Franken/ gen feel

[W47chl0v3r]

Even gen watches have their dials, hands, movement parts replaced during services. For me if all parts are gen except for indistinguishable parts, it’s good enough. I for one have a 5K+ franken of a AP 15202. To me it’s only complete with a genuine bracelet which it is lacking. Besides that it’s genuine except bezel and crown. If I find a bracelet it would be worth about 10k just in gen parts alone. Frankens are more than just a store of value, they tell a story of blood sweat and tears...

 

[Blancpainless]

When most major components are gen, it feels really genuine. Putting gen hands, winding bridge, auto module, train bridge and barrel bridge on my VSF 116610 puts me 90% there. All I need is the free sprung balance and its practically a real sub in my eyes

 

[JayBee0815]

For many people a watch is more than a watch but also a dream. And when the dream comes true and you have your beloved grail watch, you have a special relation with it. And there comes an important factor: Price and availabilty. If you can fullfill your dream for a couple of bucks via Amazon, this would be strange.

For some people this 'dream watch' is a Gen and they put money aside for this dream for years. They buy this watch at a special occasion, like their wedding or the birth of their child and the watch remembers them for live with this.

For some people the dream is a Franken with parts, that are very hard to get. And for some people with smaller budget it is a fair Rep. It does not matter what kind of grail watch it is. All that matters is your relation to this watch.

On the other side: If you are rich and can buy (nearly) every watch you want with a shrug of the shoulders, I think, you will never get the special relationship, a poor man maybee has to his beloved DH-Gate-Cheapie. It is not the watch, it is you.

Just my 2 Cents.

 

[Bombardier]

To be honest I find it difficult to understand why submariners are Frankensteined to 4-5Ks, is it not they are sold like hot cakes in seconds as soon as they are advertised anywhere with probably almost no lost in value. APs makes sense though. I believe it’s part of the rep game though and keep people entertained.

 

[legend]

Members,


At what point do you feel as though your franken/super franken feels like genuine to you. I only ask because I have a 5513 that I built from the ground up with all gen parts excluding mid case and crown. In my mind it’s a gen as you can get without a proper serial midcase. I have a gen crown but haven’t installed it yet, and really don’t care to. But when I wear it I feel as though I’m wearing a genuine 5513.


Is that just me? I mean movement, dial. Hands, bracelet and crystal all gen. 95% is gen. But at the same time deep in my head I’m still longing for a complete genuine 5513. Maybe because morally I can’t sell it as gen if needed for emergency. But otherwise I feel that it is. What’s yalls thoughts? Where’s your line in the sand when you feel your watch feels gen to you? Parts wise....?

I started off my hobby in watches as a gen owner and sometime in 2010 I started dabbling in reps and then frankens before going back to gens.

I agree with what Vicar69 said: if it’s not gen, it’s a rep and there are no two ways about it. I don’t know about other brands but for APs, frankens do not even begin to scratch the surface of the gen league. Nowhere close. And because it’s my favored brand to wear, only the gens will do. At no point when I owned AP frankens did I feel that they were gens or presented them as gens. But they were definitely fun novelty watches to wear and in this regard there was very little difference in wearing frankens and stock reps for me, compared with wearing the gens. I also agree with what mech500 said, that for some occasions, gens may not be suitable and for those, I’ll now rather go bare wristed than wear a rep. I do not own a rep at all nor will I wear one but I can fully appreciate and understand the novelty appeal of replica watches.
Around me, guys who wear reps usually own gens but prefer to don their reps for the knock arounds. To each his own but having walked both sides of the lines, I will like to say that no reps can cross the “gen feel” line if you know where to look (and eventually you always will).


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[rwacc]

...

Would you say the same applies for, say, vintage rolexes that in some ways are more easy to replicate well?

 

[legend]

Would you say the same applies for, say, vintage rolexes that in some ways are more easy to replicate well?

I actually have very little knowledge of vintage Rolex, gen or rep.
But because gen vintage Rolex today can be found with service parts (a necessity to keep them well maintained), franken vintage Rolex builds of today can always be explained with “service parts” when it comes to inconsistencies with the original gen watch. It is very rare to find a vintage Rolex today in pristine condition with all parts unchanged and in original condition.
So given the vastly eclectic condition and looks of vintage Rolex watches today, I would think it’s fair to say that it allows a wider margin for guys to replicate a “possible service variant” of the model as opposed to having a strict absolutely standard to adhere to.


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[rwacc]

...

Thanks for the perspective, I haven't thought about that aspect of gen rolex.
In the quality of the materials I think the industry has got closer to replicating it than they have with omega, for example.
Ultimately my litmus test for the "gen feel" is: if I look down at my wrist, do I have that nagging feeling of the watch being lesser in any way? Not the case when we don't have to replicate white gold index surrounds, platinum-filled bezel markings, etc.

 

[legend]

Thanks for the perspective, I haven't thought about that aspect of gen rolex.
In the quality of the materials I think the industry has got closer to replicating it than they have with omega, for example.
Ultimately my litmus test for the "gen feel" is: if I look down at my wrist, do I have that nagging feeling of the watch being lesser in any way? Not the case when we don't have to replicate white gold index surrounds, platinum-filled bezel markings, etc.

You are ultimately correct about that individual "gen feel". We worry too much at times about how how watch appears to others like we see it (much like how others see us vs how we see ourselves)
but a lot of it is in the mind most of the time.

 

[Francoboy]

You are ultimately correct about that individual "gen feel". We worry too much at times about how how watch appears to others like we see it (much like how others see us vs how we see ourselves)
but a lot of it is in the mind most of the time.

Absolutely agree!

Hi bro Legend..! Hope all is well.


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[wisedennis]

I hear ya but think of it this way; The gen parts in your Franken will hold their value. A franken could be seen as a gen parts storage facility.

For me, It’s a cycle: you buy reps, something bothers you, so you franken. But frankens won’t cut it until you buy gen. once you’ve had the gen, the level of rep paranoia goes down and find that you don’t wanna walk around with £15k strapped to the wrist.....it just isn’t as fun as wearing a rep....so you go back to reps. This time stock VSF with gen xtal is good enough and you won’t contemplate putting £4K into a franken.





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[McMain]

having owned a franken bond seamaster and a gen, I've found the difference is more psychological than anything else. They functionally look and feel very similar, but part of the value does come from spending a lot of money on something