Tim

Does anyone know what is going on with Joshua's and Andrew's Web Sites? Both are reporting name resolution issues which usually mean more than just server issues.

-Tim

Dude, you do realise I am Legend (1954) was the birth of the Zombie Genre, right?

ps. Last Man On Earth and The Omega Man were both adaptations of the book I Am Legend.

But of course! All I was saying is that the movie has been done before. Someone thought it had been based on 28 Days. Guess you get some of the Romero movies in the list as well, since they are basically variations on the same theme.

-T

Not a fan of Rolex, eh?

You're probably right, so I edited that phrase out. I've thought about explaining why it's not necessary for replicas, or any watch for that matter, to use 904L steel, but I want to keep the list as short as possible. If it gets too long people won't read it.

Rolex's are nice watches; not very cutting edge but nice nonetheless. With other options available today, I would never pay that much for one however. I know some pretty special watches available in the $5K range.

-T

Lie #3: The movements in "Swiss made" replicas are identical to the genuine watch movements. 27 jewel movements are the best.

-- (See Lie #1 for "Swiss made".) Far from the truth. Very few replica watch movements come from anywhere but China and any watchman can immediately tell it's not genuine. There are no 27 jewels movements in replica watches; only 25, 21, or 17.

Lie #6: The best Rolex replicas are made with 904L grade steel.

-- Big fat lie. Good replicas are made with 316L quality steel. Rolex is the only company that uses 904L steel and it costs 3 times as much as 316L (one reason why they are so expensive). Replicas are not made with 440 steel, either.

Agree with most all you say. Except for lie #3, a clarification. Many (majority?) of Swiss movements are mostly Chinese made at this point as well. That ones that are not probably have a very large percentage of Chinese sourced ebauches. It would probably be better to call anything with ETA on it as "Swiss assembled" these days.

Lie #6, while true, I disagree with the statement that the use of 904L steel is "one reason why they are so expensive." Three times the $2.00 (generous) worth of steel in a 316L constructed watch is a very expensive $6.00. Rolex would like for you to believe that is the reason they charge an obscene amount for their watches. The 904L steel has different qualities than 316L steel, largely due to the inclusion of copper in the alloy mixture. But it has no significant advantage other than better resistance to acidic environments. Since we are not in the habit of dropping our watches in vats of sulfuric acid--big deal! It is slightly more difficult to work with but it is all done by automated machine these days, so again who cares?

Rolex's are so expensive because people will pay that much for them. No other reason.

-T

I enjoyed I am legend too....not a patch on 28 days later(not weeks...defianatly not weeks!) which it was trying to emulate or 'rep' though.

Are you all that young? I am Legand is a rip off of The Omega Man (1971) starring Charlton Heston. The Omega Man however, was a rip off of The Last Man on Earth (1964) starring Vincent Price. It is a tale told many times already. What can I say, I like my Zombie movies!

...would be nice though if they had some more original material.

-T

Whilst Silberstein was l'enfant terrible of the watch world in the 90's.....I feel that he and they are now past their sell by date......just as the 'modern' art of Kandinsky.... Miro....Sonia Delauney and the rest of the Deco / Bauhaus movement are past theirs...the whole 'art' theme was over-exploited by Swatch.... .there are many other watchpieces available nowadays that allow you to express yourself without indulging in garish colour schemes.....personally I'm more driven towards Neo-classicism and the Egyptian revivalist movement of the Regency period.....which probably explains why I find George Daniels / Breguet / Patek / Vacheron more pleasing...even the work of modern manufacture such as Christian van der Klaauw......or Martin Braun....express succinctly the purity of design and execution of quality that's far more appealing.....conservative ....yes....but ultimately the marriage of gold .....guilloche ...enamelling....Clous de Paris and the art of silver or goldsmithing allied to superb engineering that will always outclass any explosion in a paint factory......!

For me ......Caravaggio..Albrecht Durer.......Breugel....Rembrandt...JL David.....or Gericault.....will never ever be approached....by the likes of Kandinsky.....!

It reminds of the collection of art critics in the NY MOMA......commenting on a piece of 'modern' art......"you can feel the inner anguish of the artist.....the need to express his inner turmoil...evidenced by the broad brush strokes......and use of bright bold colours".......a little girl steps up and says....'that painting is upside down..".......needless to say....Kandinsky is no more art than the pile of dust or bricks sitting in any museum.....JMHO....but I'm right... ..

But of course, TTK is always right!

