I wore one of my Tag Heuer watches for years while doing construction trucking in the early 2000s. A friend noticed it one day (The friend that also had a few and how I even learned what a Tag Heuer was) and freaked out that I was going to ruin it. I was like dude I've been wearing this every day for years at work and you just noticed. I think it will be ok lol

It's no Rolex but it was quite the watch for a 20 something driving a Mack tri axle dump truck at that time. Everyone just assumes you're wearing a seiko or whatever

I'll stick to my Timex

FWIW, i have to Seikos that need to be repaired.  One has already been repaired once

With so many great affordable watches out there a Chinese Rolex is really a waste of money.

Grand Seiko, Marathon, Omega, and so many great vintage watches out there.

Here is my well worn Spring Drive, I'd rather buy another of these than a fake anything....

Attached File

The Skydweller fake's case and strap look cheap/cheaply finished next to the real one, thats what I see anyway.

Before I bought my first Rolex I bought a fake one.  I hated the feeling and was embarrassed to wear it.

For me, a Rolex represents success for ME.  Because let’s be real, nobody will notice it and half the time you kind of don’t want people to notice it because it brings unwanted attention.  But I can look at it and know that I got to a place in life that buying an expensive watch was possible.  

The fake one was just that, fake.  It stood for nothing and if someone ever did notice it I couldn’t lie and say it was real and saying it was fake is just as bad.

You buy an expensive watch for yourself. Not for impressing anyone else.

I was given one many years ago. Runs good for an auto if I remember correctly it's 10 seconds fast a day,
almost two day reserve. I wish it said Bolex or Rollidex or something. Then I might wear it

Congrats.  That’s the best reason I can think of.  
Rolex is destroying their own brand through exclusivity.  I go through all the biggest international airports, and have yet to see a Rolex store. Every other brand, but not Rolex.
On the Cruise Ship?   Nope.  Everything but Rolex.
Even in the high end shopping districts, you just don’t see Rolex for sale.    I’ve been looking for years now, after reading the threads here.  20 countries give or take.

Incidentally, no Customs guy is going to confiscate a fake Rolex, unless your backpack is full them.  It just doesn’t work that way.  
Hell, Europe doesn’t even really have customs anymore.

I'd bet that 99.9% of the Gucci guns posted here aren't used for work beyond the bench/static range either. Just sayin...

That's readily apparent

i hate watches & have a 20yr old tag i’ve barely worn.

i prefer machine guns & duals.

I am he who dares to wear a fake. I have entered your thread.



Nobody bags on women that wear costume jewelry. They are still pretty.



Wrong. Everybody looks at your watch, your shoes, how your clothes drape, how you present and carry oneself. No one notices 'printing'.

Also, I haven't done the rich people scene in some time, but just watching shows, I don't think an awful lot of the elite are wearing timepieces any more. Some I see wearing the fitness computers. Pretty much everyone either has someone that tells them the time or they don't worry about time.



That is absolutely AWESOME!

The rest of you are bitching like you've sucked a dick of someone you later realized had no money after all. Sorry you are picking the wrong indicators. Around where I live, guys carry thousands in bib overhauls and drive shit cars (but for some reason, wear well-worn dress shoes with the overalls).

I wear fake watches when I used to dress slutty. I liked the look. I've always wanted a couple of Breitling pieces; they are amazing examples of mechanical genius to me.

I guess perhaps if you live in the middle east, where everyone has money, it might be a weird flex to wear cheap anything.

Me? I love it both ways. I love it when petty, insecure, ignorant trust fund babies see a poor fuck like me wearing what they think are expensive baubles. I like it better when they think, aha, it's all fake! Like it fucking matters a single bit?

I tell people straight up when I am wearing fake shit. I don't care. I like the style. Honestly, my only concern is getting knocked in the head by some stickup artist over a $200 fake.

Funniest part is horology buffs. You'd think they would be the most offended. Instead, they appreciate someone with love for the game, just not the financial capacity, then we wind up talking watches for a half hour.

I would own a fake ferrari. I would own other fake stuff. I don't base my worth on it, and I am not trying to telegraph to the world I am something I am not. IN fact, I would go out and say a not insignificant number of people are up to their eyebrows in debt trying to buy real shit so they can fake a level of outward success.

