one80

I appreciate you taking the time to write that. Sadly, this sounds like exactly the sort of overly complicated, expensive and difficult journey I'd subject myself (and my family) to... A few questions, being new to this: Would a genuine 1520 movement reduce the amount of modification needed to the hands and dial (if using a Phong/MQ/Ruby case)? Assuming a 1520, what would be needed to swap from a MQ to a Dark Lord dial down the track? Is that the same as you've noted above for an ETA? Who has the best red triangle inserts? And lastly, how does one fin

For a whole franken, prices seem a little higher with MQ, but his dials do seem better quality? Thoughts? I’ve been seeing “the dark lord” mentioned for dials too. There seems to be some mystique around him though, and hard/difficult to find?

I'm happy to send >$5k for a nice franken. My thinking is that I'll be unlikely to be in a position to buy a 6538/5510 with papers, provenance etc, but I can get something close, even if not 100% gen parts. And even the parts alone will probably not depreciate over time (based on the last 5-10 years). Ha! No, I'm still not scared off... yet 😉

Thanks for the reply. Since posting my original query I've been thinking about purchasing a complete watch from either MQ or Phong, where it comes with the genuine movement, and slowly changing the parts over to gen as/when I can find them. Any thoughts on who would be a better option if I went down that path? The dial's MQ has appear better, but there are a lot of comments (including above) that he can be difficult to deal with... Appreciate that the gen parts are going to be expensive, but I have my heart set on getting something that is as close to g

I’m looking to build a franken sub big crown - either 6538 or 5510 and was hoping for some help with the following: Ideally I want to use as many gen parts as possible - where the best places to find these (dial, bezel, movement, etc)? Are the "refinished" dials that Minh has actually genuine dials that have been reapplied, or are they 100% rep? It seems genuine cases are hard to come by - are Phongs cases sill considered the best? Are there other manufacturers that can match a gen case I'm leaning towards the 5510 based on the movement as it's newer and probab