cougar1

Great selection omega_guy, some cracking good frankens you have there!

Honest opinion is don't go for the 2500 movement for a franken, sure they seem relatively cheap in some corners but if you want the feeling of a 2500 just go for a 2892 in it and you would be much better off in the long run. For starters, who is gonna service a 2500, not many people will be able to and you cut off one of the main advantages of a franken PO over time....cheap service/maintenance costs. Good franken PO's are an amazing watch, and this is coming from someone who has gen, franken, half franken and another rep

The only one issue that could've made franken PO's perfect is the tube job that needs to be done, if they could've made it truly 1:1 and allowed a gen tube to screw directly in instead of all the mucking about with epoxy or other methods, then it would've been outstanding.

Also no worries on the new PO reps, hopefully they are good, but they won't be frankenable (where are the parts gonna come from?) and regardless of how good they are on top, turning the watch over ends the illusion! The old PO can be made externally perfect!

I'd say hold onto it, doubt there is a much better option unless you go franken, or pick a franken up on sale cheaply. The benefit of the 42mm over the 45mm is the gen bezel clicks straight onto rep 42mm, on the 45mm it has to be modded to fit the insert. All other gen parts go in fine other than the bezel differences.

I thought I saw a 42mm rep franken on sale recently on the geek with all gen parts except for bezel for around $850...which isn't a bad deal. If you end up buiding a franken, look into things like sunnydale crystal AR which would lower costs and look v close to gen.

You could wait on and see what the factories come up with for the new ceramic PO, which should be out soon (by xmas hopefully)

...alternatively if looking for something a little different (but still a similar profiled diver) try the new jlc navy seals...just picked one up this week, absolutely cracking rep out of the box, no mods necessary.

tbh out of the box it's a great wearable rep, but if you are looking for side by side accuracy with a gen then it has some shortfalls, particularly dial lume and AR on the crystal, these are the most striking and it can be made very close by either gen dial/gen crystal or good aftermarket lume job and AR job. After that it is minor issues that probably wouldn't be noticed unless pointed out, HeV height, pearl etc.

For the price of a 5th gen 42mm asian then at about $200 or under then it is a great rep to have with future franken options.

Also just reading back you mention 42mm 5th gen V5.5 ? Which old one are you comparing to? 4th gen old or 5th gen original 2010 release? The term V5.5 is imo the worst possible sort of rep forum quick lingo coinage...there is no PO V5.5 rep, somebody coined the term 5.5 on the geek or rwi when minor factory discrepancies showed up in the factory construction process, such as pearl lowered a bit, logo raised a bit etc, There is no V5.5, only V5, whichever tool originally coined the term V5.5 just created more confusion for noobs rather than providing help.

Which vac modded rep PO do you have, if it's a few years old I'm guessing 4th gen?

Beautiful dials marlin, very interesting build, I'd love to know more about parts, where you picked up cases/dials, very classic look and something a little different than the usual omega vintage.

It would indeed be excellent if you could get hold of 42mm samples sunny, (...even though we are all waiting patiently for the new ceramic PO's) ....the standard 42mm 5th gen is still, and probably will be for years a great seller, so you'd move the crystals easily enough. From the pics you show the transparency is top notch (saw your thread on RWI) and at the price they are at, they are an outstanding option vs gen!

Cheers cougar, it really makes a difference, couldn't emagine what a gen crystal is like, but to be honest I don't think I'll ever bother with gen crystal as it looks so good. It's a shame he hasn't got any for the 42 but I'm sure if it's like anything else on rwg if there's enough members with money I'm sure they would become available

It looks very close to gen, the main thing with the gen crystal is the transparency effect, and low reflections, and this crystal from the pics looks exactly as gen looks. It is the better option considering price, the gen is just too dear.

Also Sunny says the factory that does the crystals won't do the 42mm version unless they can move amounts in the 200's, I think the 45mm versions were a trial?, cos I didn't hear of amounts like that being shifted across the forums? I would've thought the 42mm PO was more popular and would've sold more than the 45mm but maybe I'm wrong?

