This.
Ultimately, be it a stock rep, modded rep, franken or gen, they serve to please the owner and as long as they achieve this purpose, it is all good.
But showing off a franken here and misrepresenting like it is the epitome of a watch build, is also as uncalled for as anyone harshly criticizing/denigrating/bashing it. Even if gen hands are installed in a build, it is still a replica.
As long as any watch or build is posted here, I think that the OP should be open to both compliments and criticism. And criticism can come only with the proper knowledge of the watch and how it is supposed to look like. The OP will hence typically get 99% "wow awesome build!" and other compliments, and 1% of the comments pointing out the shortfalls. With knowledge of the shortfalls, the build owner can then explore ways to complete the build. The purpose of any franken build, gen parts, and aftermarket parts are to make the watch look closer to gen. So there IS a very clear benchmark with which to compare any build here: The genuine counterpart. Unless the owner does a fantasy build, there will always be a clear indication of how the build should look, and how it falls short. I see it as simply stating the facts, nothing more. If an owner wishes to spend any amount of money on the build, that is his own decision, and it has zero bearings on the result of the build. What separates criticism from bashing, is not how the owner feels about the statement. It is the veracity of the criticism and the intention of the critic.
My criticisms started in fact with my own franken builds, and having them fall short of my standard eventually, I sold all 12 of them progressively and moved on to gens. I doubt there are many here who owned more frankens than I had. Perhaps a good friend who had left the forum, perhaps Quetip, perhaps Tosoboso. I know how an AP franken is, and all the inherent weakness and flaws of one. So while I understand that this is a replica forum, and not TRF, the goal of any any franken build is to have their watch built as close to gen as possible and that is where the gen AP comes into play, as an object of comparison. Like Quetip, I see what others overlook, because I know how an AP should look and feel. There are tons of modded reps out there, which look decent on the wrist. The owners are typically a lot more humble about their watches than some franken owners I've met in person. At $3500-6000, AP frankens are relatively low cost replica alternatives of the genuine counterparts, and should be regarded as such, no more and no less.
I agree with the general sentiment that harmony is better preserved than destroyed for this community. When the over-hyping or prideful, ignorant and untrue representations of frankens stops, so will the "bashing" automatically. It is laughable that a franken, say with gen dial and tachy, or even with gen hands thrown in, be termed a "super duper hyperlicious franken, closest to gen in the universe" for example. It shows the ignorance of the poster. A franken is a replica which is more expensive than a stock rep, but something which should serve to please its owner, but not to impress anyone else, especially through misguided presentations. The same applies for anything from stock reps to gens. If anyone of you are on some gen forums, you could have come across my posts where I criticize certain aspects of my own gens. They are not perfect either. It is simply a way of learning and sharing. If I can criticize $20k-40k gens for example, I doubt any AP frankens will be perfect to my view, even those which I help mod. The EFFORTS of building one, is always commendable without exception. But the results do vary from build to build, with some more acceptable than others.
