looking for a watchsmith in the US

[njmaxpayne1]

i ordered a breitling SA from trusty,i want a blue gen dial and all the rest of the stuff+swis 7750 done to it.Anyone in the NJ/PA/NY area.Thanks

[stolikat]

You can try Rex he is in PA. Link;

 

http://www.repgeek.com/forumdisplay.php?f=110

 

I use Speedy he is in Chicago;

 

http://www.repgeek.com/forumdisplay.php?f=145

[njmaxpayne1]

thank you!

[njmaxpayne1]

i emailed speedy and he haven't replied yet and it's been 4 days now.is he hard to get ahold of?any phone i can call him?Rex got a lot of bad reviews and even if he gets the job done it takes months from what I read in most of those posts.any info...i'd really want to get the work done but i need to speak w the person that will do the job,and ask him where and what to buy.i really have no idea.theres a bunch of stuff in ebay but i bet therea stores and vendors that have more quality parts.i reall want to build a good watch.

[tomhorn]

Pretty much every watchsmith that works on reps is exactly the same ... Extremely busy. There aren't that many, and once the community decides to trust them, they get inundated with work. It's always going to take a while to get a response from them, and then it's going to take a long time (we're talking months, not weeks or days) to get your watch back once they start working on it.

 

If you can't wait 4 days to hear back from someone without posting it to the forum, then I would recommend buying something that's already completed, or learning to do it yourself. You're going to have to learn to be extremely patient in this hobby. There is no other way around it.

 

The best piece of advice I can give you is that you should also do way more research that you have apparently done when trying to put together any franken build. The time to start asking about what parts to buy is before you start the project, not after you've already spent money. I'm not a big Breitling fan, so I don't know if the version of the watch you bought takes gen parts, or if there are any challenges with the build as far as fitting things goes. I do know enough that if you want to swap to an ETA movement, you are going to need gen hands, or the watchsmith is going to have to modify the rep hands to make them work as the A7750 hands are not a straight swap with the newer version of the movement. Things like this are important to know before you start buying things. It's too easy to go down the rabbit hole and find out that the total cost gets out of control, or the project isn't do-able to begin with.

 

You're also probably going to get more help by doing your own research than a watchsmith is going to provide, especially if they haven't already done the build you are looking at. As mentioned earlier, they are all very busy, so you're not likely to get a lot of hand-holding. I'm sure there are several members that have built Super Avengers on this and the other boards. Asking someone who has actually done one of these builds will likely get you better information.

 

I love doing franken builds, and I wish you luck with yours. I'm sure the above doesn't paint a great picture about the process of building a franken, but it's important to know what you are up against when doing projects. They are definitely fun to take on, and there are plenty of stunning end results to be found here. There are also lots of examples where people greatly overpaid, or didn't get the results they wanted, due to poor preparation.

[chronoluvvv]

my local community college has a watchsmith course, maybe you could find one around you ?

[njmaxpayne1]

Pretty much every watchsmith that works on reps is exactly the same ... Extremely busy. There aren't that many, and once the community decides to trust them, they get inundated with work. It's always going to take a while to get a response from them, and then it's going to take a long time (we're talking months, not weeks or days) to get your watch back once they start working on it.

 

If you can't wait 4 days to hear back from someone without posting it to the forum, then I would recommend buying something that's already completed, or learning to do it yourself. You're going to have to learn to be extremely patient in this hobby. There is no other way around it.

 

The best piece of advice I can give you is that you should also do way more research that you have apparently done when trying to put together any franken build. The time to start asking about what parts to buy is before you start the project, not after you've already spent money. I'm not a big Breitling fan, so I don't know if the version of the watch you bought takes gen parts, or if there are any challenges with the build as far as fitting things goes. I do know enough that if you want to swap to an ETA movement, you are going to need gen hands, or the watchsmith is going to have to modify the rep hands to make them work as the A7750 hands are not a straight swap with the newer version of the movement. Things like this are important to know before you start buying things. It's too easy to go down the rabbit hole and find out that the total cost gets out of control, or the project isn't do-able to begin with.

 

You're also probably going to get more help by doing your own research than a watchsmith is going to provide, especially if they haven't already done the build you are looking at. As mentioned earlier, they are all very busy, so you're not likely to get a lot of hand-holding. I'm sure there are several members that have built Super Avengers on this and the other boards. Asking someone who has actually done one of these builds will likely get you better information.

 

I love doing franken builds, and I wish you luck with yours. I'm sure the above doesn't paint a great picture about the process of building a franken, but it's important to know what you are up against when doing projects. They are definitely fun to take on, and there are plenty of stunning end results to be found here. There are also lots of examples where people greatly overpaid, or didn't get the results they wanted, due to poor preparation.

yeah I see what you saying.I did try to post an add where i wanted to buy a already finished franken but it was not in righ section because i refuse to PAY to post in a free public forum.That should be only for FOR SALE section or if you're a vendor here...but thanks for the info

[Ehecht]

Speedy sent my watch back after 3 months saying he didn't have the time. I made the social error of asking for an eta. Rex just serviced my Datora and charged me $300. He said it woks be 2 weeks and it ended up being 2 months. The watch is working great. I personally would never take on a build..... Way too aggravating and almost anyone taking your money treats you like a peon

[Journeyman]

i ordered a breitling SA from trusty,i want a blue gen dial and all the rest of the stuff+swis 7750 done to it.Anyone in the NJ/PA/NY area.Thanks

 

I know you've ordered one from Andrew..but there was one for sale yesterday in the Member 2 Member with a Gen Dial in Black.

[borz]

Ocean Time watchstand in Prudential Mall in Boston - those guys work on everything, including reps.

[panerai153]

Rex has closed his business, moved to Florida, and AFA I know isn't working on watches any more. also he has a bunch of member watches (including an AP ROO of mine) which he has had for months and will not return, although when you email him, he always tells you "I'm trying to get everything finished up and out next week" which is a total lie. He is beginning to act a lot like MD2020 did over here  a year ago. 

 

Some of the other watch guys will work on Swiss 7750's but won't touch an A7750 with a barge pole. Really is a big problem, and was the topic of about a 6-7 page thread over on RepGeek this past week. Not much in the way of alternatives for folks here in the USA who have A7750 based watches. My solution is, no more A7750 watches, as much as I like them, and over time, I'm going to get rid of all of the ones I have. If I have a watch I really love, I might spring for a Swiss 7750 to transplant in, but otherwise, I'm afraid they are going to be someone else's headache in the future. Really sorry about the movements, because I really like the AP ROO's but they are just too big a hassle, and way to expensive and frustrating to get repaired. I have a really nice White Dial Datora which I like a lot, but I'm scared of the movement.