Guy on the train was wearing a 21j Navitimer

[rek001]

Resurrecting this post brings back memories, when I used to take the CTA El to work, like Sneed.

The only time I saw someone wearing a rep, for sure, was a guy sporting a Tag chrono with the blue film still on the tip of the pushers, LOL.

[dannyboy]

Hey!  That was me!--Just kidding!!

[rionrlty]

The only person who is going to recognize, even a cheap rep, are guys like us who bother to know the difference.  How many, maybe 150,000 between all the forums.  That is a very small number in reference to world population of 7.1 billion.  Of that number, maybe 10% are good enough to pick out a super rep, or even a reasonably good one.  Even many watch repair guys (who aren't ADs) are slow to recognize them without a loupe and close examination.  You could show the average guy, say a rep TAG caliber 16 (with its known flaws) right next to a gen and he probably wouldn't be able to pick out the difference and even if he could, he wouldn't be able to tell which one was real and which fake.
 
I'm a Breitling guy and have had many gen Navitimers, Chronomats, and Super Oceans over the years as well as others.  I can look at my early, low beat, Fighters rep and it looks just like a Navitimer to me, its credible.  Sure, when someone like Andrew picks it apart I can see the differences, date font, misaligned slide rule hash marks, brightness of dial print or even the sunken date wheel on the standard Navi, but it still looks close enough to my gen Navis that even I have trouble seeing a worthwhile difference. 
 
Also, does anyone actually take into account how many variations of dial decoration and printing, subdial size and style, case shape and size, bezel knurl size and style, case back detail and date font that there have actually been on Navitimers since they were first introduced in 1952 and also how many times perhaps a different part would have been used, out of sequence, simply because stock ran low on the correct item.
 
Mind you, I value the guys who pick them apart and obsess with the differences.  How else are we going to know how good they can get?  It's fun, But guys, understand that we are the only ones who really give a damn.  The average guy doesn't even know what kind it is unless it's a

Rolex.