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Hi Guys, I have been a member for some time now and have been coming to this forum to learn from fellow watch fanatics. Okay this is my technically my 2nd post here, but my first propper one. Ssorry about the length. Short background: I travel a lot to China as it is part of my job and bought many fakes in Hong Kong, on the night market, and some in China. At some point my brother suggested I save up and buy a real watch. Knowing that the quality of my reps are far below par, I used to check the time on my phone instead of watch, I saved up and bought a gen Omega PO 42mm. The process of choosing my gen was a lengthy one as there are so many beautiful watches out there but unfortunately my budget allowed me to only choose one. When searching the web for watches I found that there are many sites offering replica’s. Very tempting but I did not trust this and after digging a bit deeper I found this pearl of a community. I am still very surprised on the level of knowledge that many members have and the details of a watch that are being discussed here. I honestly think that the people here know more about the watches they own than many of the people that own the gen versions. Of course after absorbing so much knowledge here, I can no longer wear my cheap fakes and I can no longer buy the fakes from the watch market as they are really very bad reps. So, the company I work for has moved their office to Dongguan, which as you may know is close to Guangzhou, and after reading some reports on the watch market there I just had to go there. Usually I would not be allowed to take a day off when in China, tight schedules, but since I was traveling alone, I asked my Chinese colleague to arrange a car for me to go to Guangzhou in the afternoon. The number of items available is simply mind boggling! I thought I knew what to expect but still I was overwhelmed. You can buy, buckles, straps, watches, watch tools, movements, dials, bezels, cases etc etc. I unfortunately did not see replica parts. All the parts I saw were brandless. There are watch malls with small stands in them. Every stand is a different company (probably not really, but they make it seem that way) offering watches and they all offer replica’s. They may have some on display but they all have catalogues with watch models of the most famous brands, Rolex IWC, Montblanc, etc etc. They all have the same catalogues as well. As soon as they saw me, a western man, they were offering their replica’s and they all offered me to visit their ‘showroom’. All stand owners have an apartment nearby, where they have all their fakes on display. Prices are high but can be negotiated. Example Watches are offered from 400 to 900 RMB (around $65 to $145) When asking for Swiss quality one guy said it started from 1850 to 2700 RMB (around $297 to $434) In my head I wanted to look for a IWC Big Pilot and a Rolex Explorer II so I went to a ‘showroom’ with one guy. In the elevator I asked what kind of movement was in the watches. But he clearly not understood what I tried to ask him. Even after my Chinese colleague translated he could only answer that it was automatic. Upstairs he opened a door to a small apartment where the main room was used as a showroom. It was probably 3x2,5 meters where he had display tables full with replica’s. Unfortunately he did not have a Big Pilot and the Explorer II was not good. The bezel wasn’t correct and the triangle at the 12 position was tilted quite badly. Almost no AR, the lume was the wrong colour and very, very weak. I started to get a bit disappointed as I figured that the Hong Kong night market sellers probably got their watches here as well. Probably, the better products are available somewhere but I had no way of knowing where these could be found. Even if they had swiss quality it was still very bad. I assumed it would be like the report of Teeveetee or Offshore. You know fixed prices (around 900RMB for a high quality watch like Teeveetee) good quality watches come out from beneath the counter. But it was nothing like that. I remember that Pollux.cc said in his Do’s and Don’ts post: Maybe I was at the wrong place, but still I visited like 4 mayor malls. Or is the Wholesale-market at a completely different place? At the end I found a nice Big Pilot IW5004-02, asking price 780 RMB ($125). it wasn’t the one I was looking for, an IW5004-01 but I made him an offer of 400 RMB. We settled at 450. To give you an idea of the level of knowledge of this salesman I can tell you this. I asked him if the power reserve worked. He didn’t understand what I meant. After translating several times and showing him what I meant he said that it did and then started to explain to me that the numbers 1 to 7 meant the actual days of the week. Monday, Tuesday etc. After again trying to explain what a power reserve is I decided to give up and check myself. The power reserve works, but of course not for 7 days. 1 at the most. I later found strap removing tool for only 5rmb and after buying that I decided I had had enough. I had spent 4 hours there and was completely overwhelmed. Like Teeveetee said it is impossible to comprehend the quantity of watches on offer: How right he was. I will definitely go back during a next trip, but the way I see it, if you want to be sure you are getting what you pay for stick to the trusted dealers. That is what I am going to do. I will order something and then let it ship to my hotel in China. The next time I am at the watch market I will spent an entire day there and take my time to just look at nice watches and only buy something when I find a gem. Jsorber

