Victoria

I know, Hambone. No harm done. OTOH, why the HECK do you have like 100 people disagreeing with you?!? I am trying to pick out posts of yours I agree with, so that little icon disappears, but man, it is difficult! Night!

Just call me Viktoria Kalashnikova, Febus! (Actually, I'm not as good as that. But I have helped dad clean his handguns, and if push comes to shove, I could feed my family by shooting my own prey. But change a tyre, or the oil? Where's the nearest Firestone?)

Did you see the skull holding a rose between its teeth??? Per l'onore (for the honour -- OF WHAT?!), LOLOLOL!

Wow! I'm utterly blown away by the gay remarks. Oh, no don't get me wrong. I'm not a politically correct person (I wish for the sake of our gay RWGers I could say I'm outraged, but I'm not. I understand men a lot more than many women do...). I just genuinely don't see this goofing around by these 18 year-olds as anything effeminate. It's just silly! I love it. Obviously, my post was supposed to infer the recent story about Austrian soldiers caught on Youtube giving Hitlergrus in their barracks. RWG Newsbot posted the story, which alerted me to the fact. I Youtubed it, but indeed, Youtube had deleted it due to complaints by the Austrian government (the soldiers themselves have been disciplined). I just wanted to make people laugh at these crazy kids' antics, and what goes on when you put a lot of high-spirited boys in one Kaserne for long -- tomfoolery happens. EDIT: A bit like RWG. So many men, so many ribald laughs!

Watches, and guns for me, Febus. Cars optional. I don't even know the model of mine.

Did you hear the little...oh, what shall we call it...yelp emitted by the ring-leader on the left around minute 1:00? It's a sound I can only liken to a beached baby humpback whale getting kissed by a Birkenstock-wearing treehugger. And further proof that white men should never, under any circumstances, dance. @CY0811: ME TOO!

In this thread's honour, and the vision of you and your dad riding in your fresh new ride tomorrow, I changed my avatar. Here is the bigger version: Dad is a Beemer man, mother and I are Mercedes gals. If I marry an Italian, as is quite possible, I'll buy the first USA-Alfa due to come out in 2008.

RIMA! I've been pining for you in various threads. Where have you BEEN? I hate being the only girl here, you know. EDIT: Well, apart from Ola, who is an honourary RWGer.

LOL! Me? I am not speaking ex-cathedra, my Lanikai. Simply a set of impressions based on some personal experiences! I'm sure others have equally valid opinions about what's what in So. America. Wait...you don't want the fraudsters to be put out of business?? Can't agree with you there, my love. What Andrew and Joshua do is knowingly sell replica watches to hobbyists and one-time buyers who know full well they are buying reps. That is quite a different thing from someone selling a rep Hublot for $3000, saying it's legit, but stolen, without papers, or giving them a Nigerian scammer sob story about being bankrupt and needing fast money. Also, if a person like me, someone who owns a substandard copy of an Hublot rep sells it as one of the high-quality ones like Raymond, Hambone and others have, then that too is scamming. I presume this is what is happening in South America, too. They are getting Paul-type Hublots, and selling them as the higher-priced, almost 1:1 HBB reps. Who's to know, if you haven't seen them side-by-side? I mean, it's not like you can ask Hublot about it. About the biker stuff, well, there we are. Gold Gym, biker, with tats. If we marry, you're gonna have to change A LOT. @Lanikai: LOL! I was ribbing you, darling. No offence taken absolutely not! I'm not that touchy. EDIT: Well, okay I'm a little touchy. Don't mention the war (or my dad).

Good insight, Lanikai. I can't speak about the Middle East, but in South America the people who can afford gen Hublots (or Pateks, Rolexes, and Vacherons, in order of popularity from my experiences) are not easily fooled, or easily part with anything approaching U$1,000, let alone 19 times that much, which was the price quoted to me at Tourneau. In many parts of South America (as in China itself), if someone screws you over, you hire a hit man for $100 and you have them killed. So the people who are selling these Hublots as gens are surely not ADs or watchmakers with established shopfronts. They would be very easily retaliated against. And obviously, no one buys pricey watches from "camel

For the record, Adolf Hitler hated wearing any metals next to his skin, so he rarely wore a watch (I believe he did have a Lange though). He also hated cologne, and never wore jewelry, all in line with his "austere" vegetarian persona. Although I heard Mussolini did love HBBs.

DOMMAGE! You don't like blondes?? I can always dye my hairs... @Admin: I've been to Trondheim Cathedral! And grew up skiing in St. Anton. How bad could it be?? This is just a ploy to avoid buying me Krug, isn't it?

(OH! I didn't see you had posted this here too, Catchthecat. Here is my reply from RWI) I LOVE THE WATCH! I should just have bought my dad this one, rather than the two Omega 007 SEs I got, which arrived DOA. Sniff. Thanks for the effort, Catchthecat! By the way, can one of you baseball-loving people do this type of spread one day? hxxp://www.network54.com/Forum/353391/thread/1188281909/ (change xx to tt) I don't know what camera that Risti guy used, but my God, I felt I was batting alongside Richie Weeks!!

