How often do people spot your APs?

[stufuse]

**

 

[p0pperini]

Most of the people do not know about AP, but everybody knows Rolex.

It’s true that a lot more people are aware of the brand Rolex. But the number of people who could look at a Rolex and actually know it’s a rep is absolutely minuscule.

The chances of your watch being accurately identified as a rep is the same as the chances that tomorrow you’ll bump into a very knowledgeable RWI member in the street, and they’ll ask to look closely at your watch, and they’ll know all the tells of the model you’re wearing.

You will be slightly more likely to have envious/smartarse folk accuse you of wearing a fake watch if you wear a Rolex. But it wouldn’t make any difference if it was rep or gen, they’re just going to say that because of the brand, and that’s just what some people are like.


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[legend]

It’s true that a lot more people are aware of the brand Rolex. But the number of people who could look at a Rolex and actually know it’s a rep is absolutely minuscule.

The chances of your watch being accurately identified as a rep is the same as the chances that tomorrow you’ll bump into a very knowledgeable RWI member in the street, and they’ll ask to look closely at your watch, and they’ll know all the tells of the model you’re wearing.

You will be slightly more likely to have envious/smartarse folk accuse you of wearing a fake watch if you wear a Rolex. But it wouldn’t make any difference if it was rep or gen, they’re just going to say that because of the brand, and that’s just what some people are like.


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All so true.
The only way to truly stop anyone at all calling out a rep is not to wear one, since the intent and agenda of anyone else will not be within control at all. I think that instead of worrying about how and why people spot rep APs, it is far more important to wear whatever watch we like for our own private amusement, and not as a means of trying to show off or impress someone else. Wearing a rep to a luxury brand boutique, or a gen watch collector gathering, is plain silly and only idiots will be scratching their heads in bewilderment when being called out under such circumstances.
The reality of the situation is that, 99% of the time, nobody cares about what is on our wrist.

 

[Kingquest_s]

Hello gents,
I'm thinking about getting an AP ROO, but afraid that I won't be able to pull it off if someone notices it on my wrist. So I'm just wondering for those of you rocking the APs, how often do you get spotted by people? And what were the their and your reactions?

For the Royal Oak, that is very eye-catching cause of the light reflecting. But most people think about fashionable than luxury watch. There are alot homemade (copy cat) watches through aliexpress, amazon, ebay, etc, under different name or sometimes no name. I did wear my AP CF Diver to Zales or other jewelries store, many of them does not know what watch is that. Unless you are in group networking or some high party they will know what AP is, or other luxury than Rolex. The percent catching you wear fake or not, it depends on your outlook. For example, you wear a Gen Rolex but driving with Corolla, they diffinitely think that is fake. Other sample that everybody knew or saw u worer high end clothes, shoes, accessories, or they way you spending, whatever, even you wore fake they will think that is gen. Stop thinking about people, think about yourself. You like it or not even your gen or fake, it is memorable.

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[Apeh15400]

Weighing in my experience in with my JF 15400 V3 and XF15202 V3: I’ve got spotted relatively often to be fair.

JF 15400 V3: I eventually sold it after a quite embarrassing moment. I’d say 3-4 times people were coming to me and asking to have a look at my wrist while stating „wow that’s a royal oak“ before hitting back the road. And I was never really sure on how to respond and only one time, when a spotter was actually starting a real conversation, I revealed it’s Fake origin leaving him stunning. Then, in Dec 2019 during a trip in Australia, Someone came to me in a Beach Club and just said „nice watch“, sent his friend over 3 min later and asked for a detailed look at it. He skimmed it and literally shouted „faaake“ at me before leaving back to his group. Since it was a quick Moment not really allowing me to respond accordingly, the situation was left unexplained and I felt so horribly „catched“ that it left me speechless. I just wished to be more confident but sunk into the ground. 3 weeks later after holiday I sold it. Now it seems far away from mature behavior but that moment literally changed my attitude on how to deal with my reps or Frankens in public.

