TeeJay

If you want to earn the respect of these people, as opposed to simply 'impressing', then my advice is to not wear a replica at all, as it would be a false image on false pretenses, and if you were to get caught out, that earned respect, in an office environment, would turn to an equal amount of distain and ridicule. I would agree with the suggestion of a Seiko, as while they're not considered a 'luxury brand', they are acknowledged and respected as a good brand. My other suggestion, is to look into a clone watch, like Alpha watch, Kingston or MK II. Any one of those will have the same looks to be playing with the Big Boys, and not be a fake. Someone might say "Well it's a copy of a [insert brand here]" to which you just point out that you have financial obligations and can't justify X amount of £/$s on a watch at the moment, but wanted something which would last you till you were in a position to treat yourself to a [insert brand here]

[Edit to add]

I've nothing against folks wearing reps at work, or even going to a new job wearing a rep, because as far as others would be concerned, that would 'be you', but if someone is to suddenly roll in wearing a new watch, it's possibly going to get noticed, and if these folks think for one second that you're trying to 'get one over' on them, or make yourself out to be more than you are, you might as well tender your resignation, as I can guarantee that afterwards, they would never take you seriously, never value your input, and never view you as anything other than a pretentious poser... Best thing I can suggest, is buy 'something decent' for now, then treat yourself to something like a 42mm Planet Ocean at Christmas, and roll it out following the holiday. If anyone asks or comment, simply say "It was a gift...". By all means allow people to view it, but refuse to be drawn on the subject further, so you can keep deception to the bare minimum Anything more than that, given there is a watch culture at the office, is leaving yourself open to becoming at best, the office buffoon, and at worst, someone universally rejected...

You, of all people, can always argue about the authenticity of your infamous plastic Rolex as a one-off Rolex anniversary Plastique Edition. Just apply the audacity you show on the boards here to the Italian Customs officers, and you will be sashaying in Rome with a bottle of wine in one hand, a Monica Bellucci clone in the other arm, and of cos, the plastic submariner on your wrist instead of handcuffs attached to a grim faced Polizia di Stato officer on the other end.

I guess it's worth a try, let me see if I can find Monica's number

As above, anywhere else, I'd be happy to just walk through knowing that chances are nothing will be said I guess this gives me reason to build something sterile

PAM is a slang term for Panerai, but I forget the reason for the 'm'...

Thanks for the comments, amigos, always good to get other's viewpoints

I have to agree with Andy, I have never ever heard of a Customs agent even giving a wristwatch a second glance. Now if you are carrying a case full of watches, they might get pretty interested. I would bet the incident in Germany involved someone with several watches. First off, how would any country afford to stock every port of entry with a complete set of watches? How many thousands of models have been produced in the past 25 years? So, if what you are wearing, doesn't happen to be one of the models that the Customs "watch department" has in stock, what do they do then? Then, how many trained horologists are there, who could tell if a watch is real or rep? Suppose i show up with my DRSD 1665, everything is genuine except the case? Do you really think that the watch policeman, unless he is 75 yers old, and trained and worked on Rolex vintage watches for years could tell if mine is real or memorex? I don't think so, besides, I have a receipt (sales invoice) dating back to 1983 showing I bought the DRSD used for 850.00 USD!!

Easy way to solve the problem. Don't wear one of your treasured "Super Franken" watches on vacation. Wear a genuine. Get a Seiko or something comperable.

Likewise, I also agree, it is highly unlikely that customs would spot anything (especially in other places) I just think that given Italy's customs reputation, it's really not worth the risk of taking something which is outright illegal in said country and having a holiday delayed or spoiled by getting it swiped by the federales

Well i will be in shitinarand next week and i will send you some photos

I've not tried the dry lube myself, but have heard many positive reviews from others I've also had good results in the past using sewing machine oil

No change. As far as the watch is concerned

I got bored last night and decided to draw on myself for a bit

Please bear in mind that these are not intended to be considered as 'finished tattoos', simply outlines/permanent stencils to be further worked on... There will be additional detailing added to the sleeve by coloring the flowers and falling petals, as well as cloud spirals and lightning bolts to create the background and definition, and that will be done by another artist at a later date, but I really wanted the flower motif extended immediately, and the only option was to do it myself...

