A friend asked me to help him select a rep Rolex

[teddy boy]

A good friend wants to buy a rolex rep for his dad. The Zigmeister post's regarding the possible end of high quality reps disturbs me. In light of this information, how would you advise a friend? By way of reference, my friend would like to buy a Rolex with a genuine swiss eta movement and he is willing to pay the price for such a rep.

[Shundi]

Rolex Explorer

[freddy333]

Rolex Explorer

I agree. Black dial Explorer or White dial Explorer II would be the least likely to be identified as reps because of their simplicity & they can be worn with just about any style of dress.

[rek001]

White dial Exp II is a beautiful, pure, elegant, classic design, perfect in all of its proportions.

Hmm, maybe I should get one.

[giorgio]

I would go with a Datejust or an Air king. I don't know how old your dad is, but 38mm has been a good sized watch for a long time. The reps are pretty good, not too expensive, and despite their simplicity, they look classy. For a little more flash I'd get something with a fluted bezel like the Turn-o-graph

[perry563]

Datejusts are lousey reps. Fit and finish is not that great. Explorer is a nice watch but an obscure Rolex to all but the Rolex fans.

Forget the Daytona's with all the movement issues.

I say go with either a BK mariner....or the very latest SSD.

[teddy boy]

Am I correct that the consensus is that you can still get a rep with a decent movement? The thing that prompted my post is the post that The Zigmeister made regarding the end of high quality reps. I would hate to tell him to buy a rep and he ends up with junk. This guy views me as his watch source and wants to buy his dad a really nice present.

Thanks for all the input to this point.

[giorgio]

If you're lucky. But I think Swiss ETA is overrated. Sure it will last forever if you do a $200 service job on it every other year. But if they put DG4813's in the reps you could replace the whole movement for $25 and it would visually have the same effect as an eta movement (8 beats/sec). Hell, I have an old sea dweller with some crappy 17 jewel movement in it that I got for $100 from a yahoo auction and it doesn't miss a beat. Just because it's Swiss, doesn't mean it's good, and vice versa. There are tonnes of stories on here about people's "Swiss ETAs" dying only for them to discover their watch had a 10 year old rusty movement in it while others have had $50 street junk watches that have lasted a decade.

[perry563]

BK and eurotimz guarentee that the watches they sell carry brand new swiss eta movements.

[Pugwash]

Explorer or Datejust if he's of-the-age.

[elprimerozen]

EXPLORER, the sub and ssd rep inserts scratch like butter...

[teddy boy]

Explorer or Datejust if he's of-the-age.

Thanks for all the input, the consensus seems to be that you can still get something decent. I"ll recommend a couple of dealers to him.

The point about the scratched insert on the sub is well taken. I have a black sub from a few years ago and there is a big scratch on the insert. I thought about buying an aftermarket insert on ebay but don't know if it will fit so the watch gets drawer time rather than wrist time.

Thanks again!