But not trusting someone, or making value judgments on what someone wears? Unless they are looking me in the eye trying to tell me their uunto is legit... lol

I run in circles where people can afford a lot of nice things. Ostentatious even. Some indulge, some don't. I evaluate people on other criteria though.

I have four of them now. They are all very well done.

It's a niche for those of us who really enjoy vintage watches and want something practical that does not break the bank.

In my experience mostly divers buy sea dwellers because its a chunk of a watch with greater depth rating and an escape valve, compared to the thinner, more popular Submariner.

But most divers dont use watches anymore anyway, so you could probably say that about any watch be it a Casio or a Rolex.

When a watch guy notices your $60 gold colored Invicta and asks about your Rolex................yeah.  

If I get mugged for it and the mugger survives, they will barely have enough to fill a crack pipe.

That's not the point and you know it. The fact is they COULD and the rep CAN'T... so to argue they are the same quality is bullshit.

If we could buy Machine guns which were Clones, but fully legal and indistinguishable from the originals, we Would, and the “morality” of it wouldn’t be an issue.

Same with Cars, Boats, Motorcycles, Women, or any other desirable thing.  

Hell, I wish the Chinese would start counterfeiting Cessnas, CJ-2’s and PC-12’s.    I can’t afford 5 million for the original, but at 1/20th the price, I’d fo in a heartbeat.

...and die a horrible death when the wings fall off in flight

You're also likely looking at it on a monitor with probably 10x plus magnification. I agree with you, the fit and finish is nowhere near as good and I have pointed that in other posts... but that is again magnified and with a genuine next to it as a point of comparison. Most people have probably never encountered somebody who owns a gen Skydweller, so they have no point of reference. Heck until recently when they started stocking ADs with a full line of display watches most ADs wouldn't even have one on hand. Within that context the reps are dangerous to unwitting buyers. My friend who owns the gen on the right brought it to the AD so they could do a side by side and show it to the buyer. My friend was disgusted by how close the rep was. Heck they weighed them and they were within 2 grams of one another.

That's when I stopped buying watches on watch forums and switched to Chrono24 with their escrow service and 14 day examination period. I'm fortunate that I can go to this AD and they will authenticate.

We have a subforum devoted to people making clone builds and even engraving 80 percent lowers with replica markings...

If you want a good homage to a sub https://ginault.com/ is what you seek.

Only the ones who knowingly buy counterfeit and forged products thus stealing from a legitimate company, and then brag about it. Yeah, sounds like people I want to avoid in life.

What if you are actually successful enough to purchase a real Rolex, but you choose to save that money instead.

Good lord.  You seem to be taking this personally..lol

I may have had to deal with fake products and the assholes the sell them as legit products.

Sucks telling a customer they bought a forgery and we can’t fix it.

It’s just a fucking watch

Out of curiosity, which of the design elements in your signature image were paid for?

What? That is an avatar made by another member? What are you implying?

I see I am going to lose this one. Enjoy your forgery and all of the respect that comes with it.

I'm not implying anything, I'm asking if you paid the companies who designed the image elements combined into your avatar for their work.

You made disparaging remarks about:

and I simply wondered if your avatar is built with "stolen" design elements or if you found a way to pay for them.  Looks like imagery from "The Matrix", plus the site's logo, I'm not qualified to comment on the typeface but many of those aren't free to distribute either.

I bought a $20 knockoff Omega Seamaster in Shanghai around 2002.

Kept time as accurately as my Sea-Dweller, until 2023 or so. 20 years.

The Rolex lasted 15 years before it started to get erratic.

I want a Pepsi GMT, but I can’t bring myself to pay market price for one, and I won’t buy a knockoff or homage. Just waiting to win the lotto.

First, I never said they were 100% equal, I said others have said they're really close.
Second, I'm talking about your normal production Rolexes, not some special limited ones that really receive special treatment. That said,

Considering a Rolex costs ~5% of it's final retail price to create, I think you're conflating "quality" with "authentic." Once we get to the point where "proprietary steel" enters the chat, you know there is some  snake oil lurking around, especially for a stupid watch where I could find scrap from around my house, melt it down, and have watch parts that were exactly the same in terms of functionality and durability along with whatever else matters for a watch. (I say this being an owner of many Busse knives, probably the biggest "proprietary steel" marketers there ever was, and it's mostly stupid).

