omni

Its always nice when someone can shed some human insight on the faceless dealers and their thinking & trends. The more information, no matter how small, good or bad, gives the buyers a better perspective in making informed purchase decisions. It keeps the forum members less feeling like the "mushrooms in the cellar" being fed manure and kept in the dark. Also your tips about HK are well taken, my new semi-retired occupation of "world traveler" has me do a lot of travel forum research. Much appreciated. Thanks Dave. Omni

Ryyannon: Besides some of those you mentioned that we all missed, I personally missed some old friends, Max aka Neo, and Demsey who is still on TRC under a different identity. Also halley who was becoming a lawyer in Paris. Where did he go?

If you have the financial means and love watches, go for a genuine. If you're in it for only for the style, definitely go for the replica. As said, you can have many reps. for the price of a gen. Genuine watches are priced like cars, the high-ends are all priced per their exclusivity pecking order since at those prices they are all made pretty much the same super-quality. The wannabe cars that emulate the luxury brands are priced per the styling, not necessarily for their mechanical qualities or components used. Not hard to guess which have resale value and which wind up in the junkyard as scrap. The HBB is a special animal, more so than the Panerai. An international fashion statement since 2005 when it got Grand Prix at Basel Watch Show. Before that they were a second tier luxury watch maker. When Carlo Crocco of Hublot hired Jean-Claude Biver as CEO, that's when the brand took off. Now Hublot is cashing in on it, so are the rep. makers. The gen is not worth the exorbitant ripoff price it commands if you compare to the caliber and history of JLC, Breguet, Patek, which is where they are putting their startup HBB pricing, but the replica was so well done, (probably because the watch was so easily copied), that the rep. makers are also riding on the latest craze and pricing in step with that thinking. As the HBB reps. proliferate since so many genuine and followup replica models are being produced, so will the replica HBB prices fall like the Panerai and Rolex replica prices did. Remember when we paid exorbitant prices for the first quasi-accurate Pannies, now that there are millions of Pannie reps that have gotten better, the price has fallen dramatically. To be early adopters always feels like you are being ripped off but its a personal decision. Look at the IPhone, $450 then $250 a few month later, the first guys were still happy to be the first ones to show off their new toy and status symbol. So goes the gen. and rep. HBBs is my prediction. A genuine is a genuine, a replica will never come close to a genuine. Put a genuine next to a replica any day and you will know the difference. For the HBB rep. (and to that extent the genuine) you are paying for being one of the first ones out with the "latest and the greatest" and paying for it. A couple of years down the road and your rep. will be worthless. Buy the MB, it is a great watch, although a Richmont Group market hype success, don't hold that against it and the price it commands for a "designer house brand" (Think Tiffany and Gucci). Mont Blanc is the only designer house brand watch that has had success in this area. They are still reasonable for a very good high-end swiss luxury watch and well made. I think it should keep some value in the future. Still bear in mind, its not an investment vehicle, its just a watch that will be worth something later down the road compared to an HBB rep. with a ceramic bezel. The ceramic bezel will be the most useful and valuable resale part of the replica in the future.

Thanks Pugwash, that adds a lot of clarity, eliminating some of the guesswork around here. Great research tool.

Gee, that's not what I heard from all the Kiwis I encountered on my recent trip, in fact they were downright sarcastic regarding the Ozzies, must be because you guys were majority of the tourists.

I'll agree, the admin and mods do a great job here and deserve the much felt thanks. That's why, when I do infrequently drop in on the forums, this is now the one I go to first and do most of my reading and interaction today. Hasn't always been that way but this seems to be the main forum and matured into one that consistently offers the best information content for all rep. forums I've witnessed come & go in the last four years. Even though we are members of several different forums, I think this one has the best well rounded community group of regular participating members, all due to the smart job of the admin/mod team.