XF15202 V1: so far my most complimented rep and people were overwhelmed when I revealed that it’s a replica. So far no embarrassing moment so I kept it lol

but jokes aside, to me, honesty is the most important gesture to show if you have one at your wrist. I Never had Someone being somehow „rude“ to me except this one situation after revealing its far-eastern origin.

 

[Storm.]

Weighing in my experience in with my JF 15400 V3 and XF15202 V3: I’ve got spotted relatively often to be fair.

JF 15400 V3: I eventually sold it after a quite embarrassing moment. I’d say 3-4 times people were coming to me and asking to have a look at my wrist while stating „wow that’s a royal oak“ before hitting back the road. And I was never really sure on how to respond and only one time, when a spotter was actually starting a real conversation, I revealed it’s Fake origin leaving him stunning. Then, in Dec 2019 during a trip in Australia, Someone came to me in a Beach Club and just said „nice watch“, sent his friend over 3 min later and asked for a detailed look at it. He skimmed it and literally shouted „faaake“ at me before leaving back to his group. Since it was a quick Moment not really allowing me to respond accordingly, the situation was left unexplained and I felt so horribly „catched“ that it left me speechless. I just wished to be more confident but sunk into the ground. 3 weeks later after holiday I sold it. Now it seems far away from mature behavior but that moment literally changed my attitude on how to deal with my reps or Frankens in public.

XF15202 V1: so far my most complimented rep and people were overwhelmed when I revealed that it’s a replica. So far no embarrassing moment so I kept it lol

but jokes aside, to me, honesty is the most important gesture to show if you have one at your wrist. I Never had Someone being somehow „rude“ to me except this one situation after revealing its far-eastern origin.

Why would you even let a stranger look at ya watch, let alone on a holiday, in a place you don't know.

Plus just laugh and say alright, caught me. No need to be embarrassed.

 

[RonP]

Weighing in my experience in with my JF 15400 V3 and XF15202 V3: I’ve got spotted relatively often to be fair.

JF 15400 V3: I eventually sold it after a quite embarrassing moment. I’d say 3-4 times people were coming to me and asking to have a look at my wrist while stating „wow that’s a royal oak“ before hitting back the road. And I was never really sure on how to respond and only one time, when a spotter was actually starting a real conversation, I revealed it’s Fake origin leaving him stunning. Then, in Dec 2019 during a trip in Australia, Someone came to me in a Beach Club and just said „nice watch“, sent his friend over 3 min later and asked for a detailed look at it. He skimmed it and literally shouted „faaake“ at me before leaving back to his group. Since it was a quick Moment not really allowing me to respond accordingly, the situation was left unexplained and I felt so horribly „catched“ that it left me speechless. I just wished to be more confident but sunk into the ground. 3 weeks later after holiday I sold it. Now it seems far away from mature behavior but that moment literally changed my attitude on how to deal with my reps or Frankens in public.

XF15202 V1: so far my most complimented rep and people were overwhelmed when I revealed that it’s a replica. So far no embarrassing moment so I kept it lol

but jokes aside, to me, honesty is the most important gesture to show if you have one at your wrist. I Never had Someone being somehow „rude“ to me except this one situation after revealing its far-eastern origin.

I'm guessing that even if it was gen he would say it was fake.

 

[legend]

Weighing in my experience in with my JF 15400 V3 and XF15202 V3: I’ve got spotted relatively often to be fair.

JF 15400 V3: I eventually sold it after a quite embarrassing moment. I’d say 3-4 times people were coming to me and asking to have a look at my wrist while stating „wow that’s a royal oak“ before hitting back the road. And I was never really sure on how to respond and only one time, when a spotter was actually starting a real conversation, I revealed it’s Fake origin leaving him stunning. Then, in Dec 2019 during a trip in Australia, Someone came to me in a Beach Club and just said „nice watch“, sent his friend over 3 min later and asked for a detailed look at it. He skimmed it and literally shouted „faaake“ at me before leaving back to his group. Since it was a quick Moment not really allowing me to respond accordingly, the situation was left unexplained and I felt so horribly „catched“ that it left me speechless. I just wished to be more confident but sunk into the ground. 3 weeks later after holiday I sold it. Now it seems far away from mature behavior but that moment literally changed my attitude on how to deal with my reps or Frankens in public.

