Pictures are below if you want to skip directly to them. Excuse my substandard phone camera.
After a lot of lurking I finally bit the bullet late last year and decided to go for a blue JF 15202. But, through the course of my extensive lurking I had come to know the shortcomings of this model, so I resolved to only proceed on the basis that it be modded. The stock thickness defeats the purpose in my opinion, and my boney wrist doesn't do much to aid matters. Any other tidying up would also be handled in the process; realignment of markers, logo etc. and thus would save me the hassle of having to worry about whether the piece provided by the TD was up to scratch (for the record the piece provided was pretty good).
With that in mind I set out to look for a modder on this board and couldn't help but notice the threads that would appear from time to time from satisfied customers of legend. I was impressed with the finish and attention to detail I saw, as well as his extensive knowledge contribution to the board, so I knew I'd likely be in reliable hands. Phone numbers were duly exchanged and off we went.
Let me start by saying that, as this was to be my first AP, I had no issues with waiting. Even if it had taken months that would've been fine by me. So I went into the project with what I believe to be the right frame of mind, as opposed to the instant gratification mentality that can exist. Nothing wrong with the latter I guess, but I'm generally a very patient person and prefer to let professionals get on with their craft rather than be capricious and pester and stifle them.
We agreed to thin as best as possible, silence the rotor, and remove 6 links (ended up being 5 as that's the max on this model). I sent payment in late December and I received my watch last week. I would call that a fairly quick turnaround for the work requested. There was a slight hiccup when the TD almost sent the wrong watch but as legend sent me QC pics, I was able to prevent this and the correct model was sent. At the beginning of the process, he told me to leave him to it, which I did, bar one query as we approached Chinese New Year.
I'm thrilled with the piece. It sits at about 8.8mm thickness, fits my wrist as perfectly as any bracelet ever will given the shape and thinness of my wrist, is waterproofed to 5 ATM and was also given a general clean to remove some marks and blemishes from the factory. Nothing really new to note on this model as it's been covered extensively on this board: the blue face isn't as good as the quartz, the printing on the face is woeful and the bracelet is superb. All of which I was aware of. So no real complaints from me. I managed my expectations accordingly.
It's worth adding that I'm doing this review of my own volition. I wasn’t asked to do it. I'm genuinely very happy with the piece and I felt it was right to give a large part of the credit for that to legend. Moreover, I didn't ask the price of his services prior to engaging him, yet I found the final pricing to be very reasonable for the work carried out. This was more down to trust and being able to see that he has a genuine passion for horology, over just running his operation purely for financial gain. So I had no real concerns.
I'd say to those of you who are willing to be patient for an excellent end product should consider legend's services. For those of you who are, shall we say, generally chomping at the bit in life, perhaps it might be an idea to look for a different modder. I believe he worked on 9 watches in this batch - that's no mean feat. Despite this he was still able to provide me with exactly what I wanted. That's definitely in part down to just leaving him to it so that he could give full attention to all his present customers' pieces.
One thing I may do in the coming days is put this model alongside the quartz $139 model so that those of you who are looking for a side-by-side comparison have some insight. The face is certainly superior on the quartz but that's about it. The bracelet makes it a no go for me even at the very low price point. The less said about that appalling ordeal the better. I'll document that in a separate review.
Some pics from the TD:
After thinning:
Ready to ship:
In the sunlight:
After a lot of lurking I finally bit the bullet late last year and decided to go for a blue JF 15202. But, through the course of my extensive lurking I had come to know the shortcomings of this model, so I resolved to only proceed on the basis that it be modded. The stock thickness defeats the purpose in my opinion, and my boney wrist doesn't do much to aid matters. Any other tidying up would also be handled in the process; realignment of markers, logo etc. and thus would save me the hassle of having to worry about whether the piece provided by the TD was up to scratch (for the record the piece provided was pretty good).
With that in mind I set out to look for a modder on this board and couldn't help but notice the threads that would appear from time to time from satisfied customers of legend. I was impressed with the finish and attention to detail I saw, as well as his extensive knowledge contribution to the board, so I knew I'd likely be in reliable hands. Phone numbers were duly exchanged and off we went.
Let me start by saying that, as this was to be my first AP, I had no issues with waiting. Even if it had taken months that would've been fine by me. So I went into the project with what I believe to be the right frame of mind, as opposed to the instant gratification mentality that can exist. Nothing wrong with the latter I guess, but I'm generally a very patient person and prefer to let professionals get on with their craft rather than be capricious and pester and stifle them.
We agreed to thin as best as possible, silence the rotor, and remove 6 links (ended up being 5 as that's the max on this model). I sent payment in late December and I received my watch last week. I would call that a fairly quick turnaround for the work requested. There was a slight hiccup when the TD almost sent the wrong watch but as legend sent me QC pics, I was able to prevent this and the correct model was sent. At the beginning of the process, he told me to leave him to it, which I did, bar one query as we approached Chinese New Year.
I'm thrilled with the piece. It sits at about 8.8mm thickness, fits my wrist as perfectly as any bracelet ever will given the shape and thinness of my wrist, is waterproofed to 5 ATM and was also given a general clean to remove some marks and blemishes from the factory. Nothing really new to note on this model as it's been covered extensively on this board: the blue face isn't as good as the quartz, the printing on the face is woeful and the bracelet is superb. All of which I was aware of. So no real complaints from me. I managed my expectations accordingly.
It's worth adding that I'm doing this review of my own volition. I wasn’t asked to do it. I'm genuinely very happy with the piece and I felt it was right to give a large part of the credit for that to legend. Moreover, I didn't ask the price of his services prior to engaging him, yet I found the final pricing to be very reasonable for the work carried out. This was more down to trust and being able to see that he has a genuine passion for horology, over just running his operation purely for financial gain. So I had no real concerns.
I'd say to those of you who are willing to be patient for an excellent end product should consider legend's services. For those of you who are, shall we say, generally chomping at the bit in life, perhaps it might be an idea to look for a different modder. I believe he worked on 9 watches in this batch - that's no mean feat. Despite this he was still able to provide me with exactly what I wanted. That's definitely in part down to just leaving him to it so that he could give full attention to all his present customers' pieces.
One thing I may do in the coming days is put this model alongside the quartz $139 model so that those of you who are looking for a side-by-side comparison have some insight. The face is certainly superior on the quartz but that's about it. The bracelet makes it a no go for me even at the very low price point. The less said about that appalling ordeal the better. I'll document that in a separate review.
Some pics from the TD:
After thinning:
Ready to ship:
In the sunlight:
