Franken AP Survivor finished

[zaeim]

Hi folks

I wanted to share with you some pictures of my last project.

1 years ago I decided to make a hard franken project, The AP Survivor, I had the Gen and I loved it, I don’t know why I sold it but you all know this hobby.

I knew that the dial was very hard to find because the watch is a limited edition to only 1000 pieces.

I got the last version from Noob, it wasn’t easy to find btw, then I send it to @domit to make some modes awaiting for a Gen parts, @rnprof send me a Swiss crystal with 2xAR and legend send me a MK3 Cyclops.

Modes was done and domi sent me back the watch, I wear it some times but some things wasn’t cool, the date position, so I stopped wearing it and put it on my watch box.

Some weeks later tosoboso poste a picture of some genuine AP parts, in this picture was the Gen survivor dial but wasn’t for sale

Some times later tosoboso decided to sell it to me.

I send the watch again to Domi with Gen dial, it was a difficult work to machinate the case to fit the Gen dial, he finished all the work with the LWO movement and Mickey DW, he send it back to me.

2 weeks later he sourced for me a Gen Cyclops so I send the watch back again to him.

I just received it finished after 1 year of waiting time and a lot of money spending but doesn’t matter we are ready for everything in this hobby, the result is perfect and I think it’s a unique piece at the moment.

A special thanks for my friends tosoboso @domit @rnprof legend for their works and contributions to make this project finished.

Let the pictures talk

Cheers

 

[R3w1nd]

Fantastic!

 

[catalzzy]

Dude why did u sell the Gen if u didn't know why?

 

[tosoboso]

One of a kind! This is THE best AP franken I’ve seen, do wear her in good health brother zaeim, your efforts and dedication have clearly paid off nicely. Please do not sell unless absolutely necessary

Thanks for sharing too, some fantastic shots there!!

 

[zaeim]

Dude why did u sell the Gen if u didn't know why?

Mate I don’t know I have a problem I can’t keep things even my cars more than 6 months

The only think I kept since 2003 is my wife

 

[zaeim]

One of a kind! This is THE best AP franken I’ve seen, do wear her in good health brother zaeim, your efforts and dedication have clearly paid off nicely. Please do not sell unless absolutely necessary

Thanks for sharing too, some fantastic shots there!!

Thanks for your kinds word bro

 

[ZenWatch]

Nice work!! Rare beauty

 

[QueTip]

The only think I kept since 2003 is my wife

Wifes / girls of serial flippers like us can truly feel blessed. :lol:

 

[slaughterer62]

Very nice, but (spoiler alert) your DW is still too low and the case can be further thinned. Glad you got a gen cyclops: the MK3 is too reflective and wrong geometry. tosoboso and Domi are a great combo: I do not know how toso gets all of his rare parts, it is amazing, and he is very generous to share them: the gen Survivor dial is a notable upgrade over the Noob rep dial. At this point, you are in deep with this Franken Survivor, and a gen Survivor is not worth re-buying. If you sell your Franken Survivor to some new member with less than 20 posts who is just trolling for some (any!) Franken AP, I will tell you quite honestly, you are a pure idiot or the reincarnation of some ancient Zen master--either way works for me. I say this based on my gut feeling: you will probably never find another gen Survivor dial again. Flippers beware: OEM AP dials have dried up.

 

[rolexwatchfan]

Very nice, but (spoiler alert) your DW is still too low and the case can be further thinned. Glad you got a gen cyclops: the MK3 is too reflective and wrong geometry. tosoboso and Domi are a great combo: I do not know how toso gets all of his rare parts, it is amazing, and he is very generous to share them: the gen Survivor dial is a notable upgrade over the Noob rep dial. At this point, you are in deep with this Franken Survivor, and a gen Survivor is not worth re-buying. If you sell your Franken Survivor to some new member with less than 20 posts who is just trolling for some (any!) Franken AP, I will tell you quite honestly, you are a pure idiot or the reincarnation of some ancient Zen master--either way works for me. I say this based on my gut feeling: you will probably never find another gen Survivor dial again. Flippers beware: OEM AP dials have dried up.

No worries, when he's bored with her he'd sell it to me. I meant Survivor of course. :bees:

 

[slaughterer62]

Fine with me, rolexwatchfan, at least you have more than 10 posts. What is amazing to me are the following three recent developments:
1.) Better and better Frankens with rarer and rarer dials, yet owners treating them like a Buddhist "mandala" sand castle to be sold off to "le premier venu" after investing hundreds of hours of their time and thousands of dollars on them. (This is the QueTip illness of completing massively rare Frankens and then serially selling them off--while QueTip cannot be rescued, maybe others can still.)
2.) The assumption that the supply of OEM dials will continue forever--and that Frankens can be rebuilt at a later date. Like that love of your life who you dumped for one weekend with that attractive Spanish woman you met at the south beach of Capri one summer--you think your true love is going to forgive you? hell no.
3.) The massive increase in new members who "just want a Franken now" (any Franken, does not matter) and who machine gun requests to the usual suspects merely one or two clicks away.
Ah well, congratulations on your new Survivor Franken rolexwatchfan, uh, I mean zaeim, uh, I mean member X with 3 posts, uh...

 

[zaeim]

I don’t know what you talking about, the watch is not for sale I just received it.

And even if I decide to sell it one day I don’t understand what’s wrong if a new member buy it, I was a new member 2 years back.

This is the hobby, I have more than 15 watches today, some times I need to sell someone to make other projects born, I can’t keep them all.

When I had the Gen I never thought that I will sell it, it was setting on my watch box for months because I lost interest for it, 6 month after I sold it I decide to buy a rep and build a franken because I missed it.

Some people have 2 or 3 watches, they keep them a whole life, it’s not my case.