XF15202 V1: so far my most complimented rep and people were overwhelmed when I revealed that it’s a replica. So far no embarrassing moment so I kept it lol

but jokes aside, to me, honesty is the most important gesture to show if you have one at your wrist. I Never had Someone being somehow „rude“ to me except this one situation after revealing its far-eastern origin.

The rude behavior of the guy has nothing to do with whether your watch is a replica. Just like how different people will choose to respond to different stimulus, this guy has chosen to act like a douche toward your replica watch. I will call out replica watches on others, but only under very specific circumstances. One example is if the guy is trying to present it to me as a gen or showing it off and telling me a bogus story about where he bought it and how much he paid for it. Another example is if the replica watch forms any part of any transaction (buy/sell/trade/deposit) I am involved in, or if I am alerted to it by a family or friend.
Otherwise, what a man puts on his wrist is his own business. If he keeps the watch to himself and does not show it off, there will be zero or almost no call outs. Rep watches IMHO are meant to be enjoyed by the wearer on the wrist, and not for showing off to anyone else. Gens serve largely the same purpose (to please the owner) but one salient difference is that it can be presented as a legit luxury timepiece to whomever whenever. If one is worried about call-outs, gen is the way to go. Even well-built AP frankens for example, have tells which will identify the watch as a replica if one knows where to look. We can never stop someone else from calling out reps, but we always have choices as to the watch we choose to wear and when we choose to wear it.

 

[Watch-a-say]

I attend the local AP collector meet ups and believe it or not you get guys who wear reps (including 2-3 frankens which are just more expensive reps) to the meetings for reasons of their own. Of course most if not all the gen owners at the meetings have no clue that the fancy looking rep APs are reps but I do.
To be completely candid these rep owners are nice people and I saw no reason to call them out at all, even if they have no business attending the gatherings in the first place.

I agree with you therefore, that people get called out more for their attitude than the tells on their rep watches alone.


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I could see someone doing that if they wanted to get a ticket in to see all the nice gens that everyone else is wearing. That could be kind of neat if you didn't actually own one. Or maybe they're just trying to fit in and fooling themselves. Who knows ??? /shrug

 

[Watch-a-say]

Answering the main thread topic, no one's ever said anything while I was wearing my white dial RO. Most likely that no one even recognized it like others have already mentioned.

 

[legend]

Answering the main thread topic, no one's ever said anything while I was wearing my white dial RO. Most likely that no one even recognized it like others have already mentioned.

I think 99% of the reps won’t get called out. Some will look suspicious or some observers will think “that’s a rep” but actually calling out a rep crosses some social boundaries if done randomly or purely for the sake of shaming the wearer.
White dial ROs are very classy IRL I think. If you hold yourself well you can make most watches appear believable on your wrist.


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[Storm.]

The rude behavior of the guy has nothing to do with whether your watch is a replica. Just like how different people will choose to respond to different stimulus, this guy has chosen to act like a douche toward your replica watch. I will call out replica watches on others, but only under very specific circumstances. One example is if the guy is trying to present it to me as a gen or showing it off and telling me a bogus story about where he bought it and how much he paid for it. Another example is if the replica watch forms any part of any transaction (buy/sell/trade/deposit) I am involved in, or if I am alerted to it by a family or friend.
Otherwise, what a man puts on his wrist is his own business. If he keeps the watch to himself and does not show it off, there will be zero or almost no call outs. Rep watches IMHO are meant to be enjoyed by the wearer on the wrist, and not for showing off to anyone else. Gens serve largely the same purpose (to please the owner) but one salient difference is that it can be presented as a legit luxury timepiece to whomever whenever. If one is worried about call-outs, gen is the way to go. Even well-built AP frankens for example, have tells which will identify the watch as a replica if one knows where to look. We can never stop someone else from calling out reps, but we always have choices as to the watch we choose to wear and when we choose to wear it.

