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I built another 16610 franken...


fidhle007

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After building THIS über-franken I found myself with two gen dials and two SA3135 movements so I went to work and built another. It's a StarTime case, WO bezel, Clark crystal and hands and gen dial, crown, insert and crystal gasket. This contains the weaker of my two SA3135s but it's still keeping close enough time to be used as a daily driver. I've loved lughole cases all my life and while this case is no where near as perfect as the ETASwiss or TC cases, it's damn good and makes me smile when I look at it!

Here's a few snaps of it:

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And for heck of it, one of my über-franken doing what it does best: running strong!

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Thanks for looking!

~Brendan

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Mate this is great!!!

You shoulf fit the old style bracelet in this IMO....

No, it's correct. Swiss Made dial SEL and lugholes, same of a gen P serial.

Swiss T<25 dial is with older 93150 non sel and 501b endlinks

Case looks good to me, any other issue except the CG's?

Edited by w.genzo
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The case is a great base for a lughole watch but it is not without it's flaws. IMHO it's a bit "heavy" aka the lugs and crown guards are on the thick side and perhaps a little short. With a 703 crown this wasn't really a visual issue for me, especially since the crown height is correct. This is something that an experienced modder could probably mill down but that was outside of the scope of this project. I "softened" the top edge of the lugs with a fine file to give them a slimmer appearance which seemed to help. The insides of the lugs are very nicely machined and it's easy to fit a rep bracelet and still have perfect SEL fit. Eventually I want to find a decent 95130 bracelet for this as it's intended to be an early sub, (albeit with a "SWISS MADE" Superluminova dial) so for now I wear it on a nato and love it. The shallow teeth on the WO bezel and the faded, flat-four insert all contribute to the overall "modern vintage" aesthetic that I was going for.

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What are you having done to it?

I've got a gen luminova dial and insert from around 2006 and an older gen crystal without the ar or lec. I've removed the rehaut engraving too. Should look pretty good. I may get a gen crown at some point but can't justify the cost just yet.

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I thought the crown was ok until I received my new 703 crown and the difference is bigger then I remember! The gen has a much slimmer profile and flatter where the crown is stamped. Long term you need to change for sure.

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What's your take on the SA3135 so far?

I love it. It's finicky, I've had to service the keyless works in my ETASwiss Überfranken and need to do the same on this lughole watch but it keeps time well enough and more importantly, fits these gen-style case with a gen dial without any modifications. It's one thing to have a franken with a gen dial that's been glued to a movement ring but on both of these, if times got tough I could tear them down, pop the dials and toss them on ebay for every sent I paid when I bought them.

Awesome piece.... I actually thought it was a sales thread and kept looking for a price :)

It will be once I get the keyless works in tip top shape! I think I'm about $2k into my superfranken and a little over $1300 into this lughole watch. I can only wear one at a time so I think it's time to spread this one around a little...

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As of right now this watch is no longer. It went from not winding to not setting anymore either and lo and behold, I discovered a broken stem! The keyless works in these movements was dry as a bone so I cleaned and lubricated them which seems to help. The StarTime case should have had proper crown height though which derails my theory about stressing the stem being the cause of breakage...

I still have everything for this watch save the gen insert which went on my TC sub to sell it. I'm undecided if I want to part it out, reassemble and sell or just hang on to it. I need to clear out some of this stuff but it's hard to let go of a gen dial...

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