TeeJay

What is?

I would say that you've essentially summed up my feelings towards reps. I don't demand 100% 1:1 accuracy in replication, because I don't ever intend to try and pass the watch off as genuine, so it doesn't have to be 'perfect', from that perspective. From my point of view, as long as everything on the dial is clear and correctly spelled, the watch does what it needs to do, and I like how it looks, that's perfect for me It's like a couple of my planned projects, a 1665 and 16800, I know I'm not going to get them 100% perfect to the originals, so I'm just going to do what I can to make them at least look 'historically accurate' to be identifiable as their correct model to another enthusiast. I couldn't care less if a member of the public sees the name on the dial, infact, I prefer it when they don't see the R Word on the dial, as that is then inviting the question "Is that a real Rolex?"... While I would never say 'Yes', I prefer to just fly under the radar

It's been a quartz weekend for me... Rolex yesterday, Tudor today

They're scared of getting called out

Glad you like the design I totally understand what you mean about your own tattoos, they have to be done when you're ready to get them done, especially a piece with such significance One suggestion, is rather than having the dragon and the koi, had you considered having a dragonkoi halfway up the rapids, showing its transition? Here's a link to a thread with some of my tattoo work, which also has pics of some of the stencils I've drawn for my bodysuit, but here's some of my more recent work My friend, T's arm: My own work on my own legs: Kanji reading 'ai shimai' on right thigh and 'aniki' on the left. My friend, E's leg, freehand and linework, shading and color for another sitting: (The heart key and Dad were done by another artist, not me...) Concept sketches for E's bodysuit: [Edit to add] I forgot to post this pic of my dragon, which I also drew the stencil for (still needs a lot of work till it'll be completed )

Did you not see the pic above? That's precisely what I did do The overall theme for my bodysuit is family, and there are already tattoos for my mother and father in law, my best friend/brother since childhood, my sister, and the mother of my godson. Other 'friend' references are going to my two other best men, and the friend who's letting me tattoo her with a full Japanese bodysuit as practice,in addition to other references for my wife, all my aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins That's one view, but a different viewpoint I read in an interview with a Japanese Master, was that serious tattoo collectors, are like any other art/collectible collectors, and where an addict will take the same drug over and over again to get the same result, a tattoo collector gets different tattoos, and once their collection is complete, they stop

Ahhh, if the images aren't going to be 'pulled together' by something like some wind spirals for example, then yes, that would still be stand alone images When you said 'band', I was thinking a continuous, solid design Your enso has actually inspired my creativity in creating a design for myself I needed to include something in my bodysuit for one of my best friends (one of my best men when I got married) and as he's a serious gamer, I decided to use the PlayStation buttons as reference to him, but was stumped as to the best way to draw them up, given the bodysuit will be primarily traditional Japanese. But, once you put up the enso, I knew how to do it... What do you think? Design will be tattooed at about 3 inches tall, not as big as it looks on the screen

Filthy Rolex-wannabe watches...

I think the angles are the same on that one too, definitely looks like the draftsman was having a chuckle that day

Takes some big cojones to climb like that!

Damn that's tasty What's the recipe on that?

That's cool, I just wondered, as from an artists point of view, if I was doing the design, I would have been consistent with all 90* corners or all rounded corners, and figured the draftsman who did the dial print would have done likewise (unless it was his idea of a joke to see if anyone ever noticed ) so I just wondered if it was just the camera and my eye playing tricks with me

I'm not sure if it's my eye or the photo, but the inside angles on the O Square appear to be two different types... The top corners appear to be 90*, but the bottom corners appear to be more gently curved. Likewise, the inside edges of the COMEX C and E appear to be curved corners, except for the bottom corner, which appears to be a 90* angle. Is that just a trick of the photo, or are my observations correct? Not trying to pick holes by any means, I literally just noticed, and am genuinely curious

