tvt

No, I meant $3,000 however I was also mistaken, it is more like $2,200. STILL, a lot to pay to have it broken upon arrival!

Sorry, I can't help you, but an interesting note about winders. I have had a cheap unit, $100 for a single winder and it has more or less worked flawlessly for 3-4 years. Thsi Christmas I got a $3,000 Orbita three watch winder made out of some sort of beutiful exotic wood and crabon fiber... looks GREAT. the only thing is that of the three winders the middle one spun at half the speed of the other two and could not keep ANY watch wound. SO back it went. It has been gone for 2 weeks and I have not even heard back from them yet. I have every confidence that they will replace it but it goes to show that MUCH more expenisive does not always mean trouble free (though it sure does look pretty).

Holy God, I had no idea that this was so wide spread... CRAZY!

I generally do NOT "nagg" dealers for better prices even though I know first hand just how cheap most of these watches truly are. Why? Bacause I am sitting ten thousand miles away from where I could get the watches cheaper. The dealers have every right to charge whatever they feel they can get away with and we have every right not to buy them. But paying $300 for what is REALLY a $45 watch is still a hell of a lot cheaper than any reasonable alternative.

I'm not sure why you would have a dilema here. If you are a particularly large Bond fan then that is your obvious choice. On the other hand if you do not care about Bond then why on Earth would you buy a watch with the Bond logo all over the damn thing? You have no choice, only a simple question to ask; Do you like Bond? Answer that and your decision has been made.

One is a finely made piece of art, the other is a crudely made piece of [censored].... you decide which is which. The problem some when you try to make crap into somehting it is not... God only knows what that case back is even made of, it looks rusty or somehting in the photos. To be honest with you my advice would be to not purchase this watch. If the dealer cannot make it look decent in the sales photos imagien what you will actually receive. Stick to the better made replicas.

Even at $150 it is quite possible that Paul is making close to $100 because he is not dealing with an many middle men. I am NOT making ANY judgement on what "dealers" make or not. Afterall, there are "dealers" who are at the source, "dealers" who are middle men, "dealers" who are simply drop shippers and so on. No one rule will apply to them all by a long shot. What I can tell you as fact because I experienced it first hand is that at the watch markets you can EASILY buy watches for 1/3 to 1/4 the going price from most dealers. I have posted this before but in general watches that may sell for about $100 from dealers can be had EASILY for under $20 and often around $10. These are the all asian watches using asian movements.. they are incredibly cheap to make and buy in China. Higher end fakes that may sell for 300 here were had in the $80 - $125 range with mst falling just shy of $100. Now remember, this was from a westerner with NO contacts buying one piece at a time with NO volume discount or much actual neogtiation. In other words I was paying the "screw the American guy" prices and STILL it was that cheap. Draw whatever conclusions you want but do not fool yourself into thinking that these cost more to produce then they do. I am not sure any of it really means anything anyway, you should pay what you think is fair for a watch and leave it at that.

For some reason the Big Bang seems to have much more initial quality problems than any other watch I have seen. Maybe it is the complex design, I don't know but at this point I have heard more people complain about the quality than praise it. I really hope this is just a first gen thing because I am really looking forward to the Black Magic and hope they have the bugs (not the flaws but the poor quality issues) worked out by then.

I'm not at all surprised that he would wear a fake, good or bad. Most people are not knowledgable about watches and would never spend real money on them. The idea of a fun, cheap novelty though is too hard to resist, and in this case was a gift. I think you handled it well. I agree, I would never call someone on a fake unless they were trying to sell it as a gen or something like that. If someone is so freaking insecure that they have to lie to others about a fake watch then just let them be the little man that he is and perhpas shed some pity on him. Your boss was cool enough to be open with you which is awesome, and the fact that you did not go bragging about your much better quality watch is also cool. I am sure this is a little bonding type of thing you can use to get closer to your boss if you like.

I don't think anyone cares about your OUTGOING address. Customs does not look at or care about what LEAVES the U.S., only what comes in. Put your real address on it and ship away, and god help you if you have THAT many returns that it should be of any concern anyway.

Generally speaking double AR coating sucks and that is why you seldom see it used... it is just a bad idea. Low end AR coating in unbearable... it makes the watch look dirty, smeared and smudged ALL THE TIME. High quality AR is better but still very prone to being dirty.... I can only imagine what REALLY low quality double AR would be like (likely what any fake would use). I would MUCH prefer single AR coating, it just makes more sense.

Wow, I think I have heard more stories of QC issues and faulty, broken, sloppy etc. watches then any other model. I have been trying to keep count but there have been at least 8-10 members who have posted that the Bing Bang arrived faulty or non working... what a shame.

Thanks for the work Admin... you have done a great job with BOTH boards.

The mere idea of a doublr AR coating on a fake watch scares the hell out of me. I know the IDEA of it is great but cheap AR coating is just a nightmare. It mares, smudges and as has been mentioned is just impossible to keep looking good. Now GOOD AR coating is a dream, it works VERY well and is not that hard to maintain, but I somehow doubt that the "reps" will be using the good stuff. One can hope though.

Seems a little risky to me since there are no service records all you have to go on is the guy's word. He may be totally honest but just not know the REAL history himself. This reminds me of something like Antiques Roadshow. You will see some super rare peice of furniture that WOULD of been worth say 20 grand but because it was re-finished it is now worth 2 grand or less. ALL of the value is in the original finish and untouched original feel. As soon as that is changed, even if it looks better, all the value vanishes. My guess is that it is similar with a watch like this.

