gasebah

Still on vacation..

First day of vacation..

Currently on top of the list for my next watch: https://www.nitewatches.com/store/gb/icon-automatic/icon-automatic-215l/

Interesting that this pops up now because I have done some soul searching as to why I buy reps recently. I can see how somebody comes tot he conclusion that fake watches are bought to gain social prestige without being an unconscious bloke. I assume that the majority of reps are bought for exactly that reason. Just look at the fake watch buster posts with kids flashing their canal street reps and brag about the money they allegedly coughed up to buy them. At the same time I have learned that there are other motivations to buy reps, and I have learned that this is true for most of the members of this forum. I definitely do not buy reps to gain social prestige or flash them in public as gens. I also buy a lot of micro brands that would only be recognized by some real watch enthusiasts. Plus I own many gens, not in the 5-10000 USD area but the likes of Anonimo or vintage Omega. The net worth of my watch collection could easily buy me a nice Patek. So if I was out for prestige I would buy a Nautilus and end of story. But what I really enjoy about this hobby is diversity and the process of building a collection. Like to have a watch for every shirt color and every occasion. Having said this there are a lot of smaller and affordable brands out there that are even technically innovative and have better and more reliable movements. I am talking Anonimo, MKII and others. Just yesterday I stumbled over a UK brand that uses Tritium tubes instead of lume. So diversity is no valid reason to buy into reps as well. So why don’t we all buy micro brands or sterile homage watches instead? Obviously the famous watch brands have a lot of appeal. I often read the argument that the genuine brands are overpriced. But the price for something is made by the market and all luxury items are decoupled from the material and manufacturing cost. Why should the brands sell at a price below the market? The brand itself has a value and it was build by real people that earn their living from doing so and pay real taxes. It took decades of work, a lot if ingenuity and billions of dollars to get there. If you feel the brands are overpriced why buy them? It is not like food or medical supplies. Nobody needs a Rolex or a Patek. Another motivator: The hobby takes over and the obsession to correct the small flaws that still distinguish the reps from their gen counterpart. The hobby itself can be very fulfilling. So there are lots of reasons other then being fake or gain social prestige. Ultimately I came to the conclusion that I indulge myself into the thought of owning something I crave for and could not or would not afford otherwise. At the end of the day there IS some hypocrisy involved in this hobby. Face it! Probably not the kind of post guys want to read in a rep forum, but at least my "genuine" thoughts.

These are from MKII (mkiiwatches.com). You usually cannot buy them (except some models which are on general ordering). You have to preorder them and place a deposit of 50% of the watch price. The other 50% are due when the watch is ready for delivery. For some models this took like forever. Anyway for this model pre-ordering stage 2 has a long waiting list. This particular watch is in the 1600USD range. But I think realistically you can buy them only 2nd hand now. The whole MK2 story and its business model is very interesting and the quality is on par with gens from well known brands in the 2-4000€ range IMHO. The movements are usually swiss ETA. The designs are inspired by watch classics but they never just copy the design, but merge it with some modern aspects. There is a dedicated forum for the brand on watchuseek.

Well I am known to be ahead of my time :-). The outlook calendar on my screen showed September and I guess I was somehow in a remote comtrolled state.:-) Mods can you cure this??

New MK2 Key West. In the correct light the gilt dial is nothing short of spectacular.

I think the prices are still reasonable. Just compare what you would get from microbrand for that money. If I think of real carbon and ceramic cases and such things....

I was in the hunt for a nice 1675 or 6542 for a long time. As I am too ungifted to build a watch from scratch I bought some builds in rep fora but while they were optically nice they were all mechanical nightmares. Recently I stumbled over the Key West and took the plunge. It flew in yesterday. The whole quality of this watch, case dial, bezel, hands totally exceeded my expectations. Very nice.

On the topic of stealing watches from your wrist:

Found that link in another formum and it seems to contain a wealth of information. I am not a Panerai specialist but it is an ineresting collection of links and references. https://mega.nz/#F!8R0FWaoS!IAasZXfb14Z7R1H6CLYp6w -Alex

Not sure if this is what you are lokking for but I have a mingle mangle between a Tudor and PVded Rolex Daytona built from drawer stuff. :-)

My recently aquired bullhead in mint condition today:

Shaved the crystal. Looks so much better now.

This:

I installed a Clarks recently and I am satisfied with it. It is a very nice fit with the angled edge of the crystal starting right on top of the bezel. The AR under the cyclops is not very convincing though and sometimes leaves a blue dot on the cyclops. Important thing for me is that the terrible crystal it came with from TC is gone. It was completely AR'ed and left a terrible purple shimmer on the whole KH dial in certain conditions. I will see if I can post some pictures tomorrow.

Guys please don't laugh at me. I am so proud. Until now I had a hard time to even remove a link from a bracelet with screws. But today I opened up my TC, removed the movement, changed the gasket, pressed on a new crystal and fixed the bezel spring which was somehow messed up from the beginning. And all that without f***ing up the watch. I made a pressure test and all is fine. Yeah!!! Thanks to all you guys. I could have never made it without this forum.

Scary!

Yes I did. Found it after it was sold. Gotta wait I guess. Until then I will have a look at one of the new Clarks with AR under the crystal. Has anyone tried them?

And you still made a decision to live......

Amazing dial markers. Is this a TC V6 date wheel?

Hi guys, I recently got a TC V6 sub. Unfortunately it came with an AR'ed crystal that I can't stand. It is not very clear and it also produces a blue hue not only on the cyclops but the entire watch in certain light conditions. I am about to buy a gen crystal but the only ones I found are in Chrono24 for 350€. I am not sure if that is overpriced. Can someone give me a decent price point for these? -Alex

That's a nice one. I will buy it in a flash if there will be a decent rep. I would even think about going gen maybe. But I suppose it will have a totally different price tag than the other quite affordable Heritage models. I'd expect something crazy.

A gen strap I picked up at a very decent price....