So how are they going to ID it as a rep TJ

Who knows... Someone posted a while back that an airport in, I believe, Germany, had an 'examination room' with gens for comparison... Maybe this is how things are going to become in the United States of Europe... Italy is said to be very strict (at the border) on rep items, so all it would take would be one thing for the customs inspector to be suspicious of 'something' about the traveler, and then everything fakeable, CDs, sunglasses, watch etc would get scrutinized, and that could potentially lead to a confiscation... I remember reading a few years back that a kid from some private school on a trip to Italy got busted for wearing a fake Rolex when the Polizia did a raid on a market known for selling replica merch As above, I personally wouldn't want to take that risk with a watch with as much invested in it as a grail super franken. I wouldn't even risk it with my quartz sub, because although the item would be easily re-createable, the ear-bashing I would get from Wife.Gov for causing a delay at customs simply wouldn't be worth it Any other country, I would run the gauntlet and take the chance, but not Italy, given it's reputation...

:rofl:

Submariner case with an SMP 300 dial and a tweaked Tudor logo... Homage wannabeism at its peak

That said, the price is right

If it is as he says a franken and

where is the problem

If the customs at any airport have people that can spot a super rep on a wrist as 1000s of people pass for their eyes ever hour i would be very supprised, i travel a lot all over europe and switzerland and plenty of the rest of the world and i have never seen or been pulled over for the watch i am wearing.

Has any one here been pulled for the watch that they are wearing?

I quite agree, a franken or super rep is highly unlikely to get identified as such even if seen, I just wouldn't want to run the risk of losing such a piece in the event that it was Such pieces tend to be grail watches, and by that I don't just mean someone's flavor of the month watch, but a watch which may have been an extended build, possibly with hard to find or gifted parts, and in my mind, that makes them emotionally irreplaceable, even if physically, they could be recreated, so I feel they deserve a better fate than at the hands of a customs monkey

Another thread just got me thinking about this... Reps are reps, and contraband due to their obvious misuse of an existing brandname. I get that, but I was wondering, what about unbranded homage watches? For example, Helena Rou sells an unbranded clone of the DSSD. Sure, it doesn't have any Rolex brandings, but the design itself is still patented (I believe ) Rolex intellectual property, so would that make it just as much an infringement say to a country like Italy or France, as its branded replica cousin? I've never really been a fan of homages or self-branded clones, as I always felt they were just evading the counterfeit title by either slapping on their own brand, or omitting one entirely, yet still really 'want to be' that brand model. Reps are at least 'honest in their dishonesty', in that they make no pretense about trying to be anything other than what they are trying to be. But the legal aspect of the IP of the design itself never really crossed my mind till now, so I just wondered if anyone might know the legal side of things? Not really concerned if anyone has traveled safely with a homage (or a rep), as evading the law is still breaking it, just not getting caught, and I wanted to know if the homage would be breaking the law, in any actionable sense, from a purely legal perspective

TIA for a good discussion, let's keep it clean and above the belt

so how would they know it is not a gen, and why would wearing what is in essence not a very expencive watch be an issue, would a gen owner worry about going to rome wearing a gen????

Of course not, because it's gen, and thus not eligible to be seized by customs. Any rep in Italy, on the other hand, good or bad, is theoretically seizeable, which is why personally, I wouldn't take the risk at all... Anywhere else, yes, I wouldn't be worried, but if it ever comes to me visiting Italy, I'll be wearing either a cheap gen, or if I had the time and the funds before hand, I'd build myself a sterile homage which would be totally safe. I wouldn't want to risk starting the vacation on a bad note by being detained by customs to lose a lesser quality rep, and I definitely wouldn't want to doubly spoil it (and all the time after) by being down a high-quality or meaningful rep Equally, as another member pointed out in another thread, more than one is just ego, and for the hassle, I'll only ever travel with the one watch again

Fantastic piece

After watching Sons of Guns and American Guns, I have no sympathy for the families in this case. They are using their daughters as eye candy for their tv show.

