So what watch started your rep/hommage collection...?

[GC 4,517]

So what watch started your collection...?

]

 

And here's the story...

It all started in 1993, I was 18 and fresh out of highschool. I moved to Germany to begin my European vacation, which by the way lasted 11yrs . The first job I landed, after taking a german course for 3 months, was as a visual merchandiser, a fancy way of saying window decorator, at a highend men's clothing store. Some of you that have traveled or lived in Germany may be familiar with it, they had at last count 30+ stores men's/women's apparel, it was called "Uli Knecht" after the owner.

 

Well, the owner Herr Knecht or as those who dared to call him "Uli" was an avid photographer and watch collector. He was also a connoisseur of art and wine, which in all truth rubbed off on me in more ways than one, but his collection of watches was, at the time, the only thing I had eyes for.

Well over the four years I worked for him, I got to see an extensive collection. Uli had some true beauties, his collection ranged from A.Lang&Sohne to Zenith and everything in between. But there was one particular peice in his collection I could never place, without gawking and asking him to take it off, which I never did, it would have been considered unhoefflich or better said very un-German. Anyway... so I would keep an eye out for the days he would wear this particular peice and I would always try to catch a glimps here and a quick stare there. To no avail, I had no idea what it could be.

 

Well some 15yrs later, on a watch forum, I saw that very same watch. Or atleast what I thought was the very same watch, based on case shape and font of dial and and and... I started my reserch PM'd members that had the watch, mulled over which model to get, found out all about the gen brand and made my purchese. Mind you, I opted for the hommage not the original, but to me it's the same watch I fell head over heals for 15yrs ago.

[Luthier 1]

My story is much shorter. 10 years ago I was in Bangkok, visiting one very beautiful girl, and I bought two-tone Rolex Day/Date in Sukhumwit.

It was Quartz, and served me for about 8 years. But after this purchase I started to travel to China, and found very nice warch shop in Guangzhou, on Beijing Street. Every visit I bought about 5-6 replicas, some of them were fantasy watches, some - very decent replicas, still have about 15 of them.

About 8 years ago I bought my first genuine, it was again Day/Date, then a few more. 2 years ago I found this forum, and learned a lot. Now I have about 45 replicas, and about 20 still on my wish list. Homages and steriles aren't my cup of vodka, so, I don't think I'd ever buy it. I have a few PAMs, but never loved this brand too much. Patek, IWC, Rolex, Breitling, TAG, Chopard, AP, Omega, Hublot, few more names - that's my brands. Met a few good dealers in GZ, buy exclusively from them, and from Robert. I'll stop (maybe), when I'll have 100 reps.

[greg_r 83]

I've been interested in watches since I was a kid. As I got older and was able to afford a reasonably decent watch, I gradually bought a few. Back in the Eighties and Nineties I had a small collection of so-so gens. Rotary, Bvlgari, Tag, Bulova - that kinda thing. The Bvlgari was hideously unreliable and after a while I just found most of them rather dull. The watch I REALLY wanted was a Rolex Day/Date, which I couldn't really justify buying.

 

So back in about 2000, I decided to buy a fake. I ended up buying several - all ETA powered, all surprisingly satisfactory. There were a couple of Day/Dates and three or four datejusts of various configurations (gold, two tone, strap, bracelet etc). It wasn't long before I decided to sell my gens. Over the next couple of years I found myself wearing a SS Day/Date rather more than any of the others, so I gradually sold or gave them away.

 

By the time 2008 came around, my DD was starting to show signs of wear - the movement needed a service. However whilst the watch had been a good one in the day, the fact remained that it wasn't as accurate a rep as some of the photos I'd seen around on the 'net, so I figured I'd be better off just replacing it. That was the point when I started doing some research and landed up at RWG1.

 

I don't have a photo of that original DD, but I bought this to replace it:

 

 

along with this:

 

 

I no longer own either of the above as I discovered that my tastes have changed and they just weren't getting the wrist time, but that's another story

[Silverspeed 10]

I've always liked watches, about 3 years ago I wanted to buy a Tag Monaco Steve McQueen so I went to the AD but we couldn't reach an agreement on the price. So I started looking online for the same watch and eventually ended up up at RepGeek and RWG. In these 3 years I think I've bought close to 80 reps.