 

[rolexwatchfan]

I don’t know what you talking about, the watch is not for sale I just received it.

And even if I decide to sell it one day I don’t understand what’s wrong if a new member buy it, I was a new member 2 years back.

This is the hobby, I have more than 15 watches today, some times I need to sell someone to make other projects born, I can’t keep them all.

When I had the Gen I never thought that I will sell it, it was setting on my watch box for months because I lost interest for it, 6 month after I sold it I decide to buy a rep and build a franken because I missed it.

Some people have 2 or 3 watches, they keep them a whole life, it’s not my case.

My thought exactly, over the years I've sold few of my rare Gens or reps alike that I've commissioned to build out of impossible to find genuine parts. The process was painful and costly yet satisfying. Then my taste changed and I've parted with the watches that I knew I won't be able to sell. But I did. I made few members happy and moved over to the next projects. When your collection grows exponentially you make choices. Sometimes regrettable from the observer point of view but we all chased that white whale which turned out gray after a while. And then we go out to get another. More often the chase is better than the catch.
If zaeim will sell his Survivor to me at some point when he'd get bored with it, I surely will be selling something as attractive for someone else out of my own collection. That rotation is what makes this hobby interesting. Wise man once told me long time ago: That attractive Spanish woman you met at the south beach of Capri one summer-- Shes desirable for you at the moment but there's surely a man in her life that has had enough of her already. Its just life as we know it. :matty:

 

[MrBeasy]

This is awesome.

Well done - I'm inspired.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[slaughterer62]

I don’t know what you talking about, the watch is not for sale I just received it.

And even if I decide to sell it one day I don’t understand what’s wrong if a new member buy it, I was a new member 2 years back.

This is the hobby, I have more than 15 watches today, some times I need to sell someone to make other projects born, I can’t keep them all.

When I had the Gen I never thought that I will sell it, it was setting on my watch box for months because I lost interest for it, 6 month after I sold it I decide to buy a rep and build a franken because I missed it.

Some people have 2 or 3 watches, they keep them a whole life, it’s not my case.

I liked this post. You make legitimate points.
Our perspectives are different: I am more a hoarder, and you are more a rotater.
I can understand selling a precious Franken if you have alot of them in your collection (more than 15 is alot): it is like managing a stock portfolio at that point, selling off your losers (the watches with the least wear), and keeping your winners. But with a stock you can always re-buy it after its dip (unless the company goes BK), whereas with a precious Franken like the one you built (I consider it precious even though a second Survivor Franken is no doubt already being planned by someone else ;-)) the chances of rebuying it are not certain. That is one point I am trying to make. Even at 2 of them, Franken Survivors are rarer than the gen Survivors (with 1,000 of them) by a ratio of 1:500.
Maybe a new member with no Frankens will appreciate a Franken more when they buy it than the guy with 10 years membership and 15,000 posts. I can see that as a possibility. I can see the opposite possibility as well.
rolexwatchfan nice to see you again. I love your way with words and how you play off my own language games I guess I am not really satisfied by rotation, nor by chase, but by end-result. Even I fall out of love with watches: case in point, my first love, Panerai: some of them look like "grey whales" to me right now.
At the prices of stock reps, we are privileged to "try out" many different models: you can buy and sell without much thought. At the price of AP Frankens, and their rarity, this buy-sell dynamic requires alot more thought.
Again, zaeim, you make legitimate points, thanks for making them.

 

[slaughterer62]

Also, I reconsidered the remark about the thickness: rep is 16.65mm thick, gen is 15.65mm thick. Where to thin 1mm on the Noob rep? Difficult without interfering with the details of the caseback, mid-case and pushers and that gorgeous bezel. Your only option is to sink the bezel/bezel gasket into the mid-case 1mm through machining a recess. With the DW, cherry pick from a few DWs until you have the best vertical alignment. They are so cheap, buying a handful to select from should not be a problem.

 

[flofas]

Beautiful watch. Very few details could indicate this is a Franken and not a gen. Unique piece too, who would have known you could find a gen Survivor dial in the wild. Congrats and enjoy it well.

However, in my opinion, the most important thing this project shows is how close to the gen the original Noob Survivor rep was. Correct me if I'm wrong, this was one of the FIRST AP reps that was as almost considered a super-rep out-of-the-box right? All of these franken mods in yours, so many work hours and expensive parts, and you can hardly notice that the dial is gen if you don't notice the datewheel gap first. It must be different up close though, as I own a (practically unmodded) noob survivor (only 2xAR) and can definitely find out a couple of problems in the dial that would never appear in a gen dial. Nothing anyone would really notice with a normal look at the watch though.

 

[rckh]

Fantastic!

 

[zaeim]

Beautiful watch. Very few details could indicate this is a Franken and not a gen. Unique piece too, who would have known you could find a gen Survivor dial in the wild. Congrats and enjoy it well.

However, in my opinion, the most important thing this project shows is how close to the gen the original Noob Survivor rep was. Correct me if I'm wrong, this was one of the FIRST AP reps that was as almost considered a super-rep out-of-the-box right? All of these franken mods in yours, so many work hours and expensive parts, and you can hardly notice that the dial is gen if you don't notice the datewheel gap first. It must be different up close though, as I own a (practically unmodded) noob survivor (only 2xAR) and can definitely find out a couple of problems in the dial that would never appear in a gen dial. Nothing anyone would really notice with a normal look at the watch though.

Thanks

Yes the Noob V2 is a super Rep and fantastic watch, I had made a review Gen vs Rep side by side last year but I can’t find it anymore since the forum was down.

 

[996RUF]

Unreal build. One of my favourites! What an awesome watch with such rare parts. Well done.