stang

P.S. I just ordered a SMP 300M chrono from Joshua and I'm awaiting delivery. He responded to my emails VERY quickly (often within hours) and I sent him *a lot* of messages. I was able to pay using my VISA debit card and Western Union. Overall the whole process was quite easy all things considered. So far, I rate him as follows... Website: 9 out of 10 points. Email Response Time: 9 out of 10 points. Ordering Options: 9 out of 10 points. Delivery: (to be determined) Product Quality (to be determined) TTK, LMAO!! (black eye joke) suggestion... list your web site address so that people can view your products. I couldn't find your web site mentioned anywhere on these forums. Next to your profile would be the best place (Same goes for ALL the dealers here. Hard to shop w/o a "store" to look at w/ pictures/stats/prices/order info/contact info)

Devedander, Nouns Defions, Pugwash, et al., Sorry, I forgot about this thread. In hindsight, I regret posting this reply as I was afraid my intent & meaning would be misconstrued. Although I failed (miserably) to articulate my sentiments, I do agree with you 100% in that any attempt (malevolent or benign) to obscure the facts is wrong. No one should ever, under any circumstances, for any reason, lie, exaggerate, embellish, mislead, conceal, spin or otherwise obfuscate the truth in any way. This is particularly true for dealer advertising. I posted my response mainly because of my early experiences with looking for a nice replica watch. The hypothetical situation I described concerns a buyer who doesn't know about this site (i.e. Me, a few months ago). Basically, I woke up one morning with a hankering to buy a replica watch for some reason. The ensuing events went something like this.... 1) log onto computer. Google search for keywords "replica watch", "swiss replica", "Omega replica watch", etc, etc. 2) get approx 10,000 hits on replicas. Spend the next 10+ hours clicking and reading link after link after link after link.... 3) find dozens of replica watch sites and dozens of "replica watch buyers guides". Read & read & read & read. Ironically, *this site* and the web sites of Josh, Andrew, etc were not among the dozens of hits Google turned up. 4) Almost purchased a Breitling rep and an Omega rep because the web site pictures and description seemed like a good deal. Found out later that these watches were not as advertised and that many of the sites were canceled (probably because the sellers just took the credit card numbers and ran). Even if I had found Josh's site, I still may have purchased from a bogus dealer because their watches seemed like a better deal. How do I know who is honest and who isn't w/o a web site like RWG to guide me? Again, the (admittedly rare) circumstances I described do not apply to anyone who is fortunate enough to know about this site. I found www.rwg.cc simply by accident (still can't remember how I happened across it). I consider myself VERY, VERY LUCKY to have found this site!! As always, buyer beware and do your homework. Of course, I doesn't help to do your homework if your reading out of the wrong book, as I was months ago. (This site being the RIGHT book!) I want to reiterate that I do not condone or endorse any dealer (or anyone) intentionally misleading consumers, even if their motives are somehow philanthropic in some way. Everyone/anyone, should always tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Period. That is my opinion for the record. I apologize, most sincerely, if my post seemed to advocate dealer mis-representation of their products. Jeff

I apologize for the lower-case American in my previous post. Definitely not intentional and deserving of an immediate correction. Therefore .... AMERICAN !!!! F-N-A Brother!!

Crystalcranium, I'm unsure of the current history of Ball watches myself. I read somewhere that they are a Swiss company but the corporate history (via website www.ballwatch.com) indicates american origins. The movements seem to be Swiss ETA or slight modifications of the base ETA movt., so, probably very reliable. I did read somewhere that the expression "Get on the ball" was a reference to the accuracy of these watches ... a way of telling the conductors to get an accurate watch & be on time. Kind of cool having a common expression attributed to a watch. My fascination w/ Ball stems from their exception engineering of the watch housing. I participate in a lot of X-game style activites (motocross, skiing, rollerblading, jetskiing, skydiving, kyacking) so a durable watch is my primary concern. Buying "ready-to-go" ETA movements seems like a way to devote most R&D efforts into the case itself. Plus, I've owned a tritium watch before (Chase-Durer, before switch to Superluminova) and I really miss the tritium. You have to own a T3 watch to appreciate its appeal. Glows non-stop for 20-25 years. I wish there were more tritium + chronograph options besides the Luminox & Traser ones. : ( Question: Anyone know the durability of Quartz vrs Mechanical movements for "explorer" type conditions? Which movement is tougher, more resistant to natural phenemenon (cold, heat, magnets, shocks, water, etc). I've heard differing views on the subject. The Fortis, H X-wind & Oris seem to be excellent & nice looking watches but just don't have the "Guess what my watch can do/take" conversational value of the Balls.

