u/Kayone73

Just recently picked up a VSF Bruce Wayne GMT from GenReps. And overall, great watch, overall finish, quality. I've handle the Gen watches at various Rolex ADs and see no obvious glaring flaws at a glance, etc...

But here's where IMHO, the true value of these high end reps exist...

For quite a while I've had a goal of owning one of the modern 6 digit ref Rolex GMT Master II models and having tried them on several times at stores thought they looked good and fit well for me. However over the last 1-2 years my preferred tastes in watch size have veered smaller and smaller.

I originally put in a request with my SA at my go to AD for Rolex (and other brands) for a BW almost 6 months ago and decided, whenever it arrives, that's fine with me.

I decided to pick up a VSF BW to do a planned Franken watch project (transplant a green Sprite GMT bezel onto the BW to match up with the green GMT hand).

I've had the VSF BW for about a week now and wearing it on/off on a daily basis and came to the slow realization that the modern 6 digit GMT Master II wears and looks a little too large for my current tastes now 🤔 Shortly after this I told my SA to cancel my request for the Gen GMT.

So this is why I'm grateful for these reps, for the relatively low cost of a little over $500 I get to trial a watch that I thought I really wanted in Gen form, but now I know if I spent $12k for the Gen piece, this size issue would have slowly nagged at me and turned into doubt and regret, where I'd have to play increasing mental gymnastics trying to convince myself I made the right purchase and push those doubts into some dark corner of my mind...

But for the relatively low price of the rep, I can be 100% honest with myself knowing I didn't have to spend gen money to learn this the hard way and can spend that $12k on a watch that I know I'd truly love (already have a couple other non Rolex options in mind) ❤️

Just recently picked up a VSF Bruce Wayne GMT from NY favorite go to TD. And overall, great watch, overall finish, quality. I've handle the Gen watches at various Rolex ADs and see no obvious glaring flaws at a glance, etc...

But here's where IMHO, the true value of these high end reps exist...

For quite a while I've had a goal of owning one of the modern 6 digit ref Rolex GMT Master II models and having tried them on several times at stores thought they looked good and fit well for me. However over the last 1-2 years my preferred tastes in watch size have veered smaller and smaller.

I originally put in a request with my SA at my go to AD for Rolex (and other brands) for a BW almost 6 months ago and decided, whenever it arrives, that's fine with me.

I decided to pick up a VSF BW to do a planned Franken watch project (transplant a green Sprite GMT bezel onto the BW to match up with the green GMT hand).

I've had the VSF BW for about a week now and wearing it on/off on a daily basis and came to the slow realization that the modern 6 digit GMT Master II wears and looks a little too large for my current tastes now 🤔 Shortly after this I told my SA to cancel my request for the Gen GMT.

So this is why I'm grateful for these reps, for the relatively low cost of a little over $500 I get to trial a watch that I thought I really wanted in Gen form, but now I know if I spent $12k for the Gen piece, this size issue would have slowly nagged at me and turned into doubt and regret, where I'd have to play increasing mental gymnastics trying to convince myself I made the right purchase and push those doubts into some dark corner of my mind...

But for the relatively low price of the rep, I can be 100% honest with myself knowing I didn't have to spend gen money to learn this the hard way and can spend that $12k on a watch that I know I'd truly love (already have a couple other non Rolex options in mind) ❤️

As an avid GS collector, I tend to usually buy them new or if I find one preowned I'm pretty strict about finding a complete set with full box/papers/tags and everything.

However I made an exception with this 9F quartz GMT, the LE SBGN007 which was part of the 9F quartz 25th anniversary special editions (as indicated by the special '9F' font dial texture).

Also this one has the gold star which indicated the higher accuracy of +/-5 sec per year 👍🏽

I shopped around for this piece a couple years ago and found the best balance of price and condition, found a used one at Watchnian in Shinjuku, Tokyo with box and manual but no warranty card. Overall condition was really good, but not perfect and it may have been missing a couple links but for the price of $2100 I decided it was worth not paying almost $800-1000 more for a more immaculate set 👍🏽

This is one of those special watches where I'll make that 'complete set' exception. And so far it's traveled with me to many time zones ✈️

So I caught this random reel from YouTube's The Watch Idiot. He recently purchased a black dial HC 39mm.

He credits the reddit post showing the Seamaster 300m Pro rubber straps mostly work on the 20mm lug width HC 39mm.

For fun he tried out some Moonswatch 20mm rubber straps as well and found it happened to fit even better than the Seamaster strap 👍🏽

Starting to develop a fixation with earlier Gen Rolex Explorer II inspired homage watches (from both major brands and microbrands)

Currently picked up these recently:

L: Erebus Ascent 40mm GMT - 100m WR, looks inspired by both the 2nd Gen Exp II and the Grand Seiko SBGN003

R: Vaer G5 39mm GMT - 200m WR, looks inspired by the Gen 1 Exp II ref. 1655

I also have a watch broker friend of mine search for an actual good quality late model Explorer II ref 16570 as well. Will see what he comes up with 👍🏽

Ironically the one watch I DON'T like is the current 42mm 6 digit reference Explorer II 😬

Great news for Longines HC 39mm owners (the new reference): the 20mm straps from the Omega Seamaster 300m Pro are compatible with this watch 👍🏽

I clicked on this random review of a green dial HC 39mm not expecting much but midway thru the video he demonstrates that the Omega green rubber strap fits on his HC!

This also means the whole wealth of AFTERMARKET fitted straps meant for the 300M Pro will also work with the 20mm lug width Hydroconquest 39mm as well 😲

Iooking at Omega's OEM fitted rubber strap, I wouldn't be surprised if it's just the same part as the black rubber strap included on my HC Commonwealth Games edition, with some superficial detail changes and Longines branding on the deployant clasp instead of Omega... 🤔

So I just ordered this VSF BW GMT and my plan is to remove the black/Grey bezel and swap it with a black/green Sprite bezel and essentially make a 'Sprite GMT' but a R handed version with the crown and date window on the proper side 👍🏽

Looking for leads on decent quality rep Sprite bezels, at least on the level of the VSF or ARF reps. I have no direct connections to those factories so I have no way to sourcing those parts myself.

Just putting this out there for those of you recent 39mm Commonwealth Games LE owners who are interested in sourcing the 20mm H link bracelet for their 39mm watches.

I put in an order direct to Longines thru a local Longines AD near my home, the SA quoted Longines price as $420 USD Retail (plus whatever is the local sales tax in your neighborhood).

Will update once the bracelet arrives (I have no idea how long it will take, but likely weeks-months) with some updated bracelet wrist shots 👍🏽

With the 39mm version of the Glasgow games LE selling out within 24 hrs of release, not surprised there are already flippers out there on the various online marketplaces...

Checked out a Godzilla themed popup with the kids, hosted at a local boba shop in LA 🦖🧋

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Japanese watch seemed like the proper way to go 👍🏽

yes I don't own the actual GS SBGA405, that would have been perfect, but I work with what I got 😂

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⌚Grand Seiko SBGY011 Asaborake⌚