Devedander

Yeah I am really interested in what the good ones are like... I was pretty impressed even with my cheapos in terms of quality (they seem better than what I could get for $20-50 at most dept stores). jnkay - thanks! No one who knows me would believe I dropped thousands on a real Rolex so I got over the fakeness fast and now just enjoy the nice looking watch I bought.

Yeah, I really feel bad for that guy who spent $1300 on a watch from swissreplicas or whatever... if I could have it to do all over again I would put my money towards a noobmariner or even save up towards a nice breitling (which I am really leaning towards all the same)... And in the end, they still look good to me, despite "flaws" and they both keep good time... my quartz Citizen chrono cost me near $200 so in the end I can't feel too ripped off...

Thanks! After getting over the "Damn my watches are bad reps" stage I have come to like them since I liked how they looked when I bought them anyway. I was visiting Dalian City, this is pretty much exactly where I got them... http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&...mp;t=k&om=1 See those little colored circles (looks kind of like little marbles or grapes)? Under one of those (Hope I don't get anyone arrested )

It works out to about $22 for the Rolex and about $45 for the Breitling... I know I didn't get a good deal, but I figure most people make a mistake on their way into replicas... so if I consider those my mistakes I don't have to kick myself too hard.... And thanks for the warm welcome! I have a feeling this hobbie is going to cost me a lot and fast...

So up until 2 or 3 weeks ago I had always thought of "fake rolexs" as those cheapo Casio's with "Rolodex" stamped on the face... then on a recent trip to visit family in China I came across a box of decent looking ones at a street bazarr type deal... They struck me as being very decent looking watches (despite the obviouse origins of them) and I picked up a couple that I liked. Bear in mind that these were not bought under the best conditions (I was probably the only Chinese person in China who didn't speak so it made bargaining hard, my family was not happy about me blowing hundreds of Chinese dollars - which could have bought us some really nice meals, and the day I reserved for shopping at the end got rained out giving me very few options) and I really knew nothing about replicas when buying these (if only I had found this site a week earlier... I wonder how many people make that statement their mantra?) and I am well aware they are not nearly up to snuff for most people here. I have become interested and will probably pick up a few nicer reps from around here (I don't wear jewlery so watches are the only way I have to accesorize and reps makes it affordable to do so with nice looking ones) but for now these guys are serving well (and giving my Citizen daily beater a little time off). I have probably committed every watch picture faux paus there is out there as I do regular physical work while wearing my watches (so they are scuffed up already) and I don't have any polishing stuff so they are just wiped on my shirt... Anyhow first up: Rolex Daytona It's automatic, and was the first one I bought. I thought the second hand swept reasonbly well and didn't know about the improper dials at the time (although now I actually think they ones it has are more useful to me than the real chrono dials). Now here is a Breitling Navigator I got it on my last day (I had hoped to pick up a few more but most of the stands were rained out so my choices were slim). First I looked at an automatic but it didn't have a working chrono and I made the newb mistake of having this one shown to me with working chrono and not making the connection that it was a quartz... in the car on the way home I made the unpleasant discovery after unscrewing the back and finding a battery, but after getting over that nasty feeling and the realization that it's blatently inaccurate in many ways, I still like the watch... my friends have commented on how nice it looks (I have no friends who know anything about watches other than Rolex is fancy and you can buy some watches at WalMart) and for all they know Breitling is a totally made up name so the fakeness isn't an issue. Both watches are fairly heavy with the Rolex I imagine being quite near genuine (I will see about finding a scale at some point). I have never heald a Breitling and I imagine the real ones are heaver but everyone I have handed it too comments on how heavy it is and how solid it feels... So while I would rather have really nice 96% reps, I think for a newbs entrance into reps they are decent... what do you think?

So they are good 40% of the time every time? Must not be made with read Panther!

So I know this is about the simplest thing you guys probably do, but I am wondering what the techniques and tools you use to do this are? Do you just go at it with a file or sandpaper or something? I tried searching but not really sure what terms turn up results for this...