From what you've said, the lion wrestling with the enso is definitely more fitting than the lion with its foot on the enso, in a kind of protecting/masterful way, but, I still think that a design of that nature, would look better as a stand-alone piece, rather than incorporated into a band with the elephant on the enso and the eyes. As Ami James would say, you're trying to cram 80 lbs of [censored] into a 5lb bag... Not that I think your idea is [censored], far from it, infact, I think it's an awesome concept, and will result in some very meaningful artwork, I just think that as you want to represent so much, you may be putting too many details into the one tattoo. Along the same lines, Dan Gold has said that a tattoo [referring to a Japanese sleeve] "should be like a Chinese tea-party, where you have one host, and one or two guests...". So bearing that in mind, I would suggest having the elephant and lion as independent but complementary pieces. For example, I have the Arabic text 'jihad' (struggle) on the inside of my right arm, and the Japanese text 'giri' (burden of obligations) on the inside of my left arm, representing that one needs to struggle to maintain ones obligations, and even though the two words are not seen side by side, they still balance each other aesthetically

I noticed a small nick in the corner of the keeper of my Tropical-Style strap, so rather than run the risk of it tearing while being worn, I've put it away and put the watch back on my favorite SS bracelet

I've only ever used their in-house escrow system rather than direct card transaction and never had an issue, so I would suggest simply trying again, but from your comment here: I would suggest you forget about buying reps all together, and just buy from shops... I'm not sure why you had an issue with the card system, but you could get that with any transaction. My father in law was trying to purchase access time on a T-Mobile site yesterday and the site played up several times before it processed his order properly, it could've just been a server glitch or an issue with the software, it is certainly not the fault of the dealer themself, just bad luck... As mentioned, I've only ever used the inhouse escrow system and never had an issue, but you do have to be a registered user of the site to use it... Best of luck with your purchase For the price, what do you expect? It would still fool 99% of the folks out there... Actually, I take that back, it wouldn't fool them, because it says 'Rolex' on the dial, and everyone knows that Rolex = Fake But in terms of being able to tell specifically what the tells were, no Joe Public would have a clue

Two blue screws could be a manufacturing variance! If the movement was acquired from a reliable source, it does not mean the movement is in any way suspicious! You pay for the service because Andy did work for you which took him time and time = Money, regardless of if you got paranoid and then made him undo the work... If you are this paranoid that you are being ripped off, I suggest you take your money, go into your nearest TAG AD, and ask them to order you a movement from their suppliers.

Which you believe may not be a gen movement... As above, variations occur in watch production, it does not stop the item 'being real'. Why should he be able to split it? If the movement checks out as genuine, then Andy deserves the full 300...

Looks good

Andy did work for you, swapping parts around, and that costs. If you went to a garage and had say an engine swap performed on your car, even if you then wanted the original engine put back in, there's no way you'd see the labor cost refunded, because regardless of your perception of the scenario, work which took time was performed... If Andy says that the movement was acquired as genuine from a trusted source, that should be good enough. Even if you don't take his word for it, considering how companies like Rolex can change minor details in a production run, it is really beyond the realm of impossibility that a couple of blued screws were installed by the factory? Are a couple of blue screws really worth this hassle and public embarrassment over? Lets be clear here, you have seriously embarrassed yourself here by doing this, and I doubt any other forum modders would be willing to work with you in future as a result...

Thanks, amigo, I'm sure it's salvageable somehow into some kind of fantasy project

+2

Incase you missed it, here's that link again, as I would highly recommend this dealer as a source

Did I not give you a link to a sales site with a budget Submariner? They operate a 3 strikes policy which works this way: Dealer gets three negative reviews [EVER!] and they are gone. Even one of the forum dealers here fell foul of that rule while operating on that site. To maintain a profile there takes the utmost dedication to customer service. If a dealer gets booted off while a transaction is in progress, the funds are returned to the buyer, it is 100% safe. If you don't trust them, then that is your issue, not a slur against the site (or other dealers as listed on the forum)and you should probably forget about collecting reps as a hobby and stick to shops where you can handle the merchandise before purchase, because trust between dealer and client is crucial to a smooth transaction. As for your question about quartz or chronograph movements, I believe that a chronograph is just another term for a stopwatch, and can be either an automatic movement, a hand-wind movement, or a quartz movement. I may be wrong there, and am happy if anyone else can provide a better definition of a chronograph movement. A quartz movement is a battery-powered movement.

It looks fine to me...