BobM

This thread is an example of the very great store of valuable information this community has and shares!

Thank you, Bing-o for asking the question and a "still-soaking-it-up" member(I) thanks all of you who contibuted your valuable ideas to this discussion.

Several of these are on my To-Buy list anyway.

I received a package from China, from "City of origin: CAN". What city is that? Thanks.

K2222,

Would you, please, ask your optics lab there to help you capture the specs on this process? ... so we might be able to use those specs and your experience to setup a similar arrangement in North America.

Sounds like an excellent thing to have available.

Thanks for your initiative.

Yes, yes ... I know so many of y'all think this is the ugliest hunk of wrist metal to come along in a long time, but ... Some others of us really are interested in this watch. I am. And I am prepared to defend my interest in the watch, if anybody requires that.

What I really want to know is, by when we might expect to see a good replication of this watch? By, say, 1st of the year, you think?

Just adding a post to bring this topic back up into the new posts, to present my edits of my first post, describing a change of specification of the purchase objective.

are you sure artisan plating will plate a rep?

I have never had them do any work yet. Maybe they won't ... but. firstly, how would they know. What they will get is not the whole watch. They are going to get just the metal parts which are to be plated, with no representation of what it is. Secondly, why would they care? They are a plating house. They don't really care about watches.

Maybe they won't. But maybe we will see. I have a Rolex Platinum President inbound to me now. After a littl time I may send that one up to them to have it platinum plated. We'll see.

You will find a lot of geat discussion about this issue on this thread: What is a "Super Rep"?

Excellent guidance there.

Welcome, mkultra!

I, too, am quite new here. Been a member about a month, but have learned a very great deal from the wonderful folks on this excellent forum. I will try to answer any true "newbie" questions you may have (that I can answer), to bear that load from the experienced folks here who have to regularly answer the same newbire questions over and over again ... as they were all glad to do for me and as they will for you, too.

Seek out the thread "I love RWG". That thread includes many postings about the true characteer of this forum. I think you will find it interesting.

Let me know if/when I can help.

Happy to see you here. Enjoy!

Given the advise and concerns about the full gold (but it HAS to be gold; that is what she wants!), I think I will get an ordinary, basic 5 micron plate and later have it properly plated up to about 20 microns. (artisanplating.com)

Valuable suggestions and thanks.

Sounds like an impressive watch, but unless she earns like she can afford a $25,000 timepiece, might want to go with something a little less "bling". Just a thought. Plus, the full gold versions are usually always the wrong color. Oh; and don't forget how fast that gold will wear off. Whatever makes her happy, though!

Beautiful pictures of a beautiful watch!

My Mrs. will be able to carry off the gold and diamonds. That would not be my style but it is hers. Almost of her jewelry is gold and diamonds.

I am concerned about the gold. I understand standard rep gold is plated 5 microns over stainless. I have seen at leasst one site (YinMax.com) which offers a thicker palting (~15 microns) for a little more money, of course. Is that a good option if one is going to get gold? I don't see that offered by any of our collectors?

I am planning a purchase of this watch by about 15 Sept. I am very interested in any comments, suggestions, or offers to consider a used option. Thanks for contributing to my education and a

RWG is fantastic! Knowledgeable people who pull no punches ... speak their minds and reflect many honest differences of opinion ... but also many judgments in consensus. And kindly willing to share their excellent experience.

A great site. I looked for months before I found this good place. Now I have stopped looking; I am comfortable with the integrity and completeness of the information available here.

I could not find among the displayed items the exact watch I wanted on my first order, and I anticipate that same circumstance on other watches I will want. My first supplier - after I asked and provided him with a detailed description and image of what I wanted - said. "Yes. This can be custom ordered. Price will be ..." So I issued the custom order.

What can I expect as a consequence of a custom order? How will issuing a custom order effect the probabilities of getting what I want, and the quality of the result?

not a high-end rep collector like Paso or TTK, witch should be fine for a start.

Paso? May I know more, please?

Most of all, have fun!

Oh, I am already having fun! You guys ensure that. Thanks very much.

And, it has more custom projects and asian watches than straight up reps

I don't understand what you are telling me here. Would you please elaborate on this point? Thanks.

As a footnote, I made a concious decision about 18 months ago to stop collecting reps. I now have more than 200 gens, and most are good, if not great brand name watches.

My longer term plan (beyond the first year) is to slow down and very selectively buy a few older, elegant gens. Where have you found the gens you now pursue? Pawn shops? Ebay? Where?

TRhank you for your good advise.

In another post I described my own reaction to having made my selection of a number of watches and a plan to purchase them at the rate of one a month. Some of those who responded to that post invited me to post the list of those choices, which I do here. Indeed, in here I let it ALL HANG OUT!

Ordered 10Aug07 (S)Platinum President From TrustyTime88.com (Andrew)

Gayles Gold datejust From PerfectClones88.com (Josh)

(G)Yacht Master II YinMax.com

(PG)Speedmaster Broad Arrow, Red gold/blue/leather !

(S)IWC Pilots watch midsize. steel/black/leather

(S)Seamaster Aqua Terra Railmaster, steel/black/steel (PG)IWC Portofino mid size, Rose gold/silver/leather (S)Breitling Navitimer, steel/blue/steel+blue leather (S)Seamaster Aqua Terra mid size Chronometer, steel/silver/steel (S)Seamaster Aqua Terra Railmaster, steel/black/steel (S)Seamaster Aqua Terra XXL Chronometer, steel/black/leather

Dealers to try, in order:

TrustyTime88.com (Andrew) China PerfectClones88.com (Josh) China YinMax.com China TTK In Thailand

Narikaa WatchSilix.com (Jay)

Good Lord! It does work to copy and paste an excel spreadsheet!

