. Regardless of construction however, nearly every movement can be adjusted to perform to chronometer specs and kept there with regular service. Not that your points don't have merit. I also like how the pinions under the balance bridge on both sides contribute to vertical rate performance as illustrated. Such a novel idea. Anyway, in this post I was just trying to focus on the toughness factor which is something to marvel at. They really are bullet proof. Again, not that ETA's aren't strong too of course. The only thing that would improve on that aspect would be if Rolex decided to take a nod from Saxony and use a 3/4 plate in addition to the full balance bridge and safety bridge system. 3/4's are inherently tough too - but not so much the balance of course.

No. The Miami Vice one is a lot like mine, except that it is a split minute chronograph. It is also titanum with the yellow accents, but has an in house split minute movement instead of the 7750 Ebauche. It differs visually in that instead of the day and date at three it has only the logo and has just the numeric date at 6. The starndard chrono like mine and the Slevin is 42MM and the split minute is a larger 44MM - like the Cousteau chronos.

Here is another round of shots from this morning. This time on an HK Tan distressed bomber leather strap and pre-V buckle. Again, the watch is composed of an ETA 6497 heart, a DSN case, caseback, crown, and crownguards all of made of titanium, a C1 Superlumed dial from Vac, and a double AR crystal from Jakob. Enjoy...

Thanks Freddy. I left that out on purpose though. The point of the post was to show noobs mostly some structural things which are visually very easy to understand and more on the shock side of things. The bridge/[censored] issues are more related to general toughness which is what the TZ conversation was centered around. There are many Rolex stories of watches getting really damged and the movement being preserved. This is of course attributed to the information in this post as opposed to amplitude and train precision which are more related to running accuracy as opposed to toughness. Thanks for adding that though...

Yeah. I fear that day may be sooner than we think. There are just too many rep buyers and the damn things are so good it is easier and easier for more and more serious watch buyers to rule out buying gens completely. Sooner or later it has got to start hurting them more. The clothing and music industries are already there...

Yeah, I gotta find out. he was a really old guy and I think they were from the 50's or something. Sorry, but I'm just not up on PAM's. I just caught the $300 number kinda half listening.

This is a question for the ages. We all know that both Rolex and ETA make movements which can last a lifetime with proper service. I received a PM over on TZ as an extention of an earlier movement discussion asking me why I thought Rolex movements were known as such workhorses that can survive anything. There are a host of contributing factors that go into determining the overal robustness of a movement, but the answer to the toughness component can be found in a few very simple design elements which lend an edge to Rolex in the toughness department. The attached images show the difference between a complete balance bridge and a single sided balance [censored] and what they look like visually. Obviously the full bridge is superior in terms of stiffness and some adjustablility factors as well to improve vertical position rates. I have also pointed out Rolex's use of the safety bridge on the outside of the balance which is absent on the ETA movements. This is what is responsible for all those incredible stories you have heard about with Rolex watches being able to be returned to perfect running condition after being run over by cars, etc. This is by no means exhaustive, and I'm not saying that Rolex movements are superior to ETA either. I just wanted to point out some of the most obvious design characteristics that some may not be aware of which can contribute to the robustness of a watch movement. For illustration I have used the venerable Rolex Caliber 3135 found in the Submariner, Datejust, and others and the ETA 2892, which is shown here in a reworked form as an Omega Caliber 2500. The layout is typical ETA and I only chose this instead of a stock 2892 because it was the best large photo I found of the movement that I could mark up. Enjoy...