Watchmeister

Yahoo! Looks much better than I could have hoped. They will be true works of art. You have to take a group shot. It will be one for the ages.

IMHO, the super reps are an outgrowth of why reps originally came into existence. For the majority of the buying population, they simply want to wear an accurate rep of a watch they could not otherwise afford. Since there is no warranty the manufacturers focus on how it looks out of the box - not how long it lasts or the quality of the movement. So the good news is that there are ever improving (aesthetically speaking) copies of very expensive watches. The bad news is that without any ongoing obligation to the consumer (since it is an illegal item) there is no obvious incentive on the part of the manufacturers to similarly improve the movements or the general QC. In theory, the person who pays the price for the shortcomings is the dealer. But most people just simply keep buying. How else are you going to have a $6,000 watch on your wrist. Recognizing these shortfalls my approach has been to identify those which I really like and then actually service them, swap movements, tighten screws whatever to make them longer lasting. So I am also grateful for the improved aesthetics but do wish (of course) they were less expensive and/or better quality.

Arch- Looks incredible. Fabulous result. Big congratulations.

Beautiful work. Someone will be a very happy customer.

Certainly cannot go wrong either way. I have bought a dozen of the same movement you already have for myself as well as another dozen for other forum members. They will need servicing sooner than a brand new movement bought from ETA so in the long run the cost will be the same. But if it makes you feel better I have installed several and so far none have required servicing. Could be luck but who knows.

Your wish is my command - old school Chrono Avenger with gen dial, Ziggy relume and Swiss movement: Not for sale though.

Looks great. Just keep that buckle away from your car door and desk. I put the 24mm version on my 243: It is so pretty I even picked up the next gen engraved buckle for the 24mm from Angus: Maybe someday they will make an engraved version for the 26mm. Hope springs eternal.

You should be proud. Compliments from Yoda.

Sweeeeeeeeeet! Wear it well.

Now you two stop playing footsie. Hurry up and carve your initials in the tree. Back to the topic at hand. Definitely two people in two different locations. And yes they work together closely along with one or two others. If you can remember way back there was a time a few years ago when Andrew was selling only lower end reps. But he was the first of the two (but after Paul and King) to put up his own website. Joshua followed. Then dealers got a glimpse of the future. That future came from Honpo. They were the first that I am aware of to buy gens and work with the factories to come out with more expensive exclusives. They had the benefit of serving the best rep market on the planet - Japan. Ultimately, they were slowed down when they were busted in a very public bust in Japan and subsequently had to move all their operations off-shore. To this day though, you cannot find the 194 with ti case anywhere but from them. I do hope we will see it eventually. People complain that the new Super Reps are very expensive. Well, if you ever bought from Honpo you know the exclusives were always expensive. First 2893-A2 PAM's were $800 or more. The Asian 7750 187 was $800. And they did these projects with 150 piece minimums in return for limited period exclusives. Fast forward to today and the high end rep industry has exploded. New brands proliferate. Try buying a good Breitling (Chrono ti excepted) or IWC 2-3 years ago. Factories are now bigger and have their own set of demands. Runs are larger. Minimums are higher. Even cost per unit is up. Many smaller dealers including a couple who we all knew and loved here disappear. And thus we see the "buying cooperative" which has morphed into the "designing and sell exclusive cooperative". It is pretty amusing that ultimately the best profitability is in the form of "proprietary" branded product.

Still infatuated with the 29. Eagerly awaiting my 63 back from the master though.

Pho- That watch is stunning. And if it is functioning you are truly a genius. Although I don't own one (and it is unlikely to ever be in my budget), two friends each own one. One owns a Breguet and the other is a Patek. Both guys say they are so temperamental that they don't wear them. Leave it to the Chinese to outdo the Swiss. They may not invented it but they certainly improved on it.

