Checking in from Taiwan

**DimitryZ** · 05-16-2014, 10:29 AM

I actually found this forum by accident, when I was searching about if a certain rep dealer can be trusted. Long story short, this forum introduced me to the greater world of high quality reps!

Why I Wanted A Rep

I like watches. In my younger days, I have a small collection of G-shock, Seiko quartz chronometers, even a few "fashion" watches such as DKNY and Diesel. Now I am in my mid 30's, with a steady income, most of these watches looked a little too "fancy" for me. I would like a more "status symbol" watch that I can celebrate my slight personal achievement with, and one that I can be comfortable with in most occasions.

For a while my choice narrowed down to "something Omega" (funny enough Rolex was never high on my list. That changed since then). However I believe you will never know if something suits you until can hold onto it for a considerable amount of time. People laughed at me when I bought a mock-up of a ****** Note, but I think it is important to know if I can comfortably spend a whole day with something that big in my pants pockets.

My first rep is an Omega SMPc (and a good one too). This was to be my only rep, but after waddling for a while in the muddy pit that is "who has the best sub?", and seeing that BP ceramic Sub is not terribly expensive, I bought it for the sake of sheer curiosity (being raised by the TV, I was conditioned into thinking that Rolex is worn by manly men that overcome the highest mountains, conquer the deepest oceans, and survive in deserts and arctic by sheer manly will. I have to see what a watch with that reputation would look like being held within my substantially less manly paws).

In the beginning I was expecting something of a mock-up that I can try coordinating my clothing with, like that phone-shaped lump of plastic I used to carry in my pants. However these two reps taught me a lot more than I expected. I can read catalog photos and sales pitch and specs a thousand times, but I would never have known certain nuances such as how frustratingly nonadjustable an Omega bracelet is; how two sided AR coating on a crystal will become scratched sooner or later, how the cyclops on the sub is actually glued on (I always thought it was molded along the crystal by magic)... Hell, I don't even know there are bracelet links other than split pin.

With a third rep on the way, my road to that one gen I can celebrate my life with seems to lead to far more choices, and much more convoluted. It will lead to a gen eventually though, since there is one thing my reps cannot do unlike my Seiko Sea Urchin - a certainty that it will survive a bath in my ultrasonic cleaner (that and I can send a strongly-worded letter to Seiko if it doesn't).

That being said, why am I starting to think that slightly misaligned "20" on my sub's bezel insert is bugging the hell out of me? And more importantly, why am I looking for modding tips and hunting for bezel inserts?