By-Tor

The fuss was about paying premium for the fastest service, which advertises a delivery of 2-3 days, but in reality takes 10. Ah, about the watch... you'll see today (hopefully).

Rolex has actually used "subsidiary" seconds. See here: I doubt that Dani's Tudor has a Rolex movement though. I'm not sure if any Tudors ever had... I recall reading that some of the very early Tudor Submariners did, but I'm not sure about this. PS: This was sold at preownedrolex.com for $1299. The model is called "Nickel Chrome Tank", and it's from the 30's. So not all vintage Rolexes are super expensive... only the sports models are.

It looks really nice. Great pics too! But I'm a big fan of the SFSO bracelet myself. Not that it's exceptionally sturdy or anything, but I love how it makes the watch contour along with my wrist. The SELs have been machined and cut very well. The fit is exact, which is another sign of quality to me.

For many non-watch enthusiasts TAG is more prestigious brand than Breitling and Omega. Well, Omega might be even... but Breitling is pretty much unknown brand. If you asked from anyone in his 20's what expensive watch brands come to his mind, he'd probably answer Rolex and TAG. None of my real life friends are WIS, and they're always impressed of TAG. I don't know where that comes from... probably from heavy and aggressive marketing. Maybe this is different in the US, but TAG actually has very good image in Europe. Just my "gut feeling"... not necessarily a fact.

Probably just another bozo who wants to impress and educate people in the gen forums with his "rep knowledge". God I hate those guys. PS: this is OT, but I once went lurking to the rolexforums.com... they have a "spot a fake" (or whatever it was called) section over there. I swear, those guys are completely and utterly CLUELESS. They absolutely don't have an idea what they're talking about, most of the time. I saw them reporting at least 2 perfectly legit vintage Submariners as "fakes"... during one day.

@phoband: I agree that we're small time, but let's take Ioffer for example. The place is FULL of reps. All luxury brand replicas are well presented there... PAM, Ebel, TAG, Breitling, etc... you name it. But no Rolex reps anymore. Rolex reps suddenly disappeared from Ioffer overnight, like someone waved his magic wand. I'm 99,9% sure that the Rolex lawyers had something to do with it. I believe they COULD harm this community somehow, if these places get more and more exposure. Yes, I agree that they probably don't really care about us hobbyists... people who don't make any money out of this hobby... but there are Europe and US-based dealers, for example. @Andreww: I disagree. I believe the high-end reps DO hurt Breitling sales. Maybe not significantly yet, as the rep hobby has been kind of a "cult" and "underground" thing for a long time. Yes, it IS underground... despite thousands of members. Rolex alone sells over a million watches a year. And even if the high end reps didn't hurt their sales, I seriously doubt they'd take similar approach to the reps as we do. They see them simply as trademark infringements... and that's exactly what they are. ILLEGAL, counterfeit trademark infringements. Sometimes we seem to forget this little fact... people who manufacture and sell replicas are THIEFS, at least in legal terms. There are many models that have been repped so well, that buying the gen doesn't really make sense. Most of them are A7750-based. This new Skyland for example. This kind of publicity isn't good.

Stop who? The Chinese rep industry? I don't think anyone's particularly concerned about them... or even talking about the rep industry. People are more concerned about these forums, this hobby... and this community. Maybe they can't shut us down, but there's still plenty of things that they can do to make our lives more difficult. Why they haven't "attacked" us, I don't know. RepGeeks and RWI are both US-based forums, and they can still continue without any hassle. Let's hope it stays that way, but this kind of publicity is never good for us.

Yep, it shows in my tracking now. Arrived at my homeland. 10 days from UK to another EU country. This was the longest shipment ever. Normally it's 2-3 days... but maybe fully insured packets get a slower route? Anyway, for some unknown reason it it was laying for 8 days at the Heathrow airport.

Ah... didn't know that. Anyway, as I said... sometimes we can't help the rep pictures "leaking" to the gen forums. This is not good, but the gen forum admins make a mistake if they allow these kind of discussions there... unless their purpose is to promote the rep sales. I mean, the reps ARE that good these days. These kind of posts will only create curiosity and interest. And as already mentioned, lots of gen owners are closet rep buyers. Owning 6 genuine Breitlings doesn't mean that this person doesn't buy reps. Lots of RWG members own way more than 6 expensive gens. Richard Lawton's gen collection, for example, wipes the floor with almost anyone.

