Where's Your Head At?: I'm Calling You Out

[sneed12]

What's everyone's take on this? Perhaps the people who have spent major dollars on modding can illuminate me, people who've spent more than $1,000 and have modest incomes, incomes that don't approach being able to afford the genuine of the watch being modded.

So, well first of all, I don't know that there are a whole lot of watches out there that are "beyond the means" of the average middle-class American.

I just took a look in my watchbox, and the only rep I have that stretches credibility is the blue ceramic Submariner (which only comes in white gold) and my blue Day-Date (the gen is solid platinum). Everything else I own is a $10k or less watch, and while there is certainly no way I could afford two dozen of them, let's face it, $5k for a Submariner or $3k for a Seamaster simply isn't that much money. If someone chose to make buying that watch a priority and saved carefully, it would be affordable on almost anyone's income.

This would mean were someone to know anything about luxury goods, in this case watches, they'd be able to deduce your watch is fake from just knowing that.

On top of that, making assumptions about someone's "stuff" because you know their salary is sometimes wrong.

I just graduated from grad school, for the last 5 years I've been making less than $20k, but I drive a Porsche and I have an apartment in Switzerland and a condo in Chicago. (I work two side jobs as an independent contractor, plus I have some money saved up from my previous life, I used to run a car dealership, plus I have a signing bonus in my pocket from what will be my next job.)

I don't know. I guess I'm asking two questions regarding being called out and modding. Is one the result of the other? Does correlation imply causation? Why do fools fall in love?

I can't answer the calling-out part, although honesty compels us to admit that no one reps cheap watches (honestly, I don't understand making a Fortis rep for example).

I got into the rep hobby because I wanted a Submariner (how many of us followed that path? ), simply because it was iconic and I like watches. At the time I owned several Seiko divers that I had modded/customized.

Modding Seikos was fun, and it taught me a lot of basic skills, but I didn't REALLY start modding until I got into reps. The reason is, now we have "goalposts." What's a custom Seiko supposed to look like? Well, it's supposed to look like whatever you want it to look like. But a rep Rolex is supposed to look like the gen. You have a goal to work towards. Every mod is a step down a path that leads you closer to gen.

For me, that's the fun. I don't really do Seikos anymore, I'd much rather spend my time and effort on reps.

Hope that answers part of your question.