Bauhaus is not the be all and end all of any art movement and I don't think that was implied by anything I wrote. I simply appreciate what it is and where it came from. I own pieces from the brands you mention and others I would add to the list. The majority of my collection consists of asymmetrical watches so I guess I have a fondness for the unusual.

You know, I didn't really want to own one until I went to the Bauhaus museum in Berlin. As I understood the style better I appreciated it more and then wanted to buy one of the Silbersteins. I almost bought a little quartz job at the museum but it was vastly overpriced, made in Japan, and the attendant was a grumpy former East German so I passed.

I will state as a fact though that the Silberstein gets more notice and compliments than any of my other watches. And it isn't people that say "Oh, look at the pretty colors!" They know it is a Bauhaus design and think it is cool.

...maybe it is just the crowds I hang around in, who knows.

What kind of crowds do you hang around in!

-T

I respect the A. Silberstein brand... I think the watch design is clever and would look very good on the wrist of a little boy; with all of those cute smiley faces and vibrant colors I'm sure he and his elementary school teacher would get a kick out of it!

Whimsy. It is called a whimsical attribute. You, obviously, are not very whimsical. Your loss.

Now remember though, you probably are wearing a Seamaster with a monster on the back. But I suppose you never see that monster so it doesn't count. (And you probably never use smiley faces either.)

-T

The point of my original post is not that Silberstien makes ugly watches. On the contrary. I happen to get a huge kick out of them and love bauhaus design. I am simply befuddled by the fact that so much would be invested in such a losing proposition from a business standpoint. Yes we buy Rollies and Pams up the wahoo, but could you imagine how much more we would buy if they were all extremely accurate? I'd rob a liquor store to get my hands on 5 to 10 Pannies just off the top of my head, not to mention Lange, Glashutte, and many others that are way more popular than Silberstien. It seems to be a questionable business decision is all i'm saying.

I think there might be a number of things going on with the situation.

First, for the most part, I don't think it pays to be explicitly accurate about all that many watches. While you may jump at the chance to buy one, think of the economics of the situation. Making a rep devalues the genuine product. The closer the rep the more the devaluation. As a brand/model becomes more devalued it becomes less desirable. Strike one.

Strike two, the whole rep process seems to have many quite fully hooked. If they came out with the perfect Planet O right out of the gate, you'd buy one. But you'd only buy the one. Very few people out there buy more than one of any given genuine watch model. As it is, you have Gen 1, Gen 2, Gen 3, MBW, 1:1, 1:1 with mods, and on and on. At one point I had three different generations of the same PO model. Until I recognized the absurdity of the situation that is.

Strike three is what I term the General Chang principle; "[censored] us, do we not bleed? Wrong us, shall we not revenge?" (Anyone get the joke? Perhaps the humor is wasted....) Get too good a rep going and you'll get some CEO on the warpath. Witness the howling of JC Bi-valve over the Big Bang reps out there. China being what it is, I would imagine that it wouldn't pay to be the nail sticking out via your outstanding counterfeiting skills, else you are liable to get pounded.

[sidenote: I re-read the message after posting and noted that the software "censored" the word "p r i c k" in the sentance above. I suppose

Shakespeare is lost on a computer....]

A final issue is that I think everything in the watch world--genuine or reps--is done in multiples of 500. 500 seems to be the magical number for short production runs. Once you decide to order 500 of something or another, it doesn't really matter what object is being produced. The Chinese are very resourceful. Does anyone imagine that they are not using advanced CAD/CAM processes for these short production runs? I would think it would be easier actually to make the watch using a genuine product as the master. A little 3D scanning and a few computer cycles and voila, here is your perfectly reproduced watch part. At that point it just becomes a question of how much time someone is interested in investing in the process (reference the above points as well). While you may be interested in buying a rep of a very popular watch that has some noteworthy flaws, a not so very popular watch would have to be more exact in order to sell. With all the rollies out there, how likely is anyone to notice that the magnification factor of the cyclops is off? If you appreciate a Silberstein, how likely are you to notice that the color or shape is wrong on a part?

-T

Sorry Frank...JCB did not 'buy' Hublot..he assumed the duty of CEO, becoming a board member and minority shareholder in Hublot watches....in May 2004..., .Hublot is still owned by Carlo Crocco.....JCB was recruited to revitalise the company.....his track record at AP / Blancpain and Omega was what got him the job.....he designed the Big Bang.....plagiarising the ROO in the process.....now they've recruited GG for allegedly their women's range of watches.....his input tho' will no doubt be manifest in the destiny of Hublot and BB....!

