The Final Countdown: Top 10 tips, secrets and tricks of the rep game!

Bravo :clap::clap::clap:

Really an awesome post.

It makes me think, I have plenty of reproduced oil paintings from the Museum shop and elsewhere. Nobody would ever think I had a Van Gogh sitting in my great room, but I like having my kids seeing classic paintings, so they can really appreciate them when they are seen in textbooks or in the museums, when we travel. Nobody has ever questioned this, in the 25 plus years of having them, why I have them.

I also collect and drink loads of wine. This is where only the real thing will do, because its a consumable that you use many of your senses to enjoy and just looking the part won't do it, and it does take up most of any disposable income. This is also, the place I spend most of my time, as I even grow wine grapes in Upstate NY. Real food is necessary as well, but I have no problem using domestic Proscuitto if the product is good, depending on the recipe. Chocolate, is very personal on where you like your chocolate from especially when the ladies, who love the stuff get involved.

Lastly, I drive a Jeep, as it is snow country, and while I didn't know when buying the Jeep, but now do understand that buying a Jeep means entering a cult-like following (a bit like Panarei reps). Its funny as I have had 3 Subarus since 1990 and never felt like I was getting eyeballed by any other Subaru driver. Jeep owners are different, and these people are the Kings of Mods. In fact if you don't do something to personalize your Jeep, then you just don't get it.

As for watches, I love the different styles, and until very recently I never even considered a Panarei rep. Now I have another 2 on order. Customization, personalization is a very human attribute. Even in places where you are forced to wear the same attired: think the military, hospital teams (scrubs) and penitentiaries, people still do what they can to feel like an individual. In hospitals we have different stethoscopes, ID straps,…., In the military we have different ranks, change out boots,as long as the fit regulation and of course specialties and some tattoos, which people in prisons and fraternities are also known for. Never feel like you are anything less for enjoying a <$300/rep or more expensive Franken. It makes you happy, and doesn't break the bank.

The real things that must be paid for without question; are the utilities, the mortgage/rent, and the fuel of life, food & beverages. Taxes, health insurance, and any hobbies also seem to suck up the cash. Again thanks for some perspective.

Champagne, are you secretly Mr Steinbrenner from Seinfeld? :lol:

Nope, not a Steinbrenner. Just a regular guy, that was forced into retirement a bit too early. Worked in the Medical field, while concurrently in the Army Reserves. Now I collect wine, watch the auctions, and just ventured back into the watch world. Retirement and fixed income is not what its cracked up to be. I have a lot of time during the cold winters to learn new stuff each year. Doing another language and diving back into reps and watchmaking this year. To darn cold up here to do much else, until the mid Spring thaw.

10 nuggets of rep WISdom. Applause! Applause!! Applause!!!👏👏👏

Great Article, I really like No.7 Mix your replicas and genuines to pull together an all-authentic look.

Great Post, thanks!

Thanks for the informative article.

Nice! Well put together, i couldn't agree more! This should be posted so everyone who gets in here can read it instantly

Very informative post. Thank you for taking the time to write this.

Very cool Thanks for sharing..This kind of post is what separates REP GEEK from the other sites, Honest and informative.

Great post. You obvously know mayfair

Superbly written and to a newbie like me, heaps of common sense to take on board. THANK YOU.

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Originally Posted by bentleyblower

Superbly written and to a newbie like me, heaps of common sense to take on board. THANK YOU.

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This thread is must read for RG newbies.

Very informative. Should of read this right after joining.

I just thought a lot of it was common sense if you didn't wanted to avoid being called out on your reps.

this was a good read. thank you for taking the time to put this together.

Thanks Posh I enjoyed reading this.
Adding my two cents I would say that my main reason for "playing" with reps is the one you nicely phrased saying:" .... Now you may not have any of these problems but what you don’t like is the arbitrary cost applied to cotton canvas bags coated with vinyl or watches with $200 movements selling for thousands...." This is exactly what I think about most luxury goods. The heck with quality control, crafmanship, etc. etc. blabla
like you can hear in vids like this one:
https://www.google.it/urlsa=t&source...1SueY0clZ2_3BQ
BTW this guy is a real posh LOL LOL

Sorry the right lonk is this one:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_MsqcjPB1x4

BTW I've met more FAKE people with gen watches than with repped ones.
And surely there are lots of GEN people wearing reps.