Now, the first three watches on this list I had in mind when I came to the forum. Gayle is my wife. The watches after the first three I selected after I had processed the information on this site and felt like I was 'ready' to begin buying.

I selected the watches by visiting the gen sites and processing all the options there. I made it a point to consider all the "hot topic' watches mentioned on the forum. Sometimes that lead to a selection for me and most times it didn't. I selected what I liked ... and my criteria is the LOOK. For me it is all about the LOOK ... Do I like this look? And ... I selected choices to fill categories of use: dress, business wear, daily wear, upscale casual, and sport. I tried to get at least one, but preferrably two in each category.

Okay. Take your shots! I want to hear it. Thanks for playing the game.

I, too, would be interested in seeing specifics on your list.

Okay. A couple of your have asked. I just didn't want to bore anybody, but I will certainly value your comments. However, I will set out the list in a separate post. Look for "Newcomer's choices".

Thanks to all.

If you have a list of possible buys..great..Just read as much as you can on those particular models, youll be amazed at how much recent and not so recent threads tehre are regarding countless models and variants.. As a relative noob myself, I found the Search function to be priceless.

Yes, that is - in part - why I will be buying one a month. Between purchases I wil be researching the bejesus our of my 'next' buy. There is a lot of great data on this site, available to me from the supplier if I will but ask, and in the experiences of the members of this community on whom I will rely for answers to questions I cannot find by independent reseach. And, ... I will be counting on some discussions between members and with me to flush out questions I never thought to ask.

As far as choosing a collector goes....careful consideration is important.

I have come to believe this one of teh very most important elements in the buying process. Still, I am in a learning mode and will continue to be foe several months, I am sure. The pursuit of understanding and gaining knowledge is a great part of the pleasure for me. So, I will be "adventurous" in selecting my suppliers even if it 'hurts' ... and I realize it might.

For me.....nothing but collectors who are inspectors from now on.

That is a piece of your experience I will remember, Thank you.

... Your "one a month" strategy is by no means the most agressive that I have seen here, but I ask myself, "what's the hurry?"

I am sure tmy plan is not the most agressive, but I don't want it to be. I agree with you, "What's the hurry?" I would characteerized my plan as "considered and paced".

I typically have two to four on my list, and that list changes after every watch that I add to my collection, as a I study more, and as new models come out.

I am sure you are right about that, too. I expect my list will change and shuffle some befor I make 6 buys.

What may differ between the general and common choices and yours is that we're a bunch a fanatic looking for the perfect rep, perfection comes sometime before taste...

Cheers

I do see that. I think, though, that my expereince with rep watches will be something like my experience with truely high fidelity sound ... About a certain level of fifelity I cannot actually hear the difference, even if I know that sound is purer. I believe I will get to a point of understanding with replica watches that their fidelity beyond a certain point will be immaterial to me. I think my standard of acceptability will be pretty high but probably not as high as yours nor that of many other really good "replica perfection" freaks (meant in a good way!) here.

... The one thing that I would caution you about is your "adventurous" selection of dealers. In my experience, you can expect to have good and bad experiences with the same dealer. ... There are several dealers who claim to inspect each watch prior to shipment which might be worth your consideration. Establishing a good relationship with a particular dealer can have it's advantages.

And I hope to get to a state of knowledge to be able to do that or at least to focus on maybe 2 really good dealers. Interesting point about good and bad expereinces even with the same dealer. Thanks.

I have been a member for only 2-3 weeks. I certainly am still learning. I hope and expect I will be learning next year at this time. However, I have learned a lot by crawling all over this site, and by evesdropping on discussions about the choices others have made. I have been trying to put together a plan for myself, based on the knowledge I have gleaned from y'all. I thank you for being available to me, for my interests.

I have put together a plan for a series of watch purchases. What was a surprise to me is that my selections of items to buy clearly doesn't seem to match the popular selections among this group. ?? I am not sure why. Maybe it is just a case of personal preferences. Maybe it is that I just still don't know enough to be making the right choices. My criteria for selection may certainly be entirely different from the common criteria in place here.

I have not a single Submariner, nor Planet Ocean, nor Panerai within the 11 watches I have on my list. I think it is not so significant what I do have on my list; it is simply a surprise to me that it seems so different from the common judgement within this group. And, I wonder why.

I had three watches at the top of my list when I came here. I have ordered one of those and have the other two lined up for next purchases. After scouring the available choices I have learned to my surprise that I am mainly an "Omega man". Five Omegas, 3 Rolexes (including one for the Mrs.), 2 IWCs, and one (maybe 2) Breitings ... with the plan to buy one a month. That will give me time to execute each buy with some precision, and to enjoy each new watch before putting it into a normal rotation for wear.

I plan to be "adventurous" in my choice of dealers from whom I will buy each watch. Maybe after ourchasing six or so, I may have enough experience (hard knocks?) to isolate one or two suppliers to rely on ... maybe by then I will have sorted out the special capabilities/services of specific dealers.

But what is interesting to me is the variance I have in my selections from the apparent common selections within this group. Is this something you have experienced in yourselves? ... perhaps when you were new to the hobby? ... or for some other reasons that, by now, you have sorted out? I am interested.

That should be interesting! Thanks Pug!

Dutchy, I do think the picture of your daughter is very cute. And ... Oh, look ... she is putting on her jammies. Isn't that sweet.