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Franken PO people, how does the screw down crown feel?


cougar1

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Came across a franken PO today with gen tube/crown assembly and it had awful screw down feel to it, not at all like gen, if fact worse than most PO reps...which would be hard. Now it could be damage as there were previous owners, I can't believe somebody would be so ham fisted as to f*** up the gen assembly aswell smiley.gif

So my question to you frankener PO people is how does the crown action on yours feel in comparison to a real PO? To describe the gen it is buttery smooth, with about 4 to 6 full very fluid revolutions before it snugly fits home. How do the frankens feel in comparison? Are they a mish mash of somewhere in between the s***ty rep screw down action (half a grinding revolution and then done happy.gif) and gen screw down described above and does it depend on how well the unit was installed in the first place? Should it be very consistent with gen once it has been frankened with gen crown/tube? I would assume so?

The one above even though it is definitely a gen tube crown in it, it hits the stopping point after half to 3/4 turn and feels like it stops half way and to get it in fully it needs a cloth put over it to get the resistance necessary to get it down.....surely not right is it?

I tried some rodico to clean debris and then some silicon" grease to see if any improvement and the improvement was marginal if at all

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My REP is not half a grinding revolution. It sounds just like how you desribe the GEN. Back it out c. clockwise several turns (I didn't count them.) It clicks or pops. You pull it out, one or two audible and tactile clicks to change the date & time. Press it in gently, and screw it back in several turns. Take care at the end and realize that you are a human, this is an 1/8" threaded Chinese watch, and you can easily torque this thing to breakage.

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You really got a very good one then :) , I would say many rep PO's had about a 25% - 50% of rep crown threads stripping within the first year...hence the recommendation for gen tube crown swap so often. You are one of the blessed ones :) that PO will probably be fine permanently. Many dodgy ones stripped easily simply because there was little room for screwing down...maybe 1 to 1.5 revolutions until they were home, so little leeway for the crown to 'grab' the tube....they aren't the best reps in this behalf. At the same time some reps are really good, my IWC mark xvi is better than most gens I've handled in terms of screw down action.

I believe the rep with the franken tube I described above was a poor assembly job or handled by someone extremely hamfisted who cross threaded it in past ownership. It really is almost near impossible to cross thread the gen, you'd need gorilla like coordination to do it and even then it's difficult. :)

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I fitted a gen crown / tube to my po about 2months ago.it feels great.like you said previously the only reason I changed it was due to my po turning up with keyless works faulty and crown stripped.im so happy with it now as the crown feels great,I'm still very gentle with it just incase.it looks better too. :)

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I'm probably tempting bloody fate here, both of my PO crowns feel absolutely great and are still the rep parts they pick up smoothly and wind in several turns to lock. I did consider changing them asap when I first got them but so far so good....... :whistling:

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If the rep crown is working then leave it alone, no point changing, it's not really a cosmetic thing, only reason to change is if the crown action felt poor or had failed or was about to fail. The watch in question I was looking at was being advertised as (selling point) as having gen crown assembly but it is completely cross-threaded. So really it is completely useless, a rep with gen franken parts that dont work is basically a broken rep.

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Absolutely. The screw down action on that one is fantastic, much better than on a gen PO I tried the other day.

I agree, it's really lovely to get a rep and you go "wow", when you wind and screw it down. It's extremely good. Let's hope the movement holds up :D

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Eurotimez, there's a name I haven't heard in a while, he did some nice stuff, that DSSD would be rare now!

Yep the PO problem above was mangled crown threads, the tube is fine, just replaced crown and it's now turning nicely 3 or 4 turns, not as smooth as gen but it will do :)

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Yep the PO problem above was mangled crown threads, the tube is fine, just replaced crown and it's now turning nicely 3 or 4 turns, not as smooth as gen but it will do :)

Awesome! Im glad you could correct this issue so quickly.

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