Quick tell on most Rollie reps.... how easy to rectify?

[ammandel]

easiest tell for me is by the insert pearl...afaik no rep has perfect stock pearl and a very good tell unless its modded

or the crown guards of course

Not to leave this comment.. uncommented on.. I agree with this 100%. The REAL pearls are actually pearlescent and slightly recessed.. No reps seem to have this right at all... Infact..

I'd like to request that anyone with a WM9 take a decent macro picture of the pearl because I've noticed that there dont seem to be many macro pics of pearls about.

[CJT74]

On the subject of people being able to spot your rep. I have thought about this and its a real fear, especially if you are called out in front of people.

I bought my gen sub about 2 years ago. I wear it practically every day and this was well before I even knew these good reps even existed. And every day I never even thought to look at other peoples watches. Sure I noticed peoples watches but I never once thought they were reps, muchless how to spot a rep.

Now that I have a rep I find myself looking at every Rolex I see. I am always trying to spot a rep. But I am realizing that if someone spots my rep its only because they learned how to spot a rep because they have one or at least spent a lot of time on sites like this learning about them.

Kinda like when you were a kid and the school bully says in front of everyone that he saw you shopping at K-Mart and your reply is "I know, I saw you there at the same time".

[fakemaster]

[amptor1]

It's hard to spot a rep in some situations. My dad knows a doctor that wears a rep and since he is a doctor, nobody at all thinks it is a rep and nobody ever asks him if it is fake. So he took it to a watchsmith and the guy told him he could spot it when he walked in the door. He repaired it, I guess things were a little looser back in the late 1980's.

That K-Mart comment reminded me of the old days, but when you become an adult it really doesn't matter if you are seen in K-Mart at all. Not that I really like the store much, it just doesn't matter.

Also to the comment above about the Panerai, that's exactly why my more expensive 42.5mm PO stays at home and I use a 2nd generation with swiss movement as my "tool watch" that I wear to work. Everyone thinks it looks good and nobody knows the difference between this one that is loaded with flaws and my 4th generation and a real one. Sometimes even if you point out the differences, people are too thick to understand.

I have a friend who has a replica breitling and he told me a story. One time he went to lunch with a friend of his and he showed him the watch. The guy was amazed and was like wow you own a real breitling. So my friend says, yeah it's a nice watch but it isn't real. The guy keeps insisting, 'come on man I know it is real you can afford that' and my friend kept telling him, no i won't lie to you man it is a replica. The guy kept insisting that it was a real one and would not accept that it was a replica.

So I dunno there's all kinds of knuckleheads out there I just wear the watch for the looks, doesn't really matter what others think. However if you wear anything other than a rolex you usually don't get called out anyway.

[freddy333]

25 years ago, when relatively few people owned a rep (because, before the internet, they were sold mostly by word-of-mouth), no one that you would encounter on the street had the slightest inkling how to tell a gen from a rep (unless it was of the covered with fake jems & rubbed off gold paint, Canal Street variety). However, today, with reps sold by the millions via spam, everyone knows about them & most people are attuned to the fact that they are out there. Additionally, there are many more collectors & WIS types on the streets these days, who DO know what to look for. And these people are everywhere. The kid who made your latte in Starbucks this morning may have spent the previous evening culling through the latest postings on Timezone. Or the waiter in your local diner may have an uncle who has a small collection of Omegas. And most of these guys probably will not call you out when they spot your rep. They will just walk away shaking their head after pouring your coffee or doing your taxes or sharing your office printer.

The point is that as reps have become more ubiquitous, so to have the number of people who can spot them. And while most cannot spot an incorrectly shaped cannon pinion from across the room, I think it is safe to say that many people CAN detect a wannabee wearing a fake Big Bang or jewel-encrusted President from a mile away.

[monkeypie]

I disagree with many posters here.

It is pretty much impossible to spot a good rep based on the watch itself unless you either physically hold the thing in your hand and check it out or its a "ROLLOX".

You are trying to spot differences or flaws that are less than 1cm in size on an object that is around 4 to 5 cm in diameter attached to a moving object. To put things in perspective, the text on the dial of a Rolex GMT is less than 1mm x 1mm. The shape of a CG is impossible to tell unless you have another one right next to it for reference. Add to that there are so many varieties of the same model, you'd have to be a hardcore enthusiast that knows virtually all the flaws of all the models of all the brands of watches to consistently spot a rep based on the watch itself.

As stated above, the main thing that gives away a rep is the wearer, and even then, it is hard enough. I see Panerais, VCs, Rolexes, Omegas and IWCs on a daily basis, be it on the street or on the subway. I still see Omegas that I am unsure of which model it is. I saw an IWC Portuguese but due to the variations, be it modern, vintage, LE, that made it difficult to tell what the tells were, let alone if the dial text was a shade too light or 0.002 mm too thick.

@ RoninQ: True, I do agree that the sweep can be a good "tell", but you'd pretty much need the person to stop moving his/her arm to really be able to tell that the seconds hand on a watch is moving 5 times per second as opposed to 8.

And you'd need particularly good vision such as yours.

I do agree that quality has improved vastly, as with the knowledge as such. Do people spend more of their time seeing what brand or model a watch is, as opposed to whether it is a gen or a rep? I guess it'd have to depend on where you live and who is wearing a watch. A 16 year old kid wearing a Rolex Daytona and driving his Civic with 60 ft spoiler would deserve a different watch check than a guy at Canary wharf with his Panerai.

Edited March 14, 2009 by monkeypie

[Ronin]

@monkeypie

I dunno, I am fortunate to have 20x10 vision (which actually sucks for up close work- Loupe required here). I can spot a slow beat movement sweep, 2 people away at my local Sushi bar. MANY non-WIS people know about the smoother sweep of a gen.

I tend to agree with Freddy, the quality has improved, but so has the education of many people.

-Ronin