Manufacturing has come a long, long way. In fact, the laurels that Rolex built their name on (being one of the most reliable and technologically advanced watches, which in turn brought famous users) are long gone. They're nice. It's a nice brand. But make no mistake, you are paying almost exclusively for the Rolex name, NOT the quality. In fact, to prove this is true, Rolex has been using "anti-forging" measures like laser engraving, etc. for a while....which is where my $100 bill example came from. If you have to include anti-copying measures beyond the "quality" so that people can tell there is a difference, then the conclusion is pretty darn obvious no matter how much you don't want to admit it.

For the majority of Rolexes, there is absolutely no special magic or craftsmanship. A Chinese hand and machinery can do everything a Swiss one can at this point. That's just the world in 2024.

Btw, you seem to assume that I don't have any, or any other nice watches, which is incorrect, but anyhow, I don't care enough about it all to continue on. Enjoy all of your replicas and real ones and have a nice day.

Cute, for your argument to hold water I would need to represent myself as the “Matrix” somehow. Then deny revenue to the film company. An avatar is nothing like selling a fake product for profit. The bolt face logo is handed out by the site for members to use, again, I am not using it to represent myself as Arfcom and charging customers.

I truly thought the “Real Steel” contingent would fight a lot harder.  
Your premature capitulation is sad and disappointing.    


It’s an interesting comment though.   You assume that wearing a real-deal Rolex will somehow garner Respect.    
While also ignoring the fact that most people will either

a. Not notice it.     Or,
b. Assume it’s Fake.  

If a fake is indistinguishable, then the same “Respect” will be accorded to the wearer of a clone.

I think the main disconnect is some people think that owning the "real" thing demands some kind of respect, and others don't.

jUst aS guD.
But it really is.


Attached File

I agree with this statement. What you own is not a reflection of who you are in any way and respect is irrelevant. It is the honesty that bothers me. If you buy a fake Rolex to make others think you have a Rolex, you are dishonest.

Proudly wear what you can afford and/or are willing to pay for. Tons of great watches in the $100-$500 category.

904L isn't even proprietary.

The problem is that, like most people, you don't see "intellectual property" as a real thing, and like most people I presume you weren't ever planning on paying for graphics you found on the internet, so you also have NOT really denied revenue to the creator...  But let's not be dishonest here, both the replicas in question and your avatar are created from someone's intellectual property without compensation to the creator.

Yeah, they have to outdo the Sub crowd. Not always, but typically.

I almost bought one of those things, it was early-20teens and they were like $8500-9000 at the Rolex store at the Wynn, price was getting ready to increase. So I marinade over this hunk of steel for a couple of days and decide I'm gonna buy it. I call up my bank to get approval for that amount and at that store, I'm going to use my debit card lol. Whoever approves this shit is out to lunch. Wait, waiting, fuck it. They call when I am boarding the plane. . Somewhere over Texas I became real thankful the person took a really long lunch. I changed banks a few day later though. I have a Sub, it is plenty big.

Since someone mentioned water resistance... Google information about that. It is something to keep in mind when buying. 50' does not mean you can or should go swimming with the thing. Think of the resistance (pressure) against your hand just moving it around in the bathtub. It's good to brush up on if you are looking to buy a watch and plan on getting it wet, even if it's just a shower or hot tub.



Yeah, you do have to get them serviced. A lot of people balk at the cost of the service*, then they shit on a brand when the thing doesn't keep time, or stops. My Omega did that because I put of service, both times lol.
*Some people don't want to be without the watch either, some of the servicing can take months. I think Rolex has AD's doing it now instead of shipping them the NY/NJ/Switzerland/wherever, I know mine does the servicing and repairs... Not sure how I feel about that.

That's one thing a Stellita (sp) and ETA have going for them, litteraly any half decent watch person can fix them and the parts are simple to get, shit you can buy a whole movement for cheap, though it may not be to that brands "specs."

Grand Seiko Spring Drives go back to Japan, I do know that. GS is another "Wow, that's expensive" brand, that literally few will recognize beyond the Seiko part.

