Gents,
I just bought an SMP 300 chrono off a fellow member here, and would like to know your thoughts on going Franken on it? It is the newer revision of the watch without happy feet logo:
Biggest let down for me is the bezel pearl - if this was more accurate to gen I reckon this would be a properly accurate rep now that they've sorted out the logo.
Other tells are:
- Colour of the lume in daylight, its a touch green instead of white.
- Subdial surrounds are not thick enough, and look a bit wrong.
- Clasp engraving is not very deep like gen.
- Polished sections of end links are not recessed like gen.
- Subdial hands are a touch short, as is the hour hand I think.
So, what do you guys reckon? Worth going franken? If so what would you replace?
I've had a little look on ofrei and cousins uk and I could get genuine:
-Bracelet for £250
-Dial £230
-Hands are about £50 for full set
-Bezel £175 (but may need other parts?)
-Case £529 (including all gaskets, pushers, crown, HE valve, crystal, bezel) However the caseback will be wrong I think, old one.
I think one thing I'll definitely try and change at some point is the bezel. Also tempted to get the lume sorted out and the crystal AR'd (assuming I don't go gen dial/ crystal etc).
I reckon bezel, white lume and AR would make this a 95% rep. What would you guys do? Ideally I'd like to go for best value for money in terms of how the watch looks in comparison to gen, and cost of parts. I'm thinking those 3 things could be the way forward in that respect?
Cheers for any thoughts and ideas guys.