I used to wear simple Casio watches. Then came the time for a fancier one good for business, at a higher price (Festina). But little did I know then…
It all started when my doctor made a remark about my watch, which looked good, but was a noname brand (Chinese steel business watch with an MP3 player and radio in it). He said, "Why don't you get yourself a normal watch. A person like you should wear a serious watch."
Then it hit me.
I started looking at people's watches, stores, etc...
Decided I would spend about 200 bucks.
Picked out Seiko and Citizen because of the way they looked.
Then I started to research brands. Wikipedia, web sites.
I soon found that there are categories and I have been trapped on the "department store" level.

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watches

department store brands: Casio, Peugeot, ESQ, Fossil, Citizen, Wilson, Timex, Seiko

basic luxury: Epos, Fortis, Movado, Oris

pseudo luxury: Baume & Mercier, Raymond Weil, Tag Heuer

luxury: Breitling, Cartier, Ebel, Omega, Rolex

high-end luxury: A Lange and Sohne, Alain Silberstein, Audemars Piguet, Blancpain, Breguet, Franck Muller, JLC, Parmigiani, Patek Phillipe, Ulysse Nardin, Vacheron Constantin

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But the higher brands are way too expensive, it is jewelry, it is the name.
Then because of my newfound orientation I opened a spam message promoting replicas and was surprised at the low prices and hi quality images.
I googled the domain names, did swhois on the TLDs, read the stories on the consumer complaint and rip-off report sites (www.ripoffreport.com), saw the scams, went through the "rep review" sites, was fascinated by the extent of the industry, but lost hope.
Saw a friend wearing a Rolex. He told me it was Chinese, he got it from someone. So I thought maybe it is impossible to buy over the internet, I will need to go out to the streets or ask a friend who knew someone.
I would not give out my cc details to a suspicious company on the internet. Maybe using Moneybookers or PayPal, so if I am scammed, at least all I lose is 150-200 usd and not my cc details. Give it a try.
Then I singed up on this forum and others.
Now I have a little more hope, still like to do the research, best value for money, so slowly, but surely, we are getting there.