Tweaking The Royal Oak...

[ubiquitous]

In a previous thread, I mentioned that my new Royal Oak would be a watch I would leave untouched. No mods, no anything.

How many of you believed me?

I tried and I tried, but damn it all... I just couldn't leave it alone. Now... Such mentality has backfired in the past, resulting in disappointment, and soemtimes disaster, but this time things worked out alright.

I only made one change, and that was a swap of the bracelet. I went through one of my parts boxes, and sure enough, I had a complete Royal Oak bracelet for my watch. As luck would have it, the first link was larger on this one, and even luckier still, the end link tabs lined right up with the slots in the case lugs.

Now, this might sound like an easy job, but much to my expectation, I found that it was not (these things are never as easy as they seem to be). The holes drilled for the lug pins in the bracelet end links were positioned too far back, while the new Royal Oak case had the holes too far forward. The holes were also positioned quite close to the bottom surface of the links, so I didn't want to risk cutting through on the bottom by drilling. No, no... Only one method made sense to me, and that was the one I dreaded the most. Using a needle file and my hands, I went to work enlarging the holes. 2 hours later (1/2 hour on each link) and a bunch of cramped up fingers later, I now have a Royal Oak with a much less severe transition from the case to the bracelet...

Here is a 'before' shot...

And an equally crappy 'after' shot...

Before...

After...

Big difference, no?

The difference might not be so apparent in photos, but in person, it's a completely different watch than the one I received two days ago. Definitely a keeper in my books now

Thanks for looking...

R

[Jetsons]

Nice job!

To my eyes, the difference can easily be seen in the photos, night & day. That was a rather nasty gap between the case & bracelet that I had not noticed before. Just another of those little details that seperate the rep from the real thing.

You must have one massive tool box to conveniently have a spare Royal Oak bracelet handy. Is it a gen bracelet?

Very nice RO!

Jet

[ubiquitous]

Nice job!

To my eyes, the difference can easily be seen in the photos, night & day. That was a rather nasty gap between the case & bracelet that I had not noticed before. Just another of those little details that seperate the rep from the real thing.

You must have one massive tool box to conveniently have a spare Royal Oak bracelet handy. Is it a gen bracelet?

Very nice RO!

Jet

Thanks, Jet.

I have all sorts of stuff in my parts box. Some of it is stuff that I am not even sure how it got there. And yes... Not all of it is Rolex either

The bracelet is a rep... But it is quite a bit nicer than the original that came with this watch. I'm looking at it now as I type... I love it

[rek001]

Good job, Randy! That looks much better.

Hmm, that gap in the original bracelet is pretty bad, now I'm not sure about getting it. I believe Thomasng said the same thing about his so it is a consistent situation.

[Quarks]

Oh... what a difference! ... And the mods you have done made this watch a perfect RO!! Well done.

[Linder]

So where did the replacement bracelet originally come from?

[ubiquitous]

Thanks, guys. The watch looks and feels completely different. It's amazing the difference a bracelet can make! I have but one more mod I might make... That being the hands. Somewhere in one of my pars boxes, I know I have a different set of hands from an old ETA Royal Oak- The hour and seconds hand are slimmer if I recall correct. I might have to dig them out to have a look-see.

As for where the replacement bracelet originally came from? Good question. I don't recall. I've had a number of the old TW Royal Oaks that River and EL sold over a year ago, as well as a few others from King and other dealers. I don't quite recall which one this was off of...

[Richard Tracy]

Great Work Ubi....

You inspire me again to begin to tackle some of my peeves....

[sonystyle]

Youre really lucky with bracelet that you had one in your supply box, it looks much better and fits the watch great. Its the little details that make or break a watch.

[cosmosblau]

Great work, ubi.

Would you want to sell me that watch? I was so primed up to get this rep, but your original pics made me feel this flaw was too annoyingly obvious.

You've really fixed it!

[ubiquitous]

Sorry cosmo, but no plans to sell... At least not in the immediate future.

But, one never knows when a particularly expensive project might come up that might need funding...

[Linder]

In which case I will be there ready to purchase some parts of yours

[irongambit]

Man Ubi!

I got tricked into reading this post...based on your post title, I was looking for something else.

But I digress...

You've got this looking quite sharp. I'd love a dealer to notice that to source a newer case and an older bracelet would make the ULTIMATE RO! Then if they would preservice and then have priests of several religions pray over it, we could have the ULTIMATE AAA+++ RO GRADUATED SUMMA [censored] LAUDE!

(Sorry, it's been a long day here so bad humor seems to be the prescribed medicine for me).

[ehtolcad]

randy most members would love to just own your spare parts box, let alone the regular collection.

at first i thought it was much ado about nothing, but the last few pics and on the wrist tell the whole story. looks good to me!

[Watchmeister]

Aah AP! Man is that original bracelet mismatched. Critical mod.

[ubiquitous]

Thanks, as always, for the kind words, gang. I spent the day with this one, and *looks around*, don't tell my El Primero Daytona this... But I could see myself wearing this for a good majority of the time I have a watch on the wrist. The look and feel of this one is completely changed. Me loves...

Cheers,

R