My China Trip Replica Watch Report

[sydneysider]

Hi guys,

just came back from a trip in China, mostly Beijing and Shanghai, saw alot and thought i would share here:

So, Beijing is paradise for high end stuff, I found that walking in the markets and flashing a high end rep (in this case my Pam 183) instantly gets you access to the high end filled boxes. A day before, even wearing a genuine Rolex, they were highly reluctant to showing the better stuff and always came with cheap asian crap stating "no better in all of market, yadi-ya...."

Well, found a dealer that had really good quality and selection, went to a shady apartement behind the market place and behold:

WATCH REP PARADISE! it was ALL there, HBB, the new Royal Oak, every rolex, etc. over around 1000 pieces (no, i am NOT kidding!!) all in presentation glass stands.

I am VERY picky with my reps, as I have a number of genuines, no bragging here, but if i do choose to wear a rep rather than my gens, then i want it to be convincing and not scream FAKE!so i went about sifting through the watches:

Alot of watches look good in pics, but crap in person, while then again I am sometimes amazed by others that did not seem all too appealing on our dealers´ websites.

so, here just my 2 cents on what i found: ( i had a look at the gens before and afterwards, so i got a feel for them)

1. Hublot BB: Amazing!!the quality and feel of this watch is to me probably the best workmanship in the rep world. OK, so its got the rotor issues, but the steel bezel version is a beauty!!!! The rose gold i felt to be not as nice, but probably personal judgement as no big gold fan. The watch feels like a million bucks. I didnt actually like the BB, but it is stunning! The dealers prices were fair, but on this, there was no discussion: around 350 bucks.

2. IWC: Ingenieurs are amazing too, feel and finish perfect, heavy, yes, but beautifully made. I dont personally like the chrono, but its just as nicely done as the 3 hand model. the Jones´ are crap! they are too light and the dial in my opinion screams fake. The Potugieser is my favorite, I just had to get it, although the dials varied quite alot, as some were too yellowish, but i picked from around 25 pieces, so i found the best ones and took 1 in blue hands only and 1 in blue/gold which i think is a bit better. The watches are AMAZING, a friend of mine has the gen and is [censored] off now that i showed him, as he spent more than 10 times as much!

3. Rolex: The new datejusts are getting better. The jubilee´s are crisper and more solid, the colouration is better too. I have a gen new one, however of the production before the current ones, and the feel and colour is spot on. The rose gold and two tones are VERY good, while the Daydates are still pretty crap, the feel (weight!) and finish just does not seem believable enough for me, then again whenever i see and handle gens, I am also somewhat dissapointed! Vintage stuff was pretty crap, red subs totally off and seadweller with wrong bezels and raised plexiglass, horrendous. One tiffany and co vintage explorer was pretty good, which i ended up buying.

Vintage valjoux daytonas crap, feel and spacing terrible.

Asian valjoux daytonas are OK, but not too great, subdial colouration not good enough, compared it with my gen daytona and didnt do it for me.

The daytonas on leather were absolutely HIDEOUS!!subdials were off as hell and too silvery, simply to stay away from, this was dissapointing to me, as i had always contemplated buying one for a while.

The only daytona worth it to me was the White gold daytona, however there are quality 3 versions, of which the one with the black numerals and correct subdial spacing is GREAT! The only massive flaw ,apart from incorrect stampings and weight naturally, is the silver hands as opposed to black on the gens. love the watch and bought it with the silver dial , the only one he had ( had hundreds of the other valjoux versions). A day later i wanted the same one again and it could not be found on 3 markets i looked!

4. Omega: I am absolutely not a fan of omega, never wanted one and still dont, but the seamaster chrono and the PO´s are really good. the chrono is actually quite stunning. The seamaster GMT is perhaps the closest to gen you can get. Was really close to buying one as it looked so darn real, but then i kept myself from buying an omega, as just not my thing really.

5. AP offshore: i have wanted one of these for ages, and was close to buying a gen in titanium i found in London for a price that was so good, it was probably stolen! I ended up not doung it. Well, the rep ( asian valjoux) is alright, but i stayed away. The subdial issue and the non existent cyclops was too much of a giveaway. The watch is however nicely finished and very heavy, but as i guess many others feel too, i am waiting for the seconds issue to be resolved. Ionly got to see the blue dial version, but it was nicer than it looks on pics.

