HauteHippie

The rep makers are the VARs. The movement companies like ETA are the OEMs. The bezel insert, which could either be genuine or fake, in both cases, probably comes from an OEM. And I'm aware that OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer, but even so, OEM != Genuine. FYI.

Thanks for the tip!! I put in for the Chocolate Brown Distressed... Hope it's not too late!

I smell something fishy going on here.......

So, let me get this straight... You took your sub rep to a rolex dealer and they agreed to work on it?!?!

The black might be the safer choice, but I'm hard pressed to see anything really wrong with the replica white dial. See for yourself and notice that the pic of the gen clearly has a camera white balance problem: Real: Replica:

Yes, please. Inquiring minds want to know.

I think one potential problem here might be the fact that nobody here has ever seen a loose LV bezel insert. We can certainly try to make determinations based on color and font, but both of those things can be distorted and inaccurately depicted in lousy photos such as these.

I don't know. Has the quality control of reps really gone up? I would say not. Sure over the course of several years rep mfgs are ironing out some of the aethetic details and making improvements. And dealers are going the extra mile to try providing not just watches but parts for modders as well as "perfect" watches that they've somehow modified the appearance of, such as the sub CGs. But I think as we see from these pics that the mods they make are not always desireable. So, yes, a rep is a rep. Perhaps even more so today.

A gen Ebel.

The use of "OEM" in this context is actually rather confusing. More commonly an OEM is a company which produces a component that is used in a product sold by another company, called a "value added reseller" or VAR. The VAR themselves will often use the term "OEM" as a verb, saying they are going to OEM something which really just means they're going to produce a product that contains parts/components obtained from OEMs. So while we might say "This is an OEM bezel", that doesn't *really* make sense. The better terminology is "geniune" or "authentic". FWIW

I will make an observation here.... The underside of the bezel looks different than the underside of the black/silver sub bezels I have. This LV bezel is more substantial, thicker - there is more metal there. Check the pics of the underside of my black bezel in a previous thread to see what I mean. I have also noticed (and Ubi can correct me if I'm wrong certainly) that the vintage bezels I've seen look like this on the underside... Thicker and more substantial than the modern black/silver.

It's the same old thing reinvented... 3 years ago it was the Grade A sub. Which became the Grade A+++++++++ sub eventually. Now it's the "perfect" sub. Call it what you want, it's still a rep. And it's not perfect.

Look ma!! No CGs!!!

I had never considered doing this, but at a place like C-o-s-t-c-o it'd surely work. They have a loose and accomodating return policy. Of course, if you start pulling stunts like this I'm sure that return policy will go the way of TTK's ordering policy. J/K TTK.

Dayum.

The Zigmeister, I have tried reading many of your informational posts, but for some reason many of them seem to have been corrupted and are full of unreadable characters. I don't know why this is, but it is a shame because there is alot of good information there that I'd like to be able to access. The cannon pin tutorial you linked to is fine, though. Perhaps the board mods can comment?

Credit card charge backs can come 180 days later.

Bet you can't buy just one!!! Hehe, actually the Davidsen 005 will be only my 2nd PAM.

Yea there are many flaws. The dial is somewhat disappointing. But it's still a very nice watch and one that readily accepts gen parts.

So have you tried your hand at doing the cross transplant yet? AR should be pretty easy to notice. On the gen PO for example, it makes the crystal sort of disappear - as if there is no crystal between you and the dial because any reflections from the bright store lights are muted. It's really very cool, and IMO obvious if it's there.

Date font, date mag, crown, crown tube, crown guards, dial print, bezel, bezel insert color, bezel insert print, bezel insert pearl, hour markers, etc. It's just too real to be fake. Either that or it's the best fake I've ever seen.

You're supposed to say "Hello, my name is rl350z, and I'm an addict." Or at least that's how they do it at Watchaholics Anonymous.... Welcome.

Keep in mind that the rep date window sits a tad more inboard than the gen's does. Rep:

I wonder if this MBW is 1:1 yet?? The day we see 16610s that accept gen parts directly like the vintage models do will be an exciting day!

The dial print looks great... This is a nice one. And here I thought MBW moderns weren't anything special.