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Who gets the credit for designing some of these amazing reps?

byudzai

You're Saying I Can Sell?
5/3/19
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i recently picked up a rep of an IWC vintage aquatimer, and i continue to be amazed at the attention to detail. i got thinking: who put the sweat and tears into making this so nice? someone spent countless hours measuring, modeling, refining to get this as smooth and perfect as it is. the inner bezel turns like silk. each surface has the correct, and beautifully replicated finish.

i'd love it if there were some way to reach out to that individual and say "Thank you for your amazing work! I have no idea how you pulled this off!"
 

muiramas

Erect Aristocrat
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18/1/17
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Well, I guess thanking Rolex, Omega, Panerai, IWC, would be a good start.

Would you congratulate a kid for copying all the answers off someone else’s exam sheet?

Also, your fake watch isn’t as close to the real one as you think.
 

byudzai

You're Saying I Can Sell?
5/3/19
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I'm guessing you don't know much about CAD or design.

Creating the computer models to accurately replicate these watches is master-level stuff. I've put thousands of hours into CAD, and I would be afraid to touch a project like this. All the subtle contours, thread depths, crystal shelves, on and on and on. It's incredibly impressive work for even the worst rep -- and astonishing for the best.

So..... anyone actually know something about the topic?
 

muiramas

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I'm guessing you don't know much about CAD or design.

Bad guess. I am a designer actually.

So..... anyone actually know something about the topic?

i'd love it if there were some way to reach out to that individual and say "Thank you for your amazing work! I have no idea how you pulled this off!"

So you want to know about the 'individual' who made your watch so you can reach out and thank him?
 
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Glaude

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I'm guessing you don't know much about CAD or design.

Creating the computer models to accurately replicate these watches is master-level stuff. I've put thousands of hours into CAD, and I would be afraid to touch a project like this. All the subtle contours, thread depths, crystal shelves, on and on and on. It's incredibly impressive work for even the worst rep -- and astonishing for the best.

Indeed bad guess, as I do 3d CAD pretty often and while this is indeed a lot of work to do, it's only some copy/pasting, they take some measurements either from renders or photos or if they have a gen in hand and they just mill it away.
Pretty sure they sometime just open the file as a background in CAD and replicate the lines, after that they just scale everything with one measurement

The credit is to put on the original team that designed the product !

And I don't slag off rep maker, they do a very good and impressive copy work, but as far as CAD is concerned, a watch is a pretty basic product to design, a movement on the other hand is something else ! Especially if you are doing virtual prototyping !
 
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Art Tic

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26/2/17
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Thank the European watch companies for the original designs. The Chinese just copied as best as they could, a few of which are very good.
I am quite impressed by Chinese copy of the 4130 movement, ticking away inside my Noob Daytonas. Definitely the best clone movement out there. I bought 2, and while V1 has since been sent to the abyss, the V2 has been Rolex-llike in time keeping, with useful chronograph. Just hope it lasts a year or two.
 

dadog13

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Today all this stuff is done by reverse engineering when we speak about the high end reps from the most famous factories. They buy a genuine watch, take it apart and do their work..

It’s impressive what the technology these days can do..
 

GingerBubba

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I heard @anon6 was involved in hacking Rolex's mainframe and stealing the submariner blueprints. Sadly they had separate blueprints for separate parts and Anon6 sold the SEL, bracelet and hands blueprints to ARF and the case etc blueprints to Noob. If only he'd sold them all to one factory, the fabled AAA 1:1 would have been born.
 

byudzai

You're Saying I Can Sell?
5/3/19
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I understand the concept of all this -- I'm still left wondering about the people behind it. Someone must have made a labor of love out of this IWC, with so much attention to detail. I'd like to think that guy or gal took a ton of pride in the work. If I'd designed a killer bridge it would mean a lot if someone found me and said "Dang good work!"

Of course the Swiss/German designers get the artistic credit, but I think it's a pity if everyone looks at them and no one thinks about the hours of labor and dedication it took to make these reps as good as they are.
 

p0pperini

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I understand the concept of all this -- I'm still left wondering about the people behind it. Someone must have made a labor of love out of this IWC, with so much attention to detail. I'd like to think that guy or gal took a ton of pride in the work. If I'd designed a killer bridge it would mean a lot if someone found me and said "Dang good work!"