Lol im laughin at the possible situation that goes like this
guy tries selling Franken as gen in SG. Legend is called. Guy vehemently denies it.

"I am legend from rwi"

OMG it's will smith

Guy vaporizes

 

[rayz20]

Once a guy tried to call me out to his girlfriend to make himself feel better.
I wore a AP ROO, he was 5-6 Meters away and told his GF my watch is fake because he had a similar one and they are very well replicated. He couldn’t even see it properly since I didn’t try to present it much, i just smiled his words away.

If you’re younger it gets more intense imo people just can’t believe a young person is wearing a expensive watch.

Wear these watches for yourself and ignore people like that, they only spread negativity.

 

[Eggroll_96]

Here in South Florida, I see many MANY people wearing wristwatches (not including smartwatches). Most of them are wearing "look-alike watches" from brands like Seiko and Invicta, which from far away look exactly like the big boy brands. I'm not worried. No one cares.

 

[mech500]

Why and How would you even call someone out for flexing a rep?

“Mate, you’re wearing a fake because the U in Audemars is wrong and the shape of the squares on the dial is wrong”

Can you imagine how stupid and nerdy that would sound in most grown up circles, outside of the internet and outside of school.

Anyone flexing their watch is most likely to respond (and quite rightly so)

“Lol, fuck right off son, da fuck you on about and why da fuck you looking at my wrist”

Anyways, like others have said, I don’t think there’s a need to worry about being called out for wearing a rep. The same guys would call out a gen.






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[Eggroll_96]

...The percent catching you wear fake or not, it depends on your outlook. For example, you wear a Gen Rolex but driving with Corolla, they diffinitely think that is fake. Other sample that everybody knew or saw u worer high end clothes, shoes, accessories, or they way you spending, whatever, even you wore fake they will think that is gen. Stop thinking about people, think about yourself. You like it or not even your gen or fake, it is memorable.

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This^

 

[Apeh15400]

The rude behavior of the guy has nothing to do with whether your watch is a replica. Just like how different people will choose to respond to different stimulus, this guy has chosen to act like a douche toward your replica watch. I will call out replica watches on others, but only under very specific circumstances. One example is if the guy is trying to present it to me as a gen or showing it off and telling me a bogus story about where he bought it and how much he paid for it. Another example is if the replica watch forms any part of any transaction (buy/sell/trade/deposit) I am involved in, or if I am alerted to it by a family or friend.
Otherwise, what a man puts on his wrist is his own business. If he keeps the watch to himself and does not show it off, there will be zero or almost no call outs. Rep watches IMHO are meant to be enjoyed by the wearer on the wrist, and not for showing off to anyone else. Gens serve largely the same purpose (to please the owner) but one salient difference is that it can be presented as a legit luxury timepiece to whomever whenever. If one is worried about call-outs, gen is the way to go. Even well-built AP frankens for example, have tells which will identify the watch as a replica if one knows where to look. We can never stop someone else from calling out reps, but we always have choices as to the watch we choose to wear and when we choose to wear it.

Pretty well summarized IMO. I do think that many spotters automatically imply any replica wearer to „show off“, thus take it as their task to have a strong opinion when calling one out.

 

[legend]

Pretty well summarized IMO. I do think that many spotters automatically imply any replica wearer to „show off“, thus take it as their task to have a strong opinion when calling one out.

If I spot someone wearing a replica watch at an adjacent table at a restaurant, it is purely his business. He knows and I know.
If said guy sees me noticing it and starts telling me about how lucky he was to buy it from Rolex/PP/AP or whatever relevant brand boutique a few days back, I will call him out on it in a playful way.

But the above example represents less than 1% of the types of "rep spots" I have come across. The other 99% of rep wearers, like the gen wearers, simply put on a watch and mind their own businesses, without calling undue attention to the watch on the wrist.