I hope a nice Boddington, or better, and not that fairy American or Canadian pee passing for beer. *shiver* Although if we ever go out, I expect champers, Admin. I am practically a teetotaler, but I make an exception for the grape.

I once used to think that a German strapmaker (also called Karl living in Thailand) was Maria. Maybe Erfurt, who also bought from this chap and was more impressed by the quality of the straps than I, can elucidate. *g* EDIT: I'm actually kidding, unless this Maria person has gone COMPLETELY doolally and branched into strapmaking instead of the more profitable MBWs. But the personality fits -- irascible, uncontrollably partial, Germanically maniac. I live with one such German, so I know.

I thought about this a month into my rep career. And that the two then consolidated their business (which of course, is a topic that really doesn't need to be rehashed) was completely logical for me. There IS safety in numbers. Sure, Hublot have lots of money. But they have to fight their battles in Chinese collectors' home turf, with their rules, customs, and cultural idiosyncracies -- which locals are always better at understanding and exploiting. Even if they hire crack lawyers from HK, the system is porous, and corrupt. The government of China seems half-unwilling to crack down on such activities, anyway. This is a recipe for utter rep watch chaos, although I do believe that a strong crackdown is possible, no matter what anyone says about cockroaches (the analogy that if you step on one, 10 will appear immediately). Yes, there are plenty of Guangzhou dealers, but Andrew and Joshua are special. There is a reason Hublot are targetting their reps, and not Paul's types of HBBs, even just for show and tell... @Cableguy: :D @Starbug: OMG! That is awful...we don't need that kind of traffic / nosey parkers here, right??

That was the post which convinced me to get (1) a PAM 113 (2) later, a Davidsen watch. So goes to show, you never know who you will influence when you post, no matter how insignificant you may think it is. Raymond, also, coincidentally I was reading an OLD thread when you mentioned that your wife asked you not to buy more reps, giving you some kind of time limit not to do so. I think you mentioned you bought three Rolexes, so she declared a moratorium. I noticed you bought in quick succession the HBB and DSN PAM 113. NOT CHEAP WATCHES, these! I'm glad to see she changed her mind.

Love it! Using it all of this week. Thanks, Corpsman.

Thanks for starting the Wrist-Check, Pubus! WEDNESDAY Still a drizzly, depressing day as squalls swirl all over South Florida. So I'm staying conservative with the PAM 210 base from our own TWP (great avatar change). I LOVE the base Panerai watches! The Giovanni e Figlio Valdarno in Nero, soft as butter. The best black strap I have, next to the Maniffature Firenze one. THURSDAY Got another doc's appointment, so I will go with this Bvlgari Bvlgari watch, with the lovely black face. A close-up of the deployant. A cinch compared to the Cartier ones! Bvlgari is a nice marque. I wore the Assioma and Diagono (gens) before I got into this rep watch kick. Heard the Assioma rep is VERY close to the original, so I might check that out.

For the past decade... In the 60s, they sold to film stars. In the 70s, they sold to pop stars. In the 80s, they sold to junk bond traders. In the 90s, they sold to start up founders. In the 00s, they seem to be selling exclusively to the Brunei Royal Family... You have a woman's memory, Kruzer00! Scary!

Oh absolutely, Carl, yes. Not the question asked, but you know me -- I always give a little extra in terms of anecdotes, the better to round off a thread. That has been my fortunate experience too. But just to note that these "dodgy" countries did include some rather well-known countries of the first tier -- like Spain, and Portugal.

You're lucky. I took three sets of watches to 3 ADs (not for those marques!), and 2 watchmakers said no (one was very snooty indeed). The third fixed the DSN Fiddy problem I had (YAY!), but was powerless before the Swinese movements of the others.

I see my boyfriend is on, so I am going to freak him out. *g* HIS WRISTCHECK, culled from a photograph he sent me. And no, he's not interested in watches. But I will change that, telling him that I'm going to change his strap at least twice a day. I think he took that to mean something else though... EDIT: Oops, he signed off and didn't see my tribute. Ah well. Night!

I'm still laughing, Hambone. That was so wrong on so many levels. @Rolexsandwich: Thanks for your wonderful, comprehensive reply! I'm utterly shocked that you let that 50% off sale pass you by. That was criminal! I'm slapping the handcuffs on you as I type. I will PM you in case I see any of your cited straps on sale on other forums. @Sssurfer: Grazie, caro! Tell me, for Paneristi IN ITALY, is Mario Paci the big name he seems to be here in the US? I understand what you said in my thread about watch appreciation in different countries -- that Italians could care less about watches; but surely in the land of quality leather, Mario Paci is known and respected? @Dluddy: Mmm, blues eyes, very nice. Unfortunately, I prefer big soulful Romanian brown eyes, but beggar's can't be choosers! @Tmg: You can't fool me, TMG. I've seen some of your straps and they never fail to dazzle me. Okay, not the Pigskin, though. @Prof: I don't work, and I'm not married, thus have no kids. My boyfriend lives 3000 miles away. Capiche? Soon, when I marry, this will come to an end, but until then, you're stuck with my Capers!