Is it true that replicas eventually lead to genuine watch buy?

[AFRF11]

I think it depends on the person. I own both and I bought my first rep so I didn’t “beat up” my gen. I do know someone that started with reps and now only buys gen.

 

[RDRoss]

I agree that for a good number of folks out there, they are wearing a status symbol and don’t appreciate the craftsmanship that went in to it. For every trendy person out there, there is (I hope at least) another person out there who is appreciative of the quality timepiece and wears it as a sign of respect and love for it.

I have reps of that I enjoy wearing on a daily basis and gens I love to wear as well. I love my unique pieces by Vincent Calabrese and GG as much as my tool watches (a couple of Tudors and Omegas).

I don’t think it matters if you rock a gen or a Franken beastie or even a rockin rep, so long as you enjoy it.

 

[hbk25]

I didn’t realize the level of these reps until I stumbled on a YouTube video last year regarding Panerai refusing to “buyback“ their own watches because the reps were so good. Two mouse clicks later, I’m on RWI.

Mind you it’s only been 4 months of accumulating reps, but I’m content and these pieces definitely scratch the itch. Further if I look at things rationally, the 20 reps I’ve purchased in that time frame equal one gen from Rolex (at list). Coupled with the shitty way things went down with “my AD” couple years back over a Daytona-C, and the absolute madness of grey dealer prices, yeah I’ll be a supporter of this community for the foreseeable future.

My biggest issue with the rep world is that it doesn’t take a lot of ”squeeze to get the juice.” So you end up getting your hands on so many pieces that you long considered ”grails.” That’s not even “first world problems,” it’s more like what I imagine a “billionaires’ dilemma,” lol.

Second issue with reps, coming from an exclusively gen past, there is that last 5-10% missing, depending on the factory. Whether that’s an obvious one like the lack of heft in a precious metal piece or a not so obvious one like, ”hmmm, I can’t quite put my finger on it.” And hell that could simply be me knowing it’s not the real McCoy.

 

[P..DR..D]

My biggest issue with the rep world is that it doesn’t take a lot of ”squeeze to get the juice.” So you end up getting your hands on so many pieces that you long considered ”grails.” That’s not even “first world problems,” it’s more like what I imagine a “billionaires’ dilemma,” lol.

Try get a TC or a rare PAM, then you'll be back to the AD dilemma

But I agree with you on the available replica models for sure.

I personally think that the researching and hunting is part of the reason why this hobby is so much fun.

Because if you could list off A, B, C & D on day 1, and get them easily, where is the excitement or thrill

Congrats on your collection so far & for becoming a supporter so soon in btw.

 

[W47chl0v3r]

This hobby also has something for everyone, from the rare part chaser to the self-DIYers to the collectors. Not to mention the insane learning curve. Studying reps and flaws and understanding how to mod them to remove flaws is basically an undergraduate degree.

 

[Jorich79]

Well that's an interesting question! The answer is yes, in some case, definitely not in others, but the real answer is 'get out now while you can!'

When I turned 40 a few years ago I treated myself to a gen Heuer monaco gulf, I had been obsessing about it for years, but once I owned it, the magic went away honestly within weeks. Then I realised that I actually wanted a Tudor BlackBay 58...and after buying that particular grail I realised within hours I just wanted a Rolex no-date Sub...so since then I have been basically rejected by every Rolex dealer I walk into, they refuse to sell me a steel sports watch and basically laugh in my face for daring to ask to spend £9k in their shop.

Since then I have fallen out of love with Rolex as a company, and wanted to screw them over for making me feel like a hobo, so spent the last few months buying Pagani Design versions of the Rolex products: the sub, fauxtina old style sub (the best by a mile) Batman GMT master II , but the quality isnt always the best . I just ordered a rep no-date sub from a TD, so hope that will cure me of my watch buying illness!

I think I'm more obsessed with the research, reading and watching reviews etc than the actual thing itself. So my journey has gone from Gen...to homage...to copy. If Rolex rang me up now, I would tell them to get stuffed, as the company are snobs. To think they used to be the swiss watch of the working man, the snobs deserve to never sell another watch as far as I am concerned

 

[guarda]

For me it's the other way around. Looking for travel doppelgangers of my gens.

 

[occb2]

Love this topic. My experience is.....

My dad got me into Rolex. When I was a kid, he had a 5513 sub. I loved it not knowing what Rolex was. In High school he got me a Casio sub type watch. Down the road, I got my first Rep in the early 90's. Terrible one. I was in canal street and brought one for $50. It was a very bad copy of a sub. I really never wore it. It was that bad of a copy.

When I was turning 30, I brought my first Rolex. It was a brand new 16610. The first of the SEL. I ended up trading it in for a 16613LN years later. I wore that 16613LN till I retired. About 5 years ago my local TD got his hands on a 2000 16610LN. I jumped on it. Price was right.My first real "REP" was a TC 16610LV. When I joined RWI I had got a 116610LN from Toro. It was DOA. It was a ETA rep. So I ended up having him send me a real ETA at cost and I installed it. I realized it wasn't that hard to do. I had a lot of time on my hands and I always wanted to know how a watch ticks. So I brought a lot of tools and built a small shop in my house. I learned how to service an ETA. Then the whole Yuki movement happen and I met Mike who is one of our SV's. He is local in NY. Started to lean the 3135 movement and building watches for myself. It has been an amazing, fun and fulfilling journey.

