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VRF vs. Gen 116710LN GMT - quick review

T&E

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So guys, I finally managed to complete my beloved GMT LN Franken build.

What I can say so far, this is one of the most perfect watches I have ever build and all this for a reasonable price tag (still a lot of money, no doubt, but considering how gen prices increased...).

My build consist of the following:

VRF case
3185 non engraved movement
VRF tube
Gen 704 crown
Gen 3135/3185 stem
Gen dial
Gen hand set
Gen bezel complete assembly with insert
Gen green 3186 Date Disc
GMF 904L jubilee bracelet
Prof black whole crystal

Backup green gen Everest band with ARF clasp

What will follow:
Maybe 3185-660 jumping hour part
My already existing 3185 engraved bridge

Bracelet:
My initial plan was to place a green Everest band which I did already purchase. However, one night I switched my plan and wanted to have a jubilee.
Problem: ARF does not have a proper one for this model. The Datejust 41 jubilee from ARF has 21mm lug size and the Datejust 36 has completely wrong SELs for this model. In addition, both have wrong clasps, but I could have replaced this. Therefore, I was not exact sure about others quality. Nonetheless, a local watch friend recommended a GMF as he also had one in stock and I thought to give it a try. After 30min oil bath it was smooth as it should be. The shine is great and the bands look nice as well. Clasp looks very good but flip lock is a bit strong to open and close. However, this can be easily replaced by an ARF one. What I do really like is the lug wholes. Because there is NONE!!! It fits so strong and so perfect, that it took a bit to mount or remove.
This bracelet fits very well and I like it.

Crystal:
There is some pictures with the VRF stock crystal mounted. Honestly, it’s not as bad as some complain. Instead, at the beginning I was surprised how good it was. Nonetheless, it’s a difference of day and night once you mount a professional one. In my case I did mount a prof black whole crystal instead of a gen one and I can only say: compared to my gen watch I don’t see a difference. The black shine of the dial pops really out, the white gold hands are more visible and of course the black whole cyclops shows the wonderful green date disc in a perfect way. There was a time where I was able to live with stock crystals. But long time ago this has changed. A gen (or prof) crystal makes the complete watch more “perfect”. Everything shines more clear and more colored, while all the rep crystals have such a “milky” touch.

Bezel assembly:
I replaced the stock VRF by a gen one.
To use a gen retaining / crystal ring you also need to use a gen crystal gasket. VRF gasket is too thick. The stock VRF has a bad rotation but I tried to put the gen click springs ring on rep VRF and they did fit. I could imagine, that the rotation of rep VRF would be better if you use a gen click spring ring. Nonetheless, I just tried this “un-mounted” and I have no experience how it would rotate mounted on a watch.
But it could be a cheap alternative just buying a gen or ARF insert and a gen click spring ring to use with VR bezel. Because the bezel ring itself looks nice IMO and it uses glued bezels. So for people with less experience in pressing ceramic bezels, this could be a good alternative.

Dial and hands:
Unfortunately I don’t have a VRF Dial or hands aside to compare, but gen is gen. So what shall I say. It fits perfectly.
Regarding hands: be careful while installing on a VR3185 as there is not such a typical “hand stop”. If you press them too much, they will touch the dial. This is what happened to @occb2
Nonetheless, you should know that this is not a rep issue rather than the reality for gen 3185 movements as well. Only later movements like 3186 (SH) had this hand stop.

Movement:
It’s too early to say something about the movement. It was regulated and lubricated. According to testing it has like 43 hours of power reserve and runs between -5 and +9 seconds per day. Date flips at midnight and for the moment it seems that the GMT hand keeps almost its position. Not 100% exactly but enough for my expectations. Rotor is quiet as per my gen and time setting works like gen as well. It goes a bit strong to remove stem/crown or push back and it seems that there is more pressure on it than on my gen, where it goes really smooth. Hour hands flips as per gen but I tried only clockwise setting for like 5 calendar days. There is not much of wobbling hands to see while setting the hour hand (this is the main difference from 3185 to 3186). From that perspective, I would always prefer the 3185 rep movement instead of 3186 rep movement. Construction is much more reliable and the wobbling hands is a joke. I really can’t see them - maybe a bit, but who cares.

