Fahgetaboudit I'm from New York..

[cybertek]

Just thought I'd say "hi". Canal Street watches just weren't cutting it for me as I see the level of quality on these reps are top notch by comparison. Also my doctor buddy just bought himself a Patek Aquanaut 5065 against my protest. While its nice and elegantly understated, I'd sooner put that towards a car. So in my searches for a knock off.. I stumbled onto here.

I typically like to collect Orient and (Accutron) Bulova watches because they are quality budget watches. And Bulova is a New York native like me, although nothing is really made here anymore since being bought by Citizen. Big fan of automatic watches in general because it's as complex as a car engine shrunk onto my wrist.

My next big purchase will probably be an automatic tourbillon when I take a visit to Hong Kong in 2 weeks.

I'd like to buy some reps while I'm in HK as well but.. I could use some recommendations.

[Jkay]

Welcome to the board! There's no need to travel to China to buy reps; there are many "trusted" dealers here on this forum who sell direct to you. From China to NY in a week or two .. not a bad deal, and all merchants here are approved by the forum to be above board. No scams or lies.

If you look at the main forum page, there are a lot of dealers listed there in their own "storefronts"

The main watch replica city in China as far as I am aware is Guangzhou. Look here for a traveler's story .. Buying a rep in China is like haggling over a new car price with a crazy man (woman) .. if they suspect you have cash, they start somewhere nuts like $1000 and you have to almost beat them down to $200 over time .. walk away .. come back .. etc .. and it's hard to get a merchant to show you the GOOD stuff if they don't know you. You could be trouble. They don't know.

Most people just buy directly from trusted merchants here via the post office. comes right to your door

enjoy your new hobby. your doctor friend will shiat his pants when you show him an Aquanaut 99% as good as his for $200 ;p

[Jkay]

There are some pinned posts for newbs .. read up and you'll get the hang of things pretty fast. I came here for Bell & Ross and learned I liked a LOT of brands I never even knew about.

So do yourself a favor .. look at a lot of stuff while you're here .. you never know what you don't know!

The View New Posts thing in the upper right corner of almost every screen is your friend. We get about 140 new posts every day around here and the shortcut to seeing them all is right there.

[cybertek]

Thanks guys,

I've got my eye on the Planet Ocean 42mm. Seems to be a nice common "starter" rep. Owning both genuine ETA Valjoux 7750 and 2824-2 I'm curious how the Chinese made versions hold up. Maybe a Panerai after that..

Guangzhou is actually on my list of places to visit during my trip. Thanks for that link. Haggling comes second nature to me so I have no hesistations about doing it. Plus it's fun (for me at least)!

[P4GTR]

42mm PO's, best bet is to get a POrikaa (search that term). They're only $100 or so. Just contact Narikaa, a trusted dealer here. The more expensive versions are no better nowadays.

welcome fellow NY'r. I'm in FL now though. When I was on Canal st. about 6mo ago, I was not impressed with what I saw. I spent a few hours there and for love nor money couldn't be convinced to buy a single watch.

[Watchmeister]

You will be in great shape on the PO's. They really are wonderful reps. Can't give advice on the 42's as I went with the 45 size and loved it. Welcome to the forum and enjoy the read. There is plenty of info on the PO's. And if you get really motivated to improve it and want to spice it up you can selectively add gen parts which come up over time.

[maxman]

Welcome to RWG Cybertek. My first rep was the 42mm PO,the quartz version outside of the movement It Is a very good looking rep,I gave It to a friend. I now have the 45mm auto that I like very much,great rep.If you are used to Canal ST reps you are going to love It around here. The Infomation here Is some of the best,If not the best available anywere,enjoy Mike

[Jkay]

Thanks guys,

I've got my eye on the Planet Ocean 42mm. Seems to be a nice common "starter" rep. Owning both genuine ETA Valjoux 7750 and 2824-2 I'm curious how the Chinese made versions hold up.

The POrikka is a great 42mm starter rep, but is only available in Asia 21j movements, not the better Asian ETA clone copies or genuine ETA. The A21j series are good movements but suffer terribly from hit n miss QC .. you either get it and it runs great or you get it and it sucks. Buying from Narikaa in this case is a plus since he hand picks his reps personally in Asia.

FYI the 45mm Planet Ocean version called the Ultimate PO (upo) accepts all gen parts. You can slap on as many real Omega parts as your wallet lets you until it's just a replica case and movement .. all else is gen.

[cybertek]

Hmmm I'm very interested in the UPO 42mm version if and when that ever comes out. I saw the original posting 10 months ago claiming it was due out. I wish the UPO 45mm would work but I'm afraid it'd look like a small White Castle hamburger on wrist.

Clearly I'm not in the business of making knock offs but if I was, I'd have the genuine next to the rep and keep on tweaking it until it comes out perfect. Why is it some damn hard for them to get the rep closer to 100%? I can understand imprecision with manual calipers and micrometers, but this is the digital age, with digicams.. especially with CAD/CAM and CNCs. I doubt they read these forums and take in our feedback. Maybe I can be the great communicator that bridges these gaps! I'll be like Nixon (of the rep world) and start a dialog.

