Has someone ever noticed that your watch was a Rep?

[leo6929]

A divorce would be much more expensive, my friend.

At least with the sub out of the way, I can now smuggle in a whole series of black and stainless Rolex sports watch reps using the excuse "no, it's same one darling", as long as I keep moving my wrist in her presence...........

I tend to use this strategy, too. I tell her that I only swapped bracelets / straps and that watches look different. She never falls for it.

 

[SubVette]

I've been wearing my GEn everywhere. I paid $7500 for the sub AND RECENTLY SOLD IT FOR $9000!! Definitely a great buy. Some Rolex Gens have VERY good resale while the 2020 Sub GEN lists at $8100. IF I can buy one for that I would. JUst ordered the Noob V11, Its been a while since I played in REP world. But the REPs are getting as good as the GENS to the naked eye anyway.
I hesitated to get the updated 3135. As it was issue prone in the past. Should be better now... My wife doesn't care what I buy. She has no interest in expensive watches. She loves her Klein white ceramic sports watch.

 

[komali_2]

I was in a grand seiko boutique last weekend to buy a watch and as we were fitting it, I had set my noob v3 daytona on the counter. The store manager came over and asked who I had to kill for it. Dude used to work in a rolex shop and everything lol. When I told him it was a rep he thought it was hilarious.

 

[swink6112]

I’ve only recently got into watches and started noticing them. I worked for a consultant for a while who had a nice Panerai, met a recruiter sporting a Rolex, saw a guy wearing an AP on the train, met an old colleague for lunch who had a seamaster. I kind of took it for granted all these were real and gen but now I seriously don’t know. The train AP guy had on a nice suit but do people who have $20000 watches catch public transport? I like watches and have an eye for detail but highly doubt now I’ve looked into these nwbig that I could tell the difference.
While I like quite a few luxury watch brands such as Panerai and Cartier I feel that spending $6000 on a watch, even if I could afford it, is a bit selfish. The watch would be for me only and so what does the rest of the family get? $6000 buys a few holidays which the whole family gets to enjoy. So a rep now allows me to have a watch who’s design I really like and we can still have a holiday.

I admire you sir. Why?

Growing up my dad had several Rolex. Drove an Alfa Romeo and only put on very expensive clothes and aftershaves. Plays golf with only top brand equipment. Had collections of really cool firearms, walkie talkies, high-end cameras and really expensive bird watching parascope.

He never took me or my brother to any expensive restaurants. Never bought us anything. Never asked if we wanted anything. Didn't let me play golf with him despite me repeatedly begging him. Scold my mom whenever she spent money to buy us toys. And told my mom that me and my brother should go to the cheapest school because it's close by. And took our college funds when he needs money.

So the point of this long story is this... my dad had a gen Rolex. But to me he was a fake.

 

[mpx]

Sad story, I'm sorry about that
Somehow reminds me of this:

 

[swink6112]

Sad story, I'm sorry about that
Somehow reminds me of this:

Thanks bro. I grew up to become very successful and I love my wife and if one day I have kids I've learned to never put my needs before them. Only when I do right by them can I eye my next gen Rolex LOL. Oh and I love reps to death as well. A watch is a watch and I wear whatever I like. Cheers bro!

 

[B12b12b12]

no-one ever noticed ; but I always say what it is if anyone ever says thats a nice watch !

 

[Ecor]

Not even two friends of mine that work at an AD, they say replicas are scary.

 

[TreeTop01]

To sum it up, just enjoy these beautiful watches!

 

[Ex-ki]

If your lifestyle correspond to the watches you wear no one will ever doubt about the fact they are genuine.

Having said that, personally I don't wear AP, Patek, Lange & Sohne, RM, and others ultra luxury reps because I'm neither a billionaire CEO nor a famous sportsman.

 

[Trowt]

I think two tone reps are a pretty easy spot - the gold colour is much more yellow than true 18k. SS is a better option

 

[vorbeischauender]

Verbose post, question at the bottom:
let's assume (I am new to this, so please correct me if I'm wrong) that you cannot tell a very good fake at arm's length, and you cannot tell it from looking closely at the face only. However, I guess a clever person with a little technical interest could tell without comparing to the gen that the movement is wrong if eg a fake Rolex with its genuinely free-sprung balance has a regulator. Or do only Rolex-owner know that she must not have one? It may need a little more knowledge to compare the typical regulator of a 7750 or the swan's neck regulator of a 2824, but any owner of a chronograph who ever adjusted the regulator on his 7750 might remark it. Let's further assume, you can tell SS is not white gold from looking at it. Not that easy tough.

