By-Tor

Some old school stuff.

They look fantastic Freddy. How many watches are in your collection these days?

Do you "baby" your stainless steel sports watches? When it comes to my reps, I don't. I'm not particularly hard on my watches though. When I do some construction work at my house or summer cottage, I usually wear my WM9 Sub. I only remove it when I swim or chop wood (because I've heard the shocks are bad for the hairspring). Abuse and hard use are two different things. I think scratches and "natural aging" are just handsome on a watch bracelet. Especially on a watch like Submariner. Dings on a bezel and crystal are a bit different... I try to avoid them. But on a Oyster bracelet... you don't even see the scratches, unless you look really closely. And besides, how can you avoid the scratches on the clasp, for example? Sports watches are made for hard use... so why not use them appropriately? And even better when you can use a rep for the "hard parts of life". PS: Nanuq doesn't count in this poll... he probably drives a Jeep over his gen double red every week. They are handsome though... aren't they? PS: If you have some watches that have "serious battlescars", please post 'em.

Do you have a link?

No... the rep wasn't all that accurate. But it was very, very high quality rep. The bracelet was very gen like, superb quality, SEL finish, etc. Selling this was the stupidest thing I ever did. I was going to purchase the gen but then I never did...

Bumping this. No one has posted a pics of the rep of this watch... still... huh?

I love my Rolexes but they NEVER impress anyone... gen or rep... they all just wonder how light and flimsy they are (for such an expensive watch). But when they see this, they're all like "holyfu'kingshit it's a TANK".

Great classic, as always. Do you have any interest in sapphire crystal Rollies, or are only passionate about the vintages?

Wow! Tell us more about it.

Ebel today.

Since you have every detail like the Serial Number right, you also need vintage Sub papers. Of course not for any "bad" purposes but simply to make a perfect forgery. http://i49.tinypic.com/2hobk9k.jpg http://i46.tinypic.com/11vscu8.jpg

Hey... I think I accidentally deleted one post from this thread. Can't remember who's post it was. I was supposed to delete only my own reply which was meant to another thread. Sorry.

Awesome!

I thought you said your watch is from early to mid-90's? That definitely means a tritium dial, which was used until 1997. T<25 = Tritium -> 1997 SWISS = Luminova 1998-1999 SWISS MADE = Super Luminova 2000 ->

"Service dial" and "aftermarket bracelet"? Hmm... Just consider that you can get an all-original 16710 (with tritium dial & non-SELs) in good condition, for around $4000 - $4500. This example is without papers though. But there are many of them out there. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1990s-ROLEX-16710-GMT-MASTER-II-MENS-WATCH-/300784615124?pt=Wristwatches&hash=item460828fed4 When buying gens, I would only buy a 100% gen watch. Absolutely with genuine bracelet. Just my opinion. PS: PM me if you find an example and want some consultation. I'll be happy to help.

Yacht-Master is another Rolex that never grabbed me. I just recently visited the local Rolex AD and tried many models on. I tried a YM just to see if my opinions of it has changed. But no... it just created a "blah" effect when I strapped it on. It's a "metrosexual" version of Submariner. The new Sub was OK but I wouldn't trade it for a 16610 in a million years.

Looks great. And just imagine how old this replica model is... and still one of the best. That reminds me... I had this "underwater" shot of this very model.

Have you checked out Breguet Aeronavale? http://www.1-pc8838.com/br01001-aeronavale-type-chrono-black-asia-7750-28800bph-p-4062.html TTK (Neil) had a gen of this model. Pretty damn fine watch. Of course the rep isn't all that accurate... it's pretty much impossible to replicate watches of this caliber... but who really cares? You can still enjoy your rep a lot.

Ah... two of my favorites. Try to source the old version of the SMP Chrono. With gen insert it's virtually perfect. I have no idea if these still pop in the sales section though. Doesn't make sense to buy an expensive rep of the SMP Bond. I bought the gen for around $1.2K. It's a cheap watch and there's a lot of them available.

I totally understand the approach. I collected nearly 100 different kind of reps but eventually only a few of them had long-term appeal. I eventually bought them all as gens because it was the only way. The reps simply weren't "good enough". Plain steel Sub (WM9/TC) is replicated so well, and with a few select mods it's virtually indistinguishable. If someone handed me my modded WM9 I probably couldn't call it out without very close inspection. So... I haven't bothered to buy the gen. At least not yet.

Let's make it short. I sold my v2 Skyland to Raimondo. The watch was (most likely) stolen by someone in the Italian post. This was the first-ever watch loss for me. I refunded Raimondo fully. Raimondo didn't want the refund at all. But I insisted and eventually we made an agreement and he returned half of the money. I repeat: he was willing to take the full loss for himself. I lost a nice watch and Raimondo lost 95 Euros. He still doesn't have the watch he desired. Let's put together a good old fashioned RWG effort and find another nice Skyland v2 for Raimondo. With good lume dots.

Check out this Clarkson vid... starts from 2:05. Pretty hilarious stuff.

You guys are amazing. PS: We want more pics!