Before joining this forum, I'd only owned two watches (both genuine) in my life: a Submariner (bought by my father for me in rue du Rhône in Geneva) given for my eighteenth birthday and a Calatrava 3919J (bought at about the same time at Tourneau in New York City).
I'm a pretty international person: I grew up in Switzerland and prior to the coronavirus epidemic, was sharing my time between the EU and the US.
To me even this (owning two watches) seemed too much: it's a very personal thing, but my view until very recently had been that collecting stuff was something that made sense for paintings or postage stamps, but not for items like cufflinks, wallets, briefcases or watches. To me, such possessions were meant to be unique, once-in-a-lifetime purchases, chosen carefully according to taste and possibly passed on to the next generation, as very aptly put by Patek in its adverts. To me, watch-collecting was something I associated with bling and with nouveau-riche, show-off people.
Then a while ago I lost my Submariner, and at the crazy prices reached in recent years I realised that in my financial situation, replacing it was not an option. I dress casually 99 per cent of the time (my job, as hinted at in my forum nickname, isn't a fancy one): so although I love my Calatrava I hardly ever wear it, while badly missing the habit, which was my daily routine for years, of wearing a watch every day. Glancing at my wrist is a reflex I still instinctively cling to, despite no longer having my watch and despite the time of the day being available on my iPhone. I knew nothing about reps, but started taking an interest a few months ago, initially just entertaining the possibility of acquiring one, and then actively looking into it. I eventually decided to go for a rep to replace my cherished Submariner, but the two initially intractable issues I faced were (1) quality and (2) trust. I suspected top quality replicas existed, but had no idea where to find one while avoiding being scammed. My initial search results (stuff offered on sites like DH Gate or Facebook for instance) seemed to fail both of these tests, and I remained stuck in this trough for several months.
When I very belatedly came across RWI, and started ploughing through the various sections, I knew I'd found the solution to my problem. I was really impressed by the breadth, reliability and detail of the information (though sorting through it all can be a tad painstaking, as is inevitable in any forum-based structure). The moderators' ruthless enforcement of rules designed to prioritise fairness over profit and to make purchases safe, and the skill, intelligence and accumulated know-how of many of the members are really striking.
In the couple of weeks since joining, membership of the forum has already made me reassess my outlook on watch collecting, which was probably too old-fashioned. I can now not only see a point to it but have actually purchased three watches on this forum, including a beautiful and ridiculously expensive Franken (discovered the whole Franken concept on this forum and have fallen in love with it).
To conclude this long introduction, I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the individuals who have created this amazing safe place and say how much I look forward to learning more about reps here without, hopefully, the pastime becoming too addictive.
I'm a pretty international person: I grew up in Switzerland and prior to the coronavirus epidemic, was sharing my time between the EU and the US.
To me even this (owning two watches) seemed too much: it's a very personal thing, but my view until very recently had been that collecting stuff was something that made sense for paintings or postage stamps, but not for items like cufflinks, wallets, briefcases or watches. To me, such possessions were meant to be unique, once-in-a-lifetime purchases, chosen carefully according to taste and possibly passed on to the next generation, as very aptly put by Patek in its adverts. To me, watch-collecting was something I associated with bling and with nouveau-riche, show-off people.
Then a while ago I lost my Submariner, and at the crazy prices reached in recent years I realised that in my financial situation, replacing it was not an option. I dress casually 99 per cent of the time (my job, as hinted at in my forum nickname, isn't a fancy one): so although I love my Calatrava I hardly ever wear it, while badly missing the habit, which was my daily routine for years, of wearing a watch every day. Glancing at my wrist is a reflex I still instinctively cling to, despite no longer having my watch and despite the time of the day being available on my iPhone. I knew nothing about reps, but started taking an interest a few months ago, initially just entertaining the possibility of acquiring one, and then actively looking into it. I eventually decided to go for a rep to replace my cherished Submariner, but the two initially intractable issues I faced were (1) quality and (2) trust. I suspected top quality replicas existed, but had no idea where to find one while avoiding being scammed. My initial search results (stuff offered on sites like DH Gate or Facebook for instance) seemed to fail both of these tests, and I remained stuck in this trough for several months.
When I very belatedly came across RWI, and started ploughing through the various sections, I knew I'd found the solution to my problem. I was really impressed by the breadth, reliability and detail of the information (though sorting through it all can be a tad painstaking, as is inevitable in any forum-based structure). The moderators' ruthless enforcement of rules designed to prioritise fairness over profit and to make purchases safe, and the skill, intelligence and accumulated know-how of many of the members are really striking.
In the couple of weeks since joining, membership of the forum has already made me reassess my outlook on watch collecting, which was probably too old-fashioned. I can now not only see a point to it but have actually purchased three watches on this forum, including a beautiful and ridiculously expensive Franken (discovered the whole Franken concept on this forum and have fallen in love with it).
To conclude this long introduction, I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the individuals who have created this amazing safe place and say how much I look forward to learning more about reps here without, hopefully, the pastime becoming too addictive.
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