My Noob V8S purchase turned out to be a mistake - and I don't know what to do...

[RepHunter]

Hey guys,

So I've been lurking on this website for some time now, and bought about 6 replicas total, 5 of which turned out to be fine timepieces. But the last purchase... Well, it's complicated.

I bought this Noob V8S submariner from PureTime about a month ago, it had arrived just a few days ago. QC was fine, but the 50 marker on the bezel looked a bit off. Despite having doubts about the watch, I was an impatient brat and bit the bullet, hoping that it would just be a very minor inconvenience. I was wrong.

The watch arrived, and I had forgotten about the flaw. I unpacked it, sized the bracelet, and everything was fine and dandy, till i looked at the watch head on. Half of the 5 in 50 is completely off color, and at first, I thought it was something I could get over. I can't STAND it. In some lighting conditions, it looks fine, but in darker light, it pops out like a sore thumb. I really tried to convince myself that it gives character to the watch, but I just can't get over it. It's ugly.

I thought I could do a paint mod to fix it, but that would mean that I would have to redo the whole bezel, and the last time I did that on an older submariner, it was very uneven, and it just didn't look right.

I considered buying a clean factory bezel insert to fit onto the watch, but shipping to the EU costs a fortune (half of the price of the bezel itself!). The total would be half of the amount I paid for the watch too, and it would just make no sense. In addition to that, hypothetically speaking, if I do buy the bezel, I would still have to install it, which from what I heard is a nightmare on ceramic bezels. If i break both inserts, I'm left with an incomplete watch and an even deeper hole in my wallet.

I would try and sell it here, but I can't because I haven't posted enough.

I will leave some pictures below, and let me know what you guys think; I'm open to any suggestions at this point.

 

[Hazing]

Keep an eye on the m2m forum. There are a few LN sub rep inserts in there now. I’m sure many in the EU. Then just swap it out.

 

[KJ2020]

Hey bro, sorry you're in this position but it's not so bad and here's an easy fix.

Buy a Posca pen, silver metallic.

https://www.amazon.com/Posca-Acrylic-Paint-Marker-Ultra-Fine/dp/B002BDXOV6

Your insert has a lot of markers that would benefit from a Posca paint mod.

1. Get an old soft worn toothbrush. Apply some hand soap to it. Lightly wet the insert under a thin stream of warm water. Make sure the crown is tight and tilt the watch so the water runs away from the crystal. Use no more water than necessary. Gently massage soapy water into all the markers for 10 seconds or so each then rinse in the same manner. Let the insert dry completely.

2. Apply the silver paint from the pen directly into the markers. There will be over-spill outside the markers. This is OK. Strive to leave an even coat in the cutouts and don't overdo it. Leave the triangle for last til you get some experience with the process. When doing the triangle some will over-spill onto the outside of the pearl cup. This is OK. Let the paint dry, it only takes about 15 minutes. Then do a second coat. Take care not to let it get too thick or clumpy. This paint is very easy to use and is very forgiving.

3. Get a paper towel or microfiber cloth and soak a small section of it with isopropyl alchohol. Wave it in the air til the alcohol dries a little and the towel is damp and not dripping. Pull the damp section taut around your finger and swipe it across the insert flats, cleaning away the over-spill. Repeat until they are all gone. Take care not to let liquid alcohol or towel/cloth edges enter the marker cutouts. Getting paint off the pearl cup can be done with a fingernail or a flattened toothpick through the damp towel/cloth.

In no more than 45 minutes total and under $10, your watch can look like this

You can do this, good luck.

 

[Karlus]

Hey, don't stress. You have some good options:

1) Buy a Clean Factory bezel. They are AWESOME
2) Send your existing bezel to Spongebob for platinum plating just like gen
3) Paint mod, but honestly Im not a fan because its not genlike

 

[Tomeng01]

For starters, I’m really sorry. That’s sucks. And it would annoy me too.

I really think you named your 3 options: sell, diy fix or replace with better insert. I’ll give you my thoughts on all 3 options.

1) Sell
Work your way to 25 posts. It’s really not hard. Contributing to the forum will make you feel good and make the forum a better place. That said, you may need to discount due to this issue. I don’t know how much that would be, but that loss could go towards one of the other two options.

2) DIY Fix
Sounds cool. Sounds tedious. Sounds like something you could be proud of; however, I’m too scared to do it and would hate to mess that up. If I botched or wasn’t incredibly satisfied, I would be more mad at myself and annoyed with that than the first issue. Lol.


