I seem to have evolved in my enjoyment of reps, I'm wondering if we all do.
At first, I only bought stuff from the NWBIG list, whether I really liked it or not, just because it was "the best." I don't really ever wear most of them, just knew that availability is often temporary, and didn't want to miss the chance to have one of each. I think I have pretty much the entire list now, other than some of the PAMs (I do like Panerai, but if I'm honest, they really only make 3 watches...Luminor, Radiomir, and Submersible...everything else is just variations in dials and case sizes) and nothing by Richard Mille...I just never fell in love with the design, and quite frankly, it's not something that most of us could pull off. $100k+ watches are not in the realm of possibilites for most of us.
Then it was modding vintage watches, trying to achieve (near) perfection, and building reps that didn't really exist on the market.
While I still enjoy building and trying to blaze new territory in modding, I'm also finding I like "project" watches quite a bit. Give me something that needs some TLC at a decent discount, and I can't say, "no."
But the last couple purchases I've made from dealers are watches like this...not perfect to fine scrutiny, but a decent quality rep that does the job. I picked up a BP 16610 because I couldn't justify the cost of paying more for the ARF (which is admittedly better) and the gen parts to make it better. I could have a near perfect franken ARF 16610, or for a few $grand more, I could just go gen, which I have my eye out to do. After I get the gen, I'll keep the BP for beating on, and wear the gen on special occasions. The BP 16610 may not look exactly like a gen 16610, but it looks exactly like a "Submariner from 20-40 years ago" if that makes any sense, in layman's terms.
I like this one for the same reasons. It's not a 1:1 copy, there are flaws, but it does look enough like an early generation Explorer 2 and the price is right. If it takes gen parts, I may swap a few in (I've got some bezels and gen crystals in the stash), and be done with it.
