Watchmeister

David - So sorry to hear this. I will miss him and his wisdom on the forums.


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David - So sorry to hear this. I will miss him and his wisdom on the forums.


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David - So sorry to hear this. I will miss him and his wisdom on the forums.


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Still have a few reps to go with an equal number of gens and even occasionally wear my “RWG watch”. It’s a nice reminder.


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Back from the dead on my end. Don’t know why but something called me back. It’s been fun to read and see what’s up. I am probably at 8-10 watches. But the travesty is that I seem to have lost my Rolexes including a gen 5512 and a Ubi 6263. Will keep looking although if my ex found them first they’re gone.

Times have definitely changed. My last Rolex purchase was a '66 Rolex 5512 - all original for $1200. And I bought it on RWG.

If you're son takes to long to get you up to speed I have often found with new phones that someone went to the trouble to post a simple video tutorial on YouTube which gets you through the basics quickly. And you can try it real time while watching.....

DSL

Hollow

Congrats. Wear it well. Pardon my ignorance but what is a JF case? I didn't know there were different cases.

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It is real because Rolex says it is if they say it is. But in reality I strongly suspect they were done by an "unauthorized" dial maker at the time.

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+1. Would not bring a vintage piece to an AD. Typically they have to offer a warranty and in order to do so they will want to do a lot more to ensure it lasts. We have the opposite approach - do as little as possible to keep the watch as close to original as possible. I am ignoring the fact that I too find them to be twice as expensive for a given movement service versus a qualified independent.

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$450 is the price I was quoted for a GP strap at the NY boutique a few months ago.

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Stunning build.....a very worthwhile labor of love. Wear it well.

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Old school.

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Do those watches really look any different from 20 year old aquatimers?

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At the end of the day everyone will have different definitions of Frankens. The most important thing is that when contemplating a purchase or trade ignore that word in the description. With an accurate build sheet from the seller you can make your own assessment as to what something is worth - irrespective of what you call it.

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If Frankenstein (the original) was made with genuine human body parts than it stands to reason that a Franken watch should have a fair number of  genuine parts. Just saying....   

Congrats on the purchase. Wear it well.

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I am with Ghost. I don't even venture down the Franken path without a gen dial - the exception being vintage Rolex if you find that really good dial maker.

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I forgot to add that IMHO adding a gen crown on an otherwise rep piece does not make it a Franken for me. The most important thing for me is always the dial. That is what you see whenever you or anyone else looks at your wrist.

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As everyone has said generally it is a labor of love rather than common sense. Once you have made that leap of faith It is often about rep (or Franken) to gen ratio. How close to gen do you get for what cost and equally and most importantly what is the value of "closer to gen".

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Budget, brand orientation and number of watches you want in your daily rotation will be key determinants. It all starts there. If you want multiples of a a well-known brand like Rolex, IWC, Panerai, etc. $2-5,000 won't last too long. Goes a long way with reps though. More than once I elected to buy a rep, live with it to are sure it is a long term keeper and then bought the gen.

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Pardon my ignorance but what are the Bronzo's cases actually made of?

Great answers.  I am actually sympathetic to the snob. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and in truth, conceptually, when you wear a rep you are in fact in posession of stolen property (the trademark, etc.). But that never bothered me.

By the way I am always curious how many people actually get asked. In 30+ years of rotating many different watches (both rep and gen) I have never gotten anything other than "nice watch" except from the couple of members of the forums I have run into in airports where 5 minutes of conversation and you know what they've been doing.The funniest is when the person is quickly showing interest and ownership in the standard rep brands and they pretend ignorance when you refer to RWG or any of the others.

It shouldn't be wrecking you shirts. I have been wearing many different PAM's with dress shirts for 15 years or so and so my guess is that you have a sharp edge on the crown guard, case or lugs. My approach though has always been letting it sit in front of the cuff if it doesn't easily slide under.