i havent post any of my build here, what i did is always asking or request for suggestion for Pre V build. So now let me post some of my collection build vintage model and the unassembled

Long weekend here in the sun.............love it !

It's another Breitling 816 Navitimer day...

Still working!!!!

Hamilton Khaki Field Auto Chrono...

My first wristie in here

If the sun doesn't come out for 5 months where I am, do I still get to post? Cal. 1887 again

@sgtguk.. it has been an awesome sunday in the beautiful sunshine. This for today

Still in my pyjamas Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk 2

I agree...a rep is always a rep. I just have to queston when does a gen become "not" gen. Take a gen 16610 for example...it's all original but somewhere along the way it's had an aftermarket bracelet, crystal, crown and insert installed on it. Is it still a gen having those aftermarket parts on it ?? (many would answer yes.....but why is that??) My viewpoint on that is................... What's the difference in adding a bunch of aftermarket parts to a genuine case or adding a bunch of genuine parts to an aftermarket case I personally don't see the difference.

YEARS LATER.... I am still doing this project. I have currently: NDT dial hands (lightning bolt second hand, hour and minute dauphine) gen 1601 case with crystal (need to remove cyclops) sapphire crystal for 1601 with no cyclops (or use this crystal) smooth stainless bezel gen steel crown and of all the crazy... an Omega 2500C co-axial escapement movement. This is essentially a 2892 as I understand it. TO DO: figure out either swapping crystals or removing the cyclops acquire movement holder ring and tabs and screws to mount movement figure out dial feet determine whether or not the hands are correct dia. for the cannon pinion on the 2500c assemble (yes, there are a few more details here. stem length, stem position, etc.) Alternately: Sell the Omega movement to an omega rep builder and get a 2836 or other and finish the build. Why did I buy the Omega? Because I missed out the 2x times I came across a 1570 that was close to my budget. The co-axial seemed technically intriguing. Why am I building a 6541 in a Datejust case? There's a picture of a 6541 where someone removed the rotating bezel and used a smooth bezel instead. I like that. Advice welcome.

Yep, that's what I have used. http://www.harborfreight.com/watch-case-press-with-nylon-dies-91621.html It is 'light duty' but works well enough. The dies are key, and work in other uses as well. As said earlier, sometimes the cyclops and height make an issue, but then you can invent new ways. With a Harbor Freight 20% coupon it's just over $10usd.

Josh case reworked and drilled for gen spring bars New DG 2813 movement from Ofrei Gen crown on WSO tube Yuki Dial MBW bezel and crystal retaining ring with aged insert Clark crystal Rep 93150 bracelet with WSO 580 endlinks and gen spring bars

They did a bloody awesome job on that piece it's amazing what they can do eh hope your Dad gets back to full health swiftly mate

Here is my Snowy on a few different 'looks'..............

