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Introducing my Franken BCE


watchgal

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So a few months back you'll remember i posted these pics...

P1010993.jpg

Well I've now had the dial fitted to one of Josh's V2 BCEs. It looks pretty good. Maybe a little less 'red' than how the dial looked out of the watch, maybe the crystal is causing that. I'm really not happy with the bracelet at all, I find it quite uncomfortable. Attempts to get the bracelet off have also failed me.. I think the spring bars are really tight. So I might have to drop it back to a watchmaker to assist there. I'm also not really sure what strap I want to fit to it. Any ideas?

Here's some pics:

P1020104.jpg

P1020114.jpg

red.jpg

Viewing these pics again, they have come up looking much deeper red than how it really looks. It's certainly not a subtle combo at all!

Maybe a simple black calf on deployant would suffice... or maybe Breitling rubber strap old Pro Diver? What you guys think?

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A Breitling bracelet, uncomforatble? First time I have ever heard that. Of course, I can see that being true for the rep bracelet as they do not have the curvature at teh clasp that the gens do...

You can;t do too much with a red dial. Either black calf or that red hornback you have...too bad Breitling stopped production of the red Ocean Racer. :thumbdown:

The dial color is hot though! Very nice! :clapping:

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I really like it.

It's very refreshing to see different colors sometimes.

I agree about the Breitling datefont. Install the dw and it's perfect. :good:

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Thanks for the comments guys. I think I'll go the Breitling Pro Diver actually, It'll dull the red down a bit and add some versatility to the watch. As for the date font. I dont have anyone locally to install it for me, so I'll probably leave the watch as is. The guy that fitted the dial wasn't happy about working on a replica, so he's out of the question for more mods.

The bracelet doesn't curve to my wrist.. the links are quite flat and it gets disjointed when on. Also the clasp doesnt close tightly and overall its a bit clunky. Maybe I got a dodgy one???

I'm happy with it how it is. I have 2 gens that get 99% of wrist time anyways.. I pop this on every now and then for fun :thumbsupsmileyanim:

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Nice! I was wondering when you were going to post some pics... as you suggested several months ago that you would :) Congrats!

New spring bars can be bought at your local watch place, or mall kiosk. They might charge you around $2 each. Now, if you need these spring bars for your strap, you can just pick up 2 22mm, it will be just fine. If you are going to use them on the ss bracelet, you may need to try them on before buying because they may/may not fit depends on how much the pins retract.

I like all my v2/v3 bracelets. They are very nice. I'm surprised to hear that you don't like yours. However, upon closer looking at your photos, it suggests me you might actually have a v1/v4 BCE (I think definitely not a v2/v3). Your bezel looks like coming from a v1/v4 BCE. The bezel makers on a v1/v4 BCE are deeper (this is the nice) but they are a little bit closer to the outer edge of the bezel than gen or v2/v3. The pearl also doesn't look like from v2/v3. To verify this, you can check to see yours have visible crown tube (the threads are visible when you unscrew the crown on a v1/v4) See if the case underneath of the two pushers nice and straight or curved (on v2/v3 it's curved). I think v1 BCE has 60 click bezel and v4 has 120 click. If yours has 120 click, it will puzzle me because on a v4 the date wheel should have correct font. If it's 60 click one, it's quite possible the BCE is a v1, which makes much sense about the asian date wheel font.

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Nice! I was wondering when you were going to post some pics... as you suggested several months ago that you would :) Congrats!

New spring bars can be bought at your local watch place, or mall kiosk. They might charge you around $2 each. Now, if you need these spring bars for your strap, you can just pick up 2 22mm, it will be just fine. If you are going to use them on the ss bracelet, you may need to try them on before buying because they may/may not fit depends on how much the pins retract.