How does making it private change anything? You can grab any picture from the Net when you right-click over a pic, go to the properties and copy the address string. This applies to Photobucket pictures too.

I think the admins of the gen forums should remove these kind of discussions too. The guy who posted the pics might just browse the rep forums out of curiosity. I'm sure there are lots of gen people "spying" on these forums... probably people from the major watch brand managements too. The more this information spreads to the gen forums, the more it will affect on the gen sales. This, of course, isn't good for us. But sometimes there's simply nothing we can do.

I think the picture makes it look much bigger than it is. Noel, it's a great looker and don't mind the size... lots of members like their watches big.

It also depends on the watch. SFSO is HUGE but it doesn't feel and look "too big" at all. The design of SFSO is perfect, pure genius (imho), and the bracelet really contours along with your wrist. But 45mm PO is just oversized. Somehow, the bracelet doesn't "comply" with your wrist very well, and makes it wear even bigger than it is. And despite the huge size, the design is very minimalistic... especially with the black bezel. Maybe this has something to do with the case shape too... watches with angular shape bezels probably wear smaller? The main reason why I love the SMP Chronograph so much, is that the diameter is only 41mm without the pushers, and the watch is THICK. It wears both big and balanced. The Daytona for example, feels really tiny in comparison... despite being only 1mm smaller.

That really looks like a clock on your wrist. Yeah, I'd like to see better photos too.

For me, the wrist size alone isn't any kind of deciding factor. Of course, when you have bigger wrists, you "can" wear them. But most watches themselves look much better and more balanced in 40-42mm than 45+ mm. Just imho, of course. PS: I think anything over 42mm is a "big" watch.

I'm not too excited about big watches. Some models would definitely look better if they were only 40-42mm, imho. As much as I love my Aquaracer Day-Date rep, I'm considering to buy the gen of older date model, which is just 40mm. Same thing with Planet Ocean... the smaller 42mm version is much better looking watch of the two. So no... I don't really care about huge watches. 42mm is a big watch already, and most of the 45+mm watches look silly and unbalanced. People who think they look good on their skinny wrists are mistaken... Panerais with straps perhaps being the exception... because the whole thing about PAMs is that they look "oversized". The big watch trend is over. At least for me. I won't buy anything over 43mm anymore.

It's a rare week when I don't wear my good old SMP. Put this on just 5 minutes ago.

I don't know, but the "dress" Tudors aren't that valuable... You can get a gen Rolex Precision, which is the dateless basic model, for around $1K. I would pass, unless you really like the watch.

Beauties guys... one thing that has started to bother me on the reps is the SEL fitting. Very few reps have well machined & perfectly fitting SELs. They always look a bit wonky, and there's often those small "gaps" between the lugs and SELs. I have owned a few Rolex reps with very good SELs. My franken-ExpII is the best in this regard. I guess it's a luck of the draw and a QC issue. The MBK TT Sub here, my review watch, is a good example of the bad SELs. No gen has that sloppy look on them.

Thanks Robbie, good and informative link.

We allow free discussion of everything, but we don't want that people start to wash their dirty laundry from other forums here, or start any kind of inter-forum "he said, she said" drama. Let's not make it a habit anyway. Take it to pm, or to the forum(s) where these problems originated. This thread has served its purpose. Closed.

I'm always amazed how people possibly CAN take such technically god-awful pictures. I mean, how is it even possible? Must be years of practice behind it.

Looks great! Now it's good times for Breitling fans!

Brazil beat Argentina in Copa America final. It was quite a surprise as Argentina had superior talent in their team. Now it's time for revenge. Argentina knocked Brazil out from 4 major tournaments in the nineties, and had "psychological edge". Now it seems that roles have reversed. When I was a kid, everyone was almost rooting for Brazil... it was kinda boring and unoriginal, so I became an Argentina fan. This was one happy moment in my youth. Caniggia scoring from that absolutely AMAZING "cannonball run"... by guess who... and sends this superstar Brazilian team packing. Loved it. ">" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350">