By-Tor

I think the mightiest watch brand is Breguet. Yes, over Patek Philippe. It's Napoleon's watch brand after all... maybe the first wrist watch ever produced... amazing history. Breguet is the "ultimate" for me... but I would never buy a watch that expensive... and owning a Breguet rep... hmm, that's just overboard for me. But do I love the full gold Type XX... I drive rather fancy company car, but income wise I'm still just an average guy. Stainless Rolex, Omega, Breitling and TAG are for the average guys. Yeah, they're unimaginative choices, but I simply love the simple rugged sports watch looks. PS: Zenith is another brand that I love... but not the new ones. Way too complicated design. But give me a Flyback Rainbow Chrono or ANY of the classic El Primeros and we're talking. @Richard: I choose watches based on my size and clothing style. I'm 6'3 and 275 pound ex-powerlifter. Not bragging about it, but I'm rather big boy. So do you think a Constellation or gold Datejust would look good on this frame and with these clothes (this is my usual wardrobe style). Of course I have to "dress up" occasionally, and SMP and SMP chrono do look good with a suit (although some say you shouldn't wear sports watches with a suit). But Bond does, so why can't I? The idea is to buy watches that suit you well, imho.

I love classic sports Rolexes: Sub, GMT, Dweller and ExpII. I really like wearing my white ExpII, because most people won't recognize it as a Rolex at all. And with white dial it's very, very understated watch. It won't get noticed at all, which I like. I'd say the white Daytona is very similar watch in this regard. I wear the watches only for my own enjoyment. I don't really care how other people "see" them (or me, when I'm wearing them). I just wear what I enjoy the most. PS: I 100% agree with the diamond thing. I like almost all kinds of watches, but diamonds are very bad taste (on a man's watch). Silver dial Rolex Serti Sub isn't too bad though. I wouldn't wear it, but it's the only "diamond watch" that I find rather nice looking.

Just got a confirmation from the RepGeek admins: Gone from there too. Like I said, banning people is never nice... and Navigater probably didn't think his posts were damaging us. And yes, a lot of people in the gen forums know this community, and lots of our members own very impressive gens too... and have a "double identity" in the gen forums... and just pretend to despise the "fakes" over there. It's part of the game, and absolutely nothing wrong with that. Don't embarrass yourself and go there as a "replica expert". Those guys aren't idiots, they're well aware of the high-end reps. Posting rep pictures from our community is like smoking a joint in the lobby of a police station. Or talking about illegal drugs in the med forums. Do you really think the doctors aren't aware of them... they still don't necessarily want to discuss the illegal stuff publicly... or want to see some morons crawling under their rock... to their forum and give "insider" tips how to inject heroin properly. These are illegal counterfeit watches!!! Some gen forums are sponsored by watch brands, do you think they want to see pictures of "super reps"? The Hublot CEO thing was a sad example of "bad publicity" for the rep community. All three forums want to give a message to our members this way... good showing by RWG, RWI and RG! Just don't do it!

Yep. I've read about it. And that's why the following new GMT's came with this certificate:

@Cats: Please post pics of your watch. I couldn't tell if it's a MBW or not (from the pics I received via PM). I'm not that familiar with the vintages (rep or gen). All I can say that the watch isn't the same as my old (long gone) red MBW 1680, and I doubt they have made any different versions.

Thanks man. @d4me: Forgot to say that I love your new avatar! Neil Peart = God.

Thanks mate, I was just going to pm you. He'll be taken care at the Geeks as well. Good riddance.

The datewheels in the 7750-reps has always been a mystery to me. Why can't they make them correct? When the SMP Chrono came, I got mine from EL with perfect ETA-datewheel, out of the box. But all the later batches of this rep had the silly Asian 7750 default wheel. I'm puzzled why they can't produce more of the ETA wheels? Everything else is often repped really well, but then the wrong datewheel ruins it all.

Awesome shots! Man... this watch is growing on me. I drive a Mercedes E200 Kompressor, so this would be quite convenient for me. Hey, isn't that a great excuse to buy yet another watch? PS: Any interest in making a full review of this? I'd love to add it to my TAG Guide.

Well said Nanuq. And in the end of the day they're just watches. We can be passionate about nice things, but they're still just... "things". They're fun stuff, nothing that's really important in life. I love to meet all kinds of WIS, people who are passionate about watches. It doesn't matter what watch they wear, gen or rep.