I remember how all this started. JC Bi-valve was all proud of his plagiarized AP watches and would hang out in the TZ Hublot forum. Every time some sucker would buy one of his watches and then trumpet the purchase on TZ, Bi-valve would promptly send them a letter, personally signed mind you, extending the warranty another year or some such.

Then some poor guy came on the forum posting pictures of his new BB purchase. Bi-valve promptly sent him a letter. Then someone pointed out that it was a rep--I think the "tell" was the 10-20 misalignment problem on the 3 o'clock subdial. I do feel for the buyer (assuming he wasn't just trying to play games) since I think it unethical to sell a rep for genuine. Of course since we knowingly buy reps it is a little like the pot calling the kettle black and only ethically differs in degree.

But it caused great embarrassment to Bi-valve not being able to even tell the difference between reps of his own watches and the real thing. Bi-valve then promptly threw a sh*t fit and started throwing lawyer this and lawyer that around the whole situation. I personally laughed my a$$ off.

-T

I do have an art background, and when I was partner in a small gallery modern art was the reason I went to work everyday. I still don't like Silbersteins; mainly because they look like a caricature of a "modern art watch". It just always struck me as something Dieter would wear on Sprockets.

Still, as you say it is a matter of taste, and I do admit that a fancy watch collection is, in part, my attempt to be fashionable. I would like to think that an Ice Bang would suit me and my personal style, maybe a Rondo GMT suits you just as well.

Oh, and I got your art watch right here:

Well at least you didn't post a picture of a Watch fait Erotica. There might be hope for you!

/Tim

I get it. A squiggle, a triangle, some primary colors and it's modern art on your wrist.

and apparently enough to keep you out of any MOMA! So is the only reason we wear watches simply to tell the time? If so, why spend more than $5 for a Timex because it would be as good as any.

We wear the more expensive watches precisely for the style. And there is good taste in style and there is bad taste....

Men just don't like admitting that they are wearing jewelry in an effort to be fashionable.

Me, I drive a sports coupe and wear stylish watches because they ultimately say something about me.

(And no, wise ass--my tool size is more than adequate!)

-T

Weird. OK then, rep the Ulysse Nardin Freak, that would be fun.

Who wears those Silbersteins anyway? They remind me of the plastic jewlery my sisters wore in 4th grade.

Hey wait a second! I proudly wear Silbersteins!!! It is the most complimented watch I own. I can understand though how some people just don't get them. Silbersten, as you can tell from the name of this watch, mimics Bauhaus design elements. Specifically he almost plagiarizes Kandinsky's work (google Kandinsky's "On White II' or "Composition VIII" and you'll see what I mean). To me the Silbersteins represent a breath of fresh air in the watch making world.

The Swiss on their own are so boringly repetitive that it is mind numbing. They've figured out--finally--that better watch design principles actually sell watches, but in response they come up with monsters like Jean-Claude Biver and Thierry Nataf. My personal opinion is whoever finds Hublot Big Bang and Zenith Defy watches attractive in any design sense whatsoever, are style disasters on two legs. They ought to just be done with pimping themselves out and do it right; may I suggest wearing a Flavor Flav watch around their neck would get them closer to the style they are seeking....

I own and love a Rondo GMT and would hold that model up stylistically against anything in the watch world.

Now I will certainly agree with anyone else who thinks that they could have made a better selection for a Silberstein piece to rep. The Bauhaus is not my favorite. I am not a particular fan of the case design, specifically the thickness (reference the BB and Defy models above).

One other reason many like Silberstein is that it is one of the few remaining watches marked "Made in France". The same reason many like Panerai because they are made in Italy. Now you and I both know that the movements are all Swiss, and more specifically even those Swiss movements are mostly made in China these days. But at least we can trick ourselves a little easier when it has the words written down.

-T

I think AR is pretty good to have.... but on the outside??? would it be prone to scratches then??? I am very clumsy with my watches and always used to scratch me cheap seiko or casio's when i was a kid...

I don't care too much about AR one way or the other, other than if the gen has it the rep should too. But whatever the situation, I definitely dislike the AR on the outside. I many times will buff out any minor scratches or rub marks on the watches I wear. I was really [censored] one time when I took one of the chronographs and tried to buff out a rub and found that the rouge took off a corner of the AR as well. It is just a small corner and you can only tell if you know where it is at and hold the watch at a certain angle. But it still [censored] me off.

