yeah, it's a replica, but it's 1:1 with the real deal.
When i was in Berlin last Dec my wife and I stayed at a bed & breakfast and met someone there who had a factory where they assembled some pretty damn good replicas. I'm a big watch nut, know my watches...
I own and have owned a few authentic Rolexes and Panerais in the past and typically know how to tell one apart, not so with these i got from Gunther.
The detail is unreal, same weight, same size, in fact the case pieces interchange with the authentic watch and that's pretty wild!
The Rolex i bought is a new model Deep Sea Dweller with 43.5mm dia black ceramic bezel, sapphire crystal and stainless case, anti magnetic case cover as the original all the proper markings, the proper font and depth, I had to go to a local Celini (a european high end watch store chain) to study the replica and compare it to an authentic Deep Sea and after about 10 minutes i could not find a difference, it's scary how close they got them.
Gunther told me they don't mess around with quartz models or cheap movements and only make high end replicas with high end movements, knowing a bit about swiss movt. having owned a few I quickly asked what movt. was in the Deep Sea Dweller, to which he replied Swiss ETA2836-2
I know myself that the new Rolex and Omegas come with ETA3035's a new movement, they no longer use the eta2836-2 which they used for almost 2 decades, well the -2 is their second improved version with a regulator but the fact is, these guys use authentic eta2836-2 movt. in the replica Rolex, which says a lot.
The movement alone is $225 on ebay, so i needed to check for myself if in fact this was true. Having seen a few eta2836s in my life i quickly found some scissors and opened up the case cover to inspect and see for myself. Rolexes have a special tool that is used to open up the watch, but those in the know, can do that with a pair of sharp scissors and a little care not to slip and scratch the whole watch, lol...
Sure enough, an eta2836-2 was inside the watch, a 28800 bph mechanism and it was clearly visible even before opening up the watch by the real smooth sweeping second hand that there was a good movt in the watch and not some chinese 21J garbage movt that typically costs $10 on its own.
I knew it had to be a good movt to sweep the second hand this good, but was fearing that i would find a eta2428 or something similar, which is the small - nickle sized movt's that are used in ladies watches, then the rest of the space inside the watch is filled with a heavy sleeve. Can you tell i've seen a few replicas in my life? If the authentic watch comes with an AR crystal, so do these, if they come with serial numbers, so do these, 1mm etched crown on the real Rolex, yup, this one got it also...
So, the next test was to leave it in a glass of water overnight, at least i needed to know if it will survive a downpour or carwash...and it did. There was a visual rubber sleeve under the crown, as per the authentic watch, I was told by Gunther that the Rolexes they build are waterproof to 100m, but not all their replicas are, only the non-chrono mechanisms, their chrono watches are only good for 10m since they have the chrono buttons and it's harder to make them waterproof.
Check this out, it even has the BLUE illumination as the new authentic watch does! And i even removed the steel straps to see if there was a serial number where it should be, and to my surprise, there was, with the proper amount of numbers proper font and in the proper location. These guys don't fool around!
Their chrono watches use a japanese made copy of the ETA Valjoux 7750 movement which was eta's chrono movement and cost a LOT of money, i think around $500 just for the mechanism. They couldn't possibly sell a replica for enough money to cover just the Valjoux mechanism so they had them copied in order to sell them for a fairly reasonable price. I've had the Radiomir and Bell & Ross since Dec and they all keep time perfectly, the Valjoux copies are also 28800 bph (blips per hour) so they also sweep just as smoothly as the eta2638-2 movt in the Deep Sea dweller
Well, why go through all this trouble with a replica you ask? Cause he wanted 450 euro for each watch! That's almost $600 at the time but still about $8500 cheaper than a real Deep Sea, lol
So i took the plunge, bought not only the Deep Sea, but a Panerai Radiomir Rattrapante, which is one of my faves as a dressy watch...and a Bell & Ross.
I have since sold the Radiomir to a neighbor who wouldn't leave me alone until i sold it to him, pics are below that show just how beautiful it was.
I'd like to sell the Rolex Deep Sea Dweller and the Bell & Ross that i bought from him recently because the B&R is just not me, i'm more of a traditional watch wearer and the B&R is totally for someone more cool and stylish.
I'd like to get $485 for either watch so that i can buy something new from him as he is always sending me pics with new watches that they are making.
