Let's Talk About Replica Watches...

Originally Posted by Ahab

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A lot of people who own homage watches own multiple Rolex's and other name brands. From my reading on watchuseek it seems some of these guys have a large amount of watches or are constantly rotating inventory at a loss.

All I can say is that I only buy vintage watches now. With luck and paitence, you can find some good stuff. My current favorite is a late 1960's JLC. The watch is a 14k gold Master Mariner automatic. in excellent condition with the 881 movement. I purchased it for a steal for $1,000. Service at a vintage watch repair guy that I use cost $300, a genuine croc band on ebay cost me $50, and a 18k gold buckle for that band cost me $130.

So, for $1,480 I have a real gold watch with patina that a replica will never have. This watch has been running well for 50 years and will continue to do so for the next 50. I did not spend $10k, $20k, $30k, $100k, or a million dollars on it. However, I have something that is quality, original, and authentic.

I posted it on watchuseek and I was immediately offered what I paid for it. So, I did not waste any money and I can get my money back at any time if I get bored of it.

This watch has already depreciated and will only appreciate from here. Why bother with fake crap when a little research and dilligence will work just fine and actually save you money?

Originally Posted by Metlin

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I guess the difference is if you're buying a Rolex look-alike because you like the style (e.g. a Seiko) or if you're buying a fake to pretend that you're wearing a Rolex. The intent is of import.

Yeah. The "homage" lover just happens to like Mercedes hands, a rotating bezel with a pearl at 12:00, big triangle and circle indices, and a huge ass cyclops on the crystal. They're not pretending to wear a Rolex at all.

Originally Posted by peezie

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If you have on original All Stars, fine. If you have the above shoe, you will be snickered at as having K-Mart All Stars. Fair or not, it is what it is.
Ummmmmm.....that is an original Converse All Star. But there are lots of high end designers who have very similar shoes priced MUCH higher than Converse All stars and people are not laughing at them because they are "fake" Converse All Stars. Even Rolex had to take design ideas from someone?

Originally Posted by peezie

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Look, Asian popular culture is highly imitative of Western style. This is why vintage Levis used to carry a premium in Japan, whereas in the States, they'd probably be found at the local Goodwill. It's no surprise that fakes are accepted with such regularity, and no shock that "homages" - or legal fakes - are accepted as an industry.
Again some of the Japanese replica jeans carry a much higher premium than original Levi's and are very highly regarded. I know a lot of people who think Levi's are low end Jeans.

Originally Posted by peezie

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To me, wearing something that looks like what you aspire for is sad. Really. Constant reminder of what you can't have staring at you all day.
Again, and I guess there is a a reason nobody is addressing this, when I go over to watchuseek a lot of those guys DO have Rolex's and Patek. They also by homages. To me it seems at least over there that is what is driving the homage market. I never liked the Rolex's but I do really like the plainer King Seiko's.

Originally Posted by peezie

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Buy the best of what you can afford, not the best imitation of what you can't.
I am not a watch guy but was Rolex the first dive watch or are they a copy of someone else?

Fascinating how some threads gain traction on SF...

I would never have thought that this would have triggered such a discussion.

Originally Posted by Ahab

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A lot of people who own homage watches own multiple Rolex's and other name brands. From my reading on watchuseek it seems some of these guys have a large amount of watches or are constantly rotating inventory at a loss.

I posted about it at the beginning of the thread, but I own a fake Rolex and a real Rolex. And a real Lange, and a real Patek, and a fake Patek.

Originally Posted by bleachboy

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Yeah. The "homage" lover just happens to like Mercedes hands, a rotating bezel with a pearl at 12:00, big triangle and circle indices, and a huge ass cyclops on the crystal. They're not pretending to wear a Rolex at all.
Your argument is baseless -- while there maybe a few who do it for that reason, there are others who may simply like the design. To say that you either buy the original or none at all is rather stupid. Even among the big names, there are models that look like one another. Let me re-quote something I'd said earlier in this thread --

Originally Posted by Metlin

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You make a valid point. Like I said, I would not do fakes because of a variety of reasons, one of which is questionable quality. However, I would also be remiss to not admit that most art is inspired, with very few original exceptions. Even amongst the big players that people pay big bucks for, there is a lot of similarity and "inspirations". Some inspirations, however, are built well with enough differentiating factors to stand alone. Sea Gull comes to mind, where their models have bits and pieces borrowed from other watches, with additional original elements added. And they are built well, and even Swiss watchmakers have acknowledged this. Not outstanding, but well enough, especially considering their price points. It is no different than Walgreens selling their brand equivalents next to the real thing, at a cheaper price point. At best, somebody disagrees on a philosophical level that I won't even bother to understand.

Originally Posted by bleachboy

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Yeah. The "homage" lover just happens to like Mercedes hands, a rotating bezel with a pearl at 12:00, big triangle and circle indices, and a huge ass cyclops on the crystal. They're not pretending to wear a Rolex at all.
Were Rolex watches the first to have all of those features?

