Category: Rolex Replica

The boundary between extravagance and indecency, or even audacity and vulgarity, isn’t always clear-cut. Jacob Arabo (Jacob & Co) and Flavio Briatore recently proved this once again at Baselworld by unveiling a ridiculous watch priced at 18 million Swiss francs. For as daring as it may be, this uber-flashy Billionaire luxury Rolex replica watches is also indisputably indecent. Let’s be serious: nothing can justify such a sum, not even the 260 carats of diamonds—a “world record” claim its designers—adorning the excessive timepiece.

Make no mistake: this creation is the work of two successful and perfectly competent businessmen who, throughout their respective careers, have demonstrated their ability to surprise and take risks—as well as the occasional back road, resulting in brushes with the law—and who have willingly used scandal as a springboard for their business ventures. It is undoubtedly in the same vein that this project was co-developed by Jacob & Co and Briatore’s brand, Billionaire.

However, when the (extravagant) price tag becomes the key sales argument or talking point, this obviously raises a number of questions. Of course, the watchmaking industry is no stranger to the matter. Last year, the jewelers Graff set the indecency bar pretty high by launching its multicolored jewelry replica watches uk, “Hallucination”, at a cool 55 million dollars. Its name was clearly more than appropriate. Admittedly, the Billionaire is far less expensive than Graff’s offering, but the idea is much the same. It’s a mindset on which Molière would have pounced with savage relish, given his penchant for exploring the ridiculousness of vanity and staging the sad spectacle of those who measure self-worth on social courtesy and pretention. For above and beyond the successful publicity stunt, the Billionaire watch also reflects the world of the ultra-rich who, engulfed by wealth and ennui, buy luxury cars, yachts, villas and Russian girls in one fell swoop. Jacob & Co’s watch—a one-of-a-kind piece—will definitely be joining their wish lists.

The Billionaire aside, unfortunately extravagance and bad taste often invite themselves to the watchmaking table in various guises. From unwearable watches—always ridiculous but not necessarily precious—to unworkably complicated timepieces, some “watchmakers” have done considerable damage to the industry. Admittedly, they are generally no longer around to discuss it, but new usurpers emerge every year ready to get themselves noticed at any cost, with means and ridiculousness that know no bounds in the hunt for publicity.

Another highly fashionable trend is the gadget fashion replica watches, for which no sensible human being would pay more than a few hundred francs and yet for which fresh new brands are demanding a price that is a hundred times higher. Of course, it goes without saying that the ridiculous ones soon become those who are prepared to pay such completely unjustified sums.

Fortunately, to negate the popular French saying, ridiculousness does sometimes kill, particularly companies who push it beyond the limits of the reasonable. But there are also exceptions to the rule, as journalist Pierre Véron suspected over a century ago: “Ridiculousness, instead of killing some people, only makes them richer”.

Nick, Speedmaster enthusiast and avid Speedy Tuesday reader, fell in love with Omega’s Speedmaster after he Swiss Rolex replica watches the 1969 moon landing as a teenager while being in France. When he turned 21, he received a ’71 Omega Speedmaster Professional ‘Moonwatch’ as a birthday gift from his dad.

Unfortunately, a couple of years later (1974) when Nick worked in the movie industry in the United Kingdom, the watch was stolen on the set of Intimate Reflections. While this movie – as Nick puts is – was an infinitely forgettable film, it did launch his career in the industry. Besides his watch, also his brand new Nikon F2 camera was stolen from the set.

Nick explains that he had to take his Speedmaster watch off whilst loading a new roll of film using a Black Bag which had to be light-proof. The Black Bag was an essential item for a ‘Clapper-Loader’ (2nd. Camera Assistant) whereby you could transfer a new 400’/1,000′ roll of Eastmancolor film to and from a camera magazine ( i.e. Panavision or Arriflex camera). The exposed film being sent to the laboratories for processing into ‘the rushes/dailies’. The Black Bag was useful for location work, when access to a studio darkroom was impossible. However the hand-access sleeves of the black bag were very restrictive and as the film was highly sensitive to light, it was necessary to remove your watch (especially if it emitted a powerful ‘lume’ from the dial). On that day Nick didn’t have time to put the watch back on as he had to race back to the set to re-load the camera. It was only unattended for seconds-but that’s all it takes!

Although his first Moonwatch is now probably owned by someone who doesn’t know he is wearing a stolen watch, Nick keeps hope that the thief tosses and turns with guilt as it was very valuable to him. He doesn’t not have the serial number of the cheap Swiss fake watches, otherwise we could do a ‘call’ among our readers to find it.

Nick was mortified as the Moonwatch he received from his father wasn’t insured. At that moment, he couldn’t afford to buy another one.

In 1976, when he worked on the James Bond film ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ things changed though. It gave him the funds – although it was still a lot of money for a watch – to buy another Speedmaster. In 1977, he came across this Omega dealer in Tottenham, North London, when he suddenly noticed this beautiful Omega Speedmaster Mark 4.5 (with caliber 1045 movement) sitting in the window. He was captivated by the Speedmaster Mark 4.5 ref. 176.0012 and after he convinced his new bride that he really needed to buy this watch, it was his.

This Omega Speedmaster Mark 4.5 watch was treasured by Nick ever since and when the chronograph function started to play up last December, he decided the watch deserved an expensive spa. The men’s fake watches has been completely overhauled and looks like it was just bought on that day in 1977 again.

Eventually, Nick also bought an Omega Speedmaster Professional ‘Moonwatch’ that came close to the original one he got from his dad. He loves both watches but decided to put the Speedmaster Mark 4.5 up for sale on eBay, including all original boxes and paperwork. Although I’ve tried to persuade him not to sell it, the watch will go if it hits the right amount of money. As a Speedmaster nut, he wants to own the Holy Grail Speedmaster with the same Lemania 5100 based movement as the Omega Speedmaster Mark 4.5 but with the typical ‘Moonwatch’ design.

As we did a write-up on the Omega Speedmaster Mark 4.5 on several occasions I won’t go into technical details of the watch. The Mark series started with the Mark II in 1969 and ended with the Mark V that was introduced in 1984. The Omega Speedmaster Mark 4.5 is actually an unofficial name, as it was just called Speedmaster Automatic. Obviously, the Mark 4.5 nick name was given to the watch due to the shape (Mark IV) of the discount Swiss replica watches and the Lemania 5100 movement (Mark V).

We would like to thank Nick for his remarkable story about his stolen Moonwatch and the ‘replacement’ Omega Speedmaster Mark 4.5 that he was able to buy due to the Spy Who Loved Me movie in 1976.