6. Pams: the usual, 183, 111, etc were all very good but ranged from good to excellent, as cannon pinions and swannecks and reflective coating was so mixed, there seemed no system in what the dealer had, some had this and not that and vice versa. All of them were pretty much exactly as they look on the pics, except for th luminor 1950 flyback, which I found to be quite a lot worse in person, yet again a disappointment, as i actualy had my heart set on one.

7. Asian auto, handwind, etc.:

too much to list up, lots of good looking reps, be it fantasy or real, too much to sift through, i concentrated on eta quality, but there is enough to do on my next trip, let me tell you!!!!

well, those were some of my impressions, just thought i would share it with you all, as I was lucky to see pretty much all of the dealers´offerings on one spot, it is seldom that one gets to do that, and seeing watches in person is quite a different game.

These are all my personal opinions and i do not mean to talk anything down, just what i found, so I hope no one takes offence at me putting down a watch they might personally like! Its all a matter of taste and being anal about certain things!! I have of course not seen every version of these watches, although I belive to have seen most, as the dealer had pretty much every version and quality we can arrange through our board here. He did however not have any rosegold full versions, the only gold i would have bought!

Shanghai: only visited 1 market, and the quality was crap, really disappointing, mediocre valjoux at too high prices, although i did find a dealer that had amazing tudor reps, subs, princes, especially the tiny ladies size was quite amazing, but by then i had too many watches already!

So, i cannot get my eyes off my freshly filled new watch presentation box, brings a smile to my face each morning!!!will get some pics up soon!

Happy hunting to us all!

Cheers,

Robbie

[TWP]

Robbie,

Sounds like your trip was excellent. Thank you for sharing wonderful information. Did you come back broke? I would have, or extended my stay to send little gift packages home.

[ajoesmith]

Any chance of some prices??

[chrgod]

Thanks for the report! An interesting read.

I am probably going to China this summer, so it is nice to be prepared.

[CY0811]

awesome post!

[sssurfer]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing!

And yes, some hints about prices would be very interesting (I'm planning a trip to China next summer)...

[fotoman]

I'm so jelous

First how bout some pics

Also, could you point out which of the 2 tones looked really good? or is it impossible to tell from the dealer photos, i'm very curious

[sydneysider]

Hey guys,

thanks for the kind replies, regarding pricing, I can just say it really varies. some items are much cheaper than what we pay on the board, yet again the same guy giving me a cheaper price just would NOT budge down below 320 euros for instance for the royal oak offshore. no discussion whatsoever! (thus, i am better off buying it from josh, etc. if i take the euro/dollar rate into consideration.)

regarding the two tones, the turn o graphs were quite good ( again, just not my thing, so i dont judge them the same way), while a simple two tone datejust mens size with a champagne dial and non fluted bezel totally amazed me. I bought my girlfriend the watch as a gen, and she was wearing it the next day we went to the market, there just was no difference in colour, weight, etc. truly worth it!

good thing is, the guy had tubs of water where he would dump the watches inside to prove to me they were waterproof. and whenever i have a problem, i can return the watches regardless of how long it takes for my next trip back to beijing.

if any more questions i would be glad to answer.

p.s Yes, I came back quite broke!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MasterLuke]

Fascinating stuff, thanks for the post.

Sounds like a great trip.

On the IWC Portuguesers you liked, are you referring to the Portuguesa Power Reserve, or the Portuguesa WEMPE Regulatuer, or the apparently very unreliable Asian Chronos (how I wish there was a reliable black ETA 'panda' chrono, I would not be able to resist that)... or do you mean something else entirely?

[Slartibartfast]

Great post! Always interested to hear of watch buying experiences in the 'far east'.

It's the nearest I'm ever going to get!!! You lucky bugger!

[sydneysider]

@masterluke:

I mean the valjoux Portuguese, not the asian autos. I was primarily referring to the outer appearance of the watch, havent (knock on bloody wood!) as yet had problems with the watch, although the rotor is very loud, and you can feel the spinning of the rotor as you wear it. I am however not too alarmed, as my mates genuine P does pretty much the same, albeit a little quieter. heck, i paid a little less for mine, so what the hell!

[MasterLuke]

Thanks, I'm with you now... good find!

[Guest Carl]

Great report!

Hope you have time for a follow-up.

[sydneysider]

OK, here some pics of the IWC Portugieser and the Rolex Daytona, the rest is in the trade section!

[hambone]

Thanks for a great post. I was in Beijing 3 years ago but not for watches. Next time should be a bit more interesting thanks to all the valuable info provided by you and others.