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I'd like to share my story for anyone planning to visit Beijing and hoping to score a few high quality reps to bring home as souvenir.
The best place in town is definitely the Silk Market (also known as Silk Street), but a few caveats do apply.
On the 4th floor you'll find many shops selling DHgate-quality level reps, but it's behind the curtains where the magic happens: when you go to the shop seller make clear from the start that you know what you're talking about and start to ask for specific models that you're interested in. At that point the guy (or girl) will disappear for a few minutes and come back with the reps you asked for. If the quality is not up to par just ask for something better. Not everyone speaks a good english, and not everyone knows factories names, but a few do and this will help make things much faster.
In my case I asked for example for a few recently released IWC Pilots, the Patek Aquanaut 5164 and a few different Omegas, always using TDs pictures as reference. After a few trips outside the shop the guy finally came back with some high end reps (IWC from XF and Omega from VSF) from which I could choose from. It was pretty cool to see so many reps all in one place and be able to compare the quality between, say, a Speedmaster from OMF and an Aqua Terra from VSF and most importantly how they wear on my wrist.
When it comes to price I used TDs prices as reference and started bargaining from there.
This way I was able to score a nice Aqua Terra from VSF with clone movement at a decent price, but most importantly check off my to buy list a few reps I was interested in but that simply didn't impress me in person.
Great experience and would recommend it to anyone with a bit of time to spend in the chinese capital.
The best place in town is definitely the Silk Market (also known as Silk Street), but a few caveats do apply.
On the 4th floor you'll find many shops selling DHgate-quality level reps, but it's behind the curtains where the magic happens: when you go to the shop seller make clear from the start that you know what you're talking about and start to ask for specific models that you're interested in. At that point the guy (or girl) will disappear for a few minutes and come back with the reps you asked for. If the quality is not up to par just ask for something better. Not everyone speaks a good english, and not everyone knows factories names, but a few do and this will help make things much faster.
In my case I asked for example for a few recently released IWC Pilots, the Patek Aquanaut 5164 and a few different Omegas, always using TDs pictures as reference. After a few trips outside the shop the guy finally came back with some high end reps (IWC from XF and Omega from VSF) from which I could choose from. It was pretty cool to see so many reps all in one place and be able to compare the quality between, say, a Speedmaster from OMF and an Aqua Terra from VSF and most importantly how they wear on my wrist.
When it comes to price I used TDs prices as reference and started bargaining from there.
This way I was able to score a nice Aqua Terra from VSF with clone movement at a decent price, but most importantly check off my to buy list a few reps I was interested in but that simply didn't impress me in person.
Great experience and would recommend it to anyone with a bit of time to spend in the chinese capital.
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