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A Forum is a terrible thing to waste! Dhgate, a lesson for new and old members!

trailboss99

Head Honcho - Cat Herder
Staff member
Administrator
Certified
30/3/08
42,448
12,350
113
Just a noob question - is it possible that these crappy reps are made in the same factories that our "proper" reps are made, with the only difference being the quality of materials used?
Na, different makers mate.
 

Art Tic

Time Machine Collector
26/2/17
948
237
43
California
This is a good post for those of us wishing to save a few bucks and have unrealistic high expectation. You get what you pay for.
 

nitrams2000

Active Member
10/5/17
496
19
18
before meeting RWI i was flying blind. now that i have met RWI , i will never buy anywhere except for here or maybe in person if i meet the right person with the right deal. RWI has not only taught me lessons in buying from people but the right factories as well.
 

nitrams2000

Active Member
10/5/17
496
19
18
to me its a combo of the right watch, the right person, a trusted TD and the correct factory for certain watches. it all adds up... thank RWI
 

Donpat

Looking Around
8/6/17
4
0
0
Thanks for the information. I might do my first purchase in coming days from one of the TD here.
 

SteveA1973

Known Member
31/5/17
148
6
0
Great post and good read through everyone's experiences. I tried dhgate but whenever I searched I could only ever come up with sterile dial watches. I stick to m2m and tds both here and elsewhere.
 

wolfdrizzy

Looking Around
10/3/17
2
0
0
Dont get me wrong majority of dhgate reps are substandard quality even for the price you pay, but I do have to say there are a few gems from sellers like jason007/michaeltravis on DH, with that being said NEVER guinea pig a watch, let someone else buy it first. This being one of my beaters I picked up for $80 not too shabby
View attachment 78107 View attachment 78108
 

stanevo6

computer says no
29/5/17
1,773
977
113
The Low Lands
OP. Thx for this great thread.

End of the month I will be in Grand Canaria, I go there every year, for 15 years now. just to relax and absorb the sun with the misses

Year in year out, I see the same men, all from Senegal, selling their "Gen" Rolexes and Hublo's, Breilings and so on. All automatic off cause. When police comes, they run. Police gone and back they are. They Start with 3 to 400 euro for a watch. I bought one a few years ago, just for fun. A FM (ElloEllo is gonna beat me up, hahaha ) gave the Senegal man 20 euro's and after a lot of mocking he sold it to me. The movement is automatic and working, the dial is of paper. The chronograph is not working and so on. But now, after a few years of abuse, the watch is still running. nobody is wearing it by the way. I wind it, and throw it back were it came from hahaha.

but my question is: What do you know about this business, what can you tell us about it. it's massive I reckon. Is there a Mob behind it, or terrorist's organisations?
Cheap junk, all Scammers and nobody is doing a thing to prevent it.

curious about your Knowledge about this. THX in advance and happy with RWI :notworthy:
 

TheRealHowardJohnson

Horology Curious
6/12/18
17
2
3
Thank you to OP for this thread. Like many of you, I had used DHgate very successfully in the past and I felt more comfortable buying on there then with the TDs. The unsecured websites spooked me and lack of communication didn't help, although I've since learned that is part of the process) Now I'm wondering if I got "lucky" with my Navitimer, and wondering if I should be worried about my "mechanical" YM2 which is in the mail.

To my VERY UNTRAINED eyes, the Navitimer looks amazing. Sure its got issues regarding it being 1:1, but I feel like the differences at least work with the specific colors/materials/design used by whoever designed the rep. Its quartz so I didn't expect anything special on the movement front, but was really happy to have a 24-hr stopwatch function which actually works! (longest time I tested was 3 hours, but it didn't miss a beat). For me, the design and navitimer functions were my primary concerns, so the piece totally exceeded my expectations. I bought both from "traviswatch."

Am I just not experienced enough to determine quality, or are some of these DHgate reps really as good as they appear? Should I open up the watch to have a look at the hardware? Also, I totally get the logic behind "the forum keeps TDs accountable," but like paypal, I really like the fact that DHgate has a very good dispute function if things go south. Finally, I read through this whole tread (amazing info guys, I'm so glad I found this forum), and many people seem to be arguing that the savings on DHgate are negligible compared to the quality assurance of TDs. Granted I have not purchased from a TD yet, but given the prices on their sites, the difference seems to be massive. I actually started with the TD sites (google brought me here immediately), who were offering the watches I wanted for $300-$450, both of which I (supposedly) found on DH for right around $100.

My excitement regarding my YM2 has turned into anxiety after reading this tread, but I'm glad that at least my first purchase exceeded my expectations. As you can probably tell, I like the experience of purchasing on DHgate and have yet to be burned so I'm very bias, but I think that the buyer protection and price points are enough not to write off the whole platform carte blanche. Also, why do the TDs not sell on DHgate? Seems like it would be easy enough to get the best of both worlds (ie QC, buyer protection, and lower price points).