Welcome to the forum. you will probably regret ever stopping in here .This is a very addicting hobby. The only way to learn to swim though is to get your feet wet. All of the guys who posted up above me are masters when it comes to making up beautiful "built up" watches. All i do is find stuff and send it to someone else for the build. i will second what some have said, never assume something is going to fit, just because it looks like it will. Quite a lot of the reps are made to "resemble" the genuine, but some are only superficial resemblances, and fitting parts from other watches, or genuine parts is often and expensive and frustrating experience. I will say, with the right skill set, and the advice and counsel of many of the folks who have already "Been there, done that", you will be amazed at what can be put together. To answer your question in your first post about what is a Rolex, in my opinion, and others may disagree, it's not genuine unless everything is genuine. So even though your wonderful vintage 1680 has a Rolex 1570 movement, Crystal, dial, hands, bezel, insert, crown and tube, it's not a Rolex unless the case is genuine as well. So no matter what you build up, if parts are not genuine, it's in the purist sense of the word, not genuine.As long as we recognize that and stay within our world, everything is OK. It's only when someone attempts to pass off a "Franken" as a genuine that everything starts to unravel.If i tried to sell a vintage Rolex Datejust on the Vintage Rolex Market, and the watch had a nice Alligator band, nothing is wrong with and aftermarket band as long as it's stated, everyone does that especially with leather straps. Where I would get in trouble is trying to pass off a strap that is stamped Rolex, but is not genuine Rolex. Same with other parts, like bezel inserts and even hands.

You may also want to consider the TimeZone Online Watch School - http://www.timezonew...om/WatchSchool/ (This is what I owe some of my successful projects to) Plus, you will end up with all of these cool tools:

Good stuff! I think that watch building (as with most hobbies and the sort) is really one of those things that you have to dive right into with both feet and just get messy with. It's definitely a learning experience, but once you've got the basics down, it's not so bad As for the 6541 Milly- That might be a tough one to do. Genuine dials and hands are out there somewhere... But likely to cost dearly. In this case, using an NDT dial and hands for a build might be your best solution as far as cost goes. Or, you can start with a rep to see how you like the watch and design... See if this is really the style you are after. If it is... You can build upon that to start. If you want to take it to the next level after that, then you can look into doing something a little more... Be prepared... This hobby can pull you in. It can become quite addicting.

First and foremost- Welcome to the forum Your ambition and enthusiasm will carry you a long way in your project; I think the learning curve will be fairly little considering your history with learning/playing/repairing and building guitars and finding your way around car repairs and mechanical expertise. You'll have the fundamentals down in no time. The important aspect to building, and this applies to almost any kind of hobby or interest, is to have the right tools to do the job. To get a good head start on this, you can pick up the basics that you think you will need a la carte (i.e. set of watchmaker's screw drivers in various sizes, #2 tweezers, rodico, pith wood, hand/gear removers, hand setter, movement cushion, caseback wrench, etc), or you can pick up ready made kits that may likely contain everything that you will need (and sometimes more than you need). I would suggest starting off with a low dollar watch or replica to get familiar with. You can practice things like casing and uncasing movements, releasing winding stems from the keyless works, removing and setting hands, removing dials etc. As you become more and more familiar, you can take the next step of building your own watch With regards to building your own watch- It's best to start with a rough idea for budget and go from there. Projects can range from inexpensive to moderate to very expensive depending on the content used in the build and it's easy to go overbudget if you're not careful. Definitely a good idea to get a battle plan in order first before embarking on anything (and this is where the forum can help steer you ). As far as the definition of what is a franken and what is not- That is a subjective term, in my opinion. To me, a franken is a watch put together from parts, be it genuine parts, aftermarket parts or flat out replica parts. In order for a watch to really qualify as a franken (to me), the build must consist of a genuine dial among other things like hands and movement being a big plus (but not always necessary). If the watch is comprised of mostly aftermarket parts, or a non-genuine dial, to me that is what I would term as a 'build'. But again, the term is whatever you want to make of it. There's nothing set in stone, and nomenclature is a very subjective thing Also, please have a look around the forum archives; the search function in the upper right hand corner can be somewhat fussy to use at times, but it should work to hopefully help with answering some questions be it technical, or if you want to see other similar builds that may have been completed prior (we have a lot of knowledge and history here). Take an evening or so to check the place out. I think you'll like it here as there are many friendly faces, several of which have quite a bit of experience in this type of stuff! Cheers, //ubi