OK, I knew the reports that the entire market had vanished must of been wrong, just a temproary thing. Obviously this seems like a fraction of what it was in it's prime, a mear gohst of what it once was and MUCH more expensive to boot. HOWEVER, for most of us it still seems like a very worthwhile place to visit and the prices are still low by comparision to normal dealers. Great to hear it is (for now) back up and running because a friend is headed there shortly and was hoping to check it out.

I would always defer to Uniquitous on all things Rolex but in general i think it is a bit risky buying anything vintage that you do not know 100% as fact where it comes from. It is just so easy to have replacement dials and so on which lower value. The entire thing could be pieced together from various parts for all you know unless you really know your stuff.

Right, I know what you are saying ubiquitous but isn't this watch priced MUCH lower than a version with a good dial? I know a collector would never want this watch, even if it were re-lumed but it seems like for about 6K (after a new redial job) someone could have a really cool watch that is less than half od what an all original dial version would sell for. Maybe I have my prices out of whcak though, I thought a gen "James Bond" in good condition was around 12K or so.

Maintaining automatic watches can be expensive, no doubt, and I actually think you have UNDER estimated the costs. I tend to wear certain watches way more than any others. I generally wear gens and collect fakes meaning that they do not get a lot of wrist time. I have had a few unpleasent surprises lately where I will break out an older fake (say 5 years old) only to find it in need of service. My answer thus far has simply been to shelve it and grab something else. But the problem is real and I guess it is just a commitment you have to make, or keep a smaller collection which is probably more wise.

Sometimes people don't like to admit it but the fact is that you are just experiencing "normal" quality for fake watches. It is annoying as hell for sure but the total and complete lack of quality control means that most of the time you will have annoying issues with fake watches. Price does not equate to quality in this world so even more expensive watches are no better. Look at the problems people are having with the big bang. It is one of the most expensive Asian movement watches you can buy and yet I have heard of four problems already, and BIG problems (one arrived dead, one had non working chronos, one had a second hand fall off and one had many smaller issues all at once). While I think you have had particularly bad luck I also think you may have unrealisticly high expectations. You have to remember that when you read someone post how incredible a watch is and that it is 1:1 and exactly like the read deal and all of that, chances are they just don't have the same expectations you do. I have yet to see any "replica" watch that does not have major issues right out of the box. Some guys get really into modding the watches and they can get them incredibly close looking to the gen, but for a guy like me (and I presume you) who just wants them nice out of the box you have to just accept a lot of little annoying issues. On the flip side only you will ever be aware of 90% of them, no one will ever study your watch like you do.

OK, obviously a HORRID job, but the watch is not too badly priced is it? I mean if you would re-lume the horrible job they did the actual case, bezel and (I am guessing) movement might be worth the money... or maybe not.

Well of course it goes back... not even the watch you ordered so a return is a given. As for the other factors, I was worried about the screws, one of the reasons I chose to wait for a later generation before ordering. Some of the photos showed chewed up screws and I cannot stand that, nothing screams low quality more than that. Because of the funky split screws you cannot fix the bezel yourself (without makinga tool) and band that will not stay shut is of not much use... so even without factoring in the high price it sounds like an easy call to return it.

Yea, just a bad photo. He put white cards around the watch to try and reflect whit into it (the case back is super polished to a mirror like finish) however he did not do such a great job of it. In the area from about 12:00 to about 3:00 going backwards (in other words that big, odd "C" shape, you are seeing the cards (and the camera itself if you look closely). Then in the rest of the case you see either the ceiling or some card put above the watch... but the actual watch is just fine.

Trust me, it is tempting for sure. But he is not a big enough dealer to get the SS Daytonas easily, he has to wait for them liek everyone else. When he does get one in I know he likes to sell them to his best clients who have been waiting. It is sort of a "thank you" of sorts to those customers. Unlike some dealers he does not mark them up over retail. While he has offered the next one to me I just feel as if it would do him more good than me. I also have already purchased watches from him at his cost and though he is a close family member (father in law) I don't want to press my luck. it is hard to tell if he sincerely wants me to purchase it or if he is simply being kind but really would prefer to sell it. This year my wife bought me a really nice Orbita three watch winder (it is made out of some extoric wood and carbon fiber... sweet) through her dad at actually BELOW wholesale cost. he called up Orbita and said it was for himself so they sold it to him for less than the normal wholesale. My point is that there is a fine line between appreciating his generousity and abusing it! Liek I said though, I have a feeling that sooner or later I will go for it. Rolex does not double cost from wholesale to retail but it is a really great price. I think in general wholesale is about 60% of reatail so you figure if a watch retails for say 7K I would be looking at $4,200.

Hmnmm, I did not realize that the el Primero ones were selling for more than the current in house movement version. A family member of mine owns a Rolex Delaership and has offered to get me a gen at his cost, I have already hit him up for several others. I decided to take a pass on the Daytona though as I know he would prefer to offer them to his best clients and I am not a huge enough fan of them to steal it from him. But perhpas I will take him up on it sooner or later. I coudl quite easily sell it for thousands in profits but I could never do that and he would be VERY upset if I ever did.