[GUIDE] INTRO TO REPLICA WATCHES
So you’ve found your way to reptime. Congrats! It’s a great place to hopefully help you find what you’re looking for. There’s a lot of information and it all depends on how far down the rabbit hole you wanna go, but you can get anything from the crappy DHGate/AliExpress $30 fakes, all the way to a top tier replica for $300-500. You can even go further than how it came to you from China by “frankening” the piece – adding genuine and other modded components to help the watch achieve a look ‘even closer to gen’.
There are a few terms to understand in order to begin here. I don’t endorse them, sometimes I use them, but they are used frequently:
- Rep: Replica
- Gen: Genuine (referring to a genuine watch)
- QC: quality check – in reference to photos of watches
- W2C/WTC: Where to cop… aka where did you get that? Or Link?
- TD: Trusted Dealer (I’ll get more into that later)
- ZF, Noob, V6F, BP, MK, ARF, JF, etc: some of the top factories (I’ll also get more into that later)
- 2xAR xtal: a sapphire crystal coated with 2 layers of anti-reflective coating
Now for the ‘tiers’ of reps:
Bottom Tier
If you want cheap stuff, no or bad QC, but want to pay $150 or less, go to
DHGate
AliExpress
Taobao
I won’t tell you what to search or how to find it there. I don’t use it, the watches there barely resemble the watches they are trying to represent. It’s just not worth it unless you want to try it on a shoestring budget.
Top Tier/Trusted Dealer
Trusted dealers have earned their way to that status – trusted – because they have a large customer base and are willing to go through investigations through the forums that have a tough and active moderation team (RWI, RWG, etc) if a sale goes awry. I recommend if you are going to utilize a trusted dealer (which is the ONLY way as far as I’m concerned), make sure you have an active account on the forums and post there so that the moderation team can back your order. If you aren’t on the forum, and your order goes bad, no one is obligated to help you. Trusted dealers get not a ton of dough from your sale, but they almost all offer a customs guarantee - you will receive a replacement watch for free if customs seizes it. Be nice and remember that they are doing work for you and should be compensated for that time. The trusted dealer experience works differently for each one, but for the most part, the flow is as follows:
- Order (either through their website or through email). They are busy. Keep your emails short and to the point.
- Payment – some accept credit cards*, others primarily do Bitcoin, Western Union and Moneygram. Some accept some of the more convenient services like paypal, but you typically have to be an upstanding member of the community for over a year.
- Wait for QC. This can take 2-7 days depending on availability. Typical turnaround time is 2-3 days.
- Once QC is received, these are pictures of the actual watch you will get in the mail. Make sure you check it for major defects. Don’t get too picky, remember that these are $3-400 replicas of $2k-60k watches, made by people who probably make a bit more than minimum wage in some cases. If a TD rejects a watch too many times, the factory or dealer they buy from will begin to refuse sending new watches and just offer a refund. I won’t get into how to approve QC, because you should be doing research on the model you want and what you want to look out for.
- Once you approve QC, it will take 1-2 days for the TD to send it off to their courier. You can also ship via triangle shipping, which is a higher price, but recommended for European countries.
- While in transit, the package has to make it through customs in China and customs in your country of origin. If it gets seized in your country, you will get a letter. Don’t respond to the letter ever, just send that to your TD and they will order a new one for you as part of the guarantee. If it doesn’t get seized, it typically takes 5-7 days from TD to your front door
- Enjoy the watch. Get a $20 watch service kit from Amazon or whatever and resize the bracelet.
- DON’T TAKE IT TO A JEWELER AND PRETEND IT’S THE REAL THING. They will lie to your face and make you think they think it's real because its good customer service to make people feel good about themselves. They are trained to do that. Just some practical advice - take it or leave it - don't tell your friends and loved ones that these are the real thing. It's better to be honest. If you want to know the full reason, PM me, I'm happy to share why honesty is important.
* Some have reported credit card numbers being stolen after using at TD websites. While the TDs are trusted, sometimes the agencies/companies they use to process credit card transactions aren’t trusted. They try their hardest, but there have been slip ups in the past. I’ve used my CC a couple times and haven’t had fraud.
Trusted dealer websites
These change frequently due to the companies wanting them taken down for understandable reasons. The websites are usually down for a night then back on a different domain the next day – they change probably 2-3 times per year. If you want an updated list (in case these domains get seized and I haven’t updated the post), go to the forums and see if they put a new one up. There are more than these TDs on the forums, too, this is not an exhaustive list.
http://www.trustytime.biz/ one of the top TDs, posts here on the sub, has videos for EVERY WATCH.
https://puretime.io/ one of the top in the business
https://chazingtime04.co/ great pics, good dealer
https://www.intime03.co/ also great pics
https://fatpanda.slickpic.com/gallery email to order, top notch QC
https://www.pf-838.com/ Has vids for almost every watch too.
https://www.ts-station.cn/ no longer a trusted dealer on RWI, but still good nonetheless
Wholesaler dealers (no customs guarantee, but a bit cheaper)
http://mrtimezone02.store/ also does full TD experience too
http://watchoutlet.io/ part of puretime
Full list here (must be a member to see)
RWI: https://forum.replica-watch.info/forum/trusted-rep-dealers
RWG: https://www.rwg.bz/board/index.php?/topic/60-rwgs-trusted-dealers/
RepGeek: https://www.repgeek.com/trusted-watch-dealers/
Forums
https://www.replica-watch.info/ (the most popular)
http://www.repgeek.com/index.php
Please go to these and get a log in and check out the topics. They are insightful, and incredibly informative. There’s even a member sales section there too if you have enough posts.
Factories
There are certain popular factories to choose from and not all ‘good’ factories are the popular ones. Some of the smaller factories specialize in one or two watches but they are GOOD. The factories in total release probably 2-10 new models every week (granted lots are shitty). The way factories work, from what I’ve read, is that someone who wants to make a watch will order dials from a dial plant, cases from a manufacturer who specializes in case making, etc, and then receive ‘proofs’. Once they approve of the proofs, they will then order batches of 100-500 and manually assemble the pieces (dial, case, hands, date disc, movements, straps, buckles, etc). This is not easy stuff and usually they know what they are doing. When a watch is out of stock, it can be out of stock forever.
Gold plating, wrap, and diamonds
Gold plating is getting better, but it seems to be a mixture of copper and some other materials that give the finish and coloring of gold. There is a tiny bit of gold in there though. If you get a scratch, don’t buff it out, just live with it. A scuff will show the stainless steel behind it if you get a significant enough ding. However, I’ve owned 4-5 rose gold plated watches and haven’t had issues with a single one and I don’t treat my watches too nicely.
Gold wrapping is more expensive but also much more thick. It will take a serious ding and still show gold. It has more gold % in it. You can buff it lightly with no issue.
Diamonds in a haute horology piece is typically done with a fine gemstone and perfectly placed using a gemsetting technique that isn’t done in the same manner as a replica would be done. If you need or want the look, then do it. Just know the stones are probably CZ, and will fall out easily, and will be inconsistently placed – which gives a poor brilliance when looking at it.
That about does it. Give an upvote, or don’t. If you think I should add a section, let me know.
Posted Nov 12, 2018, 6:52 AM UTC · edited