archibald

We het a skewed view on forums--people mostly post the dramtic, like horror stories about getting called out, etc. Most people are just like us, which is to say not dopes. Someone likes your watch and you suss them out, maybe you just say, "thanks"; maybe you say "thanks, guess what? I can tell you how to get one for $350." Most people I've run into around hewre are as attracted as any sensible person is to a great deal, which a $350 watch that's for all intents and purposes indistinguishable from a 7k watch certainly qualifies as...probably more so in Dc, a town that runs on power and where watches, along with suits, are part of the power symbolism. I've given away at least 25 reps to people locally, and turned a bout 10 into collecotrs.

Siezures are out of everyone's control and your efforts to source these rare pieces are greatly appreciated. Does the new stock include the Patek Nautili--I don't recall whether or not they made it into the group buy...

I'm a little ambivalent about vintage PAMS since nobody who knows what they are would believe I would ever own one, and everyone else would think I paid $15 bucks for a flea market beater, but one thing is certain: that watch is a marvel of ingenuity, craftsmanship, and hard work. Everyone here should at the very least go over and check it out.

All are 100% the same on the outside. Make sure the one you buy, used or new, has the latest A7750.

I'm horrible at naming (just ask my kids), but I do have the best marketing/branding/design hook ever devised for a line of watches.

I love my Tag Monaco, which can easily be bought for around 2 grand and which will never be accurately repped. Tags have good brand recognition (and thus pretty good resale value) if you care about that, and a classic design. Not sure I'd spend 2 grand on anything as well repped as a Breitling, Omega, etc.

From the article: "Jamison...finished the sixth grade at Christian Heritage Academy..." "'It feels really good,' Jamison said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. '... I probably won't ever kill anything else that big.'"

I wish I could--I was talking to a usually in-the-know guy, bitching about missing the first run, and he said, "You're lucky you missed the first release--they're doing an impproved version." He didn't know what the improvements are, though. Hopefully, the improvements will address the day alignment, the "10" and "15", and the bezel alignment.

Get her a mechanical watch, pardner--I'm sure she's a great girl, but if she won't tolerate setting an auto, I doubt a high end rep is the right gift for her. Anyway, I bet once she sees it, and especially since you gave it to her, she'll be fine w/ it. My wife regularly wears, and looks great wearing, my SS daytona, white dial on leather; my pam 049, and my 18k muller casablanca. All are 40mm, and she "dresses" them up with nice pink, powder blue, white, etc. straps. The daytona is my personal fav. I'd start w/ a muller. You can't get the good version of the 18k muller anymore but the "2852" model SSversion is a damn good rep.

A nice guy, who I believe has at least one small child. Yeah, yeah this is a tough biz and all that, but I wish him the best of luck.

I think you can buy a Aninomo, which these seem to pay homage to, for not much more than $1700 but at that promotional price you got a nice deal on a nice watch. Wear it well!

Just a guess: could it be geographical? Even if I'm watching an item offered by an overseas seller it won't show up in the "main" listings unless I select the "worldwide" box.

I can't believe you guys in europe can't get oxiclean or it's equivalent--we can't get away from it in the states...the commercials, it's addition to every product imaginable. Probably your version is advertised like ours--they smear saome mustard on a shirt, dump it in the oxiclean tub, and...you know the rest. As long as you don't take that a Tantalium rep of your wrist and pass it around for folks to judge the weight, I don't see how anyone could ever see the diff between the oxibath and tantallum. Subzero's rep looks exactly like the pics of Tantallum watches I've seen.

It's no fun getting a rep w/ issues--my usual process is to get [censored] as hell for 5 minutes, then remind myself that the QC on our reps is right on par for low-cost Chinese watches, which is what our reps, super or not, are. The good part is that 95% of the QC issues I've encountered have been completely resolved by the dealer or fixed by my watchsmith. BTW--I hear credible rumors of an "improved" Couteau v2.0--can anyone elaborate?

IWC understands that the deepest 99% of these ever get is the deep end of the country club pool.

For anything marked Franck Muller, I'm your guy. For a couple crowns, you can make your money back on the lot!

I think about 8o% of the Robb Report's readers is made up of 26 year old "Vice Presidents" down at the local strip mall branch of Charles Schwab looking at all the stuff they're going to buy when they hit it big, but the Best of the Best issue always has some great stuff on high end watches.

a latest-version asia 7750 torn down and competently serviced is nearly as good as swiss. A 7753 might be worth paying the rep dealer markup for since they're damn near impossible to find, but a straight 7750? No f'n way.

The guy was a [censored]. At the risk of unintentionally sounding like one too, my guess is that it wasn't your watch that tipped him off. Unless you had the bad luck of running into one of the .0001% of the planet who can distinguish a decent rep from a gen on the wrist at 10 feet, my guess is that he pegged you as too different (clothes, age, whatever) from the guys he sells gens too. He's still a [censored], though. I never take a watch, rep or gen off my wrist for anyone, but in your situation I'd have taken the watch back from him and said as loudly as I could, "Guess you don't know your product as well as you should, Pardner. I bought this down at Bob's Jewlery last April, and by the way if they make a fake good enough that a jeweler like you has to open the case to tell the difference, I'm selling this one and buying a fake as soon as I get home." Rule #1 in rep collecting is never buy a rep of a watch you can't or wouldn't plausibly wear a gen version of. We've all got to ask and answer that one for ourselves.

Periodically, I traumatize one of my watches with my TimeZone Watch School tool kit. It always turns out badly for both of us. I figure watchsmithing is like any other craft--you can be taught what to do and how to do it, but doing it succesfully, ultimately, is a matter of God-gifted skill which we either have or not. If you're willing to burn through some dough and some frustration finding out whether you've got the modding genes, I'm with Richard: go for it.

Hard to tell from the pics, but doesn't the He valve look a little higher than in previous SMP's?

Cool. Someone has one already...Dan, can you confirm if the Calypso appears to be a sticker or if it's an inlaid metal piece? Thanks...

Or at least the gen's 1 and 1 0 don't look $4900's worth closer together. http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=tre...70056&rid=0

They have changed the strategy--I don't buy a lot of them--unfortunately the majority of them are not my taste--and there's no way I'd buy a $650 asian powered rep (HBB Mellow Yellow) or a $680 version of a watch that still needs modding and, after modding and a new strap, represents a savings of about 50% of a used gen as in the case of at least two of the swiss-powered Breitlings. But....if a "super" version of a personal "must have" watch comes out, sure, I'll get in 30 seconds flat.

What a Moron. That evildoer. Fake watches as presents? Didn't he know that if he just took Narwaf al-Hamzi out to dinner, president Bush would have held his relatives' hands on the way to dinner @ the White House?