knovako2

Thank you so much for you imput and ideas. I will wear the franken for a bit longer and decide what to do with it.

Nanuq, of course if I look at the Franken and then at a gen. i doubt I will find any difference, since most of the parts visible are genuine. It is the idea of passing rep/franken for a real thing. I do agree, however, that it is nice to wear and bump around a rep while Gen. Is sitting safely at home untill the weekend or special ocasion. Another think is that the only Gen. I would consider is new/unworn piece. Second hand is a no go. And what are the chances to find an unworn PlaNet Oceal 2500 which is discontinued for a couple of years? I guess che chances are pretty slim. Hard desision. Thank you for your imput guys!

Hi guys! after wearing and enjoing my Franken PO I'm trying to decide what to do with it now. No matter how good it is, it is not an original Omega and this idea starts to bother me. What do you guys think keep it and continue to enjoy or sell and invest in Genuine PO? Here is the link to an original thread.

Maszie, Im not sure how close is too close. It did not bother too look closely, but now that you mention it seems pretty close, however I would not say that it is too close. There is definitelly more than enough room to move about the dial and an omega logo. I should take a picture on an agle.

Schildking, it definitelly didn't come cheap. All the above mentioned parts alone were about $1100. The watch I allready had for two years ( $350 delivered from Joshua). Price of the labor is " icing on the cake". It makes you think twice before diving in, but if you do, you'll appreciate it.

Happy friday to everyone! I just wanted to share a few thoughts, comments and photos of my newly finished franken PO 42mm. The only reason I've started this project in the first place is because I had a broken ETA 2824 movement inside a rep PO. So it all started when I accidentally dropped the watch on the floor at the pet store when one of the strap pins came undone and the watch just fell of my wrist. Obviously there was nothing I could have done do catch it or to save it! After couple of months of thinking about what to do with so much loved but not running Omega I've found a local watchmaker who looked at the movement and said that there is a mainspring broken but the movement could be overhauled and running as good as new. His price of repair was a lot less that buying a new eta 2824. At this time I thought: "what the hell, new year is coming, lets add some genuine parts and build a nice looking Omega". Since the watch and the movement was all taken apart it will be easier to swap the parts. So I ordered gen parts from ofrei and here is what I got: Gen Dial Gen Hands Gen Crystal Gen Bezel Gen Crown Gen Tube The only issue was the Bezel - ofrei did not have one in stock so I had to wait 3extra weeks for the entire order to come in. Crown and Tube I installed myself as the watchmaker did not feel comfortable installing one because the parts were not original and would not fit. The old tube came out of the case like a charm. It was screwed in, so after filing a nice deep groove I used a flat screwdriver to unscrew the tube and the gen tube was epoxied in the place. There is plenty of instruction on this forum so I can say it was pretty easy to do and made a nice improvement. The rest of the modifications were done by a local professional watch maker and it came out rather nice. There is a HUDGE improvement in the lume of the hands and dial. The rep may look right but the difference is day and night! Same thing with the crystal and bezel. I've also decided to add a genuine strap instead of a rep bracelet because the quality of the bracelet was not there. So I ordered a ten strap and the buckle along with a pair of swiss made spring bars from ofrei and installed it right away. One thing I should mention is that compared to swiss springbars, the ones that came with the watch originally is garbage. The are very thin, not sturdy and the spring is very weak. New springbars is a big difference in quality and I am confident that the strap will stay in place. So for the price it is a great investment in safety as they are only $2.30ea. Looks like I've covered everything, so here we go, enjoy the pictures and let me know what you guys think!

ok, I take it back. I was wrong. There is a gasket inside the crown that prevented easy going on the correct end of the tube. Man, I feel so silly now. But I guess it is a learning process.

Here is a picture of the crown fitted on the tube. Any ideas?

I just noticed a strange thing in the pictures above: when the gen tube is installed there don't seem to be a visible thread on the outside end of the tube. In this case how is it possible to screw down the crown? Shouldn't the tread on the tube be sticking out from the watch case? Pardon me if I'm incorrect but I have just received the tube and crown from Ofrei and it seems as the crown goes on the "threaded end" of the tube, thus , unthreaded end should go inside the watch case.

Great! Thank you for clarification.

Would this be the same procedure for 42mm PO? Or is there any "tricks"? Thanks!

Sure thing that the open caseback is an obvious tell, but no one will even looke there but you and it is very appealing the the eye to see the movement. Congrats on a great time piece!

Congrats on your finishing product! Let us see how it looks at the end. BTW, i thought that the bezel is a straight fit w/o any modifications needed. Or is it true only for the 42mm PO?

Some Reps are as close as you can get. Sometimes you will need to compare side by side with Gen to see the difference. One reason to put gen parts in your rep watch is to "go even further". Doing the work is fun as well.

That's excellent. Thank you, tomhorn!