I asked several replica watch dealers a set of questions designed to get to know them and their involvement in replica watch production and sales. The first dealer to respond was "Puretime", also known as Angus. Below are the interesting answers he provided to my questions.  Thanks Angus!

How long have you been in the replica watch business?

More than two years, I had some harsh time during this period and I almost quitted this replica market but I gained support from my friend and customers to make me return to this business again.

How did you develop your supplier contacts?

I am one of the luckiest dealers, my ex-supplier is one of the biggest replica wholesalers in China. When I decided to return to the replica business, he kindly brought me to visit the biggest replica watch makers in China, I know some other dealers took much time to develop their supplier contacts but I took only less than one month for that.

And now I sometimes go out to have dinners with the suppliers and discuss about watches and I have already made very good relationship to the watch makers.

What has been the most popular watch model you’ve sold in the past 12 months?

It was the Panerai PAM00127 1950, remember I was the first dealer to have this beauty in correct 1:1 case (but in a basic Swiss UNITAS movement with incorrect bridge, mineral crystal and without swan neck). Now this watch has been developed into many generations and now finally we have the best version with sapphire crystal with Anti-Reflective coating, 1:1 casing, Dagger Swan Neck movement, Cannon pin fix and SuperLumed dial and hands.

What do you think attracts buyers to replica watches?

It really depends, some buyers purchase replica watches because they cannot afford the price of the genuine ones; some buyers think the genuine does not worth the price (e.g. some genuine Panerai and replica Panerai both use ETA-6497 movement on their watches but the genuine are simply 10+ times more expensive than the replica); some buyers are only collectors, they purchase replica watches to complete their collection; some buyers like their genuine watches very well and they don’t want to scratch the genuine watch in daily work so they wear a replica in daily life and a genuine at some important occasions like wedding party… etc.

Do you think Paypal is a reliable medium for payment?  If not, what do you think is an alternative?

PayPal is always a reliable medium for buyers ONLY, I believe most (should be all) dealers had faced very critical PayPal issues before, PayPal sometimes just suspends your account and thousands of dollars were stuck inside PayPal and PayPal tries every means to keep your cash at them and never give it back to you (saying you are selling replica watches, etc..)

I have not tried other payment types besides Western Union but this does not have protection for buyers so most buyers do not prefer this unless they don’t have a PayPal account.

I have heard of there is a payment type call Moneybooker which is not very popular, but I see this would be a nice alternative to PayPal because they don’t have very strict restrictions on the payment transfer.

Are you a watch collector as well as a dealer?

Yes, I was first a replica watch collector before being a dealer, now I have a big collection of Rolex and Panerai but I seldom wear them because there are some super-quality watches in the market now. If so, what’s YOUR favorite watch?

My favorite change from time to time, my current favorite watch is the Hublot Big Bang, I borrowed one from the watch maker and I wear it everyday. What’s on your wrist right now?

Same answer as the last question, the Hublot Big Bang.

What trends do you see coming up for 2007?  Will Panerai continue to be the most replicated watch brand on the market?

Yes for sure, for those I have already known, there are about 10 Panerai models in superb quality are coming out before the Chinese New Year. And there is a trend of replicating some popular watches of other brand names such as the AP Royal Oak Offshore, Hublot Big Bang, Chopard Mille Miglia GT XL and the Breitling SuperOcean.

This is good to us because there will be a quality war on the replica watches between the manufacturers, I am sure we will see many more extreme high quality watches in the coming year.

Is the market for replica watches growing?

No, absolutely not, the quality is growing but not the quantity, as the economical environment becomes better and better in China, the Chinese government starts to interfere the replica business (not just watches, also for bags, cell phones, etc). You will not see a single replica watch in the Guangzhou Watch Market about 7 – 10 days a month. Any I see this business is still too young to vanish, even if the entire watch market is evacuated by the government, the watch makers still have means to produce replica watches to us. This trend is good to people who always need super-quality watches but it will be a bad news to those who need cheap watches, I guess there will not be many replica watches in the future but only those high quality ones.

What’s your web site URL and contact email address?

Any questions can be sent to puretime2005@gmail.com or visit http://s16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/puretime/ for my watch album.

I am now working on my web-site www.puretime.org and I hope it will be done in January 2007.