Logan

Excellent review. I have one of the first 177's from TTK, it's very good but this one definitely brings things up another notch.

The whole point of branding is to get your customers to pay more than they otherwise would. A real Panerai probably costs surprisingly little to produce.. not more than a few hundred dollars at the most, maybe less given the level of automation in Swiss factories now. I would never buy a genuine Panerai.. but bizarrely enough I'd consider a Richard Mille RM11 for $80,000 if I had the money.. illustrating your point perfectly..

It's almost certain that a new rep with the 3135 copy movement will be coming. As for when.. that for out Chinese friends to sort out.

Personally I wouldn't buy any Rolex rep right now.. the 3135 copy movement has just appeared, but only in pretty low grade cases to far. It's inevitable that we'll see a whole new series of reps based on this over the next few months.

Great work, and thanks for taking all the pictures to share.. we need more of those kind of reviews.

A big reason to manufacture anything in a particular area is the surrounding businesses that compliment yours.. Apple produces close to where their parts makers are, F1 teams are mostly based in the UK. Watches get made in either Switzerland of Guanzhou, China etc.. you want a set of hands and dial made in a hurry? Try doing that any place else. iPhones and pretty much every other bit of electronic gadgetry get made in China because thats about the only place that has the support you need to do so.. and the labour is cheaper too.

Theres a newer version of the movement around with jeweled transfer gears, see Angus (pure times) pics of the v2 Barricello and Survivor. You'd want an Offshore with that, it's a fair bet that it will filter down to the regular models. Puretime just listed a load of Offshores but not movement dial side pics so can't tell if they have the upgrade of not.

It's been far to long since a package like that appeared on my door step.. might be time for another..

Without access to both makers manufacturing process it's a hard to answer definitively.. but it's a fair observation. Hard steel is a lot tougher to machine and finish than soft steel.. not a major problem for Rolex.. but an obvious area where rep makers make life easier for themselves. Likewise you'd be silly to trust every rep makers claim to be using a particular steel...

I've no idea who actually makes it, but it's a type that shows up in hundreds of lower end reps, it seems to have a massive array of different 'complications' available for it.. different date displays, faux chrono hands, moon phase etc.. I had several watches with it in the early days of rep collecting

The Ingy chrono is a spectacular rep in either stainless of titanium, it's too bad the movement is below average.

I'd love to know the history of this watch.. and how a very good, and bloody expensive rep ended up for $25.. Someone has gone to a load of trouble to build this up, so clearly the builder didn't sell it so cheap.. I'm going to speculate on something.. I'll bet this watch was originally sold as a genuine by a scammer, and the owner has later on found out it's not authentic.. but probably thought fake rolex's are only ever worth $25.. hence how it ended up in the pawn shop so cheap.

Looks really good.. I'm sure I'll own one of these before too long.. Thanks for the pictures.

I own a few gens, and I'm seriously thinking about selling them and buying more reps instead. That said if I had throw away money theres a couple of super high end watches I'd consider.. stuff that we're unlikely to see replicated properly any time soon like Lange and Richard Mille.

I don't expect this to pass in it's current form.. but what ever happens I suspect it marks the end of the USA's dominance of the internet. It's too important to too many people around the world to allow a near bankrupt, declining super power to make the rules.

I've seen the odd one on ebay, but they are usually ex service items, and I understand that the movement is near impossible to service without the factory jigs to reassemble it. They are often replaced, not worked on, especially the chrono module. There was a thread on them a few years back..

It's hard to tell from the pics if thats dirt, or corrosion. If it's dirt and the movement was not wet for long then you have a reasonable chance. The fist step is to get it cleaned and dried asap before anything does corrode. If it's corroded though you're looking at a major rebuild.

It looks great, for some reason the 46 seems a more balanced appearance to me. I remember being very disappointed in the 44 when it arrived as it didn't look quite right.. silly I know but I'd seen the 46 genuine in person and thought that's what I was getting.

Making forged carbon is a fairly tricky process, not exactly secret but it requires very high temperatures. never say never in the rep world though.. It's worth noting that many of the earlier carbon cases, i.e. the Alinghi, tended to fray and suffer surface damage, so it's not the easiest process in the world to get right.

The genuine hands probably won't all fit due to the asian vs swiss 7750 shaft size differences. A swiss 7750 will drop right in with genuine hands. I wouldn't bother with genuine case, bracelet, dial etc.. too expensive given you buy a real one for quite a good price second hand. I'm 99% sure the gen bezel won't fit, however there are plenty of after market bezel inserts which will. Also keep in mid the earlier models of this watch didn't have A/R, only later production (genuine that is), so you could save a bit there and still be authentic. This watch does look great with AR though. Seriously consider a crown and tube as it's a weak point on all seamaster reps.

If the noob SELs are too wide you can easily grind them back with an oil stone (like used for knife or chisel sharpening. This will give a nice crisp edge too. It takes a little time to do this without rounding off the ends but it's quite easy.

Ceramic is really a pretty awful material for a watch.. especially taking a steel component and making it from ceramic without a redesign, Steel and Ceramic have totally different properties so the design should account for that. i.e. Ceramic should not have thin bits to crack, where as steel will flex so thin parts survive. The ceramics being used by watchmakers were mostly created for bearings and wear surfaces, where the loading is strictly controlled, and direct impacts non existent. Every watch is guaranteed to suffer a few good sized knocks during it's life and the materials used should survive this with minimum damage. If you look at pic one you can see the crown guard has moved and damaged the case itself, making the damage bill way higher. A steel or titanium case would have survived this impact and at most might have required a new crown guard. Yes the ceramic is vary hard, but hardness does not equal strength.

Pretty, especially the movement, but Damascus steel isn't really that suited to watch use as it's a carbon steel, which means it rusts. You'd have to coat the steel to protect it, and long term a thin clear coat won't give much protection, even inside the watch. I have a few hand made japanese sashimi knives made from proper Damascus steel and they require oiling after cleaning to maintain their color and prevent rust. There are stainless damascus look a likes used by some knife makers but they never have the strong patterning that carbon has.

Yes any collector should have one or two of these, The case and bracelet finishing was some of the best ever. Of all my watches these are some of the few that truly feel like a genuine

Just keep in mind that Rolex do make over size threaded tubes, and we presume custom taps to match. They are used for repairs where the threads are damaged. Quite a few over size threaded tubes were sold online a few years back and still pop up front time to time. The regular thread is 2.98mm, the over size is 3.02mm from memory.