I am not talking detail here. Detail is relatively easy to distinguish.
I love watches and I make no apology to the rep world or the gen world for loving both. The short time I have spent on this forum has shown me that the Rep world leads in understanding and accepting both worlds in their own right. Something which has always irritated me in the Gen world is the dismissive ignorance with which anyone prepared to accept the existence and applaud the work of Rep makers is dispatched.
Speak openly in admiration of Noob, JF or anyone else in the Gen world and the alacrity with which you are dismissed will take your breath away. I avoid it with diplomacy and not mixing the two world where possible.
If i thought for one minute that this attitude was based on anything but fear and embarrassment it would be more forgivable. However that simply isn't the case. The Rep world is continually pilloried by the gen world with lies and falseness which would defeat credibility were it not for obvious vested interest in it's vilification.
In some ways this is an understandable attitude were it not for some simple facts about making a great rep
To make a great rep which adequately emulates the Gen you need two things. One is great diligence and attention to detail by the Rep maker.The other is the full cooperation of the Gen maker. This coopertion is not willingly given by the gen maker but moreover it is delivered by the gen makers preparedness to supply its customers with something which makes almost an equal, and often less honest pretence than the rep. What I am taking about here is the myth of exclusivity, the myth that what is being supplied is something special and only really possible by their greatness. If what the gen makers produce is genuinely unique and special, then no Rep maker is going to succeed in producing a 95% accurate rep for less than one tenth of the price.
In other words If Gen makers insist on shoe horning ETA 2824 and the like in to average cases and continue to ask several thousand dollars for the watch, they will get copied very accurately.
This brings me back to the question of Rep/Gen what is the difference.
A rep is really one thing;
To varying quality and fidelity a rep is a watch built to emulate as closely as possible another watch. It is I believe a valid and honourable pursuit and within the business there are some people who do a magnificent job.
A gen however is many more things.
It can range from an utter pretence at exclusivity in the production of a watch which can be easily copied at a very much lower price to an immensely unique product which were anyone to attempt to replicate it with any degree of fidelity would cost not considerably less than the original, if indeed it were possible to come even close to emulating it.
Plus of course just about anything in between those divergent poles.
In my view there will always be watches which will be impossible to emulate with any success. The whole rep world depends on that being far from the case with many watches and makers
Setting aside the makers who effectively make it their business to assist the rep industry by default.
A true gen in my view is a watch which has been made to an individual design which is intrinsically and unto itself unique in some way ether by design, function or materials. A watch which therefore is virtually impossible to accurately emulate for a seriously reduced price. To me this is the true difference between Rep and Gen, though waters are muddied by the watches which lend themselves far too easily to copying.
I love watches and I make no apology to the rep world or the gen world for loving both. The short time I have spent on this forum has shown me that the Rep world leads in understanding and accepting both worlds in their own right. Something which has always irritated me in the Gen world is the dismissive ignorance with which anyone prepared to accept the existence and applaud the work of Rep makers is dispatched.
Speak openly in admiration of Noob, JF or anyone else in the Gen world and the alacrity with which you are dismissed will take your breath away. I avoid it with diplomacy and not mixing the two world where possible.
If i thought for one minute that this attitude was based on anything but fear and embarrassment it would be more forgivable. However that simply isn't the case. The Rep world is continually pilloried by the gen world with lies and falseness which would defeat credibility were it not for obvious vested interest in it's vilification.
In some ways this is an understandable attitude were it not for some simple facts about making a great rep
To make a great rep which adequately emulates the Gen you need two things. One is great diligence and attention to detail by the Rep maker.The other is the full cooperation of the Gen maker. This coopertion is not willingly given by the gen maker but moreover it is delivered by the gen makers preparedness to supply its customers with something which makes almost an equal, and often less honest pretence than the rep. What I am taking about here is the myth of exclusivity, the myth that what is being supplied is something special and only really possible by their greatness. If what the gen makers produce is genuinely unique and special, then no Rep maker is going to succeed in producing a 95% accurate rep for less than one tenth of the price.
In other words If Gen makers insist on shoe horning ETA 2824 and the like in to average cases and continue to ask several thousand dollars for the watch, they will get copied very accurately.
This brings me back to the question of Rep/Gen what is the difference.
A rep is really one thing;
To varying quality and fidelity a rep is a watch built to emulate as closely as possible another watch. It is I believe a valid and honourable pursuit and within the business there are some people who do a magnificent job.
A gen however is many more things.
It can range from an utter pretence at exclusivity in the production of a watch which can be easily copied at a very much lower price to an immensely unique product which were anyone to attempt to replicate it with any degree of fidelity would cost not considerably less than the original, if indeed it were possible to come even close to emulating it.
Plus of course just about anything in between those divergent poles.
In my view there will always be watches which will be impossible to emulate with any success. The whole rep world depends on that being far from the case with many watches and makers
Setting aside the makers who effectively make it their business to assist the rep industry by default.
A true gen in my view is a watch which has been made to an individual design which is intrinsically and unto itself unique in some way ether by design, function or materials. A watch which therefore is virtually impossible to accurately emulate for a seriously reduced price. To me this is the true difference between Rep and Gen, though waters are muddied by the watches which lend themselves far too easily to copying.
