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Mike on a bike

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Posts posted by Mike on a bike

  9. 2000 meter diver M 9015, $355.00

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Over kill on the water resistance yes but then again not much chance of a problem for my use swimming in the ocean this summer. :snorkel:

     

    I just did inventory raffle time soon, been stocking up some great pieces. :inverted:

     

    Oh I bought the wife 5 grand of new furniture last week so all good for me , at least for awhile............................ :bangin:

  23. What the point of QC pics?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Ken and now the other side of the coin, of course you are correct about Amazon experience and at least for my part I know dealers are not making a better margin on higher end stuff factories are in control. This being said if you are the factory supple and demand rules discipline guys discipline this will cause factories to lower price to your dealer and in the end to you.

  24. 2000 meter diver M 9015, $355.00

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    But seriously guys if you read this post by my friend Paneria153 you will find I am the poster child for his reasoning. I can buy any rep I like to but just today if you look at my topics here three mid to low priced gens on the way. Of course you can counter I have tons of reps already but there are a few I like but do not have , a Sinn, an AP Panda, Black Bay (quality issues abound) but I allocated my funds here.

     

     

    "Trust me, I feel the same way. With the prices of reps going up I find myself much more selective about the rep that I do buy. I also find myself buying more mid to moderately priced "gens". Steinhart, Raven, Oris, TagHeuer, RaymondWeil....


    Not really hard, it just would cost money, due to hiring of and retaining experienced staff, due to cost of internal rejects, due to many other things. At the end on the day rep makers are all about making money and don't really give a flying fuck about the quality of their products, beyond a very minimalistic level that is to say.

    This may be a big problem that the rep makers face eventually. While I doubt that there will ever be a lack of demand for "low end" reps that are sold at flea markets, sidewalk vendors, and back rooms in places like Canal Street,, the same might not be true of these that are approaching 1k for and out of box rep. When you get into that price point, especially considering that even with the 800 USD rep, it will still need some after market tweaking, you are beginning to compete with lots of really nice genuine watches. Considering that the price of the new FC ROO is almost 800 USD, and to this added shipping ,PayPal fees, and in some markets additional for "triangle" shipping, you are now looking at north of 900 USD for a rep. After it arrives, you realize that the AR isn't so good, and the  lume is lacking, and hey, that sec @ 12 movement probably should be serviced!! Now you tally all that up, and you are looking at another 400- 600 USD, depending on who does the work, and how much you have done. So now we have a 1300-1500 USD rep. With that in mind, I believe that for 1500 USD, you can get some really nice genuine watches, including some "name brand" watches if you are willing to buy something that is gently used. What have you gained from this, and what have you lost? Well, first the loss. It's not going to be a 25K watch, which the ROO rep is. So if you are buying because you are trying to impress someone. with your really expensive watch, this isn't the deal for you. If you aren't trying to impress anyone, but you truly love a particular brand, and want their watches and are not able or willing to spend 25K on a watch, then this also wouldn't interest you. I believe that for the most part most of the folks here fall into the latter category, they truly love Rolex, Patek,  Panerai, AP, etc. and want to own examples of the watches they love. Another group would be the  folks who buy a rep to "Try it on for size" so to speak, before going out to their local AD and spending their hard earned cash on a particular watch. All are perfectly valid arguments and will serve to keep the manufacturers building high end reps. So what are the gains from buying a gen? First off are all the things that the rep lacks, real QC, a genuine watch with box papers and a real warranty, a dealer and company that has customer service that hopefully will respond to your problems. Customer service is comprised of real people who you can actually contact and speak to about a problem. And lastly, these are watches that you can wear anywhere, into any AD in the world, have them repaired by any trained watchmaker, and lastly should you decide to sell the watch, you have multiple venues to sell.

     

    Are the high end  reps going to go away? No, because there are always going to be folks who have the resources and desire to own these reps. However, if folks become selective and decide that 500 USD is their limit and this has and appreciable impact on the sales of these high end reps, I could foresee in the future, less "versions" being introduced. Instead of being on version 5 within a year or so, we might still be on version 1 or maybe 2. the manufacturers will only upgrade if the see a market for the upgraded versions. If the market is slim, the selections will be as well."

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