Here are some pics:
Bell & Ross
Panerai Radomir Rattrapante (this one is gone)
When i was in Berlin last Dec my wife and I stayed at a bed & breakfast and met someone there who had a factory where they assembled some pretty damn good replicas. I'm a big watch nut, know my watches...
I own and have owned a few authentic Rolexes and Panerais in the past and typically know how to tell one apart, not so with these i got from Gunther.
The detail is unreal, same weight, same size, in fact the case pieces interchange with the authentic watch and that's pretty wild!
The Rolex i bought is a new model Deep Sea Dweller with 43.5mm dia black ceramic bezel, sapphire crystal and stainless case, anti magnetic case cover as the original all the proper markings, the proper font and depth, I had to go to a local Celini (a european high end watch store chain) to study the replica and compare it to an authentic Deep Sea and after about 10 minutes i could not find a difference, it's scary how close they got them.
Gunther told me they don't mess around with quartz models or cheap movements and only make high end replicas with high end movements, knowing a bit about swiss movt. having owned a few I quickly asked what movt. was in the Deep Sea Dweller, to which he replied Swiss ETA2836-2
I know myself that the new Rolex and Omegas come with ETA3035's a new movement, they no longer use the eta2836-2 which they used for almost 2 decades, well the -2 is their second improved version with a regulator but the fact is, these guys use authentic eta2836-2 movt. in the replica Rolex, which says a lot.
The movement alone is $225 on ebay, so i needed to check for myself if in fact this was true. Having seen a few eta2836s in my life i quickly found some scissors and opened up the case cover to inspect and see for myself. Rolexes have a special tool that is used to open up the watch, but those in the know, can do that with a pair of sharp scissors and a little care not to slip and scratch the whole watch, lol...
Sure enough, an eta2836-2 was inside the watch, a 28800 bph mechanism and it was clearly visible even before opening up the watch by the real smooth sweeping second hand that there was a good movt in the watch and not some chinese 21J garbage movt that typically costs $10 on its own.
I knew it had to be a good movt to sweep the second hand this good, but was fearing that i would find a eta2428 or something similar, which is the small - nickle sized movt's that are used in ladies watches, then the rest of the space inside the watch is filled with a heavy sleeve. Can you tell i've seen a few replicas in my life? If the authentic watch comes with an AR crystal, so do these, if they come with serial numbers, so do these, 1mm etched crown on the real Rolex, yup, this one got it also...
So, the next test was to leave it in a glass of water overnight, at least i needed to know if it will survive a downpour or carwash...and it did. There was a visual rubber sleeve under the crown, as per the authentic watch, I was told by Gunther that the Rolexes they build are waterproof to 100m, but not all their replicas are, only the non-chrono mechanisms, their chrono watches are only good for 10m since they have the chrono buttons and it's harder to make them waterproof.
Check this out, it even has the BLUE illumination as the new authentic watch does! And i even removed the steel straps to see if there was a serial number where it should be, and to my surprise, there was, with the proper amount of numbers proper font and in the proper location. These guys don't fool around!
Their chrono watches use a japanese made copy of the ETA Valjoux 7750 movement which was eta's chrono movement and cost a LOT of money, i think around $500 just for the mechanism. They couldn't possibly sell a replica for enough money to cover just the Valjoux mechanism so they had them copied in order to sell them for a fairly reasonable price. I've had the Radiomir and Bell & Ross since Dec and they all keep time perfectly, the Valjoux copies are also 28800 bph (blips per hour) so they also sweep just as smoothly as the eta2638-2 movt in the Deep Sea dweller
Well, why go through all this trouble with a replica you ask? Cause he wanted 450 euro for each watch! That's almost $600 at the time but still about $8500 cheaper than a real Deep Sea, lol
So i took the plunge, bought not only the Deep Sea, but a Panerai Radiomir Rattrapante, which is one of my faves as a dressy watch...and a Bell & Ross.
I have since sold the Radiomir to a neighbor who wouldn't leave me alone until i sold it to him, pics are below that show just how beautiful it was.
I'd like to sell the Rolex Deep Sea Dweller and the Bell & Ross that i bought from him recently because the B&R is just not me, i'm more of a traditional watch wearer and the B&R is totally for someone more cool and stylish.
I'd like to get $485 for either watch so that i can buy something new from him as he is always sending me pics with new watches that they are making.
Here are some pics:
Bell & Ross
Panerai Radomir Rattrapante (this one is gone)
