Quote Originally Posted by rcook View Post
Tony I understand the exact question your asking because I asked it of myself the other day. Why buy a $3-350 Seiko when the rep PO 42mm I'm currently wearing looks/feels/appears to be of at least the same quality of the Seiko SKX-171 it replaced?

I have to say that if you look at the rep as *just* a watch and ignore the fact that it's a rep it's still a fairly high quality timepeice. For example the bracelet on the rep PO (5th gen) that I'm wearing is at least of equal quality and construction of a comparable Seiko, hell this rep has SEL's whereas Seiko only has hollow end links until you spend quite a bit more money. Same for the crystal, if indeed it is sapphire (which I'm not going to destructively test to find out), this again is a great value for money as no price comparable gen from Seiko/Citizen will typically offer sapphire. As for the movement, well I have the 21j DG4813 which from what I can tell is a rep of the Miyota 8125, I've had gen watches with the Miyota movement (LACO Fliger) that cost more than the rep does so what does that tell you -- you can pay more for a gen and get what is the same movement as a rep? Seems like the gen watch isn't as good of a value really.
That's a great write up and exactly what i was after, thanks for that