chevallll Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 I try to help understand whether the products sold in this website, http://ndtradingcorp.com/zen/index.php?mai...products_id=161, the figure for high prices, are truly equal to the genuine vintage rolex ? I am interested in 'buying but I wanted to help and really know whether' the same in all fields and if we can go all the expertise of the experts? thanks chevall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
By-Tor Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 Makes no sense to me. Take THIS red 1680 dial example still they ask $450 for it. It would probably make sense if the dial was really good 1:1 copy, but this is still easily spottable as a fake by anyone who is even remotely familiar with red 1680. Sorry if this offends someone, but imho you gotta be an utter moron to buy a dial like this. Some other dials might be better though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alligoat Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 First of all, let's get something straight- there is no equal to a genuine vintage Rolex watch. So then we start down the ladder. Next would be a franken put together from various vintage parts- hopefully all genuine. Of course, when you are buying 40-50 year old watches, you have to realize that the chances are that some of the parts have been replaced. Plenty of people buy and sell old Rolex parts, putting together better watches- they may even sell them for high prices claiming they are all original. After that you have the companies like NDTrading and Jewelry and Watch (Phong), who sell 'replacement' parts. These are better quality than typical run of the mill rep parts, but they are still rep parts. With a little bit of aging and modding they can be made to look very convincing. MBW/MBK puts out nice vintage replicas in the $350-500 range, but they also need modding to look convincing. And unlike NDT and J&W, MBW's don't have real Rolex movements taken from donor watches. In the replica world, it comes down to how much money do you want to spend. But more importantly, the first question is going to be, are you happy with a decent quality rep or should you really be buying a genuine watch? No rep will ever be equal to a gen, there are only levels of closeness to the gen, but a rep is always a rep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
By-Tor Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 Vintage Rolex replicas would be an amazing opportunity for WM9. It has been proven that he's the only builder/source who can make them good. Just imagine the sales potential of a good McQueen, red 1680 or 1675 that don't need any mods... insane! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 *Excellent* response Alligoat. Well said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nanuq Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 Vintage Rolex replicas would be an amazing opportunity for WM9. It has been proven that he's the only builder/source who can make them good. Just imagine the sales potential of a good McQueen, red 1680 or 1675 that don't need any mods... insane! Take it a step "older" ... imagine the demand for a good no-crown-guards Sub or GMT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddy333 Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 Take THIS red 1680 dial example still they ask $450 for it. Sorry if this offends someone, but imho you gotta be an utter moron to buy a dial like this. Some other dials might be better though. As usual, Alli hit the nail directly on the head. But I have to take some exception with By-Tor here. While most of us could ID this dial as aftermarket, 99.99% of the general public cannot. In fact, even with the aid of a dozen (richly illustrated) 'How to spot a fake Rolex' guidebooks in hand, most of the general public would still not know the difference. Trouble is (& I think it was Alli, again, who 1st observed this a couple of years ago) there is only a small handful of WIS types who CAN tell the difference, so most of the time, effort & money we spend trying to squeeze that last iota of accuracy out of our project watches, is going mostly unnoticed by the world at large. But, to paraphrase 1 of Ubi's comments, the joy of building is half the fun. Therefore, it seems to me that unless you enjoy the process of building frankens to stringent specs, it really does not make alot of sense to spend NDTrading prices on a pre-assembled watch since anyone with enough knowledge & experience to appreciate such a rarefied model will know, at a glance, that your model is a 'fake'. Everyone else will miss the whole point altogether. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
By-Tor Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 Stephane said nicely that you can build your franken to 92% condition for $600, so why use $2000 more to add the percentage to %97? The missing 3% is exactly the thing what the HC Rolex Trekkies like us will call out anyway. So what's the point, really? I don't know. Especially when adding a dial like this won't make your MBW any more accurate. But then again who am I to say? This hobby means different things to different people. That's why I used imho in my sentence. I, personally think investing $450 to an inaccurate aftermarket dial is pure insanity. I owned a red MBW 1680 but the red SUBMARINER font was so out of whack, it wasn't even funny. After doing a lot research of that very model, I think I developed an "eye" for the dial. That font has very characteristic shape, and it remains there even in all those different 1680 dial variations. This one isn't even close (again imho). At least the red 1680 MBW dial has symmetric font. Why is it impossible to replicate properly... let's add another chapter to the (extremely) thick book of "mysteries of inaccurate Rolex replication". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freddy333 Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 I owned a red MBW 1680 but the red SUBMARINER font was so out of whack, it wasn't even funny. After doing a lot research of that very model, I think I developed an "eye" for the dial. That font has very characteristic shape, and it remains there even in all those different 1680 dial variations. This one isn't even close (again imho). At least the red 1680 MBW dial has symmetric font. Why is it impossible to replicate properly... let's add another chapter to the (extremely) thick book of "mysteries of inaccurate Rolex replication". I highlighted the portion of your comments that I think is the most likely reason the factories are not producing truly accurate parts. Who, but us fools, would spend the amount of time it takes to truly research each model (not to mention all of the variations & versions of the same model) to get all of these details right. Based on my conversations with DW & Natalie, it is pretty clear that no one on the production side of things is willing to put this much effort into their work. Having said that, the factories will tell you that they DO research these things (whatever that means ). But, obviously, more is needed in order to please neurotics like us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chevallll Posted February 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 I try to help understand whether the products sold in this website, http://ndtradingcorp.com/zen/index.php?mai...products_id=161 the figure for high prices, are truly equal to the genuine vintage rolex ? I am interested in 'buying but I wanted to help and really know whether' the same in all fields and if we can go all the expertise of the experts? thanks chevall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KB Posted February 11, 2009 Report Share Posted February 11, 2009 @chevallll what these Rolex nerds......oops experts are saying is that no NDT trading do not sell dials identical to the original, what they sell is the best replica dials you can get. You need to decide if you need this level of accuracy for the cost or if something a bit less like an MBK/MBW will do. Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoJo35 Posted February 12, 2009 Report Share Posted February 12, 2009 Here's an example of a nice project that didn't cost a mint, and does NOT have any NDT parts: It's just an example of what can be done at a fraction of the cost of a bx/papers original, without the stress (at least for me) of wearing one of my 100% gens. IMO, this is the only quality acceptable to wear, as it can be taken off and handed to someone with a loupe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertieng Posted February 12, 2009 Report Share Posted February 12, 2009 JoJo, the dial looks very good indeed. Can you share what is the origin? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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