got-it

Just took a look on the Gucci homepage and no the gen doesn't have those visible welds, your friend is going to have to ask herself if she can live with them or not.

Ken

Thanks for the help Ken.

I'm helping a friend buy a watch and she's very interested in the Gucci Twirl. However, when looking at trusty's pictures, she noticed some weird welding spots at the joints by the face of the watch. Here's a pic from Andrew's site

Now, does the gen have welds like that too? If so, that's pretty weird (and horrible quality). Does anyone here have any knowledge about this? Maybe a gen and rep comparison that was done?

I did a search and seems Victoria had both gen and rep, but doesn't look like she participates in the forum anymore. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I consider myself a member of this forum for a long time now and I've traded and bought many reps. I've become inactive with the board simply because I haven't been very active with the hobby (gens are keeping me busy). But recently, something was brought to my attention that concerned me a great deal.

I feel like our hobby is becoming more and more well known to the mainstream crowd. Recently, while speaking to a salesman at one of my regularly frequented ADs, I saw someone who obviously bought the rep from one of our dealers, showcasing it off to everyone to see. Granted it was a super rep (it was the concord c1), but this blatant disregard is alarming.

This isn't the only incident that has occurred. I'm a bit worried that this sort of exposure may one day lead to our hobby's doom.

Anyway, just ranting. But it would be nice if we're (especially the newer members) would be more cautious. This hobby should continue it's underground status.

Yup, I'm in the same boat with Reps. I have 2 gens, but no reps left. I will probably buy another rep in the future...but right now, I have my own issues about the reps that are out there that I will keep to myself.

Most sales people at AD's are low paid counter people. They undergo little training and are paid an hourly was plus sometimes a small commission. This is the retail world. These are the same people at macy's and dillard's etc. There is no 6 month training course to sell watches although there should be. Because of the low pay most of these stores have a high turnover of sales people and it doesn't pay to invest in training. Plus, running a retail establishment is quite costly to begin with and they can't afford to pay someone like me $150,000/year to actually know what they are talking about.

I can certainly understand the cost to train them, but I would certainly expect at least some minimal basic training. You don't start a job without learning a little bit of your position. By following some basic rules, the sales person should know, at the very least, on how to operate the watch, since they are the ones that would be teaching a first time mechanical watch buyer on how to use it. I can certainly let the knowledge of the movements slide (like what I wrote in my original thread), but I would expect them to at least know how to use the watch properly.

Sometimes I think the AD sales rep contributes in messing up gens by giving some pretty bad information.

I went in to an AD over the weekend to purchase a gen Oris Williams Day Date. Before purchasing, I always pretend I know nothing about mechanical watches or the brand. A sales guy introduces himself to me and asks if he can help me. I told him I am interested in the Oris Williams Day Date, and if he would provide me a bit more information on the watch.

He tells me that all Oris watch movements are in-house, and that the one I am looking at is no exception. Ok, so he got this wrong, but it wasn't a huge deal because Oris does purchase the 2836-2 and modify it in-house.

As I am looking at this watch, he suggest that I give it a few shakes to get the movement going. I'm thinking..."shouldn't I wind it up instead?" I politely ask him if I should wind it up instead, he proceeded to tell me that winding up is not required, and that I can just shake it up to get it going. He proceeds to pull out the crown on a chronograph automatic and shakes it rapidly...then....he uses the chrono...oh lord no. At this point, my eyes glazed over and I somehow believed I am in some sort of nightmare.

I didn't purchase from him. Instead, I went to another AD and bought it from them. But sometimes I wonder if these sales people contribute to the defectiveness of some gens. I especially like how he had pulled the crown out and couldn't understand why the second hand had stopped, and shook it some more in an attempt to get it going LOL.

Absolutely agree. I could never justify paying more than $300 for a replica. The beauty of these watches is literally skin deep. If Bulova, Tissot, or Hamilton can give me a beautiful mechanical chronograph for around $650 all of which smell, and perform very Swiss, why would I pay 2/3 this for a "super-rep". The fidelity of the copying technology might be getting better but you can be assured what's under the greasepaint and polish is the same ol same ol.

Well said. I recently bought myself another brand new gen Oris. It cost me $850cdn, which is roughly $700usd. For that price, I am warrantied, and I have a highly reliable modified ETA 2836-2 movement. The super reps, though highly accurate and nice in appearance are just too much for me to justify that kind of spending.

No worries. Just wanted to give you a heads up cause the admins might get [censored] with clone postings. I also think this information is very relevent, considering I too lived half my life in an asian country.

