PO 42mm franken project
Ok so i'm new to these forums and the rep scene for less than a week or so now (at the time of writing this post).
All my life I've had gen watches, such as my current Tissot PRC200. However, I've always had a grail watch and that was the PO. Unfortunately circumstance (me having a bit more of an expensive interest in automobiles) can't really afford to spend a few G on a watch. Well, that's a half truth, a few years ago i purchased my first ever really expensive watch which was a BOND SMP 300m (non chrono gen) but when the POs came out, I sold the SMP and purchased a gen PO. A few months after purchase, I ran into some financial difficulty and had to sell the PO. I eventually settled down with a cheapy gen PRC200 chrono and it hasn't missed a beat for now a few years. Although in the back of my mind, I do want to get back and buy a PO (one day hopefully a Big Face 45.5mm gen).
The other night after drinking I noticed a youtube video which compared Gen / Reps (well the PO v1/v5/Gen). This got me really interested since the movement was pretty similar and the defects were pretty minimal compared with the v5 and the v1. I remember a few years back looking at the v1 and noticed the imperfections and decided to never get one. Anyways, this video pointed me to a TD (on another forum) and proceeded to drop some hard earned dosh $$$ and bought one.
The next morning, I proceeded to look into what issues were having with the PO 42mm v5 and saw that the main issue was thread stripping from the crown and tube. I figured, well i could probably fix that myself once I get the watch instead of taking it to a watchmaker (who would probably question the authenticity of the watch) so I proceeded to do more research and found a few other forums (to date I've signed up for RWI/RWG/Repgeek) and learnt more about this watch.
Me being a bit of a car guy, I have an extensive history in dealing with tuner cars over the past few years (which has been my very expensive hobby aside from photography). So armed with this can do attitude (and if i break it, well i can possibly order another v5 watch), i've been trolling the various forums and based on the guidance of various posts and finally pulled the pin again and ordered a heap of parts and watch maker tools - to date I've spent around $100 bucks in just watch maker tools and equipment (ie JB weld bond, Loctite, etc).
Why do you ask why I wanted to do a franken PO when i could've gone out and bought a used PO. Well the market in Australia for luxury watches is severely inflated, where a new PO would cost upwards of 4-5k+ from an AD or a used PO would be around 2-3k+. I also know that I've always wanted to know how watches work and also how to fix them (especially since I wanted to get my old watch serviced and the AD here wanted to charge me a few hundred bucks just to do that - basically involved a new battery and making sure that the gaskets weren't leaking so it was waterproof, plus the time was accurate).
Anyways, to cut a long story short, I'm here now writing my experiences with modifying this watch and also the amount of effort to get the pieces that i've ordered so that I can be happy wit the time piece - and also share what I've learnt in working with the watch.
Ok so i'm new to these forums and the rep scene for less than a week or so now (at the time of writing this post).
All my life I've had gen watches, such as my current Tissot PRC200. However, I've always had a grail watch and that was the PO. Unfortunately circumstance (me having a bit more of an expensive interest in automobiles) can't really afford to spend a few G on a watch. Well, that's a half truth, a few years ago i purchased my first ever really expensive watch which was a BOND SMP 300m (non chrono gen) but when the POs came out, I sold the SMP and purchased a gen PO. A few months after purchase, I ran into some financial difficulty and had to sell the PO. I eventually settled down with a cheapy gen PRC200 chrono and it hasn't missed a beat for now a few years. Although in the back of my mind, I do want to get back and buy a PO (one day hopefully a Big Face 45.5mm gen).
The other night after drinking I noticed a youtube video which compared Gen / Reps (well the PO v1/v5/Gen). This got me really interested since the movement was pretty similar and the defects were pretty minimal compared with the v5 and the v1. I remember a few years back looking at the v1 and noticed the imperfections and decided to never get one. Anyways, this video pointed me to a TD (on another forum) and proceeded to drop some hard earned dosh $$$ and bought one.
The next morning, I proceeded to look into what issues were having with the PO 42mm v5 and saw that the main issue was thread stripping from the crown and tube. I figured, well i could probably fix that myself once I get the watch instead of taking it to a watchmaker (who would probably question the authenticity of the watch) so I proceeded to do more research and found a few other forums (to date I've signed up for RWI/RWG/Repgeek) and learnt more about this watch.
Me being a bit of a car guy, I have an extensive history in dealing with tuner cars over the past few years (which has been my very expensive hobby aside from photography). So armed with this can do attitude (and if i break it, well i can possibly order another v5 watch), i've been trolling the various forums and based on the guidance of various posts and finally pulled the pin again and ordered a heap of parts and watch maker tools - to date I've spent around $100 bucks in just watch maker tools and equipment (ie JB weld bond, Loctite, etc).
Why do you ask why I wanted to do a franken PO when i could've gone out and bought a used PO. Well the market in Australia for luxury watches is severely inflated, where a new PO would cost upwards of 4-5k+ from an AD or a used PO would be around 2-3k+. I also know that I've always wanted to know how watches work and also how to fix them (especially since I wanted to get my old watch serviced and the AD here wanted to charge me a few hundred bucks just to do that - basically involved a new battery and making sure that the gaskets weren't leaking so it was waterproof, plus the time was accurate).
Anyways, to cut a long story short, I'm here now writing my experiences with modifying this watch and also the amount of effort to get the pieces that i've ordered so that I can be happy wit the time piece - and also share what I've learnt in working with the watch.