 

Oh and I never bought the gen Tag Monaco...

[dingle 57]

2 words

 

Silverspeed

Pam 183

[JohnG 41]

[Member X 91]

I was coming up to a 'milestone' birthday. I didn't know what I wanted for my milestone as most stuff (stereo stuff, house things, car things etc) was nice but ultimately never going to last a decade till my next milestone.

 

Then I remember that, in the past, I'd got watches for milestones - new watch for starting secondary school, new watch for turning 18 etc - so I started looking around to see what I could get for, perhaps, £500.

 

I'd always loved the Bell and Ross BR01 since seeing it in a magazine but didn't realise they were so expensive so after joining the B&R forum and making some friends but ultimately not having the money for a gen, I posted in a thread about watches on a car forum, to see what else was around.

 

One of the guys on there PMd me to say that he was on this great watch forum and I should check it out, so I duly logged into RWG2 and did the whole nervous n00b thing, being careful not to ask any questions till I'd learnt enough to know at least the basics about movements etc.

 

After 3 months I was a bit more confident, and I was asking around for the Big Pilot homages as I'd seen one of the Schuren versions posted and I loved it. I had a long email conversation with Andy from Schuren and was almost ready to pull the trigger when I hesitated - it was almost £200 and could I get more for the money? Would I get bored with it?

 

I feel bad that I never did go through with that purchase as he was superb on email, great communications and always friendly :( One day maybe...

 

Anyway, it was around this time that one of the B&R forum guys gifted me a BR01-94 quartz chrono rep. I was ecstatic, it was great! Although I didn't realise that it was battery straight away Duh! lol

 

I wore it for a few weeks but the screws for the strap were loose - and eventually one fell out one day, somewhere miles away from home so no hope of ever finding it :( so I had to go back to old reliable, the quartz Accurist beater I've had for years.

 

Not long after this, RWG2 was really feeling the IWC Portuguese 1939 rep that had just come out, and I loved it too. I took the plunge and went with Eurotimez as Chris was on the forum saying all problems had been fixed, and I liked the idea of QC (haha! lol), so I went ahead and ordered it. Took about 2 months to arrive because the first one had badly misprinted subdial (part of the outer ring was missing) and they were slowwwwww at responding to emails but eventually I overcame my n00b "I want it perfect!"-ness and said yes. It arrived about 3 weeks after that. I wasn't sure about it at first but now I love it

 

Not too long after that I realised the quality of the WM9/BK stuff, and that I had missed the SD pre-order :( A month or so later, though, someone posted a link to a fully paid up SD pre-order, so I put some extra money to my birthday money and sent it over! If I get it anytime before this coming christmas, I'll be happy... lol

 

After that I started hitting the Parnis stuff as it was cheap but good quality, and I've literally had only that one, IWC rep till now! Although that's now changed, seeing as I've transferred most of the SD pre-order money towards the Blue Cerachrom Sub BK's offering, and Robert has made me spend more money I don't have on the two Glasshute Senator 69s yesterday lol

 

So, with orders coming (Glasshutes, Sterile Explorer II homage from Parnis) and being developed (SD), I'm up to 18 watches now...

 

And my milestone watch? I didn't consider the IWC a milestone because it's nice but not worth enough lol

 

I think it's going to be the SD, although it could also be the Blue Sub if I love it that much when it arrives!

