RWG 1 my

[oscarmadfish]

bought from j9

[trailboss]

Nice!

Isn't it funny how all these cheapies are comimg out? Even the middle tier dealers are listing more of them. Face it you can get a GMTIIc for under a hundred bills US, a fair way under if you try hard. I wonder how many high end reps are being sold ATM? Not many at a guess. I think we are in for a round of price cuts hopefully starting before xmas. The problem with that is less incentive to build our high end goodies. A prolonged recession on a world scale could spell the end for most if not all high end reps.

Of cause margines can be brought back a fair way and everyone will still make a profit but it leaves little incentive for dealers to hold stock of expensive watches when the cheaper stuff is flying out the door or for factories to invest in design and tooling for a new model. This will even trickle down into the cheap stuff. It's possible we may not see too many new watches for a while. It all depends on consumer (us) spending and hobbies are one of the first things to suffer when the belt needs to be pulled in a couple of notches.

As Klink would say, Time will tell.

Col.

[JohnG]

Nice watch!

A lot of dandruff flakes on it thoug...

[greg_r]

Yup - as we figured, that's the same version as a friend brought back from Shenzhen for me a few months back. Darned good for a cheapie - I wear mine quite a bit. Even the strap is good. The only downsides are the non-adjustable GMT dial and the fact that the date advances all the way to 39! Still, who cares at that price?

Enjoy!

[oscarmadfish]

i wiped watch on goat before took picks ?

[JohnG]

Goats!

There goes Oscar again!

[trailboss]

I use mine as mobile grease rags all the time. The're handy if the dog aint arround!

Col.

[oscarmadfish]

love the lil pic john

[trailboss]

You know, I went to a lot of trouble to segeway Oscars post into a disscusion on the state of the rep industry and so far no comment. Quit with the goats, can we talk watches now and then?

Col.

[oscarmadfish]

i was just reading that they are getting lots of buisness shutdowns in GZ and thousands of people are leaving the area because there is no work

i think this could be the right time for the cheap dealers to go to the top the likes of josh-andrew etc are going to have to cut prices or wait it out and in my opinion it will be 5 yrs before this mess is sorted

[trailboss]

I think you're correct my piescene friend. Prices are gunna have to come down. The problem is will there be enough incentive to develop new models?

Col.

[oscarmadfish]

i guess it will be a question of supply and demand

if there is a demand there will be a supply

but it is now a buyers market not a suppliers market

oscar looks forward to someone coming up with a $100-$200 top range reps

[trailboss]

They have. Look at Johns 139 buck SOSF. Or his bargin GMTIIc. The're even cheaper now. And it'l get beter.

Col.

[oscarmadfish]

i hope your right and i think you will be

[greg_r]

I agree with Col. My $99 fiddy is an excellent example. It's within a whisker of being as good a rep as my 'ultimate' 111h, but only cost a third of the price.

The cheapies are definitely getting waaaaay better....

BTW - wearing my Tag RS8 today. I really like this watch even though it wears rather small for 43.5mm. Keeps good time too. Ridiculously good for less than

[trailboss]

Unfortunatly whith most of us having less to spend it doesn't equate into more watches, : :-( :

I don't think the cheapies are geting beter per sae rather what used to be the midrange has now droped in price to the level of the cr*p we wouldn't buy.

No doubt the cr*p thats shipped to Africa (the largest single part of the trade) is even cheaper now as well.

Col.

[Luthier]

I noticed one interesting thing - most of cheapies now equipped with same cases, dials, bracelets and crowns, that usually top reps wear.

The only difference is movement. So, my $45 YM looks great, and works as good as my gen. Rolley. The quality of today's 21j movt's is just amazing.

So, soon most reps will go down with price, but will still be a good quality reps. Also, they use more and more 25j chinese made movt's, and the quality is fantastic, but price - 8 times lower thAN a7750. I'm not a big professional in this field, all I can do it to look on cases/bracelets/dials, and compare how long will movements run, fully charged. And I noticed - no any difference between 21j and A7750. But it's huge difference between 2002 21j, and 2008 21j. Day and night. Significantly improved. As far as I know- demand on good reps growing, and this industry won't slow down.

P.S. Great looking Carrera, Oscar! Enjoy!

Edited November 8, 2008 by Luthier

[trailboss]

Exactly Luthier, the bottom tier of reps arn't geting beter it's just that our dealers have replaced them with watches that were in the $150 plus price range, the old middle tier. The stuff we used to buy as cheapies is now being sold in Thai markets or shipped to Africa with the rest of the cr*p.

The next tier up has fallen to fill the middle tier gap. A SOSF even with a 21J would have cost you a cpl of cnotes plus a few mths back. Now $139 with a free watch and shipping! That actualy places one of the best reps ever made in the cheapies catergory. Shure, it prob has a mineral glass but you can fix that with a nicely ARd saphire one and still pay not much more than one without good AR last year! How much were these when they came out?

Specific models have allways got cheaper with age but not as dramaticly as this. I wonder who's cutting their margins the most?

Col.

[greg_r]

I noticed one interesting thing - most of cheapies now equipped with same cases, dials, bracelets and crowns, that usually top reps wear.

Same cases, bracelets for sure. Same dial, however, is rare - the cheaper version will generally lack lume and, if we're talking about chronos, will normally be completely different due to the subdial spacing requirements of the cheaper movement.

All the same, it's true that the cheapies are getting better.