Case:
IMHO case is really good compared to gen. Yes, there might be some differences in rehaut etc. but c’mon. Not even an AD would recognize this. Main issue is that the watch is not water resistant. The test stopped at 3ATM. For me it’s ok, because I’m not using my watches under water anyway. And putting it one under running water was not an issue (for the moment).
I assume, that the lack comes from the combination of rep tube with gen crown where you can feel slightly that it’s not as perfect as gen/gen. I once did remove the rep tube and wanted to install a gen one. Problem, after putting back the rep tube while waiting on my gen to arrive it seems that I have “anchored” it and now you can’t remove it without crashing. The thing is, once you remove it right now and a gen tube probably won’t work without glueing then I have no tube. Therefore, I kept it for the moment and will also accept that there is not the typical gap between crown and case.

Now onto the pics. Sorry it’s a bit mixed because my img hoster won’t keep the same sequence as my phone uses...

Gen watch is with oyster bracelet, Franken is with jubilee bracelet

























































































































































Is gmf bracelet for gmf gmt 126710?
 
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Whirld

Horology Curious
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Haha yeah, that might happen. But thought it’s better to have as many pics as possible.

I'll respond to this to avoid the photos, really great work on this. Thanks for sharing. Super helpful to me.
 
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mega12

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Yes, it’s supposed to be a 126710 GMF 904L bracelet. Don’t know whether for BLRO or BLNR but it doesn’t matter because they are the same


Time doesn’t exist, clocks exist.
 

KJ2020

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mega12 Bro this a fantastic build, you have put so much thought and money into getting the most out of your combination of pieces.

And so it pains me to have to ask this question, but why is the GMT hand lagging so far behind where it should be? I work on a lot of GMT movements and I know what a PITA it is to get the hour hand and GMT hand to sync up. Sometimes I have to pull and re-press one or both of the hands 4 or 5 times to get it right. Each time there is risk of damaging the dial or the hands, so it is quite nerve wracking. There is some play in the rep movement gears and even if the hands are perfectly set with the date change at midnight, when you move the hour hand or GMT hand individually, the hands lose sync with each other. So you have to account for this when pressing the hands. For example If there is a consistent 25 minute lag in the GMT hand like you have, press the GMT hand 25 minutes ahead after the hour hand is pressed at midnight. Sometimes you have to accept the date change occurring early or late to keep the hands synced.

Does that 25 minute offset change if you move the hands backward? That's a huge amount of play in the gears, I can't imagine that to be the case. I know how much of a bitch it is to get this right, but that has never kept me from doing it again and again until it's very very close to exact. With such an incredible build you have it seems a real shame to me that this wasn't done. Maybe the movement is partly to blame, I just got one and will be tearing it down as soon as I get a service manual.

Your GMT hand exactly on the hour with the minute hand 25 minutes past. This offset is consistent throughout your pics

aHXPi.jpg


GMT hand should be exactly on a bezel hour marker when the minute hand is at 12 o'clock

aHdSb.jpg
 

T&E

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Yes, it’s supposed to be a 126710 GMF 904L bracelet. Don’t know whether for BLRO or BLNR but it doesn’t matter because they are the same


Time doesn’t exist, clocks exist.
Thanks man, I'll take one for my qrf
 

mega12

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mega12 Bro this a fantastic build, you have put so much thought and money into getting the most out of your combination of pieces.

Does that 25 minute offset change if you move the hands backward? That's a huge amount of play in the gears, I can't imagine that to be the case. I know how much of a bitch it is to get this right, but that has never kept me from doing it again and again until it's very very close to exact. With such an incredible build you have it seems a real shame to me that this wasn't done. Maybe the movement is partly to blame, I just got one and will be tearing it down as soon as I get a service manual.

