Just wanted to take a moment and introduce myself. I'm Laz, Lazarus handle was taken so I added a little latin flair to my name. I feel as though Ive fallen down a bit of a rabbit hole to be quite honest so as I try to make sense of it myself I hope you bear with me as I regale you with a tale of how I got here.
TL
R - I want to get a Submariner Date. Refuse to pay retail prices for used and wait around for an untold amount of time to spend $10k+ on a watch. On a long road I stumbled onto this site.
I love watches. The first thing I brought with my first paycheck back in circa 1997 was a Nautica watch from Macys and I still have it. As Ive gotten older my humble collection increased to include nice pieces like a Bulova Precisionist, Hamilton, Movado, and Tissot. A couple years ago I found myself in a financial position to step into some of the nicer Swiss watches, like Tag and Omega. I love Casino Royale when Vesper ask James: "Rolex?" and he says "OMEEEGA" So I've decided I will buy a gen Omega Seamaster 300M. However I feel as though your layperson probably doesnt appreciate what an Omega is, its like everyone knows what Rolex is, but Omega they like what? So now Im thinking maybe I should get a Rolex I mean its like the pinnacle of watches right? Everyone knows them they have a long storied history so OK I settle on a Submariner Date. Nothing to fancy, just a nice simple Rolex yet its twice the price of the Omega I wanted and this is all before I learn that they are nearly impossible to buy new at retail.
So lets go back in time to last October. My wifes cousin visits us and he always has LV bags and Gucci belts and all these clothes. He tells us that a lot of the stuff we see isnt real and that he buys a lot of stuff from a guy in China and he gives me the guys Whatsapp info. I starting talking to the guy asking about a Rolex 126610LN. He sends me some pictures that look GREAT! Actually as I type this I'm looking at our conversation and the pictures and it has a sticker on it that says CLEAN 3235 Super.... funny that I know what Clean is now. LOL
Anyways the guy wants PP FF and since I got his info from my cousin I figure Id go ahead and send it to him. Well time goes on and on and after a month I'm like OK whats going on. He tells me it got hung up in customs and I never got the watch. So after that dealing with replicas kinda put a bad taste in my mouth because I figured if they all have to pass through customs then Id probably never give one.
Fast forward to a month ago. I'm looking on Instagram and I see what looks like a Daytona Panda. I mean they have a pretty noticable face. I click on the picture and I see Seiko in the middle but everything else looks like Daytona, says Oyster Perpetual and Daytona in red and everything but it also says Seiko. So I look into the company and apparently they are "mods" that you can either buy or that companies sell as modded or homage watches that uses Seiko movements. Looking into the I stumbled across the Seiko reddit (I swear they have a reddit for everything now) and saw a legit Seiko that looks very similar to a Daytona, the SSC813. I was thinking about getting one of them for Black Friday but decided against it. That said since a gen Daytona Panda goes for 33k I might look into getting a rep.
So last week my wife saw a replica Rolex Yachtmaster for $75 and figured she would get it, knowing that some half decent reps cost at least a couple hundred I was skeptical. It came today, it wasnt good, light weight, feels very cheap, the bezel was like a dull silver look, I've never seen one in person so I dont know how close it looks but while waiting for her to opened it I pulled up a yotube video compare a rep to a gen Submariner (I actually thought she had brought a Sub, I didnt remember that it was a YM that she brought). Anyway someone in the comments mentioned super fakes and mentioned VSF and Clean. Well I went straight to google to find out what a VSF Submariner was and how I could get one. I went to the Reptime reddit, and looked at their Who Makes the Best guide and found VSF and Clean does make the best rep Subs. Then I checked their TD list and came across JTime. I saw on the reddit something about a forum which I think they referred to this forum and starting poking around on here and well here I am.
Thank you so much for taking out the time to read it if you read it. I do have some questions but I'll reserve them until after I read the FAQ.
TL
R - I want to get a Submariner Date. Refuse to pay retail prices for used and wait around for an untold amount of time to spend $10k+ on a watch. On a long road I stumbled onto this site.I love watches. The first thing I brought with my first paycheck back in circa 1997 was a Nautica watch from Macys and I still have it. As Ive gotten older my humble collection increased to include nice pieces like a Bulova Precisionist, Hamilton, Movado, and Tissot. A couple years ago I found myself in a financial position to step into some of the nicer Swiss watches, like Tag and Omega. I love Casino Royale when Vesper ask James: "Rolex?" and he says "OMEEEGA" So I've decided I will buy a gen Omega Seamaster 300M. However I feel as though your layperson probably doesnt appreciate what an Omega is, its like everyone knows what Rolex is, but Omega they like what? So now Im thinking maybe I should get a Rolex I mean its like the pinnacle of watches right? Everyone knows them they have a long storied history so OK I settle on a Submariner Date. Nothing to fancy, just a nice simple Rolex yet its twice the price of the Omega I wanted and this is all before I learn that they are nearly impossible to buy new at retail.
So lets go back in time to last October. My wifes cousin visits us and he always has LV bags and Gucci belts and all these clothes. He tells us that a lot of the stuff we see isnt real and that he buys a lot of stuff from a guy in China and he gives me the guys Whatsapp info. I starting talking to the guy asking about a Rolex 126610LN. He sends me some pictures that look GREAT! Actually as I type this I'm looking at our conversation and the pictures and it has a sticker on it that says CLEAN 3235 Super.... funny that I know what Clean is now. LOL
Anyways the guy wants PP FF and since I got his info from my cousin I figure Id go ahead and send it to him. Well time goes on and on and after a month I'm like OK whats going on. He tells me it got hung up in customs and I never got the watch. So after that dealing with replicas kinda put a bad taste in my mouth because I figured if they all have to pass through customs then Id probably never give one.
Fast forward to a month ago. I'm looking on Instagram and I see what looks like a Daytona Panda. I mean they have a pretty noticable face. I click on the picture and I see Seiko in the middle but everything else looks like Daytona, says Oyster Perpetual and Daytona in red and everything but it also says Seiko. So I look into the company and apparently they are "mods" that you can either buy or that companies sell as modded or homage watches that uses Seiko movements. Looking into the I stumbled across the Seiko reddit (I swear they have a reddit for everything now) and saw a legit Seiko that looks very similar to a Daytona, the SSC813. I was thinking about getting one of them for Black Friday but decided against it. That said since a gen Daytona Panda goes for 33k I might look into getting a rep.
So last week my wife saw a replica Rolex Yachtmaster for $75 and figured she would get it, knowing that some half decent reps cost at least a couple hundred I was skeptical. It came today, it wasnt good, light weight, feels very cheap, the bezel was like a dull silver look, I've never seen one in person so I dont know how close it looks but while waiting for her to opened it I pulled up a yotube video compare a rep to a gen Submariner (I actually thought she had brought a Sub, I didnt remember that it was a YM that she brought). Anyway someone in the comments mentioned super fakes and mentioned VSF and Clean. Well I went straight to google to find out what a VSF Submariner was and how I could get one. I went to the Reptime reddit, and looked at their Who Makes the Best guide and found VSF and Clean does make the best rep Subs. Then I checked their TD list and came across JTime. I saw on the reddit something about a forum which I think they referred to this forum and starting poking around on here and well here I am.
Thank you so much for taking out the time to read it if you read it. I do have some questions but I'll reserve them until after I read the FAQ.