Of course the Swiss/German designers get the artistic credit, but I think it's a pity if everyone looks at them and no one thinks about the hours of labor and dedication it took to make these reps as good as they are.
I hate to dent your romantic image of the rep watch industry, but the people making these knock-offs most likely see it as “a job” and almost certainly couldn’t give a monkey’s about the thing they’re making. It’s a copying process, with the end goal of making much more money for the product than if it was a no-brand sterile cheap mechanical watch.

Also - it’s a copying process, but the copies are never that good - as evidenced time and time again by the critiques of the products posted in these forums by real experts/enthusiasts on the subject. The copies aren’t perfect because the people behind them don’t care about the end product - it’s just “a product” that they know will sell anyway. Plus, it means they get to keep making new, slightly less/differently flawed products and the same people will buy the next one too - which is great business. And that’s all it is - business.
 
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muiramas

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Someone must have made a labor of love out of this IWC, with so much attention to detail. I'd like to think that guy or gal took a ton of pride in the work. If I'd designed a killer bridge it would mean a lot if someone found me and said "Dang good work!".

Who made the rose tinted specs you see the world through?
 
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Genera74

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Just let the OP’s have his own alternative of reality in his head... no need to burst his bubble..
 

DD60

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Gen bubble or rep bubble ?
 
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byudzai

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I'm disappointed that so many folks are choosing condescending OP-bashing over collaborative exploration of a topic. Also, not one of you has offered up any information, only oppositional opinions.

Does anyone ACTUALLY know about the details of the industry there? Sounds like no, so I'll just try to explore with direct sources.
 

Updog

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With a portable CMM arm, 3D laser scanner and 5-axis milling machine - making a rep level copy of the cases is a relatively straightforward process. - We use the exact same process to reverse-engineer (aka. copy) complex shaped mechanical engineering components.
 

BIONONE

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With a portable CMM arm, 3D laser scanner and 5-axis milling machine - making a rep level copy of the cases is a relatively straightforward process. - We use the exact same process to reverse-engineer (aka. copy) complex shaped mechanical engineering components.

Sounds awesome - how about a clone movement of some RM models or an ultra thin AP? Hehe ;)

and to give OP some input - nobody of the head of those rep companies will step out of the shadow to celebrate themselves as the rep kings - of course they most presumably drive their lambos or ferraris while rocking the gen counterparts but of course not under the light of being in the illegal rep industry.

So you won‘t ever know who’s is to credit for some of the recent high end reps which are awesome pieces for the money they cost - i totally understand your point and often this euphoric mood isn‘t accompanied by rationality - so we have to keep that in mind while try to burst the bubble of the super enthusiastic watch loving rep makers who admire the gen designs like we do...

I also can understand that it is morally questionable what they do and if they should get appreciation in such a way when it is really only about business.

In the end i feel your admiration as the reps feel solid and well engineered - if you keep in mind that they will never be like the gen (beside some PAMs...)
They are a good alternative and that is the reason many of us stick around, started with some cheaper reps way back in the day, continued with some high end ones and sometimes even chose the franken and then gen route.

Factory insights like angus delivered them are a good read if you are interested in how the whole system over there works. - look up the thread in his section.
and it is even more interesting when imagining that there are people who really try to compete with some of the biggest brands to achieve something similar at a fraction of cost - beside the ethical part this is quite ballsy - to even start and attempt a decent result even if it is all about business.
 

Glaude

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I'm disappointed that so many folks are choosing condescending OP-bashing over collaborative exploration of a topic. Also, not one of you has offered up any information, only oppositional opinions.

Does anyone ACTUALLY know about the details of the industry there? Sounds like no, so I'll just try to explore with direct sources.

The useful information were given at the start, then it's just the normal life of any thread on any forum.

Everything on that has been said, I don't know what you are talking about here
 

sn95

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If you have good technology you can literally scan the cases and make very excellent copies that require minor hand labor to perfect. Think of it like this, if you or I were to try to rep a pair of headphones it would be difficult, even if we are masters at solidworks it would be difficult to find good suppliers and to combine all of the pieces and source parts. If we were a headphone company it would be significantly easier, would only need to copy the design, we most likely already have suppliers for the inner pcb's and speakers just need to stamp another logo on there and we're done.