It shows 4 stars for me in index mode... try refreshing your browser with shift heald down so as not to load a cached ver...

The bently in the pics above switches from blue to red... so maybe not his own but 2 off the shelf? Either all the ones I can make out seem to say quartz on the dials so I am guessing if you got it and swapped guts you would be swapping a quartz in...

I would guess it shows the posts rating... rating drop down is at the top right just under "New Topic"...

When is this likely to go through? I might be interested...

I would settle for 95% of the way there for 10% of the cost

I didn't know post count made a difference with reply time... that' seems like a kinda nasty way to do things I hadn't thought about doing it myself... I will have to ask around and see how much AR costs to do... if it's decently inexpensive I would consider that option (although I have never taken a watch apart, but I do take computers and other small electronics apart on a regular basis so I guess it can't be that hard). I am not in a hurry though... I have an el cheapo breitling and plenty of other ways to find out what time it is to hold me over until I decide to drop a few hundred on a good rep...

Very interesting... can you explain to me how this proves it's solid 14k gold though? I mean if it was 9k or lower gold in the center, plated with 14k woudln't the same thing happen?

I personally hope dealers don't start giving away/discounting watches for reviews... it would make it harder to believe the impariality unless they all give the same discount or something to keep the field even... and I would hate to see the bad blood when a review labled a watch as crapola... But having read many of the reviews I do praise the photography skills and offer my greatest thanks to those who do these reviews... it certainly beats the "looks ok but could be better" or "hands not really right" comments that make up most of the info I can dig up on any particular watch...

I think it's funny that many cheaper reps wrongly have the running seconds as the big second hand, which makes them stick out as fake... however peopel get the more expensive ones with functioning chrono and... run it all the time

Thanks, believe it or not between posts I just recieved an answer from one dealer and I will see what Josh has to say. I am generally a patient person (probably won't be pulling the trigger for a few weeks in any event).

So does that mean that it's not a Telegraph machine if it's the kind that just beeps or flashes but rather a telescope? Because I would feel like an idiot if I went star gazing and brought a telegraph by accident...

To tell you the truth I am not getting much love from any of the dealers... I have asked most of them some questions about their products or prices... I got a few responses, mainly things like "no price list, please ask about individual watches" and "Yes our watches are good, you can check our pictures against competitors" but when I ask anything specific, no reply (we are talking 2-3 days no reply). It makes me wonder if somehow they already don't like me... not sure how they would know, but it seems everyone else says they get responses in 24-48 hours... Anyway, no one has answered questions on AR and I will ask Josh (I am looking at Naitimers but his also say AR) but I am becomming leery of the whole process mainly due to the lack of response even from some dealers who everyone claims responds fast to them.

That could well have been it... I didn't see it for long (it was my last day and it was raining so I was in a rush) but it definitely gave an impression of AR coating... I would be fine with this fake AR coating on a rep Breitling as long as it kept people from across the table saying "hey your breitling crystal is totally clear..." (not that I know anyone who would say that).

It's weird, while I was in China recently one of the Breitling reps I saw had a very blue AR coating that was unmissable from any angle but straight on... it was one of the cheaper ones (probably around $20) and I passed on it at the time... It makes me wonder why a cheapo rep could have AR but they don't have AR on the more pricey ones from dealers here as it seems to be about the worst thing to not have (you can tell it's wrong far more easily than subdial spacing or date font etc).

I have been looking over the dealer sites and only rarely is AR mentioned on the breitlings and it's hard to tell from pictures... I am really liking the navitimer blue face, but if I am going to pay just short of $300 for a watch I would like it to be pretty accurate and AR is a big part of accuracy for me... Anyone know if specific dealers have AR, or even better have purchased and can coment on the quality of the AR? Is it a common thing that they all have or rare? I have asked a few dealers but haven't gotten responses and would appreciate input from others. Thanks!