Or maybe I'll just stick with a cheap noobmariner that narikaa offers and wait for this UPO 42mm.

Hope I can get it in < 2 weeks time to bring with me to Guangzhou so I have a baseline of what is good.

The POrikka is a great 42mm starter rep, but is only available in Asia 21j movements, not the better Asian ETA clone copies or genuine ETA. The A21j series are good movements but suffer terribly from hit n miss QC .. you either get it and it runs great or you get it and it sucks. Buying from Narikaa in this case is a plus since he hand picks his reps personally in Asia.

FYI the 45mm Planet Ocean version called the Ultimate PO (upo) accepts all gen parts. You can slap on as many real Omega parts as your wallet lets you until it's just a replica case and movement .. all else is gen.

[Jkay]

Bottom line? The factories don't care. They are not driven craftsmen .. they want to make something they can sell you, and spend the least to make it as is possible.

Why develop and produce a clone ETA 7750 or 7753 movement with 200 internal parts but never clean them before installation so that they arrive in your watch full of metal chips, HAIR and LETTUCE LEAVES? (not kidding here)

[cybertek]

That seems to be the MO of Chinese made products. Take hand tools for example.. yes it's damn cheap. Anywhere from 1/3 to 1/10th the price. But if it breaks then you are sh!t out of luck because there's no one to service it. Same with the (Chinese) people that sell the stuff, they'll undercut each other and make very little profit but there's never any post sales service. Luckily everything I've read about Narikaa seems good.

Seems like they have the workforce and the tooling. They're about 75-90% there. Now they just need to give a sh!t Use better metals for stuff, polish sharp edges, not leave lettuce and pubes to get to 100%. It's a whole shift in mentality. If they started today it may take 20 years or more but when it does.. they will be unstoppable. Better brush up on my chinese. Nee how mah.

FYI I was reading in another forum this guy PrestigeWatchCo (Robert) had access to a guy/factory that made uBer highend reps but they went for $$$ (1k-2k). Yikes.

Bottom line? The factories don't care. They are not driven craftsmen .. they want to make something they can sell you, and spend the least to make it as is possible.

Why develop and produce a clone ETA 7750 or 7753 movement with 200 internal parts but never clean them before installation so that they arrive in your watch full of metal chips, HAIR and LETTUCE LEAVES? (not kidding here)

Edited October 7, 2010 by cybertek

[plaifender]

That seems to be the MO of Chinese made products. Take hand tools for example.. yes it's damn cheap. Anywhere from 1/3 to 1/10th the price. But if it breaks then you are sh!t out of luck because there's no one to service it. Same with the (Chinese) people that sell the stuff, they'll undercut each other and make very little profit but there's never any post sales service. Luckily everything I've read about Narikaa seems good.

Seems like they have the workforce and the tooling. They're about 75-90% there. Now they just need to give a sh!t Use better metals for stuff, polish sharp edges, not leave lettuce and pubes to get to 100%. It's a whole shift in mentality. If they started today it may take 20 years or more but when it does.. they will be unstoppable. Better brush up on my chinese. Nee how mah.

FYI I was reading in another forum this guy PrestigeWatchCo (Robert) had access to a guy/factory that made uBer highend reps but they went for $$$ (1k-2k). Yikes.

depends on which watches you're talking about. A solid gold Audemars Barrichello rep goes for 5,000usd... haven't seen anyone buy it.. but reps can get quite pricey. Hublots shot up to over $1,000usd a year or two ago, luckily they've gone down some. Some dealers like BK and (previously) mbw modify watches for you before you get it. A BK modified yacht-master is around 700 or 800usd.(i think) But is the best of the best without getting the real deal.

Do your homework and stick to dealers on here. We've had several members go to china, Some even live in or near china. No one ever comes back with anything better than what the dealers offer, and Not to discredit your enthusiasm, but you probably won't either. The seasoned collectors here know what's what among rep watches and most of what many senior members find in china is usually not worth the hassle. But it's always fun to look. The best stuff is reserved for the dealers that we have here on the forum anyway.

Good luck on your trip and enjoy it.

[maxman]

depends on which watches you're talking about. A solid gold Audemars Barrichello rep goes for 5,000usd... haven't seen anyone buy it.. but reps can get quite pricey. Hublots shot up to over $1,000usd a year or two ago, luckily they've gone down some. Some dealers like BK and (previously) mbw modify watches for you before you get it. A BK modified yacht-master is around 700 or 800usd.(i think) But is the best of the best without getting the real deal.

Do your homework and stick to dealers on here. We've had several members go to china, Some even live in or near china. No one ever comes back with anything better than what the dealers offer, and Not to discredit your enthusiasm, but you probably won't either. The seasoned collectors here know what's what among rep watches and most of what many senior members find in china is usually not worth the hassle. But it's always fun to look. The best stuff is reserved for the dealers that we have here on the forum anyway.

Good luck on your trip and enjoy it.

Well said