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PAM 382 on Simona Master Diver

Well said my friend. Except that I do not doubt for an instant that you could definitely simply go out and purchase the gen of any watch you wish. The fact is that building frankens are just more fun, minor inaccuracies at the end or not. Used gens are often not perfect either. What matters is that we build and wear these watches for ourselves, and we sometimes share our builds with others. Such projects are undertaken with personal pride and should be appreciated by all in the hobby, along with constructive comments on how to further improve or perfect them. This is what the forum should be about, and not a showdown of who has the better or more accurate build. We all could go out and purchase gens and be done with it, but where's the fun in that if we do that all the time right? I tread softly along the fine line separating raving insanity and lucid moments of ingenuity. The issue is I've no idea which is which mostly.

Picked up the watch around 3 years ago from Puretime. I've just checked and unfortunately it looks like it's no longer available, a pity as it's a good starting point. The dial was from Ingod44 26mm if I remember rightly, also no longer trading. Bezel assembly is from WSO. The insert, the closest I could find, off eBay from a UK seller. Pearl from Yuki. The crystal is a gen T19 serivce crystal. NATO strap from Phoenix, the original MOD supplier.

Thats a nice car!! welcome kgvertu

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I like this thread, it's a fun topic that all on here can relate to I'm sure i can honestly say that I - in some shape or form - end up regretting selling practically all watches I let go. It's one of my few hobbies that I have time for outside of work (yes I'm one of those guys that work all the time) and I absolutely love all watches, even the ones I decide to sell I love. The trip to the post office is always a bit hard for me. Then why do I sell them if I love them so much? Well if would I let my heart lead all my bigger decisions I would be driving a 2010 Maserati GT (out of warranty) instead of a newer Mercedes (still under warranty) and I would not be able to afford my mortgage because I would be buying watches every day. I'm sure I'm not the only one with that mindset around here

Mine are HR. I did not trim the tail on the seconds hand and hate to open it at this point and it is waterproof.

Good to have you on board sir! Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Welcome Jack! Neighbour Swede here and long time member of this great forum, really hope you'll enjoy it here. Never mind that bumpy start - just get building and share! Some advice / options based on my experience: 1. Start out simple with the cartel version of the vintage Rolex you're after, eg a 5512 sub. If you like it, you can thereafter send it to a modder like RA or RJ for case work and also source gen/better aftermarket parts. 2. Be patient and browse around the sales section until your vintage piece comes up. You can also post a WTB thread. What I'm saying is that it can be tricky and perilous to try and build that super high end top notch grail on your first try... Easy to make mistakes and miss what things go together etc and to get that oh so valueable network of friends that can help out. Just my 5 cents as they say.

There is no meaningful or tangible benefit of using 904L grade steel on reps, or even most gens. 316L/F steel is enough to last a lifetime if properly cared for. Dive watches can be made out of higher grade steel to better resist corrosion, but most watches do not need anything more than 316 grade steel. It is a marketing hype and yes I agree with one of the above opinions, that this move by the rep makers is mostly to enable them to milk more money out of buyers, period. I tread softly along the fine line separating raving insanity and lucid moments of ingenuity. The issue is I've no idea which is which mostly.

Okay, I didn't want to stop drinking before; but I'm serious now, I'm running out of alcohol and I need to start saving money, so starting tomorrow I'm going to cut way back.

A watch is a personal statement and we wear and judge it for ourselves. Most of the meticulously built frankens here have very interesting histories and the journey is a salient part of this hobby. I tread softly along the fine line separating raving insanity and lucid moments of ingenuity. The issue is I've no idea which is which mostly.

Likewise back to the OP's question, I'm fairly hard on my reps and they never fail. I wore an MBW Sea Dweller to hockey practice for years. One time a solid hour practicing slapshots rotated the minutes hand backward by 15 minutes, and that was the only "damage". I regularly toss a watch in the deep end of the pool and challenge kids to fetch it. No problems. I mountain bike 4-5 times/week with a watch and my left wrist has a perma-bruise from the watch beating my arm to death over bumps. Happy happy. I cut 3-4 cords of firewood with a saw affectionately known as The Fear of God then split and stack it by hand. The Sea Dweller, Frosty Flake and Big Gonzo have all taken their turn and survived just fine. I take a couple to Hawaii a couple times per year and subject them to blazing hot sand, seawater, spilled icy beers, you name it. No problem. I neglect to rinse out the salt until the bezels refuse to turn, and they don't corrode. This summer I re-roofed my shed, built another shed, built a garage and re-leveled my deck with hand tools, and the watches ticked happily without missing a beat.

