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Son of a b*tch....


fidhle007

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It finally happened. I'm cruising ebay looking for sub parts and as I scroll down I start finding complete gen watches. I stare some more and start thinking "what if..." Now, I can't look at any of my subs without seeing the glaring flaws and thinking about what it would be like to have a gen on my wrist. So, who wants to buy some crazy franken subs to fund a gen purchase?

I guess I knew this day would come eventually...

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I thought "backdoor - I might want to sell" - threads were frowned upon.

There's a sales area to create transparancy!

I think the sales threads will be there for everyone to see Akira :inverted: more of a statement than a sales pitch ;) I always miss the good ones though :bangin: must stay awake for the next few days straight !!

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Frankens can cost the same as a 14060 so ask yourself one question (omg) i sound like dirty harry) did you build your franken because like me you can not afford to buy a gen or you build it because of the pleasure in the build and the fun of building a watch that is very hard to tell its not a gen mabe after owning the gen you may find yourself getting bored of the gen where as the franken you can make more mods after all they are just watches ,

Edited by aeromatic
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Mentioning selling my frankens was kind of a joke, sorry if I broke any rules. All sales will be through proper channels if the time comes.

I'd love a 16610 lughole sub, I have gen lumi hands and dial I could install and save the trit stuff for when I resell but I'm still looking at $5k. It looks like I could nab a 14060 for around $3.5k though, which is almost what I have into my sean case 16610...

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Mentioning selling my frankens was kind of a joke, sorry if I broke any rules. All sales will be through proper channels if the time comes.

I'd love a 16610 lughole sub, I have gen lumi hands and dial I could install and save the trit stuff for when I resell but I'm still looking at $5k. It looks like I could nab a 14060 for around $3.5k though, which is almost what I have into my sean case 16610...

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Considering I've been there... And done it and now back to Frankens..

Do it! It's the only way to rid of that craving for a gen.

It will eat away at you from the inside until you do.

Good luck!

And please try not to buy it off eBay..

Edited by phillycheez
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Oh yeah, its a blast! I think my biggest issue is with the SA3135 movement I used. It's good but I'm always worrying about it. I had high hopes for a serviced Yuki movement but they're still sold out. I thought about a gen movement but I realized that at that price point I should go all gen and have some resale value.

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I totally understand the approach.

I collected nearly 100 different kind of reps but eventually only a few of them had long-term appeal.

I eventually bought them all as gens because it was the only way. The reps simply weren't "good enough".

Plain steel Sub (WM9/TC) is replicated so well, and with a few select mods it's virtually indistinguishable. If someone handed me my modded WM9 I probably couldn't call it out without very close inspection. So... I haven't bothered to buy the gen. At least not yet.

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Haha, you just confirmed my theory.

Step 1- buy the best available rep

Step 2- send it off for mods/scour ebay for Franken

Step 3- sell Franken subs to buy used gen

Step 4- sell used gen to buy new gen

I'm interested. Pm me.

and last but not least......

Step 5 - new gen cost so much you're scared to wear it and put a scratch on and ya start thinking.."this isn't much fun", so...............

Step 6 -you sell the new gen, start looking at the latest and greatest Franken-capable reps available in your flavor and.....................

you're right to where ya started in the first place....and DAMMIT it's fun. :)

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I would never buy from eBay. I've stared at enough of these watches to see that most of the listed watches that seem affordable have had dials and hands swapped and such... I'd buy locally or off a gen forum for sure.

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Buying from eBay is good if you do research on a watch. Look for those priced slightly too high over market and see if it is a store selling it.

All the gen Tudors and Rolex I got that way. Typically for a lot less then a forum purchase. If thy say serviced, ask to have a photo of paperwork set to you. Otherwise stay away.

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and last but not least......

Step 5 - new gen cost so much you're scared to wear it and put a scratch on and ya start thinking.."this isn't much fun", so...............

