usnret Loc: Woodhull Il

If you just want a watch to flash around in order to impress folks then do it right with a Patek Philippe Grand. Have you shopped at Amazon for used watches? Yep, they got em!

cucharared Loc: Texas, Colorado

Never had a desire for a Rolex, real or fake. Ditto for all the other “look at me” brands. I’d quit wearing a watch at all until my son finally talked me into trying an Apple watch. Now, it’s off my wrist only to charge. I mainly use it to keep watch on me, health wise. Like someone said, to each his own.

Ron

Ollieboy

Highly unlikely. No one cares about individuals wearing fake Rolexes and such. Never heard of any legal action against individuals, maybe not so much for wholesale dealers physically in the US.

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

A nice fake Rolex in New York City years ago. But if you have somebody that you know that’s flying into Hong Kong get them to buy you one and be willing to pay about $175-$200 and you’ll get one. The works or Seo works, and they’re really nice. I had one from there. It was a submariner, and I eventually gave it to one of my friends.

alexol

Many people - myself included - enjoy watches for the technology and craftsmanship involved. Also the history.

Although Rolex has become - to my intense disappointment - a "look at me" fashion item, their history is wonderful, having created many specialist features, including for example, the first true waterproof watch. Truly, tool watches.

Also, one of the very few many watch brands which was started in my home country, England, although production moved to Switzerland in early days.

They were also very supportive of returning troops from WW2, selling watches at an extremely discounted rate. My father bought one, which he had for nearly 50 years.

My first Rolex was bought for under $100, direct from the Rolex factory. Stupidly, I know longer have it, although I have others.

While incredibly durable, Rolex is close to the bottom of the bottom of the ladder in terms of wildly expensive luxury watches, and while prices are higher than most people want to pay for a watch, are a tiny fraction of a percent of VERY seriously expensive watches.

A Hublot worn by Rafal Nadal while playing at Wimbledon one year had a retail price of over $400,000 for example. Many Pateks and others are a multiple of that. Paul Newman's Rolex Daytona sold for $17 million a few years ago.

Ava'sPapa Loc: Cheshire, Ct.

I'm with you, Ron. I've always been fascinated with watches (and cars and cameras :-). I've had a couple of "faux" Rolexes. Both of them were the gold "President" and I enjoyed seeing them on my wrist. Presently I have a solar powered Seiko, a solar Citizen, a Victorinox, an automatic Tissot, a Fitbit, and a couple of "cheapie" but nice looking watches from Temu. But the watch I wear 95% of the time is my solar powered Casio which is waterproof and shows me the date, day, has a stopwatch and "exact" time plus all of its other benefits. I've had three in the past 40 years.
I purchased the first "Rolex" from a vendor in NYC when I went to a Yankee's game back in the 80's and paid $25. the second was pretty much the same thing. My wife and I took our granddaughter to see "The Christmas Show" at Radio City this past December and I was checking out the street vendors and the prices of "the" Rolexes were around $125, but of course that depends on your negotiating skills.
I knew a guy, years ago, that had a gold "President" and he loved to talk about it. The funny thing was that it didn't keep good time and the required "tuneup" was expensive. BUT, it did look prestigious. Good luck, Ron. Do you ever get to New York? You'll see them there!

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

Many years ago I worked as an apprentice in a manufacturing jewelry shop. We made jewelry as well as set stones and sold high-end jewelry. One day I asked the owner of the shop why someone would pay 1200.00 for a gold Rolex when we also sold gold-plated Rolexes for 350.00. I told him they were indistinguishable and no one would know the difference. He replied, oh, but the owner would. (Before someone chimes in that Rolex never made gold-plated watches, you need to check the facts -- they did). As you can see, the prices reflect prices from about sixty years ago before the US went off the gold standard. In fact that happened while I worked at the shop and gold was 38.00 an ounce one day and something like 375.00 a day later.

apacs1 Loc: Lansdale, PA

Why would you want to buy a clone other than to impress others that you can afford the real deal? These watches are fine instruments - Rolex, AP, Vacheron, Patek, etc. would you buy a Nikon clone or Leica clone? How about a Rolls Royce clone? Probably not. Buy what you can afford and be happy. Buy a real “vintage” watch. You’ll enjoy it as much as a “real” new one. There’s a huge world of cloned products out there because people want to say “Look what I can afford”. Except that they can’t. Be happy with what you have - or stretch a bit and get the real deal. You’ll be happier.

BebuLamar

I would buy a Nikon clone if someone can make a Nikon clone that I can't tell the difference. That would be even more valuable than a genuine Nikon.

Morry Loc: Palm Springs, CA

In about 1956 I bought a genuine Rolex watch with the Rolex metal band for about $50. from the small US Navy exchange on board the USS Boston CAG-1 when we were down in the Carribean for our shakedown cruise. I wore that watch for at least 40 years and then sold it to one of those traveling "road shows" that buys that kind of stuff for $300. This watch always kept good time . . . but the price to have it's internal cleaning rose to such a ridiculously high price that I decided to change watches to an electronic movement watch which does keep better time. So much for Rolex watches. Nice watches in my view, but not worth the prices they get for them. But people pay these prices because they want a "prestige" watch.

BebuLamar

If I spend Rolex money for a watch I rather buy the Citizen caliber 0100 for around $16,000.

alexol

And we're on a site where many people have paid multi-thousands of dollars for camera gear to produce results they could have got with an old Kodak Brownie or a cheap cell phone.

It's their money, and they choose what to spend it on, and should be able to do so without criticism from others. $15k on a watch? Go for it. $15k on camera gear? Stamp collections? $15k Bottles of wine? Have at it. But buying luxury goods which you can't afford is a moron's game.

Personally I think people who buy Hummers (and many other things) must be idiots, but it's their money, their business, and who am I to criticise their choices?

joehel2 Loc: Cherry Hill, NJ

In 1974, bought. A new Rolex for $525 from a jeweler friend who sold at his cost, In 1980, I sold it for $3000 and bought a new Rolex that cost $3500. Today, I can sell it for $12,000. I don’t wear it because people always ask if it is a fake.😊

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

About 22 years ago, I bought a Breitling super ocean for $1700. It’s a great watch and I love it. The same model sells for about $5500-$6000.