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State of affairs in REP Hobby


Theatrix

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Just wondering if there is diminishing interest in the hobby in general or have the quality of Reps not improved over the years?

 

My observation as a newbie is that there appears to be a drop off compared to years earlier in the quantity and quality of posts. Not intending to disparage anyone, however it seems that the interest level has changed which also includes interest in watchmakers wishing to provide mod or repair service.

 

I am actually very excited to be here and wish to make this a hobby. My interest would be to purchase the best in Rep' and perhaps have them modified with upgrades which would make them more reliable or closer to Gen.

 

I know the tendency is to flame newbie's simply because they are attempting to acquire as much knowledge as possible and it is mundane to a seasoned poster so I promise not to ask too many stupid questions....

 

Appreciate your time and response.

 

Rick

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Rick actually quite an astute observation as a noob, we long timers have noticed this also and there have been discussions.

Two major points usually agreed on are:

Yes REP are better but pricing is to high they are into gen automatic watch area from very refutable makers around for years forget micros plenty of nice ones out there.

Secondly the overall trend of males to not wear watches ,they have their phone for time.

 

In any event welcome and good luck on your journey into the REP world, remember gaining the knowledge to achieve your goals is half the fun.

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I agree , most of the problems I get in PM box from members are movement issues. If you can not fix your own (which most of us can't, myself included) you either send watch back to China (a nightmare I always advise against) or increase the cost even more by sending to one of our watch smiths, now we are back to cost against a mid tier gen. On the flip side you will get a very accurate looking well running Rep for what 10% or less of a gen of that model in the end. This is why it is called a hobby the one watch wonders who pay 4-5 hundred bucks for the latest sub and have a movement problem go off on dealers, the hobby, me LOL!, those of us who have been around w/ large collections just take it in stride get it fixed without drama.

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I have bought and traded many reps, built a crazy franken, and lost money on many,

STILL CHEAPER and less heartbreaking than saltwater fish :bangin:

 

That said I am disappointed by the lack of ingenuity/quality in chrono movements, but thrilled to see an improvement in decoration and thinness in others. Quality over-all is up across the board just in the few short years I've been here.

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Personally I think that the pricing is definitely part of why this hobby is stagnating but far from the only issue. I cannot for the life of me justify spending $500 anywhere near regularly on a rep (though I do now realise that I'm writing this while wearing a BK 16610 that I paid more than that for a couple of years ago :huh:), for crying out loud if I did that twice I could almost buy a gen speedy reduced. 
My personal MO in the rep hobby at the moment is to slowly build up some watches or go for okay lower priced reps. My cheap small patek nautilus has given me ample enjoyment and most people have no damn idea what it is, and when a good mate pointed to it and asked if it was real there was no expectation that it would be haha. I also see this sort of crazy hobby to be just that, a hobby, not just a deal between two people after which one has money and the other has a watch. I enjoy researching and building watches bit by bit. I learnt basic watchmaking from this website that allowed me to rebuild many heirloom watches in my family. 

Buy what you like, build what you like, don't take things too seriously, accept the risks of the game and talk [censored] with the wonderful people on this and some of the other fora and you will enjoy this crazy nonsensical hobby. Come in wanting to get the 1:1 b3st sub for $100 with g3n r0l3x movement and you'll be gone pretty quickly :p

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On the other part...

 

Semi-frankens with almost gen-like functions and quality is quite impressive.

 

Noob LMPO, JF 16610, ARF 116610 etc..

 

Sure. It's almost the price of a Steinhart. However.. The finish on Steinharts is uncomparable.

 

Look at mr TC Selling as Ginault. A lot of people find it Worth the price at 1000€. Which is quite interesting considering what he sold his v6/v7's for.

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I think that reps, both low and high end are becoming more accessible. Cheap = DHGATE and the likes and our TDs for the higher end stuff. One thing that niggles me is that the factories build in issues, be it the wrong font or the colour of the second hand but I’m (almost) sure it’s deliberate. And yes the prices are too high for the movement quality. 

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I have been on 3 replica watch forums in the past 20 years and two of them fizzled out completely after a few years. Now it looks like this one may be on the way out judging by the drop in posting and fewer project threads. Exactly why this is happening, I do not know for sure but today's high prices probably have a lot to do with it.  

Not good.

 

I am sure smart phones and Apple watches have pulled many potential 'watch guys' away from this 'hobby' too but maybe quite a few replica watch buyers have been bummed out over the junk that passes for movements in so many replica watches today and abandon replicas all together after one or two tries. I really can not blame them.

Not good.

 

It is true that today's replicas are much better on the outside but junk movements on the inside may be the death knell to the 'hobby' in general.

Not good.

 

It is hard to beat a clean, fresh ETA in a nice case but they cost too much now so hit or miss etaclones and '17 jewel' junk has taken their place.

Not good.

 

Otoh vintage 'Frankenstein' rolex watches are probably as popular as ever but many of them are put together to sell as genuine.

Not good.

 

All imho.

