KB Posted February 27, 2017 Report Share Posted February 27, 2017 As we have many new members on the forums now I thought it might be a good idea to touch on how these sites came to be. The first true replica watch forum was TRC (the Replica Collector) there was in fact a group before this but it was more a notice board than a forum. TRC was not only the first but for quite a few years even after the formation of others it was regarded as the aficionado, the board where all the serious collectors were. The one real draw back for TRC was its sedate pace, which did not prove attractive to those who liked a more up tempo style. To this end a young member of TRC decided to form a new forum called Replica Watch Guide (RWG), this forum took off like a rocket, in fact a visiting TRC Moderator at the time described the RWG experience as akin to stepping off the sidewalk into heavy traffic. For a long time the Replica world existed off the flat out RWG and the more sedate but far more serious collector forum of TRC. Unfortunately things do not always pan out like we want them and such was the sorry saga of the RWG Collaboration 1 watch which was the start of the collapse of RWG. The watch itself was an attempt to 1. Knit the community together more and 2. A special memento/reward for the loyal members, I should point out that by this stage RWG had a VIP room in which the senior members could chat in private with the admin team, so while the watch was being planned on the open forum there was also a behind the scenes discussions that the general members were not aware of. Early in the planning of the watch our Admin (Blade) took over the communication between the members requirements and the dealers. After much discussion on the forum we came up with the design we wanted, the end product which many have seen is exactly what was planned, a redialled Omega Railmaster but to get there was a very, very rocky path. The major problem was that we wanted a clean watch with no brand name markings, a watch that could proudly be shown as the genuine RWG watch with nothing to show its replica heritage and this was a stumbling point with certain dealers (no I will not name them) as profit being profit there was a constant insistence to recycle branded replica parts. What followed turned into a clash of wills with the dealers trying to force what they wanted on us and the members refusing to accept anything but what we asked, and Blade? Well I still feel today that he was caught between a rock and a hard place as by now he had paid a lot of our money to these people to make what we wanted. From there on it was a case of missed deadline after miss deadline until the unthinkable happened, Blade disappeared! From that moment on the RWG admin team and the VIP’s became somewhat a crisis team going around putting out spot fires on the forum, keeping a cap on the gradual creeping discontent within the group that had paid their money for this watch as well as all those who stepped up claiming the forum was basically an elaborate scam site and we also needed to find our way around many hurdles simply because when Blade disappeared he took the keys with him, we therefore also mounted an intensive search to try and track Blade down. A side product to having your admin go missing around Christmas time was that RWG for the best part of the year was decorated with a perpetual Winter theme. The one date that we had glowing like a beacon before us was the renewal of the domain, the admin team and VIP’s knew that if we could not find Blade before this we had no way of paying the fee so RWG would simply cease to exist. Despite our best efforts with less than a couple of months to renewal date we had still made no progress in trying to find Blade and knew it was time to bite the bullet and look to preserving our forum elsewhere. We debated long and hard what our options were within the VIP room, a new forum was obvious but under who’s administration? To this end I turned to the admin of our respected sister board of TRC, once he had decided to take the second board on I worked as the go between with him and my own VIP’s, as without the keys we could not let him into the group. The formation of the new RWG consisted of a 3 point approach, first of course was alerting all our members to what we were doing, second was to move as much knowledge base as possible from the old to the new board and third was to build a forum that our members would not only feel ‘at home’ with but basically a better model than what we were leaving. Unknown to us at the time we had a member (with the help of one of our seniors) going through the PM list recruiting for his own new forum, it was underhanded and it was a banning offence but we lacked the tools to stop him. He went on to form the first ‘For profit’ board RWI, he was also the first forum Admin to openly scam his members out of a lot of money before disappearing. From this bad blood a new forum was then formed ‘Rep Geek’ this was the 2nd ‘for profit’ forum and also the 2nd time a forum Admin went on to scam his members for much money then vanish. Back on the new RWG we didn’t really concern ourselves too much with other forums, our aim was only to build the best we could for our members, which we know is what we achieved. The day for the launch of our new forum was set about one week before the deadline with the old forum, on opening day we had more traffic than any other board has ever seen, the admin team (although a global group) was basically all present, I know I was online at 4am from Melbourne, we spent the entire day welcoming and interacting with all the old, and new, members. Then one week later Blade came back and paid the fees for the domain renewal of old RWG….. Blade did come over to our new RWG, he sent me a PM saying that he was happy with the work we did to preserve the forum, but the reply I sent to him was never answered. At this point we had 2 RWGs, our new thriving forum and a ghost town, we did speculate crashing the other forum as we had the people with know how to do so but in the end senior members who held our respect (Dempsy, Omni, Highflyingclive etc) started using it as a playground so we left it for them and with time others stumbled across it and it slowly became the wild west of replica forums, this was not by design but necessity as they had no way to give moderator powers to