One humble request: Is it possible to resize the pics to somewhat reasonable sizes? Irfanview is a great, free and easy utility to resize them quick. 800x is enough and 1024x is HUGE. Now some of the pics are in the 3000x range and it's rather annoying. Otherwise, much appreciated for the review. Good job!

Navigater is banned. I will take care that he and his IP will be banned from all other forums too. It's never fun to ban people, but why people do this? PS: It doesn't matter why he posted the rep pictures there. He did, and that's all what matters. If you want to save the world from reps (and rain forests and whales too) don't associate our community with this brave mission. We want to keep as low profile as possible... and annoy the gen forums as little as possible (well as much as it's possible under these circumstances). This is what I posted about asad, who was banned too (for the same reason). Perhaps it clears up the motives behind these bannings a little. Repost ===== asad got ip-banned from all major boards (RWI, RG and RWG) for posting rep pictures to gen forum. It has been mentioned in our forum rules, and we are strongly against this behavior. He did it on purpose, and the Geek mods got a request/veiled threat from the Paneristi admins for that asad's post. Members like asad can seriously jeopardize our hobby as we want to keep as low profile as possible. Yes, we are an open forum but we want to respect the gen boards this way... when we don't go and sh1t into their livingroom - and rub the reps against their collective faces, maybe there's a small hope that they (and the lawyers of Rolex, Swatch, Hublot and Richmond) could leave us alone with our ILLEGAL hobby, involving counterfeit watches. Well, it doesn't hurt trying. asad probably didn't think it this far, or didn't mean to harm anyone... but we have decided to take this approach. All forums co-operate in this regard.

I'm aware of the subdial spacing issue. If someone calls me out... well, that'll be a great day, because then I have lived 10.000 years to meet someone who knows what Ebel BTR is... and calls me out on the subdial spacing. Rolex and Omega are a bit different... but it's no issue for me on a obscure watch like this. I just love the design.

Amazing projects guys, just amazing. My old man has the gen, and I will one day own it. @Ubi: What do you mean the 5.3mm crown is a "big hurdle"? I have one spare gen 5.3mm crown for 1675. If you need one, it's yours man.

I still remember how much I tried to convince Trusty (and his supplier) to make this replica a few years ago. He wasn't convinced that it would sell at all.

Thanks for this comparison. I always wanted to have one of these. I recall there was yet another "old" version of the BCE, called "Ultimate". How does this compare to that one, in your opinion? Does this new one have double AR?

He'll get banned asap.

I checked that, and found exactly what was excepted: A typical scam site. Complete BS claims, and $200 reps selling for $1100. It's not the lowest grade of scam site, because it doesn't use gen pictures. Gotta give them that. But if you believe their watches are solid gold, Swiss made, and have 904 steel... well... what can I say... It's your money. But instead of throwing it away, I'd give it to charity. Please!

Some additional pics I found from Ioffer. Not as good as Taka's pics but I can't get enough of them. All subdial spacings aside... this really screams a quality watch.

Thanks man. Found these two (Lanikai's wristshots).

Yeah it's quite amazing they didn't replicate the rotor, which is one of the cool things on the gen. Not a deal braker for me though... just a minor annoyance. Hmm... I went to see Takashi's pics again. Maybe the black one is better choice anyway...

@Taka: Any chance of posting a few wristshots later?

The gen hour markers and hands seem to be all silver. Except for the stopwatch hand, and 2 small subdial hands. Hmm... that seems to be the issue with the rep too. Gen photo: Some more photos of the rep (from King's site). I assume the hands (that look quite dark in the photos) are actually silver, and just reflecting something.

Thanks Taka. On the SFSO the AR isn't as apparent on the white. At least that's what people are saying. I'd love to see some actual pictures of this white BTR before my decision. Anyone purchased the white one here? PS: I agree generally about white dial readability... especially when the markers and hands are silver. But when the hands and markers are dark (dark blue in this case), the contrast is strong and nice (see white Explorer II). Black is always the safe choice, but for some reason the white dials have been "speaking" to me lately. Maybe I've owned too many black/blue dial watches.

I can't decide... I just have to get one of these. But I'm more and more thinking about getting the white dial. But I really like the black too. The poll probably won't affect my decision... but I'm still curious. Which one you prefer, and why? White Very classy, with blue "icy cool" hands. Dunno how the double-AR would look with the white dial. or Black These pics don't make it justice. But you've all seen Lani's and Takashi's pics... very nice.