Now that the Chinese New Year is finally almost behind us I expect to see some very interesting things coming out of the far east as far as replica watches go.  During the month of February the entire nation of China (and with it most of the replica watch manufacturers) goes on extended holidays and shuts down most businesses as people go to spend time with their family.  Janurary is spent in preparation for this, so very little in terms of innovation comes out until March.  Now we have seen some interesting peices come early this year, like a very accurate Graham Oversize.  I hope to post photos of this on the Replica Watch Report soon.

Beginning in March I expect a variety of new models to come out.  The factories HAVE to have exhausted their supply of Hublot Big Bang cases.  Look for more accurate Rolex sports watches (more accurate cases, and properly shaped crown guards I’m seeing) as well as new brands such as the Graham mentioned before.  Each generation of replicas is getting more and more visually accurate.  Still, they are fakes, and do tend to suffer from horrible quality control in a lot of instances.  One watch may work perfectly, and the exact next watch on the assembly line (well, that’s a stretch. Some of these watches are assembled on people’s kitchen tables) may be an absolute piece of shit.

Some dealers, like TTK, spend time testing each watch they get before they ship them out.  But many are under pressure to get inventory to the masses (by the buyers) who will brook no delay in getting their goods, even if it’s in their best interest.  This makes second-hand replica watches an even greater hazzard.

I had an enjoyable conversation with TTK this weekend. He’s living comfortably in Thailand and seems to have his finger on the pulse of the replica watch industry out there. As always his photography is stunning. His recent pictures of the Audemars Piguet Chronograph replica are outstanding. I’ll try and post some soon.

For as long as replica watches have been in mass production they key to winnowing the wheat from the chaff was to go with a watch based on a Swiss ETA movement. ETA is the ubiquitous manufacturer of watch movements for many high-end brands. Given the state of early inexpensive Asian watch movements (poor to average at best) a watch with an ETA movement had a longer life expectancy.

Replica Watch manufacturers would set a premium on these ETA pieces, reserving their highest quality materials such sapphire crystals and accurate cases for these higher-return replica watches. And to be honest, many ETA replica watches are very reliable. I’ve had an ETA-based replica Rolex that has lasted 4 years without missing a beat. Some of my cheaper Asian-movement watches have given up the ghost with 6 months.

The Asian manufacturers have envied the ETA movements so much that they’ve begun to replicate the movement as well as the watch. The (in)famous Asian 7750 is a direct clone of the ETA 7750 movement. This has dramatically brought down the cost of some complex chronographs (and spawned a whole industry of Breitling replicas) but at the expense of accuracy and life expectancy. Sure that Asian 7750 cost 1/3 of a genuine ETA 7750, but it’s got a bad reputation for poor reliability.

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