That causes problems.

Totally agree, I don't think I'd want to go for beers with the guy, but it's still good viewing

Are you guys serious? I always bring 2 on vacation and never considered confiscation!

In Italy?

I've got a small list of pre-1900's era guns that I would like to collect; once I manage to find them/pick them up, I'd like to have some custom made replications of those guns made so that they can be fired, etc.

But all for another day...

I saw an episode a while back where someone took in some inherited pistols which should have been worth Big Dollars, but the experts who were called in felt that one of them was an Italian reproduction. I have to admit, personally, I would have attributed the variances mentioned to variances in production models rather than a repro, but it was interesting to see Another interesting piece, was I believe called a gambler's pistol, and combined a small revolver with a brass knuckle. Very interesting little piece If I had a choice of anything, I'd rather like a Walter P99, but if I was having something custom built, I think I'd go for a revolver with ergonomic grip, 3 inch barrel, and chambered for Desert Eagle ammo

Reps are total contraband in Italy (even possession) so given that, personally speaking, I don't think it's worth the risk of a spoiled vacation if a special piece was to get confiscated either at customs, or by the polizia...

@ TeeJay. Yes it certainly is, very functional. Which reminds me - my mother in law is rather functional as well!

:tu:

I'm going to say gen, possibly with a replacement to the mid-case over the years, but I would have thought that if it had gone in for servicing recently enough for the case to be replaced, they probably would have done something about the dial as well... I think the markers might simply have migrated over the years, rather than being a 'factory seconds' (which I doubt Rolex would have released anyway) Only other possibility, is that a Master Forger has built this and intentionally re-finished the dial thus as a kind of double-bluff ie who in their right mind would intentionally put the markers on that off-center...

On another note, I love that linen-dial OysterDate

@ TeeJay

Sorry but, although I appreciate what you are saying and agree with your reasons. The snowflake is, well, erm... dare I say it..... how should I put this? Oh, what the hell - it's ugly!

Functional, brother, functional!!!

I put this on last night on a whim, but have woken up to a rather hot day, so sticking with it Have a great weekend, amigos

A bit off-topic, but on another tv show, Million Dollar Listing on Bravo TV, everyone wears a Rolex (& never misses a chance to display it - Rolex must be spending half their profits for 2012 in product placements here)

There was a UK show, the name of which escapes me, where people could come into a group of Big Players, and try and convince them to buy their collectibles (could be absolutely anything from a vintage Rolex, to one person bringing in a dinosaur skeleton which had been prepped for wall-mounting) and most of the guys on that wore Rolexes too

You got me too, dude, and damn, that would have been one of those crazy finds that can happen :tu:

Simply stunning build though, 100% pure class I suspect it wears larger due to the size of the dial relative to the case (as DJs can) but also the white dial itself. What a piece though

Indeed Indeed Indeed T.: I would never leave a comment like "I want 2 sniff your panties" Thats so fucking high school. I don't want to sniff her panties....I want to sniff whats Inside those panties. Well It's Friday...and you know what that means?.yep...going to feel like shit tomorrow morning. Have a good weekend bro.

Mike

I know what you mean, bro, I think the thing that bugged me, was that the jackass would probably go ballistic if someone made a comment like that about any of 'his womenz' On the other hand, they're clearly one of life's losers, so not worth taking them too seriously, I doubt anyone else did Hope you have a good weekend too, bro

Gunsmoke is about 20min away from me. I've been meaning to stop in, but haven't been able to find the time There are a few things I'd like to have them custom make...

That's pretty damn cool What would you have them make first? Damn the UK and its lack of 2nd Amendment rights...