Yes I agree this was a great post and great example of what this hobby is all about ... the hunt and the chase to make the perfect replica. I know for a lot of us, myself included it isn't because we cannot afford the genuine watch, we just evolved in this hobby racket maybe from a day when we couldn't afford the real deal and just got hooked on making perfect replicas not to fool people but for our own satisfaction and accomplishment of building a passible rep and we just became addicted to chasing that perfect build. To be honest I really enjoy it and though I have several gen watches I love building frankens and chasing parts and learning from the gurus here on the site and Legend being one of them ! I have learned a lot from these fellas ! thanks for the post legend ! Cheers !

Guys thanks for all your input. It's interesting to see just how much the hobby has progressed, enough for a franken watch to be mistaken for a gen. It is a happy thing for us. Given the fact that the pics are static ones on the forum, where details could be scrutinized at leisure, a well built franken in the wild would be much much harder to call out. For those of you still curious, the gen is on the left. The one on the right has almost everything gen except the midcase and bracelet. So there you have your answer. Thank you guys for participating, except for@vipassana, who thought that both watches "don't look gen". You've missed the point of the thread, Mr Vipasanna. The point is that the rep game has come very far and the worth of the gen becomes debatable to guys with resources and patience to build such frankens. I know @alteporsche has another such hulk franken and that is another impressive piece that would pass as a gen in the wild on the wrist. Kudos to guys like him and@blackboxes. The dedication and passion in guys like them are truly inspiring! I tread softly along the fine line separating raving insanity and lucid moments of ingenuity. The issue is I've no idea which is which mostly.

Any of my reps that have crapped out have done so whilst sat in the watch box. If I'm using them they seem to keep ticking fortunately. None of them get babied, that's why I have reps. The thought of mountain biking in a $4k gen scares me!

Heh, the only points I see around here are on my olde beastie.

The left one is gen.

Try Rafflestime for hands as well. I used them for my modern milsubC project. Note how the minutes hand does not touch the minute track. The published measurements are 8.5/12/12.5mm, which I have not verified. On my 5517, note how the minute hand (source unknown) almost touches the rehaut: Of course the 114060 and 5517 dials probably have different diameters, but I just wanted to show you how the minute hand affects the look. Hope this helps.

Left is gen Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

Safari for today

I hope you didn't pay much for that, it looks nothing like a Submariner

AA meetings aren't only for people willing to admit they have a problem. I used to think they were until I had a few long conversations with people that attend. They're a place for people to go and find a brotherhood to stand with them. If that makes it easier to figure out what's going on, it can't hurt to try, eh?

Interesting topic and the fake watches for fake people is a bit too stereotypical... i have a mix of real and replica watches. The reps are because I appreciate the design and a mix of: not wanting to spend tens of thousands on a collection, but also not wanting to worry about the real watch in certain situations. A great example I have both gen and replica omega sea master and planet ocean watches. Near identical (though you can certainly tell the quality difference if you look closely - winding quality, fonts, pearl etc). I wear the real 50% of the time and the rep 50% of the time. The rep if I am playing sport, in foreign countries /places I don't know and where I could get unwanted attention. Scraping / scratching a rep is not the end of the world, or getting mugged for a rep would be scary but not a financial loss. Typically when travelling I bang my watch... Rather bang the rep. I also have just a rep of some watches and just a gen of others. Why? Cost, design, how I want to use and wear it. I see some as transient watches, others as keepers and investments.... As with some here, I have bought a rep to try out and see how it feels and looks - I bought a rep Breitling, with the intent of buying a real one later, but it was too showey and didn't look right on my wrist... If I had bought a real one from day one I would have been [censored].

