ironmarshal

I completely agree with your love affair with the UN Maxi Marine Diver. I've yet to purchase a gen, but seriously thinking about it. I'll certainly go for the SS version, but my ultimate dream watch is the rose gold version with the black dial. Simply sublime, but at 20k+, it'll have to wait.

I agree that it's nice to own a gen of the brand you really appreciate. Having said that, if you are a true watch enthusiast, it's likely that you could never afford all the gens you'd like to own and buying reps allows you to expand your collection. That being said, I highly support buying a few gens of the brands you really love.

I highly recommend the BK YM, can't speak for the others, but the BK is fantastic, especially with his custom made smaller, more accurate crowns. I'm wearing mine as I type this and couldn't be happier with the purchase.

I don't think the boards have become uncivil, I think it's a combination of the natural evolution of forums (people come, people go), and the fact that to date, 2008 hasn't really generated as much buzz as we had last year with some of the reps. There were a flurry of super reps that everybody seemed to be talking about last year and it got everybody excited and posting. This year has been a little quieter, and hopefully we'll get the buzz going again in the second half of the year (If only they'd release that darned UN Maxi Marine Diver, I'd be posting like crazy right now!!!)

I've got the BK YM and its fantastic. I highly recommend looking in his direction if your interested in buying one.

Both are nice, but the black with serti is a killer look, and less common than the others.

This issue really disturbs me. As someone fairly new to the rep scene, and somebody who is willing to pay the premium for an ETA movement, when I order a watch I expect that movement. Having said that, unlike many here, I couldn't distinguish an ETA from a bad Chinese fake when I open the caseback. The only thing I have to go on is dealer reputation.

Absolutely classic set of images. It's nice to some humor in the pics rather than just the usual wrist or art shots.

I'll second Kenberg's thoughts.

I agree; go for the gen sunglasses. Many of the rep sunglasses have been shown not to be able to block both UVA and UVB rays. It's usally one or the other. I've always favored Serengeti, but those Mont Blacs look sharp.

I'm in for a 42mm UPO as well. I've gone to the AD and tried on a 45mm version but even though I could get away with it, as By-Tor sais it's just too big and unwieldy. I'm just not into the whole oversized watch trend. I can't imagine they won't come up with a UPO 42mm version, after all it's not a super complicated rep. They've got most of it, just a few fixed here and there and they're done. Sign me up!

I'm not a huge chrono fan, but UN makes some sexy watches, that's for sure. Beautiful piece, now if only our dealers would get to work on making some quality UN reps available. I'm thinking the Maxi Marine is due to be repped.

I'll second that. Read a lot before doing any buying. I joined last year and read everything I could for about three months before taking the plunge with the BK Yachtmaster, followed soon thereafter by a Super SeaDweller. I've learned a lot so far, but I still have a long way to go.

There was a recent documentary on National Geographic about the global illicit goods trade and they spent a good chunk of it talking about Italy, and they mentioned that quite a few of the clothes are made there. They even show the bolts of fabric coming in and the artisans using custom made die's to print the correct designs on the fabrics to evade customs. I'll be interested to see this show as well.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I almost fell for one of those sites before I found this forum last year. Since then I've obtained two great reps from the dealers listed on this site and I'm eyeing up a few more. Here's to better luck in the future.

Amazing set of images....and a great story to accompany them.

As further evidence of the difficulty in calling out the SSD...if you remember, when it first came out there was a member here (wish I could remember his name) who took it down for deep water tests and documented the tests in unbelievable detail. While at the dive site he passed the rep around a group of divers along with the gen and asked the divers to tell which was which. Despite the fact that many of the divers owned gen's many still couldn't tell the difference, and if I remember correctly, the Captain couldn't either. I was reluctant to buy the watch because of the rehaut issue until I read that post. I figured, if owners of the gen's can't tell the difference the average non-WIS won't have a clue how to call it out. That being said, I really wish they would have gone the extra mile and just made it correctly in the first place. I would have gladly paid an extra $50 bucks for the extra effort to make the rehaut correctly in the firs place.

I'm looking primarily at the Omega Seamaster and the Vacheron Constantine Malte.

That new design is great....love the slightly domed crystal and the ceramic bezel. If only they wouldn't have ruined it with the text!!!! Arrghhh.

I don't know what's going on, but I hope its just a server relocation. I like dealing with Angus....he's been a great dealer.

Too bad for Liverpool. Both the first and third goals for Chelsea came from offside plays where the passer received the ball in an offside position. Last week they win after a dodgy penalty call against Man Utd. At some point their luck is going to run out.

Very cool video. I do have one question: why in the world do they use rhodium plating? Is it for some performance reason or just so that they can justify they high price (since rhodium sells for something like $9k per ounce)?

so if I reverse my 100-400mm zoom I should be able to get some ultra close macro then.

not very successful here. My ultimate dream watch is the Ulysse Nardin Maxi Marine, and sadly have yet to see a rep of this beautiful piece.

Manager of Corporate Finance for a Fortune 500 firm. I've done just about everything in Treasury from cash management to investments, FX, commodities hedging, modeling of derivative structures, etc.