Very informative article, thanks for it

great post - thanks for taking the time to put this together!

Buying the 2nd watch for parts is very clever - hadn't considered that

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Originally Posted by qbrrw

Nice post, as as someone who recently started lurking around on RepGeek due to an interest in replica watches, this is a good read to help organize some of the thoughts that have gone through my mind since I joined.

I've recently made a first purchase (panerai 127) @ TrustyTime which is yet to arrive in the mail, but in the meantime I'm already plotting my next watch.
In this the biggest struggle is to find something that I like, is of high quality (and close to gen), but also fits into my current lifestyle and financial situation.
For me my main interest in reps is an interest in the genuine, but prefering to keep my money rolling and generating more while it does. Although some watches might be a good investment in that regard, most stay of the same or slgihtly less value as it is when bought retail, and that money simply isnt working for me when it's stuck on my wrist.
Additionally, I tend to treat stuff that I wear and use really casually, under the mindstate of: "things I buy should be serving me, not the other way around". If it's limiting my lifestyle or becoming a nuisance with day to day activities because I catch myself constantly being careful not to break it, then I tend to not buy it.

I've bought some hommages that are of good quality (e.g. Steinhart Ocean one - Sub hommage) because I wouldnt mind beating them up, but they simply don't do the job for me in terms of contribution to a social (and professional) image that I want to portray. Since I've been climbing the ladder and more and more people I know / clients own high end watches and are always telling me to buy one or asking me if I own anything decent when they see the hommages.

In that regard replica's offer a proper solution as long as I don't buy ones that people know I wouldnt be able to afford. But most people wouldnt be surprised if I own some 8 to 12k watches, so this way I can wear them, enjoy their benefits and beauty without having to worry about breaking them in 100 pieces on a night out, doing sports, or having my infant kid spitting/puking on it or tossing it on the ground or w/e.

Also the mixing genuine with fakes seemed good advise to me, as the one watch that I want to get a genuine of is a Rolex sub purely to symbolize a personal milestone, as well as the fact that it's something I'd like to pass on to a child at some point. But that's immediately the only watch that I'd be willing to invest in, anything else is simply not worth it to me for above mentioned reasons.

Anyway this has become more of a personal rant than anything related to this post, so I'll end it here. Thanks for the post and helping me put some things in perspective. This forum contains quite a bit of good information for new people like me and posts like this help speed up the proces of getting insights in to the hobby and the community, both of which have impressed me so far.

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Welcome to the community. You will enjoy it here. One thing in your post caught my eye: your first Rep is a PAM127? Excellent choice, I hope it's the Noob version. However, be careful with that one as you mentioned you deal with people who know watches. It is a pretty rare watch and more than 12k if you can find one.

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Originally Posted by qbrrw

Thank you and thanks for the heads up on the 127. And yes it's the noob version which Andrew at TrustyTime recommended. I initially went for the 104, however it wasn't available at the time. After asking for an alternative Andrew said the 127 was one of the most accurate reps. I confirmed the order and soon after that I realised that it was a rare model that will certainly catch the eye of people that know Panerai and is tricky to wear among certain people. A bit of poor research on my end due to eagerness to pull the trigger, but I wouldn't call it a miss-buy. However I did opt to buy a PAM388 to add to the collection, as it's less tricky to wear and I highly prefer self winding movements. I still enjoy the PAM127 and wear it to social settings where people are unlikely to recognise it, however I avoid wearing it to work/business meetings, as people tend to know the brand which I noticed when people often recognized and asked about the 388 when I wore it. Also the 388's size and crown are more suited for a formal/professional setting imo anyways.
All in all I think both are a good start of the collection and I'm definitely hooked to the rep hobby now. I find myself scanning threads here on Repgeek on a daily basis, and although I haven't figured out which rep will be next to buy, I'm quite sure it wont be long before I will be adding another one to the collection.

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The Noob 127 is worth of any collection, Rep or Gen. You did very well pick it up, that's for sure.

Great read - Thank you! :)

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Being new to the hobby of rep "collecting" this was a good read