7928 Tudor, a first franken build?

[civic4982]

Today I went to see my watchmaker.

We've become good friends over the past few months.

He has a gorgeous 6538 case that is known to be gen and I've been trying to buy it off him since the first day we met.

He enjoys my nice little builds and today gave me a gift.

The dial here is now known to me to very likely be a replica dial because of it's T<25 marking and it being a Tudor Rose Oyster Submariner dial means it should be simply marked "SWISS" or "T SWISS T"

Now the confusing part is the case and caseback.

I've spent hours now looking at both fakes and gens for the 7928 case sets focusing mostly on commonly faked serial numbers and common flaws i nthe case sets. It has passed the most obvious tests so far.

The caseback is one that I also think is either a service center replacement likely. It's because it has no dating on it with a roman numeral and a 2 digit year number like it should.

Anyways here's the photos I've gotten so far.

The only reason I'm trying to identify the last 2 components is beacuse if they are indeed gen then I will attempt to purchase more high end parts in my build. Otherwise I will go lower end like Yuki parts that are less expensive or WSO instead of say Clarks or NDTrading.

[freddy333]

Based on the pics, I would guess it is all aftermarket. If you can get good, clear macro full-frontals of the caseback (exterior), lug numbers & dial, we may be able to do more than guess.

[civic4982]

Based on the pics, I would guess it is all aftermarket. If you can get good, clear macro full-frontals of the caseback (exterior), lug numbers & dial, we may be able to do more than guess.

Could you help me out a bit and calrify? I've got several large photos up there with the lug numbers showing on both sides as well as the front and back of dials. Specifically the second set of photos I have above should have shown those things very clearly. I realize the first set was tough to see...

Is there some way in which the photos could be improved? An example perhaps of a photo that might give more insight?

Edited August 28, 2012 by civic4982

[nick1972]

Everything is aftermarket, except for the caseback.

I think the caseback is original Tudor but not from a 7928!

Edited August 28, 2012 by Nick1972

[freddy333]

The last set of pics on this thread are what I based my comments on. In any case, I agree with Nick1972's comments above.

[panerai153]

Where did you get the case, and was it sold to you as genuine. Some of the better aftermarket cases will have the correct engraving and legitimate serial numbers, so it's not like the old MBW "polex" cases! I believe that Freddy and nick are looking at the overall dimensions, the way everything flows together to determine the authenticity, rather than looking at the engraving. It looks like to me that the case back is much older than the case. It's seen lots of use. The case on the other hand is as pretty fresh, engraving is really crisp, no signs of wear and tear on the case at all.