New to RWI. As most, looking to buy a few toys. Ideally 1:1 Super Clones or AAAAA+ versions.
Welcome to RWI!
For starters, absolutely forget terms like "1:1 super clone" or "Real Swiss Replica AAA+++"!
You already stumbled across them and may again, but these terms are all as close to truth as a gold-sh*tting unicorn.
The only things remotely corresponding with actual reality are the following un-official categories (with respective sub categories, but about that you'll learn soon enough if you keep educating yourself about this subject, let's keep it simple for now):
— Shitters (e.g. "DHgate shitter", or on Reddit: "r/Chinatime Shitters")
Those are cheap, very low-grade replicas, prices are ranging anywhere from roughly $10 to $100. They usually have many flaws and tells (compared to the gen) and are of poor to lower medium build quality.
— High-end replicas (e.g."top tier reps", or on Reddit: "r/Reptime reps")
Those are the best available replicas, usually branded with the manufacturer's "factory name" like e.g. VSF, Noob, ZF, VRF etc. Those range from $100 to over $1000 (but on average they cost roughly anywhere between $250 to $600). Build quality ranges from upper medium to NWBIG (stands for "not worth buying in gen").
— Franken watches,
plural: Frankens (term derived from Frankenstein).
Those are replica-based custom builds with genuine parts, ranging from mid 100s to five figure. A Franken watch could already be, very strictly speaking, just a rep with a replaced gen crystal, gen bezel insert or gen dial etc., but usually the definition refers to rather very elaborate and expensive creations, sometimes even with more gen than rep parts in them.
— Genuine watches (the real and only thing that's truly a 1:1 watch, commonly referred to as "gen, plural: gens")
Self-explanatory and the only way to truly have a watch that is identical with the thing you know from the fancy watch ads in magazines or the manufacturer's web site, because every rep, even the best Franken, will never be absolutely 100% identical to the gen.
Hope this helps a bit for the start. Lots of more resources here on RWI with even better information. Have fun exploring and learning!