3) Replace with Better Insert
I’m going to give this another 5 options - lol. For all of the following, I would send to a watch smith / mod / builder. I have inserts from Noob, ARF, BP, JF and several gens and can officially say Spongebob’s work is incredible. So with any of the following you would end up with a better watch.

3a) Send Insert to Spongebob
You could send your entire watch to a builder, have your insert removed, mail that to Spongebob for his treatment, mail it back, have it installed.

3b) Send Watch to Spongebob
You could send your entire watch to Spongebob. He would do his thing and send it back. I would be a little nervous about customs, but it’s probably fine.

3c) Purchase from Sponge Direct
Reach out to Sponge and wait for him to mail you a new insert and then sell yours.

3d) Buy Better off M2M
Could buy a factory noob or even a Spongebob off the M2M. You might wait a while, but one will pop up.

3e) Go Gen!!
Buy a gen insert with or without a bezel and slap that puppy on there. Much more expensive and you seem to want to keep the price low, but the gen insert makes a big difference in my opinion.


Again, I’m sorry it happened. Obviously I favor improving the watch as opposed to dumping it. In fact, I find modding my watches makes me bond with them more. They develop a voice and story. When they come straight from the factory, they feel so cold and emotionless.

Good luck!!

 

[RepHunter]

Thanks guys, I'm honestly glad that I came to you guys for advice and didn't go do something I'll regret. I'll keep y'all updated with what I do in the end. If anyone else has other suggestions, feel free to drop them. I'm all ears, I promise!

 

[hm11esh]

Sent you a PM

 

[RepHunter]

OK, so after some pondering, this is how I'm gonna proceed:

1) Try the posca paint method.

2) If I don't like the result of that mod, I'll do a more intricate one that was posted a while ago here on the forums (The pilworx penultimate platinumizing procedure).

3) If I don't like that one either, I'll buy a clean factory bezel and have it replaced by a watch builder.

The Posca marker should arrive in 4-5 hours. Fingers crossed!

 

[hanski]

That sucks. Can I ask a really dumb question: have you tried cleaning it?
I have had an instance where a GMT II bezel insert was great except for one number - looked off color. Was en route to ordering a new one when I decided to do a little picking and cleaning. Lo and behold, there was some glue in the number. Cleaned right out and numbers all looked good.

 

[RepHunter]

That sucks. Can I ask a really dumb question: have you tried cleaning it?
I have had an instance where a GMT II bezel insert was great except for one number - looked off color. Was en route to ordering a new one when I decided to do a little picking and cleaning. Lo and behold, there was some glue in the number. Cleaned right out and numbers all looked good.

How exactly did you clean it?

Thanks.

 

[hanski]

How exactly did you clean it?

Thanks.

Pegwood (watchmaker’s toothpick made of special wood) and eyeglass cleaner - all observed under a loupe.

 

[RepHunter]

Holy shit you might be right, I'm working on it. Scraping some of it off. Going to go at it for a bit more, will update.

 

[brokebuthappy]

Hanskis' the man!

 

[RepHunter]

It's a bit better now; but I feel like I scraped off TOO much now.. Should I still do the paint mod? What do you guys think.

 

[p0pperini]

That looks perfectly okay now. If it was me, I’d be happy with that. (I’m assuming the darker tone in the lower half of the 5 is just a shadow.)

You could go ahead and do the paint/marker mod, but a) it doesn’t need it, and b) you’ll be slightly changing the colour of the markers, and you might not be satisfied with the new look.

 

[Casijmg]

Se nota mucho menos... La verdad que porque lo sabes si no ni te fijarías

 

[Spitfire63]

That looks absolutely fine now, the problem now is that your fixating on it, wear the watch forget about it and see how you feel about it in a few weeks, I'm betting it won't be an issue then,

 

[RepHunter]

Alright, well thanks guys for all the feedback. I won’t fret about it anymore, and I’ll get around to doing the paint mod when the numbers fade out. Cheers to all of you.


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[R2L]

If you are in EU, send it to ussdassein. He does the sputter coating just like Spongebob. I believe he’s in Germany. It’ll look like gen once he’s done with it.


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[jdoc77]

It's a bit better now; but I feel like I scraped off TOO much now.. Should I still do the paint mod? What do you guys think.

Bro. It looks waaaaay better. You should thank him. It’s literally night and day difference with little
Effort. Go wear the hell out of that thing


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