So presuming a clever person not in the watch industry can tell some very good reps from looking at the movement or at the brightness of the metal: how comfortable are those of you not confessing wearing a rep to hand over the watch to some acquaintance/collegue?

The background of my question: the range of watches my collegues wear is ca 2000-20000€. Few are interested in watches, they just treat themselves with "a beautiful watch". I blend in with my gen DJ and my chrono. The reaction to wearing a fake would be complete incomprehension. Some might even doubt my integrity "there is less to him than meets the eye", lack of seriosity and so on. I would not like to enter that kind of discussion.

30 years ago I wore a Rolex Daydate clone form the beach for a year in order to get used to wear a Rolex and to get over my initial prejudices ("pimp's watch", "to valuable for me"). But these youthful times are long gone.

The watches I am actually interested in are VC Patrimony WG and PP Calatrava WG. Unfortunately I don't see the benefit for me in spending 15-25000€ for such a watch. On the other hand it would be ok for me to buy a microbrand dress-watch of solid WG for even 3000-4000€ -if such a thing would ever exist. I am not into the brand's perceived value or market positioning.

Taking alI this into account, I am contemplating buying a dress watch clone which is genuinely made of SS (because you don't see the WG/SSs difference at first glimpse), buying a clone because one get the aesthetics of the excellent gen brand designers. And I am looking for a closed back.

Thanks for reading. Your thoughts on all this?

 

[GingerBubba]

If being caught wearing a fake at work would genuinely impact on how you're perceived at work, I don't see the point in risking it, even if that risk is small. Get the Reps, wear them away from work, problem solved.

 

[muiramas]

However, I guess a clever person with a little technical interest could tell without comparing to the gen that the movement is wrong if eg a fake Rolex with its genuinely free-sprung balance has a regulator.

Unless there is a display caseback, which there won’t be on a Rolex, It is impossible to tell if a movement has a free spring balance by looking at it / holding it. It does not matter how clever you are or how much technical interest you have.

So presuming a clever person not in the watch industry can tell some very good reps from looking at the movement or at the brightness of the metal: how comfortable are those of you not confessing wearing a rep to hand over the watch to some acquaintance/collegue?

Clever and dumb people inside or outside of the watch industry will never, ever see the movement in your watch.

Its probably best not to share with clients and colleagues that your watch is fake, because no one cares about your justification for wearing a fake - but it depends completely on the circumstances - there is no single answer to this. If you are comfortable wearing a 13-20k watch in front of friends and colleagues, then fine. If not, then you have your answer.

 

[vorbeischauender]

I made two assumptions when reasoning about the ability to judge the movements: first, the movement is visible from the back, that is, there is a display back. Second, I hand the watch over to someone who is just curious. I have the impression that most if not all replicas in the 250-450€-range have a display back.

If you are comfortable wearing a 13-20k watch in front of friends and colleagues, then fine.

Did you mean "...comfortable wearing a fake 13-20k watch in front of ..." ?

 

[muiramas]

I made two assumptions when reasoning about the ability to judge the movements: first, the movement is visible from the back, that is, there is a display back. Second, I hand the watch over to someone who is just curious. I have the impression that most if not all replicas in the 250-450€-range have a display back.



Did you mean "...comfortable wearing a fake 13-20k watch in front of ..." ?

If the real thing has a display back, so will the rep - it’s not aliased to the cost.

What I mean is if you have a lifestyle which is indicative that you could be wearing a 13-20k watch you can maybe feel more comfortable wearing one at work - rep or otherwise. If you’re flipping burgers at McDonald’s it’s unlikely you’re going to be wearing a real PP.

Generally people don’t hand their watches about for inspection.

 

[vorbeischauender]

Got it. Concerning the inspection: "Look, that's nice watch, I like it! May I have a look?" is a situation that does not seem completely impossible to me.

 

[leo6929]

You seem quite nervous about someone else finding out. I also wear my watches to work and boy, people do notice. Some colleagues stare a lot, but keep comments to themselves. If they ever ask, I will tell them that I love watches, that I found on the web a very close replica for myself, not tho show off, and that I would never risk it to wear that much money on the wrist. End of story.

 

[Katarsis]

Got it. Concerning the inspection: "Look, that's nice watch, I like it! May I have a look?" is a situation that does not seem completely impossible to me.

I would say that it is pretty amazing if that ever happens.

 

[DiggerOfWatches]

Katarsis Happens to me on the bus all the time