Fidestro

italiano nailed it, you guys had this confused with the Skyland. The Avenger is slightly bigger.

He is wearing a different one when showing off the Jericho missle

Your dealer should be able to source you a replacement bracelet for less than 50 bucks or so.

This is a gen. I don't even know if it is available as a gen yet. Either way, you are waiting!

That was not an AP, that was either a Hublot Big bang or the bulgari knockoff of the HBB

I don't mean you any disrespect, it is something I see a lot on watch forums. It hits close to home as I involved in a company with a tooling business. Tooling costs are involved in everything, from pencil erasers to AP watches. Different economics I am sure but it seems people only mention R and D and tooling costs on high dollar items.

A limited edition of a special edition! I love it!

I like it, but is it a fantasy model? I don't remember anything other than blue black and brown from Breitling.

Another thing to keep in mind is that sometimes the manufacturers will modify their photos that they distribute to media in order to throw off the replica makers. I have seen it on several manufacturers websites where their watches have details off when compaired to a gen that I was holding in my hand.

I am sure JLC has made back their investment many times over and are making a killing on these movements, which brings us back to the luxury aspect. Luxury being the one thing you refute as to being the reason these are artifically expensive. Since the article linked in the original post had a car reference, I would like to go back to one. I read the other day that Porsche profits around 20k per 911 they sell, and the 911 produced now still resembles a 911 from 20 years ago (more or less, when compared to how other cars have aged). I am sure they had development costs, etc. but I am sure they recovered their investment quite quickly and continue to do so each year that they upgrade and revise them. I always get a kick out of the "tooling" reference when talking about the production of watch movements. Our Asian 21j, 7750, Unitas clone, etc., etc. also had tooling costs to be able to produce the movements and yet they can do so at a reasonable cost. They also have some design cost as well when you figure reverse engineering and in some cases improvements over old ETA designs. I am sure that they spent less time in development than the JLC but it again points you to the luxury cost tacked on the JLC movement.

seiko movementsare in house movements, inferior movements and cheaper materials sure, but they are still in house movements. I am sure they are not losing money on them.

I understand that by definition ANY luxury item is overpriced and that we all have different tolerance levels for what we consider overpriced. I work with people who think my Seiko Monsters at 200 bucks are overpriced. Overpriced is relative depending on who you are talking to. Some would think Rolex Daytona Chronos are overpriced, but they are still completely in-house movements at a similar price to the AP. The base JLC movement may be a fine movement, my main problem with the DD module however is that I have yet to hear of a watchsmith who would work on one. Most watchmakers that I have heard of (on the watch forums I frequent anyway) simply toss the DD module and pop a new one on. With all respects to Pugwash, rarity of a movement should not be an issue. Realistically Rolex movements are not that rare and yet they get a premium because they are Rolex movements.

That would not help out the site any. I agree with the fundraising aspect of this, and like Pugwash said it is going to be a PDF anyway, so why not distribute it as such.

I would like to make a weird suggestion, how about we make this a PDF? We could list a donation amount and send a file out and if someone wanted to get it professionally printed they could do that or they could print it on their own. The logistics of printing a mess of calendars and then shipping them all over the world does not make sense to me and seems it would drive the price up, in addition to a documented instance of replica watches going to god knows how many customs offices.

I posted in Dani's thread where he complained about missing the Juan Pablo AP something about comparing an AP to a Tag, Omega, or Rolex (I think those were the brands, not 100 percent but I know Rolex was in there). Someone posted some comment about "how dare I compare", except in some really snotty way. I posted that a watch was a watch. I already knew several years ago that the AP had the Depraz chromo module, as do several other brands such as Omega and Tag Heuer. The difference it that for some reason Omega and Tag Heuer are not seen as "high horology brands" (a term I despise) and AP is. I have never had a problem with the Depraz model in my Omega Speedy Reduced or either of my Tag's with it but I did not pay the AP price for it either. Quite frankly at the price they charge, I would be [censored] if it were a 7750. If AP is going to position themselves the way they are then they should be making their own movements.

i cant figure out how an explorer 1 could cost $5K, in looks and function it should never exceed $3.5K $350, i dont even think its triplock. I fixed that for you.

I have seen fake low end Seikos, anything is possible. Armani watches are made by Fossil so they may feel and look cheap.

I think you can source one from Otto Frei in the US and Cousins in the UK.

The 21J is not worth servicing, just replace it! I don't know of a watchmaker that will service one because they are so cheap. I don't think The Zigmeister would bother with it. The 21j is supposed to be well oiled and in good shape when new from the factory.

YOU LIE!

You never know with George W. still in office! He does pronounce terrorist and tourist the same!

When was the last time you renewed your license? This site has more info on barcodes on licenses http://schram.net/articles/barcode.html Mine did not have a barcode until I renewed it this year.

Mom? what are you doing on the news?

I would not recommend trying, homeland security has made [censored] like that harder and if you get caught with one you would be in deep [censored]. In addition, I have several friends who are bouncers and they are trained by ex-cops to spot a fake a mile away, in addition to bars that may have barcode readers for the back of the license. Sure, some dive bars you might slide, but a good fake is gonna cost you and it may not be worth it.