I see comments like this a lot, usually more prominent on Reddit actually. To be honest ironically it screams insecurity from you.
I don't speak for all people who want to mod their watch, but for myself. Has it occurred to you that some of us don't care about what others think of our watches? And it's not our mission in life to fool others into thinking we're wearing expensive watches?
It's a hobby to tinker and get the most accurate rep. By your logic it would only make sense to make cosmetic changes, but plenty of members make changes to the movement (balance wheel etc).
Ah but on the flip side of that arguement is that if you dont car what others think about your watches then why worry so much about the minute details between it an the gen article in an attempt to replciate the gen to a point that it woudl pass as a gen!
I get people wanting accuracy as part of the hobby for sure, but what Tesla is trying to get at is that the effort required and often outways the advantages so there is less need to be obsessed about them.
The wearer is often the give away as has already been stated, if I pop down to my local pub with a 200k Richard Mille, Im sure most wouldnt even know what it was but the odd person that does might question it, I dont do too badly out of life and RO is not out of reach even the 20k plus stuff but my yearning for them is not so much these days, it comes down to a 1 watch 'all in' or several for the same value, and throw in the odd rep hear and there for a taster on ' do i? dont i? pull the plug on a gen.
Im pretty up on the gens and how they look and soem of the reps failings which are getting less and less each build. The chances of anyone outside of an RSC or true RO nerd noticing something is off in a chance glance in a public setting away from a good light setting and loupe is almost non existent. If we are talking about a proper wathc guys getting their hands on it under a magnifyer in good light and then studying in it then thatsa different question, and even then noone is gonna sign off on it being a rep or a gen without opening it up and inspecting the movement and as good as they are, unless you have modded it to sucha an extent that the give away parts like the bridges etc... have been swapped to gen parts it doens matter how good the visuals are it will forever be a rep!
If you are trying to test an watch shop then most are just sales people and probably no far less thant even the most noobs on this forum on what to look for as, why would they? They are employed to sell them not check out every punter who comes in looking has a rep on their wrsit or not, and even if you did and they could tell it would be rude to call you out considering you might be in the market for a gen or could have bought a super rep in all honesty thinkig it was real, which happens more ofthen than it doesnt.
I get the want for perfection and I also get the doign it for "less than the man" sayi it should cost, but at the end of the day its a rep and will foreve be a rep with no intrinsic value in 1 yr or 20 yrs (maybe some really old ones that are well built might have a vintage market on RWI in the future once the factories stop making then as is the case with good 5 digit GMT's or Subs)
A gen will always have value due to it being aithentic.
Striving to make one as close as possible is a fun and cool endeavor but worrying about such finite difference that are really not all that noticeable to all but a really well trained eye is not the "tell tale" signs that anyone really need worry about.
The crystals these days are so much better than they ever were so swapping one out for a gen is less needed thant a few years back. The lighting plays a key part in how it looks also. Im not saying dont do it but spending loads of cash and time trying to get it modded and then spoiling the fun of the cheap rep watch you have byt being obsessed with "being caught out" or noticing it everytiem you look at it seems a bit silly.
Does anyone have a late 2024 June build Clean GMT with a gen crystal and polished rehaut to sit aside a stock verison that can be shown like for like in pictures so we can see the true differences? Would be handy to help put this too bed as they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Alot of the mods that get done have been on models from last year and as much as the crystals on clean apparently have not changed supplier its hard to tell if the supplier themselves haven upped their game over the last year or so and are now making much clearer mroe gen like crystals as stock.
Id like to perform a gen crystal mod to a GMT or Jun 24 but still feel that I might get buyers remorse on how much of a difference it really makes vs the cost Ive just splashed out on an in reality rep item that has no value outside this forum or maybe Reddit!
Im sure if I did perform the mod I would sell it to myself that is better to justify my expense, but in the same way that a £400 LED tv is not as good as an £800 but after a few weeks of staring at it its really hard to justfiy the extra!
People can do as they please and Im sure Tesla isnt trying to say anything else, he is just trying to opine that performing these mods isnt required to rectify an instant "tell" as that "tell" is really not that noticeable to the masses you might encounter, and even the odd watch person is not likely to pick up on it in the way that in years of old if the second hand ticks its fake! People still think this is a thing when it hasnt been for more than a decade and more. The worn off gold is a tell!, So is a big solid gold watch when you are wearing cheap clothing and driving a car less worth the gen value of the watch and you are not a Russian gangster lying low!
For reference there is a guy down my local who is a welder (quite a good one by all accounts and semi specialist) he had a cheap Pepsi from Amazon and also has an Cartier Santos both Parnis or similar amazon specials, and at a glance across the bar I found it hard to tell it wasnt a Pespi right up until the point I asked him and he showed me and said it was just a cheap one as he wouldnt pay the price for a Ro one as he could have as many of these cheap ones as he wanted! Most people in the bar would never of noticed and even the ones that might of identified them wouldnt really know.
It horse for course and for the right price getting something that looks as close to a gen is great but not at the expense because you might be caught out .
The reality is if anyone out and about questioned the authenticity of a rep and you then had to explain the differences to them in order to sell it to them that yours is in fact real, really on cements the fact that you know way too much about the differences on real or fake than a person that has the funds to buy a gen model and not worry about it should do.
Just for the record though my opinion counts for nothing as Im irrelevant by all accounts!