Also the PO 5th gen is nearly a 2 year old rep these days so many who already wanted a franken would have done the crystal or mods by now or just happy to leave it unmodded...so not sure how demand would be. If Sunny crystals were out a year and half ago they would've sold like crazy. Anyway great work, watch looks stunning!

Fantastic project quaresma, you don't see these around much these days but they are classic omega, and one of the best divers around!

Lovely work danza, looks great, definitely a keeper you have there!

Hang on a few months, there is a delay but noob factory are in the production stage (well this according to several close td's) of the new ceramic PO's (42mm and 45mm).

There is good vibes so far, it would be nice to see a prototype soon but it still could be a couple of months yet before things are ironed out and with the recent raids it isn't helping the already patient wait for these.

I don't know how the final quality of these will look but expect the dial finishing to be up there with something like the ploprof, dial superlumed, things like pearl/matte ceramic bezel will be difficult as usual but dial/case should be good. As for displayback (not in a mllion years is it gonna be accurate) but at least a clone or selitta with pearlage and geneve waves rotor is expected. They've taken a lot on board with these new models and tbh they seem like they would prefer to avoid opencaseback models from now on if possible, but with the PO it is just too popular a potential seller to ignore the watch...they will definitely be repped and repped resonably well.

As for the gen, well, I don't have it but if you are saving for one, make sure to push for 20% to even 25% discount as they have been got many many times! Initially omega had a policy of 'no discounts' to keep up with rolex but it seems that went out the window went they considered the state of the world economy and realised a discounted sale is better than none at all?!

Hey Ry, you got one, great pics, glad it all went well, the crystal looks fantastic! Perfect watch now...worth the wait to get everything together!

Now if only SD had them for 42mm!

Enjoyed that!

thanks very much and shall i remove the post??

No problem, Nah, i'd say the post is fine, I'd imagine dealers just don't want the cover company names getting around too much and being directly reported to PP, so like to keep it low key. I ordered something a month ago and had to go via other methods so a dealers pp account being taken out can affect us all. Enjoy the hublot btw!

Yeah it's fine, his paypal was knocked out recently so must be back on line again. The company is a cover name because PP would scrutinize any reference to what is actually being sold, if it was mentioned, and shut him down again. Just don't mention any reference to what you are buying during the payment process. Not sure it's even a great idea to bring the name of the cover company up on forum but no worries it's done now.

I've bought many many times and plenty here have paid 1000's via that method, it's fine, as soon as you pay the process of the watch order will start...qc pics/tracking nos etc.

Nice...this watch looks like it will go well on dozens of straps!

I would say go for the PO, as it's the better rep, also buy it on the bracelet and ask for an additional rubber strap at the same time, the rep rubber straps aren't great so you have something to fall back on.

Plenty of dealers have this, try andrew(trustytime) or josh(pc) or angus(puretime) in the dealers section. Go for the UPO 1:1 if looking for the bigger version.

Here is an example:

http://www.puretime....bracelet-a2836/

http://www.puretime.co/product/planet-ocean-45mm-ultimate-edition-ss-black-dial-on-black-rubber-strap-a2836/

God, and they bought a gen watch to do that with it ...back to the drawing board!

There should hopefully be a few releases/improvements of these c-smps in the future, I don't think noob have any involvement in them atm either, it seems the only new Omega they are working on is the C-PO and perhaps the new AT from that, who knows though, ...as far as these new ceramic smps go, why not do the 'normal' version and not a special edition...wouldn't it be a bit easier?

Exactly my thought: I'll try to source that spare dial to use it in my standard 42mm PO. Nothing else.

