In your honest opinion, how many people out there do you think wear reps?

[photoman9988]

In my line of work, I deal with mostly upper-middle class. These guys drive BMW 5 series or Mercedes E350's ect. Almost ALL of them have Rolex, Breitling, or Tag's. Every time I see one, I wonder if it's real, or if they just got a rep from somewhere.

Do you think a lot of them are actually reps, or do you think these people spend thousands on a watch?

 

[Bonesey]

99% of people probably wouldnt even consider a rep. Unless they know about the higher end rep scene a 'fake rolex' or whatever is something bought for a laugh whilst on holiday from a street vendor for $20.

 

[tokeyx]

I don't really see your point. I make a very comfortable living and I wear nothing but reps at this point. I don't think I'll ever buy another gen again. Just because I can afford a $10,000 watch doesn't mean I'll buy one when I can get a near perfect rep for $500.

I was chatting with a coworker of mine last week. He's a busy interventional cardiologist pulling about $350,000 on a bad year. He noticed my new Hublot and said "Nice watch I love Hublots". I told him I like his Bently Breitling. He takes it off, shows it to me, then smiles and tells me it's a replica. I wasn't going to tell him mine was a rep, but after he told me that I laughed and told him mine was too. Turns out he bought his from Josh, I told him I got mine through puretime and told him about the forum here.

Point of the story is this: I now assume every watch I see is a rep. But I could care less, I wear them too. So what if it's gen or rep?

 

[Kerbus]

The ones with such luxury cars who do collect reps probably collect only the best ones available and say nothing about their watches, unless of course they encounter a fellow high end rep collector. Just like in the post above.

The ones I know with genuine watches still want the best value for their money so they've purchased them used from places like National Watch, Capetown, Gray and Sons, etc.

 

[Cynikal.Mindset]

I just turned a "Gen" guy on to reps...sold him a Breitling Chronomat B01. After he saw my watches and found out how "well priced" they were buying a Gen made no sense.

In the end though I would think more people wear gens than reps as the stigma with "fake" watches is very strong and nobody wants to be called out on the "Faux-Lex"

 

[Wuggy]

Really interesting question OP... I'm not sure we'll ever know. But I have a feeling there are more rep wearers compared to gen wearers every year.

 

[tokeyx]

Now what I want to know is how many of those rep wearers are sporting "swiss" replicas they found online for $500, when they are $40 canal street quality watches.

 

[lourentgarnier]

i can assure that there are a lot of wealthy people (i don't mean millionnaires) that don't wear a replica just because they don't know that exist such kind of high end rep watches. I always say that have a good income dosen't mean that someone must throw thousands in a watch.

 

[believer123]

i can assure that there are a lot of wealthy people (i don't mean millionnaires) that don't wear a replica just because they don't know that exist such kind of high end rep watches. I always say that have a good income dosen't mean that someone must throw thousands in a watch.

That's a very good point... Especially since most quality REPs are about 95% accurate, they are less than 10% of the GEN -AND- mostly because of the 99.999% rule...

 

[believer123]

^^^ On the other hand, REP wearers still pour thousands into watches, just not into ~A~ watch... A thousand bucks will get you at least 3 (REP) watches!

 

[Fortey]

Now what I want to know is how many of those rep wearers are sporting "swiss" replicas they found online for $500, when they are $40 canal street quality watches.

Yeah, I'm curious about this too, and how many of them bought watches through spam emails?

 

[lourentgarnier]

^^^ On the other hand, REP wearers still pour thousands into watches, just not into ~A~ watch... A thousand bucks will get you at least 3 (REP) watches!

yes, this is a point, that gen owners might don't know about the dark side; we probably have more watches but it's not so automatic to say that we spend less in watches....
The last month i spent $1500 with Angus and BK and i was reading about a guy that did $2000.......as i said once, i think that we just prefer quantity instead of quality considering that the trade off in quality is totally acceptable considering price. If many gen owners could touch with hands what we buy and own i think that more than one would feel stupid.

 

[Dodgy]

None, no one suspects.
My friends are mainly big earners.

 

[aksingh]

I never thought many people had reps before but the figures coming from the dealers and factories on how many they are selling runs well into the many millions and as we on the rep forums are considered a tiny tiny percentage of their sales alot are being sold I assume mostly to Europe, America, Japan, Australasia, so there are probably alot more reps on the streets than we think.

 

[slimslim]

3-400 bucks for a watch is a luxury purchase. granted not the cost of a gen. but still. the average family in northern argentina lives on around 1000usd...a year. and they eat every day. thats not true of everyone on this big spinning ball... i'm not trying to make anyone feel bad. i'm just saying that 400 bucks is nothing to scoff at; for something you don't need. as for a direct reply to the OP, it's hard to say. clearly there are many more reps than gens produced. but as we all know here, it is far more likely that a rep buyer will buy more than one. more than 10 perhaps so i will give it even odds; out of hand.
it's more of a observation thing. on the street who can tell? but if you have time to observe a person, like at work it would be easier to tell. like if the temp has a hublot an AP and a TT rolex that he rotates thru, they are likely reps. you never know for sure. his family might be rich and he has a 100million dollar trust that only pays if he works. these things happen. but if i had to bet; they are fake.

if your boss wears an old rolex/omega ect, only that watch. and it looks legit. it is likely real. but on the street or at a party, if it is one of the better watches here, good luck.

 

[phillycheez]

how many people out there actually wear watches?

 

[If you see Kay]

By default I will assume most people will be wearing a gen, unless I suspect otherwise. I have colleagues who have a Navitimer, a Pam, a Franck Muller Conquistador, a Brietling SOSF, a Rolex Exlplorer, and an Omega Constellation. That is what I've spotted so far. Some of our clients, I've spotted Pams, Omegas, Rolex, a Breitling Bently. I only suspect one wearer to have a rep, but I've only seen him once. One of my aquantances has a Rollie and the other has a SMP. Maybe some of these are reps, I don't know and I wouldn't ask either. Some know I wear gen Omegas but none know I also wear reps to work.

 

[honeybear]

Some know I wear gen Omegas but none know I also wear reps to work.

Just curious why someone would know (as opposed to assume) you wear gen Omegas, but not know that you wear reps as well.

 

[If you see Kay]

well, because I wear my gens more than my reps to work, and only those were noticed. THey asked about my Omegas but never about my reps, or never noticed them.

 

[honeybear]

well, because I wear my gens more than my reps to work, and only those were noticed. THey asked about my Omegas but never about my reps, or never noticed them.

I'm not sure I would call a person out on a rep, even if it was glaringly obvious, it just seems a bit rude to do so.

We really need some sort of "secret handshake" so that we can identify fellow replica connoisseurs...