[NFleischer 4,355]

i started getting into nice watches about 18 years ago.

like most people-i was into rolex at the time almost exclusively; i bought a gen DJ when i turned 40.

because i live here in NYC, i had always been exposed to reps on Canal Street. i started buying different brands

after awhile- PAM HBBB Bulgari, etc. also i picked up a few fakes treveling in Mexico and South America. eventually i stumbled upon

some of the 'scam sites'and for 2 years i bought a bunch of stuff from Ideal, BestSwiss, etc. actually, at first i was thrilled to see the quality

of the reps (in fact some of them are truly excellent)- much better than i had seen. what i didn't realize was i was paying $600 and up for a Noob

Sub. 'luckily' ended up just being ripped-off by James from BestSwiss (paid for a watch-never sent). i had found RWG@ and started making complaints @ scam site forum. i finally realized i was buying watches that Josh was selling for 3-4 times the price. now i have about 45 reps and a

pretty nice collection of different gens. i've been rying to STOP buying now without much luck

Edited February 10, 2010 by NFleischer

[AustinTech 0]

I loved watches growing up. When in college I started buying Fossil, Bulova, and Kenneth Cole watches. But I always wanted a big, bad, Breitling. No way I could afford one though.

 

Years later I still wanted a Breitling - and I could finally afford one. But letting go of the cash wasn't easy. I eventualy found the original RWG1 -this place - and got a BCE - graphite dial.

[cybee 0]

This Omega was my first rep from WBK. In haste to post my first wristshot on the forum, someone pointed out that one of the lume markers had fallen off and I didnt even notice it LoL. Luckily it was an easy fix and began a fun hobby toying with watchmaking and meeting new friends on the watch forums.

 

 

after fixing the lume dot I even put a gen bezel on the watch.

 

[KBH 7]

I was looking to replace a watch that I owned and lost back in the 80's. The standard TT gold baton, gold dial DJ. Probably the most popular watch at the time.

 

Started with a DJ from Josh and ended up putting in a gen dial. The result was mediocre, at best but started me on the road to a couple of very nice frankens.

 

 

 

After the first attempt they got a little better, and a little more expensive.

 

 

I love them but mostly wear a SSD.

[king_o 0]

This was my first 'Rep', bought for about $30. Sub dials don't work as I played with them at start and didn't know what I was doing!!!. It is at least 6 years old but still fires right up (auto) and keeps great time (although wife wears it now)

 

 

 

[ebzen02 341]

This was my first 'Rep', bought for about $30. Sub dials don't work as I played with them at start and didn't know what I was doing!!!. It is at least 6 years old but still fires right up (auto) and keeps great time (although wife wears it now)

 

 

 

Mine was a Crap CT Daytona and it lasted about over 2 years--it might actually still work, but not sure where I hid it .. Believe or not I wore it on my wedding date.

[bunt 0]

well im new here and new at horology in general but i figured i'd just add my $0.02.

 

 

i was gifted a gen must de cartier about 4 - 5 years ago from my father and i loved (and still do) that watch. it still is my daily, however i had noticed that after years of wearing it every day, it is severely beat up and abused. looking for a good to decent second watch i lurked at TZ and other forums looking mainly at gens and fell in love with three brands in particular, IWC ports (esp the 5001), PAM lums, and the rolex GMT/explorer IIs.

 

after balking at the price of the gen ports, at the lower PAMs (although spectacularly gorgeous, i find it hard to swallow the 6497-2 movement at that price. i guess im a snob.) and about to pull the trigger on a used explorer II, i ran into this forum.

 

 

i think i'll still one day buy gens of the three listed, but for now, i have eagerly placed 2 pieces from getat (PAMs), drooling over a panis (IWC ports), and looking for a possible swiss quality GMT homage.

 

so far, i dont know if i should be happy i found this forum or curse it for making it so easy to spend money by pulling the trigger on so many homages.

[AllergyDoc 40]

My first replica was a full gold DayDate with CZ hour markers. I bought one for myself and one for the wife (can't remember what I got her, though). After staring a websites under cross eyed, I bought them from one of the thousands of Chinese sites. I can't recall the name. I think I paid about $125 for each watch.

 

We heard nothing from the seller until we found a note from the postman to pick up a package at the P.O. I opened the package and we found what looked like a Hello-Kitty clock inside. We laughed and thought we had been ripped off. I got the brilliant idea to open the toy clock and low and behold, there were our watches! We were such noobs and believed the lies on the site: we took them to the Rolex AD to have the bracelets sized! (Actually, I sent the wife in. )

 

I still have that watch, I think. I'll try to remember to photograph it later.