-T

Just found out about extra off coupons on top of the 15%:

The $20 off $200+ was found at:

http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/95612

$60 off 500+ at:

http://www.couponseven.com/coupons/Overstock.asp

$40 off 350 and an 8% off at:

http://www.couponcabin.com/coupons/overstock/index.htm

$35 off 300 at:

http://www.discounterdeals.com/

$30 off $250 at:

http://definitivedeals.com/coupons_a.....;/Overstock.com

I hate my addictions....

-T

Overstock.com is running an extra 15% off sale on their watches that ends Sunday night at midnight. I picked up a Valjoux based Hamilton Khaki for $425 which is about 55% off of list. Lots of junk but some brands of note are Concord, IWC, Perregaux, and Oris. An extra 5% off if you are a member of Club O... buy a pricy watch and get the membership ($29) and you'll at least get another 2-3% off.

Not trying to shill for Overstock, but it is an awfully good deal.

-T

My co-workers have never asked me about my watches, sigh. They just don't notice.

My experience is that the number of people initially noticing any watch one wears is directly related to the overall attractiveness of the wearer. Ugly people never get anything noticed about them on first glance. No one ever notices what I wear but everyone notices what my partner wears. (Though when they find out that I am the one buying all the watches I do get noticed a bit {lot} more! *snicker*) I share your disappointment. And beauty IS in the eye of the beholder. And money DOES make one more attractive!!

I'd be curious to see how many old goats are on this board.....

-T

No, they don't.

Cute cat. I have one that looks just like it except he's got a belly from lying around too much.

Odell (a.k.a. Kitten) got himself in trouble just the other day. We keep having to chase him away from pushing on the window screens. We end up getting tired of it all and just crack the windows open a little to prevent him from pushing out all the screens with his fat a$$. So he goes to a window upstairs on the second floor and squeezes his fat cat a$$ through the 5 inch crack in the window, and somehow in the process pops the screen out and he apparently followed the screen out the window. There were claws mark on the window sill and down the side of the house. This was before I got up in the morning mind you--when the twittering birds are especially active and driving Kitten nuts. I get up and go downstairs to get coffee and he is sitting on the other side of the glass back door looking in and peeping (he doesn't meow, but instead peeps) with a dumb a$$ look on his face. He was unharmed (surprisingly--it's two stories) and we figure that his butt took the brunt of the fall.

-T

Dry vegetation plus wind equals fire eventually. True, the idiot with a cigarette might have started it, but it just as well could have been a back firing car or a lightning strike. Fire is nature's way of clearing out the dead overgrowth and it is going to happen. The problem is that we've encroached upon so many forests and natural fields that our houses are endangered whenever a fire happens. When many of the raging wild fires were happening out in the inner-Western areas I read it was exacerbated by the fact that we prevented so many fires in the past that a build up of old and rotting vegetation made a conflagration inevitable. What ya going to do? You want to live in a natural area but do not want to put up with natural processes.

-T

I think we need to chill on the subject of race,.......

This board was an oasis from the very sort of misguided ideologies

and myth masquerading as fact, that we are beginning to read in this thread,..!

I agree with that. I think I mostly choose to live in ingnorance on these subjects thinking the best of my fellow humans; that they are good people at heart. Because when I learn how people really think it is so depressing to me and fills me with a sense of hoplessness that we as a species are doomed.

-T

Med school is the classic example; give me a smart doctor over a diverse doctor any day.

It is a huge negative for minority practitioners who get in on their own merits; their business is damaged because affirmative action creates an assumption that they were accepted not because of skill, but the color of their skin.

True of any specialization - I had a black friend in college that got into Harvard Law with a 163 LSAT (not a good score and his GPA was not that great). Poor Thomasng on this board scored a PERFECT 180 and didn't get in. Sure perhaps there are other factors but I call bull$hit

I'll tell you in all honesty, the most bigoted people I've ever met are highly educated PhD types. I am not saying that to just get a rise out of you. Perhaps from your perspective, if that is the crowd you normally hang with, you in all probabilty do not see it. I work in probably one of the most educated cities in the US, spent a number of years working at a major university here in town, and it was incredible to me how people so advanced in their position in life and education could possible be so dumb. I am not just talking about simple prejudice either but out and out white-supremist style racism. God's chosen so to speak, simply a better class of genetics in their own mind.