Originally Posted by Metlin

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Your argument is baseless -- while there maybe a few who do it for that reason, there are others who may simply like the design. To say that you either buy the original or none at all is rather stupid.

Even among the big names, there are models that look like one another.

They look similar to one another. A lot of these "homages" by brands I've never heard of are basically replicas where the brand name has been changed. There was one posted up there where even all the fonts were the same. That's a knockoff, not a "homage".

See, I buy horologically interesting watches, and I buy watches that I like the look of. For example, I have a fake Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse, a jewelry watch. I'll spend the extra $28,700 on something I feel is worth that much. But I'll gladly pay out the nose for a vintage 60's Patek or a Lange or maybe even a fast-beat movement that powered the Rolex Daytona for decades...

Originally Posted by Ahab

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Were Rolex watches the first to have all of those features?

I don't know.

Originally Posted by bleachboy

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They look similar to one another. A lot of these "homages" by brands I've never heard of are basically replicas where the brand name has been changed. There was one posted up there where even all the fonts were the same. That's a knockoff, not a "homage".

See, I buy horologically interesting watches, and I buy watches that I like the look of. For example, I have a fake Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse, a jewelry watch. I'll spend the extra $28,700 on something I feel is worth that much. But I'll gladly pay out the nose for a vintage 60's Patek or a Lange or maybe even a fast-beat movement that powered the Rolex Daytona for decades...

I don't know.

Beautiful, but I'm guessing that your PP show is a fake. The logo does not look right to me. If it is a fake, the dial is very well done.

Originally Posted by Patek

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Beautiful, but I'm guessing that your PP show is a fake. The logo does not look right to me. If it is a fake, the dial is very well done.

Heh, I saw your stealth edit.

I said the PP was fake in my post. It's a watch that I like the look of. I don't want to spend a zillion hours trying to find a rose gold with brown face elliptical "homage" watch, so there's the fake. The real deal runs for like $30k which is obscene.

But thanks! I like my fake Golden Ellipse.

Im not going to read all of the prior pages, but I want to say who cares what brand the watch is as long as the quality and looks are there. I have many watches and just purchased my first "homage watch" recently for a little under $200 and have to say it feels and looks like its worth alot more. Here is my pam111 which is getting the neck replaced, and my new homage watch. If my pam didnt have sentimental value to me I would probably have sold it by now. I really dont think its worth more then 25 times the price of the homage. (I understand, these have different lighting, angles, and color so its not the best comparison)

Originally Posted by bleachboy

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They look similar to one another. A lot of these "homages" by brands I've never heard of are basically replicas where the brand name has been changed. There was one posted up there where even all the fonts were the same. That's a knockoff, not a "homage".
We can argue about semantics all night long -- yes, some of them are knockoffs. And yes, I think that wearing them is tacky. But that does not mean that I'm going to judge and stomp up and down when someone else wears them. To each his or her own.

Originally Posted by bleachboy

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See, I buy horologically interesting watches, and I buy watches that I like the look of. For example, I have a fake Patek Philippe Golden Ellipse, a jewelry watch. I'll spend the extra $28,700 on something I feel is worth that much. But I'll gladly pay out the nose for a vintage 60's Patek or a Lange or maybe even a fast-beat movement that powered the Rolex Daytona for decades... http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/x...010-11-05c.jpg http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/x...010-11-03g.jpg
And that's precisely what I am saying. I would rather buy a similar looking watch for cheap than pay how many ever thousands on a supposedly original piece of jewelry that I'll probably lose or damage anyway. The only difference here is that you'd rather buy the fake. Fine, different folks, different strokes. And in my mind, an expensive Patek is technologically far inferior to my Casio Pathfinder that is solar powered, shows the time and date accurately, has a digital compass, thermometer, barometer, chronograph, two alarms, and a countdown timer. It's been worn to rainforests where it's gotten wet and beaten, endured subzero temperatures in the the Antarctic, gotten wet surfing in 3 out of 5 oceans, and beaten by rocks on several world peaks. And after 5 years, it still works like a charm. And oh, it's a great watch to wear, whether I'm in my gym shorts or in a suit. In a similar vein, I've been eying the Suunto dive watches, and those watches demonstrate the pinnacle of technology in watches. It amazes me that there is such a huge a market built on inferior products that people pay a lot of money for, all the while being told that what they are buying is in fact worth it.

Originally Posted by bleachboy

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I posted about it at the beginning of the thread, but I own a fake Rolex and a real Rolex. And a real Lange, and a real Patek, and a fake Patek.

This is interesting. I read what you posted about liking the look of the watch and not wanting to pay oodles more for the original, but then why'd you buy some originals and some fakes?

Originally Posted by F. Corbera

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Rubbish. You must be joking, unless you refer to the brief and narrow window of outward manners created by the generation that circled the wagons in the forties and fifties, and that only in Anglo-America.

Very discrete:



Now available as a fine art print to enjoy in your own, presumably much smaller home: