Hello from France !

[championdefoot]

What's up everyone,

I'm Vincent, but you can call me by me display name.
I've been interested in watches for... I don't know, less than a year ? Realistically, I've been wearing a watch for as long I can remember.
My grandma bought me my first (toy) watch from a catalogue when I was a kid, and when I turned 14-15, my mom bought me my first watch : a Seiko PC32A powered Certus dress watch.



As you can see from the scratches, it's been very good to me for the past 11 or so years.

During that time I found a couple of hobbies I'm still very interested in, from fountain pens to audio gear.
One day though, when I was checking some stuff out on AliExpress for one of my other hobbies, I stumbled upon a Chinese brand that made 'homages' and quite obviously, for that price, they looked very interesting.
That's where I discovered that there were a lot of brands that made these, and well, most of them are also pretty shit. But not San Martin.
So in May I bought a watch that's been great and that already tasted Mediterranean water : a Seiko NH35 powered SN017-G-A sub homage.



Skip forward a couple of months and I bought a rep Moonswatch Venus that my girlfriend and I wear. It's fine !

I also bought Pagani's version of the Tudor BB Chrono S&G, but it wasn't great, so I sold it and started looking for alternatives. That's when I found out about RepTime on Reddit.
I started reading a bunch of stuff and maybe a month in I was convinced and pulled the trigger on my first rep over at Trusty Time : a BPF DJ36, ref. 126203-0013.



I opened it up when I got it to waterproof and regulate it, and it's been working like a champ ever since. It's the watch I wear the most.
Then came christmas, and I ordered a BPF OP36 126000-0007 from Trusty for my mom, which again, was great. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of it.

So here we are now, what's next ? Well...



This is a CF Daytona 116508-0013 that I ordered from Theonewatches, and it's currently in the mail.
I'll create a post for it with my first impressions once I get it in a couple of days.

But once again, we're left with the 'what's next ?' question, and I have a couple of answers for that.

First of all, if I like the full gold of the Daytona, I'll get a GMF GMT-Master II 116718LN-0002 with a VR3186, BUT, I do not like the look of the bezel, so I might need to swap it out for the CF one that's available on their 116713LN.
Second of all, I'll get a BPF DD36 118238-0419, which I know is too light compared to gen, but that doesn't really bother me, and waiting a couple of months and paying 300€ more for a GMF Tungsten that might never exists, doesn't really interest me.
And finally, a CF GMT-Master II 126719BLRO-0003, a Patek 5712 or an AP 15500 might be something I'll consider if I find the patience to wait a couple of months for CF or C+ to potentially make a 116718LN instead.

So there you go, if you read this all the way through, thanks. If not, it doesn't really matter. In any case, see you on the forum !

Cheers.

 

[wisedennis]

What's up everyone,

I'm Vincent, but you can call me by me display name.
I've been interested in watches for... I don't know, less than a year ? Realistically, I've been wearing a watch for as long I can remember.
My grandma bought me my first (toy) watch from a catalogue when I was a kid, and when I turned 14-15, my mom bought me my first watch : a Seiko PC32A powered Certus dress watch.



As you can see from the scratches, it's been very good to me for the past 11 or so years.

During that time I found a couple of hobbies I'm still very interested in, from fountain pens to audio gear.
One day though, when I was checking some stuff out on AliExpress for one of my other hobbies, I stumbled upon a Chinese brand that made 'homages' and quite obviously, for that price, they looked very interesting.
That's where I discovered that there were a lot of brands that made these, and well, most of them are also pretty shit. But not San Martin.
So in May I bought a watch that's been great and that already tasted Mediterranean water : a Seiko NH35 powered SN017-G-A sub homage.



Skip forward a couple of months and I bought a rep Moonswatch Venus that my girlfriend and I wear. It's fine !

I also bought Pagani's version of the Tudor BB Chrono S&G, but it wasn't great, so I sold it and started looking for alternatives. That's when I found out about RepTime on Reddit.
I started reading a bunch of stuff and maybe a month in I was convinced and pulled the trigger on my first rep over at Trusty Time : a BPF DJ36, ref. 126203-0013.



I opened it up when I got it to waterproof and regulate it, and it's been working like a champ ever since. It's the watch I wear the most.
Then came christmas, and I ordered a BPF OP36 126000-0007 from Trusty for my mom, which again, was great. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of it.

So here we are now, what's next ? Well...



This is a CF Daytona 116508-0013 that I ordered from Theonewatches, and it's currently in the mail.
I'll create a post for it with my first impressions once I get it in a couple of days.

But once again, we're left with the 'what's next ?' question, and I have a couple of answers for that.

First of all, if I like the full gold of the Daytona, I'll get a GMF GMT-Master II 116718LN-0002 with a VR3186, BUT, I do not like the look of the bezel, so I might need to swap it out for the CF one that's available on their 116713LN.
Second of all, I'll get a BPF DD36 118238-0419, which I know is too light compared to gen, but that doesn't really bother me, and waiting a couple of months and paying 300€ more for a GMF Tungsten that might never exists, doesn't really interest me.
And finally, a CF GMT-Master II 126719BLRO-0003, a Patek 5712 or an AP 15500 might be something I'll consider if I find the patience to wait a couple of months for CF or C+ to potentially make a 116718LN instead.

So there you go, if you read this all the way through, thanks. If not, it doesn't really matter. In any case, see you on the forum !

Cheers.

I like your profile pic, that’s Steven chow in parody of Leon

 

[championdefoot]

I like your profile pic, that’s Steven chow in parody of Leon

Yeah it's a still from 'Out of The Dark' ! Love that movie.

 

[raspan1123]

salut l'ami! bienvenue et profitez
nice writeup too! Enjoy the hunt

 

[carvallosputtingchallenge]

Welcome Vincent, that was a good read.

I've just joined here and have a bit of a similar journey from Ali Express in the search of a Bond watch homage (or 3), then Reptime and now here!

 

[championdefoot]

New watch day ! Well, let's pretend we're still the 19th of January...



I posted about it on r/RepTime a couple of days ago, but this is the post about it I promised when I started the thread, and honestly I'm just going to make this thread my own personal page on here.

About the watch : it's fantastic. It's everything I expected it to be and more, because I heard about the ARF bracelet, but man, coming from two BPF watches, it's quite incredible that they managed to make it even better.

Also, like I posted on Reddit, the movement's excellent. It's been keeping great time and it's been very reliable. The best part of it though : the power reserve. On the 27th of Jan. I decided to test it, and it stopped 68 hours and 17 minutes later on the 30th. Come on man.

Anyways, here are a couple more pictures under different lighting conditions.




Now once again, what's next ?

Well, for starters, I had a Grape Dial DD36 from EWF on order, but I cancelled it for another watch.
What other watch did I order ? Well, an EWF OP36 in Coral Red. Yes, that's right, a watch I already own from BPF and that I don't even wear because it was a christmas gift for my mom.
But hear me out : I have two reps I love wearing and looking at, but whenever I see her wearing that OP, I can't help but be disappointed in my purchase because of that terribly boring flat red dial. Also, she wore a parts bin Seiko I made for her before that which had great lume, and that OP truly sucks in comparison.
I'll make a thread comparing them both once I get it, and I might get a new black OP dial and relume the hands of the BPF to make it mine.

So that's it for now, thanks for reading.

Cheers.

 

[eBoy]