-T

Not ALL bad, but the bad outweighs the good, 100:1. Racial issues have gone in the wrong direction. Reverse discrimination is bad. I don't see "diversity" itself as a worthy goal. A lot of people hired to fill racial quotas are downright unqualified and incompetent, in my experience. And what message does that send to youths of any color?

You. Diversity training. NOW!

Diversity is a wonderful thing. The only outcome is people learning how to get along with each other. Reverse discrimination and racial quotas, please where do you live that these are problems?

-T

I agree with you on that one eddhead. I served in the US Marines and saw combat 2 times. It was an absolute nerve racking experience, even with the combat training that I had been given.

Pshaw! I was in the Air Force and I saw you guys down there. Bunch of wussies!

-T

I am not justifying US unilatarlist foreign policies and will be the first one to step up and say US geopolictical polices under the Bush administration have been an abject disaster. Trust me, I am not a fan of our president and never have been.

It may be true that the Iranians are justfied in feeling threatened by the US, and shame on us for that... but the fact remains the country is unstable politcally, and a nuclear armed Iran would present a huge threat to the western world. Ahmadinejad is a sociopath... anybody who could deny the existance of the holocost is capable of anything.. I think he even scares the some of the mullahs in his own country. And rightfully so.

Moreover, he is sympethic to terroist organizations who are not friendly to the US in particular and the western world generally. Wheather their fears of a US attack are justified or not, given that they sponser terrorist organizations we cannot risk them having access to nukes... there is too great a chance they will use them, not properly secure them, or turn them over to other terrorist organizations.

Iran having a nuclear weapon is a threat to the world but Pakistan is A-OK? Sponsoring terriorism is entirely predictable--in asymetrical warfare.

-T

Morevoer, if you really can't figure out why it is so objectionable for Iran of ALL countries to possess a nuclear weapon than you are not paying attention. You are talking about a country headed up by a maniac who denies the holocost ever happened. He is a true sociopath.

I am not so quick to throw Iran in the toilet over this. Yes, they probably are working on a nuclear bomb. They feel they have just cause to provide for their own defense and nukes are the only thing that seems to command the US's respect. I bet if the US agreed to sign an internationally recognized nonaggression treaty with Iran that the Iranians would be happy to drop the plans for nuclear power. I think Iran has even said this publically.

We backed Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War. We along with many other western countries supplied Iraq with the weapons needed and, when Saddam started loosing the war, the US provided Saddam with WMD and winked when he started to use the WMD against Iran. Kuwait lent him all the money for the war and in the process both Iran and Iraq managed to destroy all their oil production facilities. We sailed our aircraft carriers into the Gulf and actively secured the waterways and coastlines for Iraq getting into a number of clashes with Iran. Remember all that?

Generally accepted numbers show Iran alone lost ONE MILLION people to this war and Iraq 500,000. But some estimates go as high as 2 million total losses. It is hard to determine because the war lasted just short of eight years resulting in catastrophic destruction in both countries. Additionally both Iran and Iraq used irregular military units and freely attacked civilian populations.

Just slightly before that was the Iranian hostage crisis where the Iranians overthrew a brutal despot that the British, with American blessings, had previously installed as the leader of Iran after his father Reza Shah, wanting to maintain Iran's declared neutrality during WWII, refused to allow the Allies to re-supply Russia over Iranian territory.

And the Iran-Iraq War precipitated Gulf War I when the Kuwaitis would not forgive the loans made to Iraq even though there were made because Kuwait feared invasion by Iran. Kuwait would not forgive the debt, but they were also causing a glut in world oil supplies depressing the prices. So Iraq could not amass the funds to repay the loans. Then on top of all that the Kuwaitis were cross drilling under their border with Iraq into Iraqi oil fields.

And here we come in the Gulf War II bumbling into two of Iran

Heck you think that is bad... try Belfast! Almost as bad as our own DC

Much of it in the U.S. is cultural but within cultures. A breakdown of marriage, family and community. No where is that more obvious then in our black populations.

Oh my, you need to stop. You are doing an Imus. The concept that some people in the US walk around with concerning marriage, family and community is a Ozzy & Harriet fantasy best left back when it occurred--the 50s. It was an aberration based upon the polarizing affect of a war that mobilized an entire nation. To say that the problems in any community are caused by the breakdown of marriage, family, and community is simplistic and, though you don't want to claim him, you ought to sit in a corner and play blocks with George.

-T