By-Tor

Yeah, obviously it's a fake. It's no coincidence that those pics are blurry, disgusting and taken from weird angles. PS: You can use Tinyurl.com to make huge URL chains smaller. Like this: http://tinyurl.com/25v4ur

I was bored, so I took an updated shot of my collection. Excuse again the lousy photo (I really suck at group shots). So many watches have come and gone, but these are the pieces I think that I've pretty much ended up with. Each and every one of them is an excellent piece. Rolexes are all quite rare and hard-to-find models (except the YM). Finding the amazing franken-Explorer II was the most satisfying thing of 2007, probably during my whole rep collecting "career". As you can see I only buy reps of the "cheaper" watches. I'm an average guy, not the Sheikh of al-Azhar... and wearing a Patek Sky Moon Tourbillon is out of question. I did similar post last September. See it here. I've managed to keep my collection in 8 watches, which is the limit for me. It's tough sometimes, but I like to keep it reasonably sized. UPO -> Gone (it failed to capture my heart) Ebel BTR -> Gone (not amazingly accurate, but still very nice rep for the money, but it was too thin for my tastes) TAG Link -> Amazing rep, but it received no wrist time after I purchased the Aquaracer. Since September I bought another "Noob" GMT from a fellow member, ExpII from Job, and then Yacht-Master from Narikaa to replace them. I'm quite surprised how much I like the YM, I never thought I would. I've soon owned the "Bond" SMP for 3 years, and I like it just as much as the day I purchased it. Same can be said about the chrono version. My Broad Arrow is in my brother's possession now, but I have the option to buy it back... once again. I've never been as satisfied with my collection as now, and I think I could survive 2008 without buying one single watch. I can't make any promises though. Here's a "thumbnail view" of the studio shots I've taken of them. Thanks for looking.

Thanks for the information r11co. I'm not going to buy this watch (I'm full), but I'm looking forward to update the Omega Guide with a review. @Steph: Yep, I'm serious. That's my favorite model... it's different enough from all those boring black and white watches that overwhelm the market (and everyone's collections). I think that particular version looks very cool. Different, yes... but that's the whole point.

Read THIS. As you can see, it's not that simple. But happy hunting! PS: I never had time to construct a title photo for that review. I guess this picture solved the problem.

I guess I have pretty original taste. Am I the only one who loves the Zenith Rainbow? Yeah, it's clumsy. But guys, it's also extremely sporty, handsome, rugged and "crispy". And it's the El Primero. Mother of chronograps. Daytona is for the "new money" yuppies, this is for real WIS. We have to get this one repped.

Thanks a lot fellas, much appreciated. I'm surprised you like it so much, I wasn't so sure about this at first. @dvn: No excessive tricks are needed, I just copied the watch over another picture with a lasso tool (using transparency: 7) to achieve the smooth edges. I could have used 10 or 12 too, to get the effect even stronger. This way the watch "merges" with the other picture nicely. Render -> Lighting effects -> soft omni is useful to achieve the smooth, painting-like effect. They often use "smooth" images in advertising. My goal was to get that "look". Thanks again.

If I had to design an ad of Explorer II, it would look something like this. The white version is so "ice and snow".

Very nice watch. I owned this exact same model once. If those photos are taken with a camera phone, I'm impressed. Better than most people can take with their real cameras.

The main reason I traded my Link chrono was the extremely reflective dial. The gen is similar in that regard... not good. AR isn't a necessity, but some watches definitely should have it. Link is a good example. However, the rep Aquaracer single AR is perfect. The dial is extremely readable and sharp, with zero reflections.

My favorites. Black SMP GMT ain't bad, either.

Is your ExpII the correct hand stack version (i.e GMT hand placed over hour hand)? If it is, the date change will follow the GMT hand (24h hand). You can solve this by setting the GMT hand to follow your local time.

Admin info: Iit's been set this to update every 30 minutes instead of immediately to optimize the speed of RWG. After optimizing the server and database, the load time on all pages have been lowered a lot...well "a lot" might not be the right word, but we are talking about 0.5s difference on most pages.

This is my favorite model without a doubt. As usual, I like crispy colors. I think we all have enough of black and white watches?

Doesn't sound too convincing.

Yes, the weekend is here... and so is yet another wrist check. Starting the weekend with my best budget rep ever, the "Noob" Yacht-Master.

I think that red/black/blue dial version is very cool. Tempting, tempting...

Thanks for the model chart PZ. This looks really nice combo, but is it a fantasy model? Blue dial and red subdial hands, hmm... This is rather unusual, but very, very nice. Are the dials really blue, or is it just the pics? The model chart shows these versions only in black.

They're both quite bad and inaccurate replicas... but that Silix version is just laughable. Stay the hell away! If you read my guide, you already know that the "Noob factory" version is the superior 16710 base. But it's very difficult to find, and it requires mods. TTK sells that one (the wrong hand stack version)... it's coming from his MBK source. Joshua's "Retro" GMT is the only one from our "volume dealers" that you should even consider. However, it has the flaws I mentioned in my review. Do yourself a favor and forget all other "options". Don't buy bad reps.

@chief: Your modded 16610 is still among the best ones I've ever seen!

Happy New Year to RWG. Let's see your watches!!! I'm wearing one of my all-time favorites, the Pepsi GMT today.

Interesting. Am I the only one who thinks that this old rumor about "ETA movements disappearing" has been just another excuse for the factories to drag up their prices?

These are my most precious "pairs": Modded "Noob factory" GMT Masters (I have 2 of them). These are brilliant base watches for mods. GMT and Explorer II are kind of "pair" as well. Here are the old models (already departed): Here are the improved and even better rep models. Both modified quite heavily. Actually I have both standard SMP Bond and the SMP Bond Chronograph as well. I don't know why I haven't taken a "pair shot" of those yet.

I guess the Aquaracer chrono is my favorite watch of them all.

This thread got reported to the admins, and it looks like it's becoming yet another useless flamefest. I'd love to see all our longtime members to feel a collective responsibility for our community. At this point it doesn't matter who's right or wrong anymore. It's just that "discussions" like this seriously poison the forum atmosphere. Very disappointing, so I'm closing it (for now).

@Steph: How do you like the ExpII so far?