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It does make you think, I have around 15 real good reps highest available quality and also have 6 gens, the price is going up and up though,gone are the days of cheap reps but when your as mad as me on watches, then it's a good thing they are going up, as that way I have to clear some out before I buy more, otherwise I would have 50 watches.

Lol I hear you ! I have far too many good ones and now my still pretty good ones I tend to give away, but they were a few hundred dollars a few years back. It seems you have to sell say two good from two years ago to get part of a payment on something new and fresh. 

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Hard for me to really judge it since this is the only rep forum I'm still on (since RWI is down and I'm banned on the other 2 (but that is a story that is unnecessary to be told here)) but it seems to me that the other forums seem to have a lot more activity, but that can be both a good thing and a bad thing.

 

I know to me there is not a lot of rep watches I'm interested in at the moment and I have other financial concerns (which is why I'm back to selling my 1 and only (rep) watch)

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I don’t think it is dark times, I think it’s like everything, it comes in waves, this forum was booming for a while and I spent a lot more time here, previous to that I was on repgeek a lot, and recently until it went down I was on rwi a lot, then came back here and it seems to be dead for a while now. But I don’t think it’s forever.  Something will cause it to pick back up. I think the industry like a lot have mentioned is at a stall and it’s quit costly now, making it not so fun for most anymore.  

 

Have faith it will prevail ?

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Life cycle changes? I bought a house in the burbs, a Lexus, and started two college funds... no more building several thousand dollar frankens for a while, and also just not enough time. Perhaps that's it? Each board I'm on for whatever it happens to be for, experiences attrition due to varying factors, usually it's economic, lifestyle, and aging out of members. 

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I've been puzzled why factories don't correct things that seem easy to correct.  Like the font on a datewheel, for example.   It's hard not to suspect that some flaws are built in on purpose as kernow suggests.  I read a post on one of the other forums that the factories make super reps that are very hard to distinguish from gens and they only sell those on the black market as supposed gens.  I have no idea if that is true, but it is certainly plausible. 

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Interesting observations.

 

A few cents:

 

- A lot of reps don't require more hefty modding. I remember the Pam years from many years back, where you had to mod so many things to get a passable rep. Now you buy them and they are near perfect. Same with some other watches. 

 

- Some of the most popular watches have been super-repped, paving the way for less frequent visit here.

 

-However, I do see different foums getting more traffic from time to time. Sometimes most chat is here, then RG, then RWI... it all depends on cyclical crowd movement. 

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I think a good way to gauge the pulse of the rep world would be to ask Angus and/or Ryan what their sales have been doing over the last x amount of years. I would bet they are climbing but I don’t really know.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Rick actually quite an astute observation as a noob, we long timers have noticed this also and there have been discussions.

Two major points usually agreed on are:

Yes REP are better but pricing is to high they are into gen automatic watch area from very refutable makers around for years forget micros plenty of nice ones out there.

Secondly the overall trend of males to not wear watches ,they have their phone for time.

 

In any event welcome and good luck on your journey into the REP world, remember gaining the knowledge to achieve your goals is half the fun.

I'm just getting into this hobby.  I bought a rep Daytona about 5 years ago, and I've been very happy with the watch.  Still wear it quite often, but a lot of the reps Ive seen posted on this forum look quite nice and seem to be of a higher quality then my Daytona.  Just my two cents.  Thanks.

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I'm just getting into this hobby.  I bought a rep Daytona about 5 years ago, and I've been very happy with the watch.  Still wear it quite often, but a lot of the reps Ive seen posted on this forum look quite nice and seem to be of a higher quality then my Daytona.  Just my two cents.  Thanks.

The quality of reps has improved over time.

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Guys,  appreciate the context.

 

As someone who would not have considered purchasing a REP for obvious reasons......here I am, late to the show! It would be very interesting to me to understand the profile of individuals who chose to collect these pieces.

If I may, I believe from what I have read, several profiles have morphed over time. If I could summarize, please comment:

  1. Initially, due to less expensive REPs, there are those who love the idea of collecting many different watches for the pure enjoyment  and would quickly acknowledge that they are wearing a REP. Current economic circumstances would never truly convince anyone that they were in a position to purchase a GEN. REP's at the current market valuation may no longer be in the cards and this individual (in mass) may be disappearing.
  2. Then there is the new breed of collector who probably has both GENs and REPs.  Loves watches and can afford the less expensive GENs and supplements with higher end REPs.
  3. I would argue that a third group also exists which could and would spend a sizeable amount on a GEN(s), has a few high end GENs but also loves the idea of collecting, perhaps modding to make the REP unique in some form. This individual does not have issue with a $1-3K investment on a Franken watch because it is GEN sufficient and allows for multiple watches. This individual can very easily pull off wearing a REP and no one would ever question whether it was GEN or not.

The question is has the market identified this higher end buyer and is pricing accordingly...i.e..the example of a REP at $1100 above? 

 

Just some thoughts from a noobie.....

Edited by Theatrix
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