The TC I had, I still have the LV but it isn't TC anymore. I went from a TC to a TC with real movement. Then TC with real movement, dial, hands and bezel. Now it's a Phong case and every other part is Rolex. 93250 Band, crystal, crystal ring, dial, hands, 3135, date wheel, bezel and insert, click, tension washer crown tube. 3 full rolexes that Rolex has appraised. A 116610LV, 116710LN, 16710. I have built more full rolexes. A 16613LN a 16610LN,16800 a 16620. I have built amazing, 16620's all real but midcase when Sean had his cases. I built a 16623 also all real but band and case.

I love sourcing the parts and building a watch.

I just completed a 16613LB.

So the answer I can give is I did start out with a rep but I would never really wear it. The quality back then was terrible. Now I have so much fun with my watches that I actually like my reps better. There are 3 types of people here on RWI. Watch wearer's. Those are the ones that buy reps and just wear them. Watch upgraders. Will buy a rep and put a few parts on them that are real. Then watch builders. Those are people like me who have fun with their watches. To me the case is the whole thing. The case has to be able to take all rolex parts. Then I will slowly build a watch to my liking. Right now in my collection, I have a real 16610LN, 16613LN, 16613LB. I have an all real but midcase 16610LV and 116610LN. I have a 16710 Pepsi that is a fake case, VS3185 and the rest is rolex parts. Band is 93250 and clasp is a GMT clasp but real rolex parts. I have a CF Daytona all stock and a VSF pre-raid 116610LV Hulk all stock and a VSF pre-raid 126610LV Starbucks all stock. I was going to build it up but the prices of the parts out weight the watch. Plus it's almost impossible to find a real 3235 new. Love this hobby and RWI!!!!!!

 

[OI812]

Very similar story to mine, BUT, you're MILES ahead of me with watchmaking expertise! I also started with genuine then bought reps for the bracelets. Then I bought 2 or 3 franken's that I still wear from time to time, along with a few genuine pieces and "boutique" divers, etc.

Now, I'm getting myself better equipped to move forward from simple repairs, polishing, dial swaps, movement installs, etc to the real deal. I'm about to attempt my first servicing, etc. so fingers crossed....

 

[RDRoss]

Love this topic. My experience is.....

My dad got me into Rolex. When I was a kid, he had a 5513 sub. I loved it not knowing what Rolex was. In High school he got me a Casio sub type watch. Down the road, I got my first Rep in the early 90's. Terrible one. I was in canal street and brought one for $50. It was a very bad copy of a sub. I really never wore it. It was that bad of a copy.

When I was turning 30, I brought my first Rolex. It was a brand new 16610. The first of the SEL. I ended up trading it in for a 16613LN years later. I wore that 16613LN till I retired. About 5 years ago my local TD got his hands on a 2000 16610LN. I jumped on it. Price was right.My first real "REP" was a TC 16610LV. When I joined RWI I had got a 116610LN from Toro. It was DOA. It was a ETA rep. So I ended up having him send me a real ETA at cost and I installed it. I realized it wasn't that hard to do. I had a lot of time on my hands and I always wanted to know how a watch ticks. So I brought a lot of tools and built a small shop in my house. I learned how to service an ETA. Then the whole Yuki movement happen and I met Mike who is one of our SV's. He is local in NY. Started to lean the 3135 movement and building watches for myself. It has been an amazing, fun and fulfilling journey.

The TC I had, I still have the LV but it isn't TC anymore. I went from a TC to a TC with real movement. Then TC with real movement, dial, hands and bezel. Now it's a Phong case and every other part is Rolex. 93250 Band, crystal, crystal ring, dial, hands, 3135, date wheel, bezel and insert, click, tension washer crown tube. 3 full rolexes that Rolex has appraised. A 116610LV, 116710LN, 16710. I have built more full rolexes. A 16613LN a 16610LN,16800 a 16620. I have built amazing, 16620's all real but midcase when Sean had his cases. I built a 16623 also all real but band and case.

I love sourcing the parts and building a watch.

I just completed a 16613LB.

So the answer I can give is I did start out with a rep but I would never really wear it. The quality back then was terrible. Now I have so much fun with my watches that I actually like my reps better. There are 3 types of people here on RWI. Watch wearer's. Those are the ones that buy reps and just wear them. Watch upgraders. Will buy a rep and put a few parts on them that are real. Then watch builders. Those are people like me who have fun with their watches. To me the case is the whole thing. The case has to be able to take all rolex parts. Then I will slowly build a watch to my liking. Right now in my collection, I have a real 16610LN, 16613LN, 16613LB. I have an all real but midcase 16610LV and 116610LN. I have a 16710 Pepsi that is a fake case, VS3185 and the rest is rolex parts. Band is 93250 and clasp is a GMT clasp but real rolex parts. I have a CF Daytona all stock and a VSF pre-raid 116610LV Hulk all stock and a VSF pre-raid 126610LV Starbucks all stock. I was going to build it up but the prices of the parts out weight the watch. Plus it's almost impossible to find a real 3235 new. Love this hobby and RWI!!!!!!