Your GMT hand exactly on the hour with the minute hand 25 minutes past. This offset is consistent throughout your pics

aHXPi.jpg


GMT hand should be exactly on a bezel hour marker when the minute hand is at 12 o'clock

aHdSb.jpg

Thanks bro.
You are right and I knew this before. There is two answers:

First, if you look at this picture without being installed, GMT hand was aligned correctly. I think, this is the issue some others have addressed already and it has to do with the 660 part which should be replaced
Secondly, it doesn’t bother me atm. As you know, I have the gen GMT which is always perfectly aligned. So I am used to this function and whenever I need it, I could simply use my “other” watch for trips or whatever. Nonetheless, as I have planned to upgrade the movement with some parts in the future, hands will come off anyway once again and then this will be fixed.

Usually I’m like you and a perfectionist if it comes to things like that. But by knowing that this is just temporary, I can live with it ;)

Btw, what I figured out today and what bothers me quite more, is the purple touch of prof cyclops. I haven’t seen this before, because it doesn’t really pop up under artificial light. But today, outside, it hit me. I have read about that before, but didn’t knew that it will bother me like that. I will definitely replace the crystal by time...

Nonetheless, it’s a great watch. These are just simple details to adjust.

801cce783719e454f2ff3a1658e25541.jpg

d2e5ccfdb61dd73be87eb0411ad7e231.jpg
93fb7f6bb7514427350934aa24c8c013.jpg
 

KJ2020

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Cool bro, I appreciate you not taking offense. Readjusting the hands when you replace the jump click is perfect. And a gen crystal will certainly complete the deal. This watch deserves to be perfect. Really a beauty with the Jubilee and the green DW. Nice nice!
 

mega12

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Cool bro, I appreciate you not taking offense. Readjusting the hands when you replace the jump click is perfect. And a gen crystal will certainly complete the deal. This watch deserves to be perfect. Really a beauty with the Jubilee and the green DW. Nice nice!

No prob. We all here to learn and share :)
 
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jcher

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Nice work mega12

Mine will get a facelift tomorrow, only issue I got GEN superluminova hands when the GEN dial is chromalight... The module for jumping hour is being changed too for the 3185-660

IMG_37997512be5729d3d1e1.jpg
 
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mega12

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Wow cool. Post some pics then.
I have a set of SL dial + hands leftover which I will post shortly for sale.
 
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wrightp748

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Can the genuine crown tube be fitted to the case without any problem?


Sent from my iPhone using RWI
 

Redheart

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Lovely watch! I like the whole package and the green date is the cherry on top! Wear in good health, her little sister says hi! ;)
(this is a fantasy watch because I cannot stand the GMF BLRO insert, and I surprisingly found out that the LN insert and bezel were very affordable!

49352906113_299b420dfa_h.jpg


49353572442_cf7100e901_h.jpg
 
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KJ2020

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Nice work mega12

Mine will get a facelift tomorrow, only issue I got GEN superluminova hands when the GEN dial is chromalight... The module for jumping hour is being changed too for the 3185-660

IMG_37997512be5729d3d1e1.jpg

This is going to be another great one bro. I'd like to suggest you have your watchmaker/modder sand, polish and rebrush the top ledge of the rehaut while your watch is all apart. It's a 20-30 minute job and should not be left undone! Shame on VRF for this flaw.
 
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mega12

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Lovely watch! I like the whole package and the green date is the cherry on top! Wear in good health, her little sister says hi! ;)
(this is a fantasy watch because I cannot stand the GMF BLRO insert, and I surprisingly found out that the LN insert and bezel were very affordable!

49352906113_299b420dfa_h.jpg


49353572442_cf7100e901_h.jpg

Nice one. Is it GMF base?
You could think about a gen crystal.
I love fantasy builds :)
 
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mega12

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This is going to be another great one bro. I'd like to suggest you have your watchmaker/modder sand, polish and rebrush the top ledge of the rehaut while your watch is all apart. It's a 20-30 minute job and should not be left undone! Shame on VRF for this flaw.

Haha I got it bro. This hasn’t been done on mine as well ;) but probably next time.
 
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Redheart

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Nice one. Is it GMF base?
You could think about a gen crystal.
I love fantasy builds :)

Yep GMF base, and I just found out too that I am fond of fantasy build (when there is a gen R factory insert involved :) )
Actually I am more and more interested in a gen crystal, but you know, too much builds and not enough time hey!
Anyway, your build is a gem! Again, congrats ;)
 
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