Just wanted to provide a noob prospective that wasn't so dreary. All that being said, I'll only be going with TDs from here on out as it seems like DHgate is like Russian roulette, and I'm long overdue for a losing hand. Cheers!
 

sketchAG

You're Saying I Can Sell?
19/1/19
76
23
0
Canada, eh
thank you for the review/heads up

sad to say that a lot of these sellers don't care squat about returning customer
 

beau7816

Banned member, the goat does not approve
Banned
20/9/16
6,933
1,683
113
UK Devon
I made 1 purchase on DHGate and completely out of pocket by some £450. Raised a ticked with them as the watch was delivered but not to me. The seller showed the address it was sent to which obviously was mine but no watch delivered (someone else must have it) end of story and end of any purchases from DHGate.
 

lambo79

Horology Curious
1/3/20
24
4
0
thanks for your post! as a newbie to TD and WHI, this is really helpful
 

Tribefan

Active Member
15/11/19
326
246
43
Interesting comments in this thread. Purchased quite a few gate watches, they can be incredible bargains. Have had some disappointments, but no outright POS's, yet. Here's my general self imposed rules:
1. Don't spend more than $100 per watch, generally a lot less than that. $50 is a great buy with stacked coupons yada, yada. Most of the sweetspot models will be right around $70.
2. Buy from established sellers, they are not hard to find if you do your homework.
3. Always tell them I want to the logo version. Ask for pictures of the actual watch before you buy if you have no history with the seller.
4. Make sure I understand the complications. Many just flat out aren't designed to work.
5. Stick to simple models, see 4 above.
6. Never order more than 2 per order, 90% of the time it is one watch.
7. Know what I'm buying, that's the "deal"

To elaborate on the last one a bit, the U1 subs have a 21J movement ceramic bezel and sapphire crystal, solid SS bracelet, nice case. Dial is a little off, lume is the wrong color, Because the case size is different to fit the 21J, the SEL's will be "off". Pearl and cyclops will be hit and miss, do no date eliminates a variable. Is it a zzF v2? Lol, uh no way. It's also $60 not $600. And it took about 3 minutes to sell mine used at a whopping $15 loss. I'm sure I could have flipped it for breakeven if I wanted to play it that way.

The Omega Diver 300M's and Tudor Heritage BB models are also very good. Both have "issues" but for the dough can be really nice watches. If you get a good pearl on the Tudor it is pretty spot on, bezel color and SEL's are really the only issues and you really need to know what you are looking for to spot it.

If you are looking to spend $250+ on a watch, you should not be on the gate. There are gate sellers that have the same rep's the TD's carry, but they will be priced significantly higher than a TD. If you want the closest thing to gen you can get, TD's or M2M is the way to go, imo.

Cheers.
 
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db007

Horology Curious
26/4/20
21
1
3
EUROPE
Got one of these golden Big Bangs at home - absolutely horrendous! Thank You for investing your money to hopefully prevent others of doing so!
 

manuelmay

Active Member
6/12/18
275
69
28
Interesting comments in this thread. Purchased quite a few gate watches, they can be incredible bargains. Have had some disappointments, but no outright POS's, yet. Here's my general self imposed rules:
1. Don't spend more than $100 per watch, generally a lot less than that. $50 is a great buy with stacked coupons yada, yada. Most of the sweetspot models will be right around $70.
2. Buy from established sellers, they are not hard to find if you do your homework.
3. Always tell them I want to the logo version. Ask for pictures of the actual watch before you buy if you have no history with the seller.
4. Make sure I understand the complications. Many just flat out aren't designed to work.
5. Stick to simple models, see 4 above.
6. Never order more than 2 per order, 90% of the time it is one watch.
7. Know what I'm buying, that's the "deal"

To elaborate on the last one a bit, the U1 subs have a 21J movement ceramic bezel and sapphire crystal, solid SS bracelet, nice case. Dial is a little off, lume is the wrong color, Because the case size is different to fit the 21J, the SEL's will be "off". Pearl and cyclops will be hit and miss, do no date eliminates a variable. Is it a zzF v2? Lol, uh no way. It's also $60 not $600. And it took about 3 minutes to sell mine used at a whopping $15 loss. I'm sure I could have flipped it for breakeven if I wanted to play it that way.

The Omega Diver 300M's and Tudor Heritage BB models are also very good. Both have "issues" but for the dough can be really nice watches. If you get a good pearl on the Tudor it is pretty spot on, bezel color and SEL's are really the only issues and you really need to know what you are looking for to spot it.

If you are looking to spend $250+ on a watch, you should not be on the gate. There are gate sellers that have the same rep's the TD's carry, but they will be priced significantly higher than a TD. If you want the closest thing to gen you can get, TD's or M2M is the way to go, imo.

Cheers.

My esperience is very close to yours. I always ask for some real pics and ask details, so i never got scammed. Recently i’ve also found out that someone has same TD’s replicas, the expensive one.
On the other hand, DH provides a security system that TD haven’t
 

Constantinthegreat

Looking Around
10/11/20
4
1
0
I have bought few shitters for fun or bracelets from wish. After fighting their CS they refund the payment so these are free. Just be careful not to buy "imitation/fake/replica/proxy" and buy something that's marketed as gen.