Well said Sir! For me the joy is now building fun pieces I can enjoy. I am currently building a 5701 all gen except for the movement, and am contemplating turning a 16013 case set I have into a nifty 1016 or 6610 explorer. This hobby rocks!

 

[TheWatchGuy2]

It can go both ways. I had a few $150 daytonas about 15+ years ago that just sat there. I started into more expensive watches with my first Tag Forumla 1. Then for a long time did nothing. Then as my income grew and my interest renewed in watches I went and bought a gen Dark Side of the Moon Apollo 8 then a gen Seamaster SMP 300 and another TAG Carrera 2 Rose Gold. That led me to re-looking at reps and discovered how good they had become during my 15+ years of absence. I bought a bunch of reps and still bought a gen Moonwatch and another moonwatch with the Mitsukoshi dial. In some cases Gen it is and others, the rep too good to go Gen. Each has there place and at least with reps you can have much more variety to choose from without the expense.

 

[pam63C]

Interesting topic, a certain yes for me.

My first and only rep was brought more than 20 years ago when I don't even knew the differences between quartz and mechanical during the era when quartz reigned. It was a Panerai, brought unknowingly off a friend for a pittance (in today's terms) but with an ETA movement and immediately I was drawn to its smooth sweeping seconds hand.

My interest on mechanical watches grew from then and there and my collections of gen watches grew ...... strangely enough, I never ever look back at a rep. I have watches from most of the big brands and am satisfied with my collection and not actively looking to add a rep or a gen.

It was until recently when I stumbled across RWI and was amazed at the super-clone watches being made and the knowledge of the members here in differentiating between rep and gen. I am now considering getting a super-clone just to amuse myself and my drinking buddies on what we can actually get for the price of a Seiko Prospect diver.

 

[serumdiesel]

My case was the other way around.

Went from entry level gens, to mid and high level gens, got tired of the gen world BS and snobery and went 50% rep to about 90% rep now.
Eventually I wont own any gens, maybe apart from the occasional GShock.

Same, except the impetus for me to start getting into reps was more than one incident of theft while traveling.

 

[Yacht-Monster]

I’m the exact opposite, since discovering this world I’ve stopped buying gens. It’s true for some watches that the rep can’t compare to the gen, but with some reps it’s do close that buying the gen if your purchase is aesthetically motivated makes little sense. Some reps nowadays will pass unless the watch buff has a loupe, even then it might still pass.

I also like buying a watch regularly, so this works better for me than the gen world.

 

[g00n]

I also like buying a watch regularly, so this works better for me than the gen world.

 

[swps]

I still new to the Rep world and as someone who has only bought entry level luxury watches ( Oris, Rado, Zodiac) I feel like I'll still buy Gen but buying the Rep will help me narrow down which Gens will actually get my money. The way I see it is that this is a great way for me to scratch the watch buying itch without the risk of not bonding with a more expensive watch.

I tend to buy a new watch every month and sell those I didn't bond with to fund those purchases. I've also bought some Rep grail watches that I know I'll never spend the 5 figure number on, but aren't so rare that I feel silly wearing them. In the end, I buy watches for me, Rep or Gen, I don't care what anyone else thinks and I'll continue to purchase both.

 

[Vineetd23]

It definitely could go from reps to gen, unless you’re wearing reps whose gens would be $75k+, these days even if you have the money to purchase them, you’ll have to be on a waitlist for years or pay double the list price, to where it’s just not worth it. Especially with such quality reps these days, especially when you’ve had a few mods done.

 

[manphibian]

Think it depends on the watch. If I was a rolex fan I'd only ever buy reps

Myself I love panerai and Bell & ross, starting with the reps lead me to buy gens of both brands, after owning them for a while I've ended up selling the gens that have a decent rep version, because the small differences are not worth the huge difference in cost...

The only gens I've kept are those that have no decent rep, such as Bell & Ross Br05 skeleton, and my newest, the tudor fastrider black shield.

For panerai's I think the reps are pretty much all the way as good as gens

I also buy gens from smaller brands like farer

The end result though is that getting in to reps definitely got me in to buying more expensive gens than I ever would have dreamt of, not sure if that's a good thing or not

 

[mac427]

What's your experience in this journey?
For me persilonaly replica watches leaded to genuine Omega SMP watch buy, but it was more like coincidence than pure need for genuine watch.

I've had 15 Swiss luxury watches including Breitling, Omega and ten Rolex models. In my case, I made the opposite move because I found the replicas were so good the gens were a waste of money and sold them all. I now have a Clean Factory Pepsi and Sub and enjoy them just as much as the gens for a lot less money.

 

[eBoy]

Hey! Wanna avoid buying a gen and not waste 10k on it?

I got the solution!

Buy 20 reps!

You won't have 10k left to waste it senselessly on watches...

Yup!!! The math checks out!