denimhead

Congratulation Mike 

That blue insert transforms the watch, absolutely beautiful. Shame about that bloody awful PANAM logo!

Landeron Polaris Compressor, reliable stylish and cheap! 

Lovely Tom, I have one on the go as well using one of Justins case sets, an ets 2824 and a gen dial

Cheers DH

I like it

 

can you explain the parts for the build?

Is that a Yuki Insert with a Yuki Pearl?

What hands?

What Dial?

 

Thanks

Early Modded yuki 5514 case set, with incorrect case back engravings removed

MQ dial, the best aftermarket one available in my humble opinion

UK based supplier of Tudor eta hands

Lowered profile yuki bezel

Not sure on the fat font insert and pearl, I assume yuki

Hope that helps

Cheers DH

Nice.  What case is that?  Not an HH.  Yuki with some CG surgery?

Cheers

The crown is the modern 704 replacement for the old 703. Which will be being replaced on this watch soon

Enjoy chaps!

Very popular in Italy at the moment, quite cool as a piece of mens jewelry

703 on the way lions

Cheers :-)

Hi castro, as my post states BIg D specialises in re luming dials and hands, not casework

With regards to the CG's, having owned Gen 5513's, 5512's and a 1665 over the years they have varied hugely depending on how polished or not polished they've been. The crown is a Gen 704 monoblock, which is the modern service replacement of the steel capped crimped 703 crown. Hope that helps

Cheers DH

Omega Planet Ocean with a swiss eta movement. Achievable and realistic considering your age and stage of life. Sadly the minute i see anyone with a Panerai on their wrist i always think 'Rep' Sorry i know i shouldn't but i do 

Well I suppose it had to happen one day, Big Daz has finally landed a proper job. A big congratulations mate! I guess the degree and all of the hard work finally paid off. So here's my lovely Comex 5514 build done by my old mate..

Yuki 5514 with offending in correct case back engravings removed

Mq 5514 dial with a lovely subtle cream lume

Hand set re lumed by Mr D

Gen tube with Gen 704 monoblock crown

Serviced Swiss 2846 slowbeat movement

I'll post some proper pictures when I receive it on Friday

Cheers DH

Thanks for the feedback guys, I think i know where i need to go with the project. I'll keep you posted

Cheers DH

Hi Gents,

maybe a stupid question, but let me comment on it.

Stated that:

1) a rep is a rep: it could have an ETA inside or a gen dial, but still it's with no documents and its value is just the sum of the parts it has inside, for sure far away from an even old gen

2) a good rep working fine is a good watch: the A2836 which is coming with my last purchase from ToroBravos is incredibly nicely done. Unless there is the need to replace the movement, I don't see value in replace the movement (or the crown, or the hands, or...)

 

I admire the work behind a good Franken: I can barely imagine what kind of knowledge and "good hands" you need to do a good job. But again, see points 1 an 2

 

So, please, help me to understand which is the reason that push a person to purchase a rep (and now the prices are REALLY high! The latest AP 15400 is over 450US$!!!!!) and then put another bunch of bucks into it raising the expense to nearly half of the value of a gen one, because really I've difficulties to get this   

For me personally the fun of a franken build is the sourcing and hunting out of hard to get parts. I have learned so much purely through the collecting aspect. The other thing is that any Gen parts in terms of Vintage Rolex are always going to hold their value. So if you ever get a bit stretched financially then you can always cash your chips in.

That's why i own them. A rep is a rep and ultimately is only going to be worth what the forum members deem.

Cheers  

Agreed on a PVD/DLC Case in order to go for the full on Stealth appeal. I have actually asked my supplier to replace the Pale Green print with a dark brown so you will be able to see the white print. Your right TJ on it always being recognised as an after market dial, i do think that the purist attitiude surrounding Rolex has eased with companies Like Project X doing some really interesting stuff, and coming up with some better options that Rolex currently offer

DH

Hey mate afraid I fail into the " hate it " camp but that's just me , maybe on the finished product will catch my fancy.

