From the obiquitious Rolex Watch, we now have lots of counterfeit memory cards on the market.

The commom one is a false Sandisk, especially the Extreme IV which is being advertised at ridiculously low prices. Buy only from approved distribututors and don't touch a thing on Ebay! This reminds me of the guy I met in our local pub who came back from a holiday in the far east. He visited amongst other cities - Singapore and Hong Kong. He was taken in and purchased a "Rolex watch" for £200.00.

I looked carefully at the watch, is was a stainless steel "Datejust" and looked very nice. But that is where it ended. It had a "see through" back where you could see the movement working.

Rolex in Switzerland have never made a see through back on any of their watches! 

Do you want to buy a GENUINE Rolex watch, Ron?

I have all the paperwork, receipt from Ernest Jones etc..... Stainless Oyster case and s/s strap. Yours for the price of a D300.

Or a simple straight swap will do.

I'm not proud.

Jeff,

I am very happy with my Citizen perpetual calendar Calibre 8700 EcoDrive in genuine gold plated stainless steel that never needs a battery! It keeps better time than any genuine Rolex ever made and costs 1/10 of the price of the cheapest lousy Rolex. 

And if I had the money to afford a Swiss mechanical watch, I would not buy a Rolex.

Something like a Breitling or a Jaeger leCoultre would be more to my liking.

"cheapest lousy Rolex"

How dare you! This "cheap lousy Rolex" is worth 2 of your cheap lousy Nikon D300s.

If I do sell it now I would not buy a Nikon.

Something like a Canon 450D or a new neat Olympus E-420 would suit me. I can understand them and they won't give me a crick in the neck.

"cheap lousy Rolex" indeed. Some people cannot appreciate the finest horological engineering in the world, pearls to swine, that's all they are to them.

"Finest horological engineering in the world!"

Bowlocks Jeff!!!

When it comes to accuracy, balance wheels went out 35 years ago when Seiko produced and sold the first quartz wristwatch movement in the world, which was accurate to one minute in a year. This changed the world of timekeeping in a most dramatic way.

Make no mistake, no matter how much Rolex may whine, groan and perform, a quartz movement performs all the timekeeping at major athletics meeting, not a lousy balance wheel!!

And wrist watches today are so incredibly accurate that they gain nor lose zero seconds a year and can be controlled by an atomic clock which controls the world's time. This CANNOT be done with a spring, nor a balance wheel, no matter how many jewels the damn thing might have! 

Say what you like you moaning old crotchety crosspatch, that watch (I just had a look on a few sites) is worth between £1800 and £2900.

So I've put it up for sale. NOT Fleabay either, it's being offered to some of the finest watch repairers and dealers in London. I'm going in there tomorrow.

One thing Mr (I can Google everything) Clay , ever heard of a Mr Harrison? He knew a thing or two about springs and balance wheels.

Just you wait til you see MY new camera, with diamond studded twist grip.

The Swiss manufacturers of mechanical watches got so daft that they re-invented a thing called the "Turbillon", an enormously expensive mechanical device which is supposed to keep the other gubbins of the watch on track irrespective of the position of the watch with the force of gravity or something like that.

The truth of the matter is that a quartz watch can be kept at exact time with an electronic device costing a few bob and at a tiny fraction of the cost of a silly turbillon.

And it was the Swiss who actually invented the quartz movement!

But it took the Japs to perfect it!   

This is a lovely thread and very close to my heart. I have recently sold my Rolex. I had bought it in Brunei for £400 in 1981 The reason for the buy was that I worked on Drilling Rigs and needed a sturdy watch as an assistant driller. The then Toolpusher and Petroleum engineer had an argument on which was the better watch, the Rolex or the equivalent Seiko. They were the diver type watches with black/blue rotating bezels. The Toolpusher said his Rolex was undoubtedly the better of the two. They decided to tie the watches on the shaleshakers with welding rods. These shakers vibrate violently while the hot drilling mud flows over it and falls through and the drilled cuttings are separated and fal over the edge. They tied the watches for 15 minutes on these vibrating things in the hot mud and took them out. The Rolex was stil happily ticking away and the Seiko had stopped after 6 minutes. Inside we unscrewed the backplate of the Seiko and every moving part was shaken loose.

BTW I sold my Rolex for £5200 to a dealer and bought my son a car and me a D300!!!!

And there are no doubt ,many stories of the Seiko beating the Rolex in similar tests.

My late wife bought me a Seiko ca 1971. In addition to that I had a 14k gold Omega Seamaster given to me by my Grandfather on my 21st birthday. The Seiko lays at the bottom of a lake in the Drakensberg of Mpumalanga and the Omega was nicked from my hotel room in Durban ca 1988.

I would be wearing the Seiko today if it hadn't have come off my wrist in 1999. It was the most accurate watch I ever possessed. The Omega used to lose 1 to 3 minutes a day! 

"I would be wearing the Seiko today if it hadn't have come off my wrist in 1999."

Ah but you see, Ron, cheap tatty wristband. Omegas always sat in the shadow of Rolex.

I like the story of Simon's and it reminds of another I read of a fisherman (a netsman as opposed to an angler). His boat sank in fairly shallow water at sea and he escaped, but he'd left his Rolex in the wheelhouse. Six months passed before the boat could be lifted and ......

His Rolex still working had the perfect time still. The reason, he reckoned, was that the wave actions rocked the boat and watch and kept it going.

But thank you all the same for the idea, Ron, I was wondering what to do with the watch and today I may get a nice offer for it.

Ah well you see Jeff you can now flog the Rolex for 2 grand, get yourself a nice Citizen or Seiko and with the rest, get a D300 with a nice lens.

Sorted!

Nah, not a D300, Ron. Because if you, Graham, Monk and myself ever get together, we'd get them all mixed up.

I'm thinking Olympus right now, half the weight. 

Going back to counterfeit Sandisks... you can check whether you have a Sandisk or not by giving Sandisk UK a call and running the serial number through them. Assuming you do have a fake one, you can get the contact telephone number and address details of your seller via eBay. If they're UK-based, give your local Trading Standards Authority a call and, if the seller is a busy one, they'll pop round to their house with the police and raid 'em.