I can understand starting this thread...but do you have to post the same thing on several threads???

The problem with that theory though is what about when it's a brand new release, like when the BR was released a few seasoned members got burned before anyone knew about what was inside it.

Or worse yet, a less popular brand which has a reputed Swiss ETA movement. This watch could be in the dealer inventory for months, and you wouldn't know it because you apparently done your homework, only to discover that, as the first person to send it off for servicing, it was a Asian copy.

Too many factors and none of it is worth the risk IMO.

Good for you. I'm sure you lead a life free of stress since you clearly don't sweat little irritations. but surely you have to see that logically speaking, it makes at least as much sense to want to get X when you're told you're getting X as to be satisfied with getting whatever.

You're happy to pay $270 for a watch with a $10 movement from a dealer who may or may not give you what he says he's giving you, that is totally your call. The thing is, basically the entire decision to buy reps, gens whatever is an individual call. But that doesn't change the basic rules of life, which is that you cannot deliver ANYTHING when you say you will deliver a particular thing and then claim to be trusty and reliable, and "hey, it's not easy to make money selling reps" is clearly a pretty self-serving excuse. I don't think anybody is saying that there are not people out there who aren't happy to get watches with junk movements if they look okay, what people are saying is that dealers who don't deliver what they say they will, and charge for spec that doesn't exist, are not to be trusted if you care about getting what you pay for. You don't care about getting what you pay for, that's fine but that basically places you outside the discussion.

Not to mention if we don't deal with it now, who knows how bad this situation will become. History is not immune from repeating itself.

I think people need to note that the people who are dissatisfied are not a bunch of newbie members. We are all season members who have bought, modified, and sold dozens of reps. We know what is expected, and tolerated.

Cheers. Nice to know they're not going mental and putting it in the loony bin this time.

Well...they should really change their intro to their main page..."Please do not pay in the realm of $1000 dollars for a rep, you are being scammed." doesn't seem to apply anymore to their 5 star dealers.

I'll relate how I feel about all this. My 2 cents of you will.

I am seriously disillusioned by all this. The lying, price fixing, conglomeration, and so on have seriously turned me off of reps. I am not saying I will never buy reps again, but I feel I will not be buying for now.

Honestly, a steelfish which cost $308 + $30 shipping = $338usd is a high price in Canada. I'm spending almost $400cdn on a rep. For the same price, I manage to negotiate with an AD for a Tissot Le Loche automatic. Actually, it was $20 cheaper.

Something is seriously wrong when I can buy a beautiful gen with a 2 year warranty for $20 less than a rep. The ETA 2824-2 does not give me issue, and best of all, I have the assurance it is warrantied.

I understand that these 2 watches are not really comparable, as one is replicating the steelfish and the other isn't. but I can't honestly say the steelfish is better in quality than the Tissot I bought.

Dude, you confused me too. Next time, it's probably best to let us know that you're qouting a source. Though I have to admit, it was a pretty funny confusion lol

This thread seems to pop up once every month. My advice is to search the threads and you'll get your answer...but if I were to venture a guess, it would be

Tag link chrono - Probably the most accurate out of all the reps sold.

Yes, I am very high on the classicos as well. count me in as one who'd like to see a rep of this.

Judging from the pictures, yeah, it does seem that they're all lefties.

Also, I think they're very affordable. I've been browsing around, and their prices are around the $500-$1,000 mark. Not bad.

What do you guys think of the U-boat watches?

http://www.u-boatwatch.it/en/index.html

The Classicos are very nice.

To be honest 60 seconds is a lot of time. I could grab as many as 30 watches without thinking. Maybe have a 30 second spree where you're allowed to grab only 3 watches.

Hey all, some of you may have known I was in some money woes recently, but looks like I'm financially stable again. And looks like it's a good time to have the cash to spend. That Breitling Superocean is looking pretty tempting

I just wanted to post this to acknowledge a couple of dealers here that were understanding of my financial plight. I'm not going to say what happened, but just know these 2 dealers went out of their way for me.

So thanks to Eddie and Andrew. You guys are the best.

Just wondering if anyone has bought one? What do you think of it, not so much accuracy, but quality wise?

http://perfect-clones.com/cp10003-strada-l...ite-p-1282.html

Same here, keep use posted on the Korean bags

I think someone has accused this guy of fraud in the past. I remember reading about him and someone else having a fight on this forum. I can't remember all the details and who that forum member was, but I remember him threatening our scammer.

Sufficient AR coating...none of this "light AR" crap.

If I saw that in person, I'd think it was a rep...