Little insight as to how it all works

[KLevin]

I am constantly being asked by members how this and that works within the rep trade so here is a little insight which will I hope answer a few if not all of the questions.

1st the misconceptions

No one has exclusive rights to a particular watch if it's in the market every dealer can buy it whether they can find it or not is another matter but if they can they can in 99% of cases buy it.

Not all dealers pay the same price for items dealers that hold stock in general pay less than the dealers that buy as they need . Really this is common sense but many believe everyone pays the same.

Not everyone can go directly to factory to buy regardless of what you are told in fact very very few are factory direct. This is not a bad thing to be honest as many times better prices can be found outside the factory with wholesalers unless you are buying a particular item in 100's the factory price will not be that competitive.

Not all factories make all models this current trend of calling everything Noob factory or Hublot V1 factory is in the main not true.
The Noob name was associated with a Rolex Sub/YM and was not actually made in China it was made from parts sourced and assembled in Bangkok by a small group of importers,this has since stopped and the importers have gone their separate ways.
There is however one of the original importers still making what I suppose you could call a Noob sub although it is not the same as the original Noob sub it is better than the average Chinese version.

Selling reps is not legal anywhere on earth regardless of it being widely done in the East it is still illegal and a risky business.
The police will regularly decide to make reps a priority and close down sellers and manufacturers
It is common place in Bangkok at least to see police closing a complete Mall down and seizing 1000's of items.
I personally know some importers that have lost $2-$300K worth over the last 12 months or so.
Also most vendors are on credit with the importers so when a big clean up happens the importer is left holding a big debt that can't be serviced by vendors that have had stock seized. So not all roses and honey as it would 1st appear from the outside.

2nd The actual facts

Rep watches are bought in the main in a single area of China even watches manufactured in Taiwan are usually distributed through China in the normal way.

Some dealers of course have a better relationship with the wholesalers or factories and can to some extent limit the sale of items .
This in practice is very hard to maintain for any length of time unless they buy the complete production run which is very rare as it would be prohibitively expensive so generally doesn't happen.
So while a dealer may have some influence over a factory or a particular wholesaler they would be hard pressed to have any real influence in the market on the whole. They maybe able to limit supply at their wholesaler but others would be happy to sell to you,so really it's just a matter of sourcing rather than anyone restricting the sales of them.

The cost of 7750/2836 watches is high contrary to popular belief and the odd post from people who have supposedly bought 7750 at $100 they don't exist in my experience.
The factories are not stupid and see what watches sell for and price them accordingly the margins are not huge and prepositionally are a joke really.
There is not another illegal enterprise that works on such small margins that is 100% guaranteed.

Most dealers will in the main be small operations not huge enterprises employing dozens of people.
This would not be possible as dealers need to stay under the radar to survive and avoid being arrested!
So all this Sales/CS/Buying dept is all make believe in the main
An example of this was Eurotimes who had Managers for QC/Sales/Customer service/Sourcing/Payments/Logistics
The facts are they were on an Island called Phuket and with their demise they would have had a huge impact on the employment there if in fact they had as many employees as they would have you believe having 10 managers suggests they had something or some people to manage so it would be reasonable to assume they had 50 people employed. This is none sense max they had was 3-4 people in total if that.

Rep dealing is hard work and usually needs overseeing 16 hours a day 7 days a week
It is not at all glamorous and frankly just hard work.

You need to realize that watch or dealers in any other item are never going to be as enthusiastic as you are buying one watch for the 1st time and can't possibly know all things about all items they sell in the case of how close to gen is it!

Rep watch selling is a very lucrative business if run well but it is very much a numbers game to be any good really.
Selling a few watches to fanatical collectors demanding undivided attention is not a recipe for big potential earnings
Myself personally would rather avoid them I can sell 20 watches to regular members while I am spending time with one 1-1 queen
In practice 20 smaller profits is much better than one bigger one.

3 Supply

Contrary to common belief watch factories are not the size of Western factories used by companies like GM or Ford.
They are in the main very low key small units usually in a mystery location with no outwardly visual indication of being a factory at all.

These small units are generally only only assembly points and most of the parts arrive from various manufacturer's to be assembled into a watch.

These components will undoubtedly vary in quality from shipment to shipment and the assemblers will use substitute parts if the original spec ones are not available.

This of course causes frustration from dealers down to customers but unfortunately it is something no dealer has any control over and 9 times out of 10 is unaware of the substitution being made

It is not an exact science and to expect it to be will only bring disappointment in most cases

Dealers can only supply what the factories currently have to offer so unless they are holding stock there will in most cases be variation from the original samples

Deliveries from factories are notoriously hit and miss with no real dateline so when a watch is announced and is coming in the next 10 days don't be surprised if in 60 days it's still not released chances are the factory were only testing the water when they said 10 days and production never started until they had enough orders to make it worth while.

I trust this will give a little insight to the real world of rep watch selling

Great info. Thank you.

 

[sierra6]

Well described process. Knowledge is power.
S6

 

[loushocker444]

good read thx.

 

[ThootBear]

Thank you sir, good insight

 

[Gulley]

Much appreciation to the late Robert and also to Puretime for their insights and perspective on TD’s and the watch factories.

Robert’s post dispelled some of my assumption's about the TD business model and left me with a fresh appreciation for the time and effort our TDs put into providing us with their service.

RIP Robert.

 

[royaloak01]

thanks for the post, super informative!!

 

[Tattered]

Thank you, great info. Just purchased my first rep. Received and accepted qc, waiting for delivery.

 

[fanooch]

This is the perfect start. Thank you.

 

[aggiefarmer]

Definitely worth reading.

 

[coestreich]

Thanks for the great information

 

[flopaklopp]

Fantastic read. As my baby isn't sleeping at the mo I'm spending a lot of time reading older posts and this is definitely one of the most interesting. Thanks!

 

[Batzi1988]

Thank you. I am a complete Beginner in the Rep World and very interested about how everything is done.

 

[Nightwatchman67]

Another great read and it gives me another insight into the world of the TD’s
RIP Robert and thanks