My two year anniversary on RWI, recapped:
Hi all, I’m Reaps, it’s funny because I’m maybe finally making an introduction post/recap after 2 years on RWI. 5049 posts in, 2 years, around 7 posts a day, I guess I’m addicted bahaha.
I had heard or known about NOOB in around 2021 but I was still in my “replica bad gens good” phase of my life, until I finally watched some Youtube videos in 2022 and it made me jump into the rabbit hole.
At the time I was looking for a simple blue Datejust to celebrate a huge achievement in my personal life, but if you know, this was the “peak” of the watch craze, with prices for Datejusts going above retail on the grey market. I finally got sick of the bullshit so I decided to take a look at replicas.
As with many of us, our first dip into the replica scene was probably not the best experience and My first two buying experiences was buying second hand from Facebook.
My first high tier replica was a Clean Datejust 41. Then a month after, the Clean 114060.
I had bought both of these second hand from Facebook, and both the Datejust and No-Date Sub left a sour taste in my mouth from buying second hand. At the time I literally knew nothing about replicas, and while both were real Clean Factory, they had issues.
The Clean Datejust 41 was the old variant with the sharp bezel and incorrect hands (v1), with the shitty cloudy gasket, oh and it lost 30 seconds a day no matter what, even after servicing.
The Clean 114060 was absolutely destroyed, the movement gave out after 2 weeks of wearing and became a paper weight. I bought a new VR3135 for it, but the first watch maker I used snapped the bezel, leading me to replace it with a shitty aluminum bezel.
I was ticked off that I got ripped a new one for two replicas. I vowed not to get ripped off again, which is where I really jumped into RWI to learn about everything.
Since that time, I’ve learnt an insane amount from the forum (more than I’ve ever learned on any other watch platform), I’ve owned over 50 replicas, sold and bought many locally, my current collection stands at around 35. And you know what’s crazy? I spent around the same amount of money I had budgeted for my nice “luxury” watch. Yeah.
I’m proud to be a member of RWI, it can come off as harsh at the beginning, but if you love watches, you will learn more here than you will on any other forum. There is an insane amount of knowledge here, held together by core community members who make the forum what it is. I’ve absorbed a huge amount of information about both replicas, genuine watches, and watch making in general.
Learning about replicas makes you appreciate genuine more, and while the replicas are so close, it’s the fine details that the replicas haven’t obtained that make you appreciate gen more.
While I can come off as an asshat sometimes in my first year of RWI, I’ve tried recently to become more kind and contribute more to the forum by helping people out to give back to the community.
Here is my current collection, the ones highlighted in orange I no longer own, I had more but I legitimately don’t remember all of them. Some of them I had pictures from that I tried to scour my phone for, but some don’t.
ROLEX :
ROLEX, BUT DAYTONAS:
- VSF Hulk Submariner K25
- VSF 126610 Date Submariner, Q66
- VSF Datejust 36, White Dial, Roman Numerals
- GMF Daydate 40mm Yellow Gold Green Dial, 50th Anniversary, Tungsten 166g, Gold Wrapped
- GMF Daydate 40mm, “Arabic” Pt950, Tungsten 160g , Smooth Bezel
- BP Explorer 39mm A2824 - Sold!
- CF Explorer 36mm
- CF GMT “V1” DD3285, w/ Xing Bezel & Deep Crystal
- CF Explorer 2 Polar
- JKF 1665 DRSD, modded with a bleached “ghost” bezel
- CF Seadweller 126600 (currently pending an order)
- CF 114060
- Passed it on to a close friend who is really into watches
- CF Datejust 41 v1.5, Blue Dial
- Passed it on to my cousin’s boyfriend for free
- VSF Yachtmaster 40mm 3235 Rose Gold
- Sold it locally, wasn’t feeling the RG
- CF 116500 Panda v3
- CF 116518 “Pikachu”
- BTF 116509 Diamond Dot, modded into “Ember Arabic” Daytona
- CF 116520 Black Dial v3
- BTF 126500 Black Dial 4131
- “New Noob” DiW Ibris Variant, 4130
- BTF 116509 “Ghost”, pending meteorite/custom dial
- ADGF “Neon” Variant, 4802 Skeleton
TUDOR :
PATEK :
- M+ Tudor FXD
- XF Pelagos 42mm Blue
- Passed it on to my father who absolutely loves the watch
- PPF 5712 V2 (pre-push clasp)
AP :
- ZF 15202
- BBR “Ice Blue” Perpetual Calender
- JF Chronopassion
- APF “White Thames” Royal Oak Offshore
- ZF 15450 Grey Dial
- Sold it on to a friend, I liked the 15202 better
- ZF 15500 Blue Dial
- Sold it to a friend as well, too big for my wrists
- APSF 15400 White Dial
- Sold it locally, again, too big for my wrists
VACHERON:
- ZF 56 Complete Calender
- TUR Vacheron Patrimony 14 Day Tourbillion
- TWF Vacheron “Dual Time” 47450, Fantasy Blue Variant
- ZF 4500V
- Sold it locally, too big for my wrist and I didn’t like the bracelet
IWC
- ZF IWC 3777 Black Dial
- ZF IWC 3714 Portuguese - Sold!
PANERAI :
- XF PAM 111
- VSF PAM 1055
- VSF PAM 1324 Carbon GMT “Navy Seals”
- Sold it on to my uncle
- VSF PAM 1024
- Sold it on to my uncle again lol
OMEGA :
- VSF Omega Aqua Terra Worldtimer
- VSF Seamaster Blue Dial
- Sold it locally, wasn’t clicking with it
- 8F/OMF Speedmaster ST19
- Sold it on to a friend who wanted to try out the Speedmaster, I had a Reduced so it was just for fun
RM :
- BBR RM055 Black Ceramic, “updated” movement
BLANCPAIN :
- Unknown Factory/Old GF Stock Bathyscape “Mokkaran” No Date
- OMF Villeret 6654 RG variant, v2 (moonphase reversed)
LANGE :
WATCHES FOR WOMAN/LADIES :
So what's for the future?
- F1 Cartier Tank for my sister & mother
- BVF 22mm Panthere, Gold, for my S.O
- GSF 28mm Smooth Bezel Datejust, Pink Dial, Stick Markers for my S.O
- GMF 36mm Daydate, “Flowerstone” Dial for my S.O
Eventually I want to reduce my collection down to 15 pieces or less, but it's very difficult. I enjoy all the pieces I have and haven't sold. But I know that my collection must reduce sooner or later.
Well, I have several interests right now, green is "must get", orange is "maybe but in the future", red is "ehh i'm thinking about it"
- AP Chrono, pending the SH4401 release
- Le Mans Daytona, only if they ever clone the 24hr subdial
- 126503 “Two Tone” Black Dial
- Platona 126506 “Baguette”, also thinking about the Arabic 116506
- ZF Pelagos 39 when they release it
- Vintage Daytona, 6263 Big Red or something like that, or the “Lemon” Paul Newman or JPS special if I can ever find one of them
- BP 5 digit sub or TC 5 digit sub
- Need to acquire a custom dial for BTF 116509 pending mood (thinking MOP, NNF Meteorite).
- Need to acquire a Clean dial for the 126500
- 15407 w/ 3132 clone movement
- RM011 IF they ever clone the movement.
Thanks for reading! And thank you RWI for the 2 years. Here's hoping for more cool releases and more wonderful things to come for the community!
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thanks for sharing. I've got a feeling I will go down the same path but my misus might kill me by the time I get to 10
Keep it up!