My turn to chime in. Everyone is wasting their time until the customer Chris is referring to weighs in. It is unfortunate it had to go public. This should be settled between Chris and the customer and it sounds like it has at this point. The customer was unhappy and Chris has given him his money back. I will say that I did speak with Ziggy to let him know about this whole discussion and where it was heading as it appears he is being dragged into it. He made it clear to me that he is not interested in getting involved. He has no interest in getting into a firefight over something that is none of his business. His business is repairing and modding watches. If it is the watch he is thinking of (he gets more watches for rework than we will ever know from all sorts of places) than it did need a good amount of help. In truth, he did not know who did the original work as the customer didn't say when he sent it. As is always the case when repairing a watch, he took pictures to show the customer what needed to be corrected. Of course, I couldn't resist and asked Ziggy to show me a couple (and we both assume this is the same watch). It will require rework and Ziggy will do it if that is what the customer wants. If it is the one and the same, it was not a great outcome but Chris has absolutely done the right thing. Not all watches come out the way one would hope and he has acted appropriately and refunded the person's money. There is nothing else he can or should do. Everyone should move on until the person who was unhappy pipes up. Or maybe it will just go away.

Guaranteed fake. Look at the hash mark at 6 o'clock. Whoever feels like reporting the person should do so.

Can someone post the link.

I am not taking that laying down. I clicked on that puppy earlier and nothing happened. By the way, nice watches. That is the good news. But did you notice that if you buy a watch and return it within 5 days there is a 30% restocking fee. They make our rep dealers look good.

Kind of the way it works. Or at least make it an active link for all us lazy folk.

No, I am the one with a bunch hanging around. A half dozen installed and another 8-10 hanging around the house. You never know when you will need that next movement. I do already know where the next few are going though. I believe the person still sells them on ebay for reasonable prices though. I am not going to do it as I am still trying to rap up the gen PAM crown project but someone should organize it. In bulk you can buy them in the $150-175 range. They are 17j not 27 but they have all been in good shape and they are made at a time when the Swiss still made their own parts (late 80's).

DW is a different story and if you have to ask... How many folks's movements are still working? Mine is. But then again it came by way of Ubi before he amassed the 16520 collection. It took me years to get over the fact that I would have to live with a dead hour subdial to get the correct pusher placement.

Ryyannon- I appreciate the sentiment. When I got bored with my WM I just traded it with a well-known Rolex genius for one of his fabulously modded pieces. I stopped selling watches quite a while ago. But I also now buy fewer as I don't like the hassle of selling them. - Kruz

Somehow I don't think it is luck. Wear it well. That one is going to do nothing but appreciate in value.People who know far more than I ever will are telling me it is the best vintage Rolex buy out there.

Gold is less common on gens because it is more expensive. On the reps the truth is that any "gold rep" requires a certain amount of credibility to carry it off. When you see your gardener with the gold rolex what are you thnking? Even on gens I have often opted for the SS version when gold was at the time a viable economic option as a big gold watch can turn off people. I do have to say that in general men look at your wrist with SS on and women are looking at that big hunk of gold. The 231 gets me stares from women and I know it is not my dashing good looks.

Thoroughly entertaining. And yes TTK has brought them to the masses. I kind of liked it when they were mythical. Here is one of mine from the Dark Ages. The Falco 5513: Slow beat movement, gen dial, insert, pearl, crown and the usual host of case mods: At the end of the day the best part of these watches is that you can slap on all those gen parts.

I think you have to separate into different categories: Used watches at a premium - this amazes me but it is worth it to some people to buy one over concerns over customs or functionality when a better dealer will take care of any of these issues. I will admit that I would never have had the nerve to buy a seconds at 6 Daytona which had not been previously owned by someone else. Then again I was not paying a premium back then. Watches which are no longer made - Not surprising as a better rep is still a fraction of the price of the gen and so people will pay up for something they can no longer get. This is true on a much larger scale for the gens as well. Not surprising. Modded Watches - This is where there are some frightening prices being asked and I am wondering if people are paying them. The key question I would be asking (irrespective of the price) is who did the mods. For all the people doing modding there are only one or two who I would trust with my watch. The Holy Grail - Discontinued watches and/or watches with discontinued/gen parts and well-executed mods. They probably are worth a premium. For some of the PAM's and Rolexes where I have spent years assembling the parts and modding them I would simply not part with them. But if I did I would not think twice about asking a good amount of money. Then again I know who did the mods and I know the seller will be getting a well-functioning unique rep. I have to say that I have been offered $1,000 or more on an unsolicited basis on more than one occasion in the last year. And you know what, there will come a time when I will give in. But Richard you are right that it is a very different world. In "days of yonder" we would simply offer our watches at a 30-50% discount to clear the watch box and reload. With current prices we now have to think longer and harder before buying and selling for that matter.

Well I wouldn' t go that far. But it is nice to see you back.