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Raids have happened many times in the past, and they always reopen with a corresponding uptick in prices. Now that we’ve been COVIDified watch for a biiiiig uptick in prices. Heck go to DhGate and they’re swimming in reps.

Yep I did something similar, got a bit of a “dish” to it and snapped it deep into the bezel, then inverted the bezel on a piece of leather and pushed to flatten it a smidgen. That insert ain’t going nowhere! Probably better than my old technique...

Yep it’s HH, I’ve already replaced the insert and used the High Pressure Fitment Method to snap it down tight into the bezel, to expose the sides of the crystal more. Now I’m easing sharp edges, next step is to scribe crimp marks on the inner edge of the Athaya crown (unless someone has a gen 702 they want to sell).

When I bought my last cheapie online I hedged my bets by picking one that used a well known and easily obtainable Seiko movement. The rest of the watch was built like a tank, so if it arrived broken, I just had to swap in a new $30 movement. Luckily it arrived in perfect shape and it keeps better time than any of my genuine Rolex. And it cost less than the last Rolex crystal I had to replace.

Yes indeed, those are push pins. I haven't tried pushing one yet but it looks like that would make it possible to add or remove folded links without having to bend the midlinks. Looking closely at the sides of the folded links you can see these are not the typical Rolex fold. But for $14 you get two midlinks to fix the Mary 7836 band. Or leave the thing bloody alone and wear it and see if it isn't a suitable replacement for Mary's piece? I've been going over mine to soften/ease the sharp edges and I scrubbed hell out of it with soap and that brightened it up considerably. Add some WSO 580 endlinks because the ones it comes with are crap, and find a donor clasp somewhere (my 18mm rivet pins are on order) and I think you'll have a winner. At least at arm's length.

Oh and I forgot to mention the Maranez runs the Seiko NH35 (?) movement that comes in the Turtle so the parts are a direct fit.

I tried an eBay item for the heck of it and I’m pleasantly surprised by how it worked out. Guy is selling 20mm folded oyster bands and they’re actually surprisingly good. The clasp and endlinks are crap but the oyster links and most importantly the last midlink are usable. And they’re $14 apiece. I’m buying half a dozen just to get the last mid links to put on Mary’s 7836 bands. I put WSO 580s on and am replacing the clasp and it’s a piece I can live with. https://www.ebay.com/itm/381546383310

Hi Rpropp, I built them. They’re stupid easy to put together. Find a Turtle for sale used, then get your dial, hands, crystal, insert and beads of rice band from Yobokies. Get the bezel from One Second Closer. Then put ‘er together or have one of the modders here assemble it. It’s an hour’s work. They come up for sale sporadically, almost never in the light blue though. Good luck! Here’s the light blue Maranez, it was cheaper than the parts will be for the Soxa, not including the donor Turtle.

What a great “beater”!

Nice. I'm a big fan of microbrands too. Check out Maranez.

Dunno, but you can find clasps like ARF uses on eBay and DHGate for cheap.

Okay one80, let's talk about this. I started out exactly where you are... I loved the look of a Big Crown, and had to have one. "Only the best will do!" So I started researching. This is most important. Research. Know exactly what you want. Then research more... who makes the parts to build what you want? Armed with that knowledge, start acquiring parts. I recommend you find the dial first. You'll find there are complete crap Big Crowns out there, then there's a middle ground of pretty nice pieces that look perfectly good to 95% of people that see them. Then there's a 3rd level that are nearly perfect. The dial sizes are not the same. So the size of the dial you find determines what "level" you're going to build. I wanted perfection, but there were no dials like that after 2 years of looking. Next was the middle ground with Silix sized cases and dials to fit. There were a lot to choose from and I picked the best I could find. That dial determined everything else and I built a really nice Silix sized 6538 with a well aged dial and hands, and Athaya 8mm crown. It came out really nice. It wasn't the end result I really wanted, so I wore it and kept my ears open for the "right" dial. 3 years later the "right" dial fell from heaven and I grabbed it. It was smaller so that meant everything had to be procured again. I got a great deal on an MQ case (or so I thought) then had to find a bezel, insert, crown, tube, crystal and hands. I went gen for everything except the case and movement. That meant selling the Silix to fund parts, then I started building. I chose an ETA movement for parts availability, that caused tons of other problems like stem misalignment, case fitment, frankenstein stems, and expen$ive hands that wouldn't fit the movement. So I sent it to 4 builders to see if they could fit the hands to the watch. Finally Phong got it to work. Now I've got the final piece I wanted, and it's everything I hoped for. It's magnificent. I get massive enjoyment from it, but it took over 6 years to accomplish. If I'd been in a hurry I'd hate it now. Instead I treated it as a long-term project and built a mid-level piece along the way to take the edge off. That helped a lot. Here's the Silix piece Here's the final piece ... not that different

I picked up this Maranez a couple years ago, but no steel bracelets existed at the time. So I found a 20mm Beads of Rice with straight ends, and a guy in the UK selling curved BOR endlinks. It has a massively thick case and an 11mm crown (!!!!!) but it looked like I could marry all the parts together. So a lot of file work and reshaping later, here she is.

I’m pretty sure dBane is done taking in project watches. I have a Phong case for my Snowflake and it’s very very nice.

It would be orders of magnitude easier and far more believable on the wrist. My buddy here is the watchmaker at the Rolex AD and he has never seen a Big Crown being worn. And he has worked on exactly one, that someone found at the bottom of the Russian river, many years after the band broke.

My friend built the most extravagant Big Crown Franken I’ve seen. He painstakingly researched every last detail and in the end decided he had to have a genuine red triangle hash insert. He found one, nearly NOS, authenticated, and paid over $4,500 for it. If I’d done that I would never wear the watch. The inserts aren’t held in THAT well and it would be ruinous to look down at your wrist and see it missing. Heck, when I replaced the gen T39 Superdome on my 1665 I almost stopped wearing it because I didn’t want to crack it on something, and that was a paltry $350 crystal. YMMV

Here's something a bit unusual, a Zodiac Super Sea Wolf on Uncle Seiko's Razorwire band.

I just looked on DHGate.com and this guy advertises a Noob Factory 4130 movement in his watch for $298 plus $9 shipping. https://www.dhgate.com/product/men-s-green-black-panda-dial-v4-version-wristwatches/683649185.html

Good question, and how are the Tempus Machina dials any different than what the Dark Lord is doing?

Thanks R, it's always a pleasure to hear from you!

Frozen as always! We got ANOTHER inch of snow this morning, it was -10F this weekend.

"I wish the rep game was still this affordable" Very nice! Love that tropic strap. I was looking at the reissued Blancpain Vintage FF and I'd buy it but with shipping it's close to $500 now. That's pushing the upper limit of my "play money" definition. Four watches like that equals one Krugerrand. Which will I love more 5 years from now?

Amen to that. A gentleman and philanthropist with a rapier sharp wit. Our current generations could learn a lot by emulating his.