Yep Mike, Its going to be one of those posts mate. Certainly not for everyone but there does seem to be a lot of interest in this sort of modification

Good Morning Gents,

I've been keeping an eye on the current trend for whole PVD/DLC coatings in Camo and also the camo dials that seem to be appearing in Italy. Always one of the first countries to embrace individual personalization of nice things. So please find my initial prototype of a 1016 dial, which i think looks quite nice with the red seconds hand. The idea is to produce 4 variants which would include a Sub, Seadweller, GMT,Explorer 2  and possibly some form of datejust.

I realise that this is one of those 'Marmite' subjects so I'm sure it's going to be a 'love it' or 'hate it' topic

Let me start by saying this is not a pleading post, simply a statement of fact, in the end Bergies is a dealership and each must sink or swim like any normal business.

 

The issue is that after 8 years of stellar service and building the business until it paid a regular income I was forced into a position (PP dispute) where I could only accept WU.

 

The impact was immediate, I went from up to 14hr work days to almost zero, customers simply would not buy without the protection offered by PP.

 

I tried discounting the WU fee and I tried a 15% discount sale but the interest was not there.

 

Well after a very long haul I finally managed to set up a new PP account but despite having one for a while now the customers have just not come back.

 

I have never aimed to make a lot of money from this and in fact, when running normally, my income was in line with minimum wage earnings in my country.

 

I now make that much not weekly but every 3 to 4 weeks, at this very moment I have not had a new order in the past 5 days.

 

Like I said this is not a pleading post but if you want an order from Bergies now is the time to consider it before I am forced to close shop.

 

 

Ken 

Bloody Hell Mate

Sorry to hear your news

Cheers M

Yowzer, you don't see many of them in the wild Eh Mr B

Classic listing this

http://www.ebay.com/itm/meccanismo-ETA-2836-2-comex-vintage-plexiglass-/111368518167?pt=Accessori_e_Ricambi&hash=item19ee14ba17

Some say a 2836 movement in a 1601X case will have strain on its stem because of the .05 mm greater stem height.

-Does anyone know first-hand of a Franken that had a stem break or malfunction because of this issue?

 

In the event that 'best practice' would be to use a 2824 (assuming one could have the needed cannon pinion mods performed):

 

-Has anyone come up with a way to use a 2824 in a 1601X case without a Stilty spacer?  Would new dial feet located for an ETA do the job of spacing the dial .4 mm if they were long enough, or are dial feet solely for alignment?

 

-I see a lot of conflicting recommendations on the web about attaching dial feet:  'epoxy won't work'; 'JB weld'; 'special industrial magic epoxy'; 'the only good way is specialty soldering equipment we don't have access to'.  What's the truth?  Does better consumer-grade epoxy such as JB Weld used on properly prepared surfaces fail?

 

-I've been wondering if one could stack two Raffles movement rings, soldered together, and then sand that down to the right size to give a .4 mm space for the dial?  Poor man's Stilty spacer?

-What about the Rafflestime dial spacer?  Anyone used one?  How thick are they?

 

You might be better using an eta 2846, remove the calender date parts then you'd have a nice reliable slow beat movement. Closer to the Gen than the 2836. Can't remember having any issues with the stem height using the Raffles Movement ring either

Cheers DH

Apart from having a 93150 bracelet fitted this 1675 looks fine to me. The CG profile and thickness look correct. Much slimmer than a Subs ones

But I'm happy to stand corrected

Certainly looks like it's had a newer set of hands at some stage

It's possible to fit a gen 1575 into a lot of rep cases. Having owned the majority of rep and good aftermarket 1655 cases over the years I'd hedge my bets on this being one of ingod44's cases. I've worked on a couple of his and had to mod them to address the issues raised in the post

DH

These pictures of a Gen should help in terms of dial and CG profile