I like all my v2/v3 bracelets. They are very nice. I'm surprised to hear that you don't like yours. However, upon closer looking at your photos, it suggests me you might actually have a v1/v4 BCE (I think definitely not a v2/v3). Your bezel looks like coming from a v1/v4 BCE. The bezel makers on a v1/v4 BCE are deeper (this is the nice) but they are a little bit closer to the outer edge of the bezel than gen or v2/v3. The pearl also doesn't look like from v2/v3. To verify this, you can check to see yours have visible crown tube (the threads are visible when you unscrew the crown on a v1/v4) See if the case underneath of the two pushers nice and straight or curved (on v2/v3 it's curved). I think v1 BCE has 60 click bezel and v4 has 120 click. If yours has 120 click, it will puzzle me because on a v4 the date wheel should have correct font. If it's 60 click one, it's quite possible the BCE is a v1, which makes much sense about the asian date wheel font.

hmmm I think you might be right about the V1 and that makes my blood boil. It's a 60 click bezel I just checked it. I sent Josh a bunch of emails making sure I got a V2/V3. The pushers look straight to me. I specifically told him what I was doing wiht the watch ie putting in a gen dial so I wanted an accurate date font. Being inexperienced as I am, I didn't realise. I should have posted photos of the watch I got before mod'ing it :bangin: :bangin: :bangin: This watch config has cost me about $550USD

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Does this help identify the version?

P1020108.jpg

Kind of. The case is not a v2/v3. With v2/v3, it seems too much metal is polished off, so underneath of the pushers has thinner metal and it is curved. I learned this from a good friend in our community who is also into BCE.

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Thanks cougaree. I like the watch, its quite funky with the red dial and strap.

I'll see how I go with it. It's probably not a big deal. Just annoys me a little that I thought I was buying one thing and got another. That's life in this world I guess - seen enough comments from other people to see it happens often.

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Nice! I was wondering when you were going to post some pics... as you suggested several months ago that you would :) Congrats!

New spring bars can be bought at your local watch place, or mall kiosk. They might charge you around $2 each. Now, if you need these spring bars for your strap, you can just pick up 2 22mm, it will be just fine. If you are going to use them on the ss bracelet, you may need to try them on before buying because they may/may not fit depends on how much the pins retract.

I like all my v2/v3 bracelets. They are very nice. I'm surprised to hear that you don't like yours. However, upon closer looking at your photos, it suggests me you might actually have a v1/v4 BCE (I think definitely not a v2/v3). Your bezel looks like coming from a v1/v4 BCE. The bezel makers on a v1/v4 BCE are deeper (this is the nice) but they are a little bit closer to the outer edge of the bezel than gen or v2/v3. The pearl also doesn't look like from v2/v3. To verify this, you can check to see yours have visible crown tube (the threads are visible when you unscrew the crown on a v1/v4) See if the case underneath of the two pushers nice and straight or curved (on v2/v3 it's curved). I think v1 BCE has 60 click bezel and v4 has 120 click. If yours has 120 click, it will puzzle me because on a v4 the date wheel should have correct font. If it's 60 click one, it's quite possible the BCE is a v1, which makes much sense about the asian date wheel font.

My v3 also has 60 clicks btw and has the correct datefont, really like the red dial that you have! A red Ocean racer would look cool!

IMG_1029.jpg

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Nice watch Wimpie007!

Versions of BCE is confusing. Wimpie007 call his v3, I actually call it a v4. This is because there are two versions of v2: v2 with asian date font and v2 with correct date font. The v2 with correct date font is v3 in my book. However, when ordering BCE, for later to be modified, one should order either a v2 or v2 with correct date font. Don't order dealer's v3 (because it's actually a v4) nor the ultimate.

Watchgal, your watch is still nice. If anything, the only upgrade you would need is the dw. You might get an offer for one now already. I don't think it would cost too much to have it installed. Especially if you are going to have the hands lumed in the future, you can swap the dw then. If you later want a v2 case, you can always post WTB post here and someone might contact you for one. In fact I just got one by doing this not so long ago. Just make sure it's a v2.

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