I still think I'm going to get a Gigawatt that is made to look like a vintage Rolex, but says and is a Seiko. I really want one of those "Tactical Frog" FXD knock offs, but I need to find out what the local watch guy will charge, if he even can, to remove the "Tactical Frog" off the face of the watch.

I like to tell women their LV bags are fake... Not the rich women, the broads married to some low level guy who they convinced to buy them a LV and they walk around all snotty because they are in debt, typically driving a purchased used Lexus (300 whatever) with this LV bag. The best ones are the WT who end up with a handbag, but are used to shoulder bags, so they wear this uncomfortable motherfucker on their shoulder. I'm kind of an asshole like that.

I used to want a Rolex till I gave some thought as to what I could buy with Rolex money. Needless to say I’m fine with the <$100 NH35 Chinese watches now. $10,000 just seems like a steep price for a watch. Who knows maybe when I’m not a piss broke student, my feelings on the matter will change.

99% of people FGAF about your watch. So who does?

Other "watch guys" - mostly nerds and odd ducks (I say that as a "watch guy").

Criminals looking for a mark/easy prey.

Easily impressed skanks.

You wear a watch mostly for yourself. Maybe it is to mark a special memory or event, a mark of some success in your life, etc.  

Folex does none of that for me. I'd much rather wear a nice Seiko if I was unable to buy the real deal.

So, yeah, fuck that.

Those $75 Tandorio watches are not a bad deal.

This.  But this is GD.

"Fuck China! Now where can I get a TIER ONE knockoff Rolex to try to impress strangers?"

Well china of course.......

I own this model rolex, and yes, it's real. This is not a Pic of mine. It's in a safe right now.



I've never ever had anyone ask how I could afford it. I've only ever seen maybe two people at the grocery store look down and stare at it. But never comment. My wife bought it for me for our 30th wedding anniversary. We'll not this watch. I had the older model first, and it was destroyed in a fire. Insurance replaced it with the super case model or replaced at least part of it. The rest I paid. To me, it's a treasure and investment because it's increased in value. It's something I can pass on to my son.

That said, I don't care what anyone buys. If they want to buy a fake rolex more power to them. I don't care. My only thing is if you buy a fake. Buy a great fake, not one of those pos ones that do not look or feel right. If someone asks you about it, Say whatever you want because it's none of their business. I'm thinking of buying a fake stainless steel sub just to wear daily and wear the real one on special occasions. But again, it's not my money nor any of my business what people buy.

I will say this. Rolex watches are heavy. Mine has about 2 oz of 18kt gold in it. You know your are wearing it for sure. Some fakes they've copied are almost perfect. Even the movement inside the watch. It's almost impossible with some to distinguish the difference. Even the fonts, weight and movements are right on the 1:1 fake. I've never held one. So I'm going by pictures I've seen.

We went on our honeymoon in 1983 and came across some Rolex watches at a dealer and my wife said for me to buy one, the Submariner was $700 and that was a pile of money for us back then.

I waited over 30 years and then got a GMT  IIfor me, not anyone else or to impress....bought my wife a two tone ladies about 10 years later.  It is my going out and dress watch.  When we are not wearing them, they are in Wolff winders



I came across Steelfdive watches and they have a Submariner knock off and I bought it for everyday.  It is not bad, heavy, but works great as an everyday wear

I don't understand why everyone thinks a nice watch is to impress people. Automatic watches are fascinating, and keeping an affordable one set accurately can be frustrating, not to mention relatively low impact manual labor can stop the movement.

Not everyone buys a Rolex to flex. The only people I've seen showing them off usually got it as a gift.

The steeldives are decent enough homages. I’m looking at either the Pagani Design Omega Seamaster or Tudor Black Bay homage as my next watch. Nice enough to where I like wearing it, cheap enough to where I won’t feel bad if it breaks or gets stolen.

Honestly, the reason I want a Rolex is because I enjoy wearing a real mechanical watch, not electronic, and want to pass it down to my son. I wish my dad had done the same. It's a solid, reliable item that you use several times a day, everyday. It's also a very nice gift, and something that your son would look forward to getting, rather than an old truck or Seiko.

Attached File