Building a Franken Omega SMP Black

[Francisco]

The Black Omega Seamaster Profesional is a simple, elegant and all-purpose watch. Follows a picture of the gen:

However, the reps of this model are not satisfactory. It seems that the only way to have a decent rep is to make a Franken. In my case, I had two buy two reps and a gen dial to build a good rep. In this tuto it is explained how it was built a Franken SMP black. I hope that some of the steps shown here were useful for your franken projects.

In first place, some pictures showing the two second-hand reps I bought in a rep forum. Models A and B. Next pictures show these models and their flaws.

Model A has the big advantage of having the helium valve in the correct position, above 10. Very hard to get a model with the correct position. However, hands are clearly short. The font of the bezel is a bit too bold and the pearl is obviously wrong.

Model B has the helium valve in the wrong position. Bezel is worse than model A. However, hands have correct length.

Follows a picture of the bracelets. Model A is the speedmaster bracelet, well replicated. Model B is the Bond bracelet. Although this bracelet is correct too, it is not well replicated, it has a flat surface. Therefore, model A was choosen for the franken.

The back is correct on both models.

It is time to talk about the quality of the dials. After a detailed study I decided to buy a gen Omega dial from Ofrei. As I have the gen dial, now it is easy to make a comparison that it is shown in next pictures.

Next picture shows the more important flaws of watch A dial. The most obvious flaw is not shown on the picture. The quality of lumen. The gen has a lot of C3 surface and it shines like a torch. Apart from the lumen problems, the text on the dial is not correct on this model, for example, the word Omega is quite big.

Next picture is for watch B. The text on the dial is much better on this model. However, the lumen has a horrible green colour. In this picture the green colour is not visible, just check previous picture to see it. And, as in watch A, no real lumen in the dark.

Both movements are shown on next picture, the A21j model. Both were in good health. Therefore, I just selected the watch with the closest day text font to the gen. Movement form watch A is a bit better than B in this aspect. Movement B will be for spares.

Therefore, to build the franken SMP Omega:

Take from Model A: case, movement and bracelet.

Take from Model B: hands.

The bezel insert of both models were not good enough from any model. So I bough a new one from Ebay.

Although there is a chance to use an ETA movement like the gen employs, there are some problems to take into account. Some difficulties arise: how to fasten the movement to the case, ETA model has a different colour day font and the DW of the A21j is not compatible. The advantage of using an ETA movement is that the gen hands are compatible. However, rep hands are very good and were lumed with C3. This was the firs step in building the franken, luming the rep hands.

The second step was cutting the dial feet. These feet are shown in next picture:

The dremel with a cutting disk was the tool employed to cut the feet.

To fasten the dial to the movement special stickers designed for this task are going to be employed. The stickers are shown on next picture. Cousins reference number: D0419

After removing one of the paper protectors one sticker is placed on the movement:

One sticker more to get a better fastening.

And the other papers are removed

[justudor]

Don't know why this doesn't have more views or thank you notes.

Very well written, and comprehensive. It looks easy and provides well instructed steps and instructions.

Thank you!

[fitmic]

Really nice.

Thanks for posting this.

[redxds]

Great work! This deserves attention.

[jeff g]

Very nicely done.

I have just had my older 300 Pro serviced by MD2020.

I have a very nice dial (non gen) and correct length hands that I purchased from Ofrei a few years back.  My case also has HE valve in the correct position. 

I have purchased the gen rubber strap and gen deployment for this watch as well.  

The cost of the hands, rubber strap and deployment cost 3 times what I paid for the rep back in 2003.

I feel like Francisco, that the 300 Pro is a classic diver, still one of my favorite watches after all these years.

[peterpanda]

great work thanks for posting

[gran]

Great stuff!!! Allways loved that SMP!!

[Matrixmouse]

Great build process. Thank you for sharing this!