@Mentalist: The Pannie deployant was never meant to be used with thick normal tang&buckle straps you find on most of the reps or gens. The Panerai deployant requires a special leather strap thick at the lugs tapering in thickness to thin where it meets the deployant. When purchasing an aftermarket or genuine strap for Panerai, if you have a deployant, you have to specify that it is a strap for a deployant. I had a Pannie 196 rep with a deployant bought from TTK 2 years ago when they first came out, I ordered a nice alligator strap from an aftermarketer who carried deployant specific straps. I now have a genuine Panerai 104 with deployant, came with two leather straps, both are tapered thin in thickness to work with the deployant. I might add, the rep. deployant that came with TTK's 196 worked better than the genuine deployant I got with my 104. Regards, Omni

In a nice rut for years, vodka martini shaken with a blue cheese stuffed olive. Vodka: Hanger One or Belvedere usually. - Omni

Doing fine, its 82 F outside, guess I'll go wash the car. Nothing much Ryya, been very busy for the last two months winding up a lot of my responsibilities so I can semi-retire in January. Meaning, I will still work but at my own choosing of hours. Only have time to check the forums lately but still support the communities. Seasons Greetings!

From 1 year ago - And Jetmid's response to this over at RWG1 a year ago: And he never did check back at RWG1 again.

Boy, it has been a long time. I didn't join TRC until Aug. 2004 after I heard about it on RWG1. It is a true oasis in the sea of newbie forums. Congrats Admin on the longevity.

Yes I know the question was posted in July with no response, but I just answered this same question yesterday at RWG1. In Smokin' Aces, Jeremy Piven is wearing a Polanti G Zone

River's a great dealer for the best watches. Glad to see him here again.

Thanks, that was a very good post. Makes one ponder why the banality of our habit drives us so crazy, gen or rep. collecting.

Yes I have, but a little different from Kruzer00. I have to really like the genuine for what it personally represents to me to purchase, although the fact that it is easily copied by a replica has some small consideration in the decision. Comes down to are you buying for appreciation of the timepiece or buying it to impress that you can afford it (In the case of replicas for some, the perceived impression they can afford the gen.) The latter shouldn't have bearing since as Teejay implies, if the general public doesn't know then why spend the money.

Welcome back.

Thanks vbarrett: I thoroughly enjoyed this thread. I also enjoyed watching The Long Way Round. A friend brought it from England with her when she stayed with us last year.

Rap is still a music oxymoron of America that's infected the other cultures of the world who want to be "cool" and "hip". You don't see irish jig dancing having the same effect. But who's complaining, it was beat poets of the 50's that led to ............................ It may die a slower death than that. Gee thanks Ryyannon. Culturally in the internet age I'm not surprised by much. Back to you, back to my martini.

I've had one in my day, but as I said before, the watch becomes unreadable after a couple of drinks when its hard enough to count up the fingers on your hand.

It makes sense if this is a picture of me old friend rya's girlfriend. Looks amazingly similar. Hmmmmmn?

Because no manufacturer wants to retool to make perfect an old model that was one of the first to be repped, if they aren't going to sell a lot of them. This is such a basic model and pretty much most people that want a PAM rep have moved on and want some other model since they've copied so many models. Also, they've never been able to get the cyclops or the date window size right. Its always too small compared to the gen.

I've tried this watch on so many times at our local AD, but they only carried it in the gold case w/leather band and gold case with gold bracelet. What always stopped me is it just really looks like a copy of a Rolex in my eyes for some reason, and really in gold it was very expensive but for me it would have been 50% at $5,000 and $10,000 with the bracelet since I was friends with the manager and would have got her employee discount. However, that will never happen now as my local MB AD is closing its doors here tomorrow due to lack of meeting the yearly sales quota. But, if you can snag this COSC certified 7750 movement with the MB nameplate for less than $2,500, I'd say that was a good deal.

That's why 95% of mine is invested in commercial real estate.

That's an extremely rare great choice thomasng! I saw him on that Television Program "Masters of Time". Last I heard he is taking orders for another 100 now with deliveries in 2008, go for it.

DuDro, the sunken date wheel is also on the genuine so the HBB rep is accurate on the dial side except for the date font. Angus's picture looks like it doesn't have a sunken date wheel but the other dealer's pictures clearly show sunken date wheel.