Step 6 -you sell the new gen, start looking at the latest and greatest Franken-capable reps available in your flavor and.....................

you're right to where ya started in the first place....and DAMMIT it's fun. <img src='http://www.rwg.cc/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

Steps 5 & 6 are the most important. Sold off all but 1 of my gens and now back to frankens. I just find them more enjoyable, plus you can actually put a name and a face to how it got put together. I have one right now at PbDad, and I know he is a real person assembling the parts I scoured for, and not some random guy at Rolex. Plus I feel somewhat special, because my watch really is one of a kind, as opposed to one off the shelf from an ad. <img src='http://www.rwg.cc/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sleep.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='-_-' />

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Edited by cyphion
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Hey... I think I accidentally deleted one post from this thread. Can't remember who's post it was.

I was supposed to delete only my own reply which was meant to another thread. Sorry.

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Steps 5 & 6 are the most important. Sold off all but 1 of my gens and now back to frankens. I just find them more enjoyable, plus you can actually put a name and a face to how it got put together. I have one right now at PbDad, and I know he is a real person assembling the parts I scoured for, and not some random guy at Rolex. Plus I feel somewhat special, because my watch really is one of a kind, as opposed to one off the shelf from an ad. <img src='http://www.rwg.cc/pu...DIR#>/sleep.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=' -_-' />

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I agree. I have had the same thoughts. But I like these and the only thing I would get is the movement. Not only do I want a watch that looks right but I want it to be a great watch, as well. The Swiss-made ETA movement is a great movement, easy to service (myself), easy to get parts and will last a lifetime. I enjoy the watches for which I sourced the parts and built the piece myself. It would not be fun for me if I had to ship items around the world to have someone else perform the operations on them. But...everyone's objective is different and I appreciate that. Makes for great fora.

Twinsfacingeachother1-resized.jpg

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I believe that everyone who is into "Super frankens" goes through all of those phases. I was really big into reps starting about 2004, on TRC and the first RWG, I slowly sold all my reps and only had gens for a few years. I also got away from Rolex except for a couple of my favorite genuines (16750 and 16610). I was sort of fed up with modding after a couple of bad experiences with guys who were supposed to be rreally good, but weren't (They are long gone so don't worry). At any rate, over time, I started collecting some reps, however they still are only about 20% of my total watches. What I found was I could only wear one watch at a time, and most of mine were spending their entire life in my safe. The ones that weren't getting any wrist time I moved on. Others I kept. Another thing i decided was I would rather have just a few really good reps, well modded and believable, rather than a drawer full of stuff that wasn't anything special.

So from my point of view, it's perfectly natural to want to trade up from basic reps to modded reps to Frankens to superfrankens to genuine.And for many of us, the process will reverse ae well. One thing that i will say, and I have said this ad naseum, building superfrankens is OK, but you have to be really careful to make sure you don't end up with a watch that is almost as expensive as the genuine. unfortunately, that is pretty easy to do especially withRolex models like the 1680 and 16610. you start out witha rep case, Silex,MBW, Yuki,phong,etc. and the next thing you know, you have a genuine dial,hands bezel,insert, crown/tube and movement. maybe you picked up the parts over a period of time and you really haven't kept account of the cost, or you just say Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead, ad go out and buy all the parts at once. big problem here is if/when you decide to sell the watch, you realize that you have 3+k in a rep watch. You could have bought the genuine version for 1K more! Now the second problem, try to sell that 3k watch on the rep forums. Even though the watch is 90% genuine, it's still a rep, so all the other sales venues like Ebay, WUS,TZ, etc. are closed to you. What I'm afraid is the hard truth is the interest pool for expensive frankens is really ,really small. You will get plenty of "WOW, beautiful watch, wish I had the funds, and GLWS's" but very few "Hi I just PM'ed you with intent to purchase"

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Plain steel Sub (WM9/TC) is replicated so well, and with a few select mods it's virtually indistinguishable. If someone handed me my modded WM9 I probably couldn't call it out without very close inspection. So... I haven't bothered to buy the gen. At least not yet.

And then only called out by an expert rather than your average watch collector /wis

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