Watchmeister

Bonjour! And we have now exhausted my French. I suspect that if you spend some time here your English is going to get better.

Aah, you have just posed the question for the ages. It will be helpful if you can give us a hint as to what you like - handwid or automatic, model, etc. Most things you can fix with enough time and money - crowns, crownguards, datefont. magnification, etc. A few things you can't - dial, caseback, etc. And depending on the particular model of watch you are interested in you can even figure out a rough estimate of how much to add for mods.

I think all the forums suffer from some of this. There has been some fairly dramatic growth on all the boards and as it grows so will the variety of the people and conversely the competitiveness for items. Although none of the forums want to monitor every trade the best thing you can do if you feel there are questionable practices is to at least report it. Any forum that then sees a pattern can act to warn, suspend or ban the particular member if appropriate. Different boards have different tones in post content, offers and even what they will tolerate from participants - not better or worse. Just different. Each person has to decide where they feel most comfortable. Finally and most importantly I am a believer that careful evaluation of the other side of a trade is half the battle. Someone who you know or is generally regarded as trustworthy actually has a reputation to uphold so they are IMHO less likely to exaggerate condition or jerk you around on the purchase or sale. And this is true for all forums.

Thanks for the pics. That is one fabulous rep. Wear it well guys.

So I take it all the pics are obviously gen. How do they actually blacken the steel? I have been wanting one of these since they came out. Need a pick-up in the personal economy for that one though.

Victoria moved on. Never came back from one of her vacations. We should also mention that TRC did finally shut down and a number of members (and one outstanding mod) have migrated over here. Membership has grown. Number of dealers (including a couple of oldies but goodies) and availability of product has grown. Several super reps have come out that are not $600+. All-in-all (and when you cut through the inherent noise) things are currently pretty damn good. Nice to see you back.

The straps are beautiful. Personally I would stay away from the ones with mongrams or logos on the side facing up. But on croc's and alligators for PAM's I always prefer used A/B series (for tang buckle of course). If I remember I will post a couple of pics of mine. But suffice it to say they are stunning.

I am with By-Tor. $1,700 you are getting the better end of the deal. $2,000 you are giving your brother a little gift.

Great video. I have seen articles like this before. And I am sure there are plenty of outfits like the one they described. But here is the interesting question. Somewhere along the line there is some sophisticated movement design/re-design and construction and some real CNC design and machining going on. We are also seeing sourcing of unique materials - ceramics, etc. And the critical link in the supply chain should have the most pricing power. I assume there are more sophisticated traditional factoriesthan what is always pictured. That shop making 500 per week could never do runs of a 1,000 of more sophisticated watches alongside of several other models. Now I am not trying to say that Dealers will not always try to maximize profit. They will. It is their livelihood. But I am wondering where the biggest element of the mark-up comes in. And I am not talking $ but %.

Guys, you are once again off-point here. D4me made a heartfelt apology and it is much appreciated. Anything beyond this is unnecessary and frankly tainting his thread.

If you are price insensitive and want to really dress it up the gen radiomir straps come up frequently on the bay and on risti in brown and at a steep discount to retail. But it will still set you back $100-$200. If you have more than one radiomir it may ne worthwhile though.

Always a pleasure to welcome another tri-state member. Take a look around and get your feet wet.

Let me add another welcome.

Welcome to RWG. The forum has more than a dozen tested and reliable dealers in the collectors section so you have access to the product. But for step 1 hit the search button up top and insert whatever watch you are considering. You are bound to find reviews with pictures and often there will be direct comparisons to the gen. Have fun.

The gen world is truly awesome. I looked at this a number of years ago. The dealer buys at 55-60% of retail for virtually all premium brands. The Company's can typically make a 30-40% gross margin so "cost" fully loaded with marketing and overhead is approximately 35% of retail. So at retail you are paying 300%. Now if you back out marketing and centralized overhead of approximately 25-30% (of the 55% wholesale selling price) you begin to get the picture.

I am too tired to read the whole thread. Sql - that phone looks stunning. Is it safe to assume it is for GSM only? Can it be hooked up with an enterprise set-up? My tech guys would get such a kick out of this they would probably give it a try except I have the dreaded CDMA provider in the USA.

I am hanging tough for the MBK versions irrespective of dial version. The powers that be are still not happy with the movement.

Unfair, but I gotta pile in. But it's all in good fun.

Very good point. It doesn't matter what they cost. It matters what folks will pay. Try and tell your wife that she should not pay $100 for a face cream that costs $0.05. And we all know there are equally good products for 1/10th the price. Heck , half the time the patent protection has long since disappeared. And we call those "generics". One of the things that should tell you that we are not a large portion of the market (and we are not - just a convenient place for a few dealers on the forums to concentrate a slug of sales) is how watches do price out. It really is very sensible. The new Brietlings are not priced lower than some other recent new reps due to our efforts. Rather, manufacturers and dealers alike know that if you ask $700 for a rep of Breitling which can be bought for $2,000 you probably are not going to have a ton of sales. But ask the same amount for a $6,000 HBB and people will pile in. And I know that the factories vary their prices to the dealers with some common sense as well. In fact the best factories often have "suggested retail prices". And you know why? Because they can. No dealer is buying more than a fraction of what a factory intends to ultimately make of a particular product. Even when a dealer provides the gen (and the factories often do it themselves) the exclusive is often less than a month. And as a result the last thing they want is people underpricing their product. I know this is true at the top few factories. But we are the "idiots" who insist on buying that level of rep from those factories. Make no mistake, we have our own branded product. Now what we are all forgetting is that we can get reps of almost anything for $200 or less. We all are just too picky. It is your choice. Kind of like gens, isn't it?

Thanks Chief. And the best part it is still keeping fantastic time. It doesn't have seconds of course but after 10 days it is still spot on with the cable box. So I hereby hand it a "COSC" certificate.-

Skool- We are taking care of it. - Kruz

Ajoe- Best of luck with the MBA. When you are done I think you will find that the rep market makes a lot more sense and the gen market a lot less. And more importantly your income should go up so the cost of a rep relative to your income should go down. And I agree - you are smart to focus on your studies and cease being a dealer. Can you imagine that job interview post MBA. I googled you prior to your interview and noticed you are a dealer in illegal goods.

. At the end of the day anyone's opinion is only relevant to the extent that you do or don't buy a watch. Price versus value will always be subjective. And with most $600+ reps your choices are buy the rep, buy the gen for $7,000 plus, buy nothing or buy a $600 gen. Vote with your pocketbook not your mouth if you are unhappy. The $300 rep of 2 years ago escalates to $450 on currency alone and closer to $500 when factoring in material inflation. Now add-in a dedicated movement, actually printing an accurate date wheel, etc. Anyone noticed what has happened to the price of steel over the last two years? IMHO, the rep industry has never been better. We are beginning to see multiple choices at different price points for far more sophisticated watches than we ever could have dreamed of 2-3 years ago. Want a good HBB rep buy the $600+ version. Want to spend less - buy the lite for a lot less. And yes, of course I wish prices were lower. I am buying fewer reps and more carefully. But I don't kid myself, as the market grows so does its sophistication. And everyone can kid themselves that we are such large part of the market. It is a huge market.

Things like this you can just PM anyone in admin. First I have heard of this happening but I will check it out.