"Fake watches are for fake people..." I like Frankensteins so what does that make me? Half-Fake? Franken-Fake? F'ing-Fake?

Love the 3717!!!

I have A 3717 with Gen dial gen hands gen movement and correct AR'd crystal, Id be possibly interested in selling for the right price.. I paid over $2k for it from someone who had concepta build it for him. I have had it for two years now and has been serviced by an IWC licensed watchsmith with no suspision

Hi All, I recently had a transaction with Andrew from Trusty Time (ttw888.com) and I wanted to provide a review of the quality of the watch itself and the level of service I have received from him. I was contemplating buying a genuine Planet Ocean after deciding that it was time to buy a nice watch for myself. I was in the shopping centre and tried on the Tag Carerras, Omega AT and PO. After a lot of debating I really wanted to go with the flagship model and went with the PO, this is not a review of the watched themselves but the quality (which I think everyone is more focussed on). I started doing some research online about replicas on youtube and I saw a video from a guy (evilcartman?) who was comparing two reps with a gen. After watching this video several times I was a little more confident as the copies seemed to be very close to the original with the main difference being the bezel, where by the pearl on the top of the triangle being the most obvious fault (in addition to the glow in the dark dial which is minor). After looking at the different specced watches on the website, I ended up going for the 42mm PO Titanium with the Swiss ETA movement because that was the one that fit me best in the shops. The one I ended up choosing was the most expensive one in the range, I was going to go hard or go home I thought because I didn’t want a poor quality rep. So after a few days delivery I finally received the watch. It was packaged well, it was ticking when I opened the watch so that was good, it meant that the mechanism is working well. But this is where problems started to arise… Once I opened the watch I was inspecting the watch, as you do, and I noticed the following faults: - the bezel was not the best quality, There were marks where it looked like the paint work scratched, didn’t look to be ceramic at all (though Andrew assured it was) - the triangle on the top of the dial (where the pearl is located) has a mark on it which made the watch look like an obvious rep. It was not noticeable on the QC (Quality Control) Photos so I couldn’t comment. It was not consistently painted - The alignment of the actual dial is not 100%, you can tell that it needs to be adjusted anti-clockwise slightly in order to get the 12, 3, 6, 9 into the N, E, S, W positions. This is not too obvious but just an observation. - I thought that Andrew would happily send me another bezel so no biggie there - I moved on to adjusting the bracelet and this is there it got a little more worrying. There was a screw missing on one links on the clasp which actually fell apart once I had removed the plastic that was wrapping the straps. Luckily I had extra links after I adjusted the strap and used a screw from one of the other links (tip be very careful when adjusting the straps because the screws are tine and no wonder they forgot to put one in) Trusty Time’s policy is to notify them of any faults upto 24 hours after signing for the package, I emailed him immediately after my inspection and we had some dialogue about the faults and I sent him many photos of the faults I notived (mainly the bezel). If I’m honest I couldn’t be bothered to send the watch back due to these tiny faults so I asked if he could send me a bezel instead. I had considered sending it back in exchange for a 45.5 PO but he decided against that and agreed to send another bezel. He also promised to send me an additional pearl as I had read these tend to fall off after some time, he agreed but didn’t deliver on that part. The watch itself is currently keeping time very well, I will do a follow-up review in a few months time. At the time of writing the review I am still waiting for him to send the part - I will update following this review. I wanted to ask the forum whether anyone had had similar experiences and what the quality of the other watches are like. I am particularly interested in the Omega AT and the Rolex Milgauss.

Stilty -- I posed the same question some months back and never got a definitive answer. The 2846 that came in my MBW DRSD hacked, but two 2846s I purchased from Ofrei did not. All three movements had the same markings and I did not find any variation of components when I overhauled them. Obviously, something must be different, but I never figured out what it was. However, you can achieve a pseudo-hack with the 2846 (and other non-hacking ETAs) by pulling the stem out to the hand-setting position (all the way out) and then pulling on it further while moving the time slightly backwards. This will stop the second hand and keep it still for as long as you keep applying (outward) pressure on the stem. With a bit of practice, you can easily synchronize your watch with another time source.