Here's a quick and (dirty) example of how it might look in a standard rep PO wit rep AR, even poor rep AR makes a big difference to how it looks, excuse the huge amount of dust on the crystal ..the dial isn't fully in, just balancing and not straight, but you get the idea. Anyway I think I'm gonna order a JLC navy seals soon, so these custom PO's will take a back seat for a while. )

Hi ryaku,

I saw the old LM PO once, the dial looked very impressive under the gen crystal, it is black but changes colour based on lighting/angle and can look anything from glossy jet black to glossy light grey. Omega are good at playing with dial effect colours/3d effects etc. It gives an interesting effect, a little blingy maybe compared to the regular matte PO dial, but definitely striking, My first thought was that is how the original PO dial should've looked with raised applied markers but mattified and it would've been perfect. I would say the rep dial looks very close, maybe a little less glossy as the original dial is ceramic, the rep seems to be glossy black lacquer and all the raised/applied markers look very close. The rep even has the [ZrO2] in green writing under the professional.

In terms of doing something with this for the accuracy to gen purists I don't think it's possible! The LM bezel is out, using a black bezel insert works well, but it doesn't look like anything that was sold at an AD.. it would definitely be a custom job, with a totally different look than the standard black PO rep or standard orange PO rep. It's interesting for us PO freaks ...but that's about it.

It makes it very interesting how the new ceramic rep will look when it comes out, I still have doubts that they will get the bezel insert right on those, but they should get the dial right or very close now. They've mangaed to rep good omega dials before....the ploprof, but this dial is a step up and looks like this attention to detail could be applied to lots of omega reps in the future...AT/SMPs etc!

Here is the specs of the original LM PO dial:

Some real world pics of the old LM 2500 calibre (gen) as example:

The case is identical to the 5th gen rep case, just the caseback markings and the bezel insert are different, so everything is interchangeable with gen parts/5th modded parts etc. I don't know which factory did this, it wasn't noob, but it looks like they took the 5th gen case and cloned it/used it and then made the best omega rep dial I've ever seen and then made a bezel insert that would've been at home on one of watchedens worst fantasy watches

So this one is a bit of an odd concoction, I hear ya on the lume, it's a pity but a good blue luming is possible like the old 2500 calibre LM has. Unfortuantely that particular 2500 cal liquid metal bezel is impossible to get (or replicate) other wise we could've had an extremely accurate old LM rep. Best thing to hope with the bezel on these is to mod the ceramic bezel insert pearl or swap the insert out for a black one and call it a custom build

It might be worth just waiting to see how the new upcoming ceramic PO looks, but at least the one above can be frankened/modded etc, there is not a whole lot can be done in terms of frankening/modding with the upcoming ceramic PO so they better get it pretty good out of the box...face up at least

Interesting, thanks for sharing rolexman, case looks good!...it'll be the dial and pearl where it'll all go wrong

It's interesting that they are doing this 50th aniv version, they must be well into the standard version also now!

This is a great looking rep. Whats the gen lume colour? Blue or green?

With some gen parts this could look really good. Im very impressed with the dial...

Hi omega_guy, the lume on the watch is very poor, it is blue but as is the case with the 5th gen even the hands show stronger than the markers, same with this, the hands show blue, but the markers are very poor in glow, it seriously needs a relume. I'll get it done eventually, just have a few other things on atm. The crystal has no AR at all, which is a bit of an anomaly!? It makes the fact that the watch has a glossy black dial not show well at all from the outside(lacquer black dial and no AR is a no no combination!).

The other day I stuck the dial/movement in a standard 5th gen PO case and it looks much better immediately than with the Crystal/bezel on the watch it came in.

With gen crystal or very transparent aftermarket AR and a blue relume then the watch would look outstanding, the dial is amazingly well done. I'm still not sure if I can get used to a glossy PO dial though, it certainly is different! An interesting watch, lets hope they get the attention to detail on omega dials from now on, The raised markers/red lettering/strikethrough omega lettering/correct cut logo look equal in quality to any gen omega dial I've come across.

Yep some old white dial/blue hands available from select dealers (namely josh), great watches to franken, parts are hard to find though....but not impossible

Excellent ryaku, great work, there is a noticeable difference in the numbers effect on the gen dial vs rep, but as you say, the rep is fairly good also. Excellent work with the bracelet also, fits great. This watch is definitely a keeper!