Time Is On My Side: Passionné D’exception . . . (A Selection of Watches)

[roflwaffle]

One of the things shielding Patek Philippe from this type of market mania is that they make most all of their movements and the parts for the movements themselves. There is NO OTHER BRAND that has access to ANY of their movements, making a Patek Philippe a luxury like no other watch available; even the Lemania movements they used prior to 2006 for their chronographs weren't available to any other watch manufacturer due to an ironclad contract they had with Breguet, Lemania's owner. [/SIZE][/FONT]

Umm?? *MANY* brands use entirely in house movements... why does that make PP special? PP is special for a lot of reasons, but just the fact that they do in house movements does not make them special just sayin..

Keeping in the mind the specialness and rarity of a piece of art and mobile status that a Patek Philippe is, it's difficult to recommend a replica since that intangible something that makes owning one a unique experience is almost completely absent in the replica. That is not usually the case with other replicas.

I was actually fairly unimpressed with what $20k got me from PP. Theres glashuttes I was more impressed with, and *MANY* other watches at that pricepoint that were more techinilcally impressive and more beautiful. PP's watches at the high high end are unmatched, but their standard watches? all fluff. Go ahead and buy yourself a 17,000 dollar QUARTZ watch Tell yourself its something special, lol. Its like loving ferrari the car, and buying a ferrari watch instead caus you cant afford the real deal. PP's high complications are awesome, but their low end, is just that.

I personally gushed how great they were until i actually went and tried on some of their watches at the normal price point. Totally unimpressive. Maybe its just me, but out of the 5 or so I tried on, they all just felt... meh. Nice watches certainly, but not miles above a Nardin, Glashutte, etc etc, which all have watches at a fraction of the price.

Of course my AD only had like one nice complication in the store.. the rest was all much cheaper stuff..

[FONT=Century Gothic, sans-serif][SIZE=3]You can buy a Rolex SeaDweller that looks and performs just like the genuine watch. Opening the SeaDweller obliterates the fantasy but externally, it's all there. Most of the Panerais, no matter how you spin it, are equal to their genuine counterparts in every single way, including internally because they have no true exclusive movements, ssixes be damned.

Thats crap. First, panerai replicas are notoriously bad (sorry pam guys, its true). Secondly, the company has quite a few in house movements. Why are you trying to compare panerai with PP again? silly thing to do. comparing a 5,000 dollar watch with a 17+k watch, and you act surprised? lol

[FONT=Century Gothic, sans-serif][SIZE=3] No one really knows the brand well enough to tell you your watch is not real anyway; there's a lot of Paneristi that would easily be fooled by any of the modded Panerais around here.

Again, I disagree Pam reps are bad, paneristi are anal, and theres more of them around than PP nuts, so you have a 400x likely chance of someone calling you on your fake pam than you do on someone calling you on your fake PP, as most people don't own one, let alone know the whole line.

Ad with pam, its easier to know the ins and outs of 'one watch' (since they're all the same), than it is to know all the countless PP models. Theres more nautilus variations than there are panerai models LOL

And you want to know what level of quality Panerai replicas have achieved? Some authorized stores REFUSE to do authentications now.

In contrast, you can take of these Patek watches to an authorized Patek dealer and they will NOT be mistaken for genuine. Ever. But that notwithstanding, this frees you from a lot of the extra money needed to make the watch look authentic or have an authentic movement. You can just simply ENJOY the watch. Besides, Patek Philippe, like any high-end French atelier, made SO MANY unique watches and variations on their general production watches, especially their complicated and grand complicated watches, that identifying one as real or replica at first, second or third glance is impossible in most cases.

To be honest, my PP Naut is a much more 'accurate' rep than any of my panerai. Its not flawless, (no rep is), but I got the same 'feeling' holding the real one as I did holding my replica. I just need to send the crystal off for AR, and it's done. Same feel, and I'm reasonably certain i could walk into an AD, and they wouldnt say anything about (mostly because the employees of the AD were idiots who barely knew what they were talking about.. they had to look up the names of the models in their OWN case!)

So, yes, their central offices wouldnt be fooled, but I'd bet money on the AD being fooled, and not willing to make statement. I dont think they had a proper watchsmith there, considering they cant service them, so why have a watchsmith on site if he cant do anything?

Idiots who dont know their own watches in stock are very unlikely to be able to call a fake off my wrist, even if it was a ufanta special, let alone the 'best' PP rep out there.

Of course, that was only a naut, and not a super pricey complication... but its a good rep all the same.