Ooops, my bad. Reference was to the Engineer Master 2, not the Hydrocarbon. Still, I concur on the Ball watches. (sorry all, I can't edit my previous post).

Watchdude, I agree 100% on the Ball Engineer Hydrocarbon series. I read the Ball website overview of these watches and they're simply amazing. 300M water res, 12,000 A/m antimagnetic, 7,500 x g shock resistant, operable down to -40oC, tritium GTLS tubes. Those things are the M1A1 Abrams of the watch world! The chrono w/ ETA Val7750 can be had for ~$2000. A lot of cheddar to be sure ... but worth it IMO. This is the only watch I would pay thousands for. Good call.

Hmmmm, Very interesting. Seems like the minute repeater takes the most votes. In response to jdkno's question, I believe a minute repeater is a watch which "chimes" out the current time whenever a button/lever is activated. First, the # of hours is chimed, then the 1/4 hour (i.e. 0-14 min = 1st qtr, 15-29 min = 2nd qtr, etc.) and finally the # minutes past the 1/4 hour. So, basically three sets of chimes in a row (w/ pauses in between or different tones I suppose). If I got this wrong, please correct me. I believe the minute repeater was an early attempt to tell the time in the dark (before radium, tritium, superluminova, etc). Now it's basically a very fancy, very complicated, very cool type of movement. I'm curious if there are any replicas w/ minute repeater capability. I know I've seen some tourbillons and some perpetual calenders (quartz probably) as reps, but not any MRs. As for the GMT, I like the way you can use it as a compass. Actually, you can use any watch as a compass by mental calculation of where the GMT hand *would be* if the watch had one ... but it's not a quick thought. I think my next watch will be a perpetual calender (w/ day, date, month, year, LY) + alarm in a "diver" version. If I can find one that is. Thanks for the feedback! Jeff

I'm curious what are everyone's favorite complications are and why? Also, what do you think the most useful complications are? Finally, what are your favorite watch features (WR, bezels, casebacks, lights, straps, etc). My personal favorites are the chronographs ... probably because they look *SO* cool (to be perfectly honest). As far as utility, admittedly, they aren't very practical for everyday use. Ironically, I actually do use my chrono since I'm a scientist and often have to time various events. Of the various "complications" I've owned, the alarms were probably the most useful and utilized most often. I think perpetual calenders are extremely useful on a daily basis as well (though I've never owned one myself). As for features, I insist on a very water resistant watch for sports activities. I prefer diver models because of the W.R. and the timing bezel (which I find useful for timing in general). A dream watch would have tritium illumination or Superluminova as a 2nd choice. I also like the look of polished steel w/ perhaps a bit of gold-plated "bling". BTW, if I ever do spend $2000 on a watch, it will probably be the Ball Engineer Hydrocarbon Chronograph. A toughness engineering masterpiece. ETA 7750, 7500g shock resistant, 12,000 A/m antimagnetic, 300M water res, -40oC temp range & 30 Tritium GTLS. Soooo Coooolll!!

A quick thought. (I apologize if this has been mentioned already & I missed it) Sometimes a dealer can actually do us a favor by slightly embellishing the descriptions or listing creative terms (i.e superlume) for their watches. This is particularly true for inexperienced buyers like myself. Truly unscrupulous dealers (or outright crooks who won't send you anything) have no compunctions about blatantly misleading consumers. Displaying pictures of watches they don't possess, sending inferior replacements, making outrageous claims, etc., can dupe unsuspecting buyers into buying a product which "seems" better. After all, how will a replica newbie differentiate between honest dealers (like at this site) from scam artists w/ only web-site descriptions to go by? I know, I know ... buyer beware ... but it's not always easy. I would much rather get a very good quality replica than a crummy fake (or nothing at all), even if the description was slightly exaggerated. I may be a newbie, but even I don't expect to get a genuine ETA 7750, real superluminova, etc for $2-300. Some common sense must prevail. I seems like the replicas offered by Josh (et al) are excellent values and very accurate reproductions of the originals. Great buys, regardless of any descriptive inaccuracies.

Short post to test connection.... 1) This site is awesome. Thanks to all for the informative contributions. 2) I will now need W.A. meetings (Watchaholics Anonymous) to deal with my recent RWG obsession. Note to dealers ... PLEASE give your web-site address in your avatar/signature/etc so that members can view your collection. I am having a bugger of a time figuring out where most dealers (TTK, etc) web sites are. I am ordering from Josh right now (in part) because he *tells* us where his site is. Regards, Jeff