anyone to keep the place in check. Obviously many things are glossed over in this brief history but to fast forward a little, it's one year later and the renewal is due for the old RWG again, only this time Blade did not come back. Being the civil types we are here on RWG (the real RWG) when the old board died we set up a sub forum for the members of the old site on our board so they could stay together until they could launch a new forum of their own. This is an important point to understand, if we did not give them a way to keep their people together they would have scattered far and wide and there would have been no point for a new forum. So now we come to the current situation, we have this board that imported all the original members and knowledge base from our home in an attempt to save it and we have the jr RWG started up with no member more than a year old or with anything even resembling what the original forum stood for. Still all water off a duck's back as far as we are concerned, on day one of our forum we discussed the path we wanted to take within the admin area and we have always stayed true to that path and we are very happy with what we have built. We could get upset with petty things like ‘the knitting club’ comment but we always set out with a ‘less is more’ approach and we find that has attracted the more serious and mature collector so if you enjoy the joke, knock yourself out…then of course we could point out that the member who created the comment was banned from every forum under a previous incarnation and for reasons that every rep collector despises and who has been a sworn enemy of our forum long before the RWG jr came to be. Yes there are forums I have not covered Watch Trader is one, they formed to give us a place to sell watches when we suspended sales on the original RWG due to brand name lawyer attacks, however WT closed doors when we started the new RWG, their Admin told me he was just doing a service which was not needed once we started afresh. There was also a forum that spun off Rep Geek after the Admin Julio did a runner with members' money, the forum name evades me at this time. Just a quick wrap; the majority of members travel to all boards and that is the way it should be, one of the founders of the other RWG (trailboss) who is now the admin of RWI is an Aussie who I have shared beers with and would do so again, these forums are in fact hobby boards and as we are provide the same thing we should all be able to co-exist. Yes there will always be a clash with the names, the name is ours we used it for years on the old forum and we used it for around a year and a half once we started the new forum, others can tell themselves anything they want to believe. Ken 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dadog13 Posted February 27, 2017 Report Share Posted February 27, 2017 It's always nice to re-read about the history of rep forums. I was back then present on the forum(s) but not linked to any "team"/"group". I followed everything what was actually happening. Today I found myself more of a lurker than a member mostly due to my limited time available for the hobby. Felt good always on all boards, even on repgeek where I got banned by a frustrated mod for a fight with another member (who actully was not banned even though he used some harsh words in my direction). I was never a person making fuss, fights,..always tried to enjoy the hobby for what it is - love for watches!I am always glad to see things move around here with the prosperity to last for a long time. Thanks to the mod team achieveing this for quiet some time now (similar to RWI)..Hopefully in the future of the rep forums there will be less shock and the boards will keep doing their job - gather watch lovers from all over the world (rep and non rep related)..Cheers to the admin team! (btw, I still have my RWG ring as a memory of good old times) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted February 27, 2017 Report Share Posted February 27, 2017 Hey, dadog! Great to see you around! Take a look at archive.org, it's the Internet Wayback Machine and it has screens from TRC, way back in the day, with a lot of familiar names. Good times. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KB Posted February 27, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2017 Great to see you dadog, pop in anytime to chat about old times Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted February 27, 2017 Report Share Posted February 27, 2017 Yeah d-dog, speaking of the RWG ring, do you still have that Ken's Left Nut © I traded to you? You should hang onto it, it's one of the very first times I traded one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sogeha Posted February 27, 2017 Report Share Posted February 27, 2017 Thanks for that post. It's useful to have in the archives. You have no idea how long it took me to dig up that information, piece it together and begin to understand it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jigelow Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 Sounds very similar to a different corner of the web that I was and am in where there was break-off boards. Our final board celebrated its 15 year anniversary in January. Thanks for for sharing the history. This is the last of the "big three" I found, but is by far the one I feel the most at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sogeha Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 5 minutes ago, jigelow said: This is the last of the "big three" I found, but is by far the one I feel the most at home. I have a guilty little secret. I wander round to the friends too, but I'm glad you call this home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eunomians Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 Thank you all for keeping this the best place on the net. I am proud to have been a TRC and RWG v.1.0 veteran member. The incredibly remarkable membership clientele, the vast array of empirical watch and life knowledge, and the amazing friendships created over more than a decade going on two decades! WOW! I'm very lucky to be able to check in on all of my pals here--anytime! Best regards to all PS. Thanks KB for sharing the brief history. You've sparked up quite a few memories for me. Cheers! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSTEEL Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 Thanks for sharing that great reminder of how this and other forums began life. BTW, it's trailboss not Trailblazer, unless that was his original username, and changed it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KB Posted February 28, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 Thank you I have edited the correct name Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 Hey Euno... good to see you! Member number 343 !! Who can beat that? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jigelow Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 I feel like this would be a good sticky in here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAHLER Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 Don't have much to say (even remembered nick longer than 2 letters for Ken... maybe my memory makes strange effects...), this community has always a place to call home. However, talking about serious things every self-respecting forum should keep you from putting an avatar with too many naked women inside. True? The RWG limit amounts to 0.001% naked women for avatar. There will be an upgrade to the rules? A family pack upgrade? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
automatico Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 The first replica forum I was on was RWCC (Replica Watch Collector Club) in the mid 1990s and iirc it had maybe 30 or 40 active members...all calm and laid back with a few women included (Caanie!). It went south and I joined TRC (member 42). It fizzled out and I joined RWG in May 2007 under my TRC name and rejoined as 'automatico' in July 2008 when a glitch/meltdown prevented me from logging in under my original name. Still here Still have a few replicas from before the internet replica forums that I bought out of USA Today ads...Swiss Eta 2846 steel DJ, $75 delivered from NYC. 'Like New' steel 'Jaques Prevard' submariner 'store return' look-alikes with swiss Eta 2846 were $500 a dozen. Still have 2 or 3 plus a few new quartz models (qtz were $25 each, contract made with Citizen mvt). Later on Yahoo auctions...Asian powered steel DJ/ExII/GMT $68 delivered from a guy called 'Cal' before 24H hand GMTs were anywhere to be found. Nice guy. He had a sale on steel automatic DJ with Seagull ST16 for $55 each delivered. I still have a few and they are the exact same 'Monarchpolfy S-A Gelena Shitinerand' cases we sometimes see today. This was 20 years ago so they must have made thousands of those cases. Before that, all I could find were 'potmetal' quartz replica DJ/Prez/submariners at trade shows, flea markets etc for $25 to $50...I called them 'blisterbusters' because the plating bubbled up and blistered your wrist. Steel models were $65 or $75 if you could find one. Most had quartz Harley Ronda movements. Things sure have changed. Anyone heard from Stilty? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robertk Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 I lived through those days as a member. I still have a lot of those early reps. Most were cheapie's that bear little resemblance to what's available today. I am and have been a member of those other boards, but due to my limited time these days only participate in this one. For me, the best of all the boards. Great history lesson...going down Memory Lane. thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikki6 Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 Thank you all for keeping this the best place on the net. I am proud to have been a TRC and RWG v.1.0 veteran member. The incredibly remarkable membership clientele, the vast array of empirical watch and life knowledge, and the amazing friendships created over more than a decade going on two decades! WOW! I'm very lucky to be able to check in on all of my pals here--anytime! Best regards to all PS. Thanks KB for sharing the brief history. You've sparked up quite a few memories for me. Cheers!Been too long mate, great to hear you posting! And you Dog! Hope you're both well!Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KB Posted February 28, 2017 Author Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 Thank you to automatico for refreshing my memory, the name of the first board was indeed RWCC And yes Mahler my username used to be much longer Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eunomians Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 Here's my 90s OEM genuine Shiterand Subpaaariner It still runs and keeps excellent time! Many watches have come and gone from my collection over the past 2 decades but this one is a keeper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 Hey don't knock the Subpaaariner, it was the basis for my "How tough is a rep Submariner?" test, lo those many moons ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eunomians Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 Hey don't knock the Subpaaariner, it was the basis for my "How tough is a rep Submariner?" test, lo those many moons ago. Dang right! That was thee test to end all tests back then!!! Nice bit of history and certainly it was conducted under the most rigorous test parameters around--COAC standards!! Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres (COSC) approved watches have nothing on Contrôle Officel Alaska des Chonomètres (COAC) approved watches!!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted February 28, 2017 Report Share Posted February 28, 2017 Darn tootin! If a watch can get eaten by a bear and pooped out and still keep running, it "passes" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gran Posted March 4, 2017 Report Share Posted March 4, 2017 Excrement tests is just not you Nanug. Are you Inebriated? This [censored] is just not the kind of horological test that honors the eclectic and honorable replica societies Scincerely Dr.Gran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daovto Posted March 5, 2017 Report Share Posted March 5, 2017 I love to read threads like these. History is important... but no more important than what we do today. And this place is doing it right as far as I can see. Long live the true RWG ️ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted March 5, 2017 Report Share Posted March 5, 2017 All hail the true RWG! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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