Very beautiful pictures as always!!
flying-tommy by the way, do you have any franken AP ROO up for sale soon?
flying-tommy by the way, do you have any franken AP ROO up for sale soon?
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Gold Plating AP
- Thread starter flying-tommy
- Start date
Whats usually the turnaround time for plating a gold daytona? Shipped from Cali. And are you able to plate two tone jubilee bracelets as well?
wolfiqar
Active Member
Tommy's quality is exceptional! He has done many great builds for me, including a lot of gold plating. RGRC, Brick, 15400 and some other watches over the years!
Jumping into the salt water for 2 weeks with a gold watch is never a good idea, but besides my own mistake I never had an issue with his plating. His work speaks for itself
Jumping into the salt water for 2 weeks with a gold watch is never a good idea, but besides my own mistake I never had an issue with his plating. His work speaks for itself
This is ill-advised even for a gen gold AP. The gold alloy will 100% react with the minerals in the sea water, especially over prolonged time.
Thank you for sharing. Lovely work.
I would be interested to know whether applying (and re-applying over time) x micron layer of gold plating has an aesthetically diminishing effect on the factory brushing? Excuse my ignorance but would the watches require an extra deep brush treatment prior to plating?
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I would be interested to know whether applying (and re-applying over time) x micron layer of gold plating has an aesthetically diminishing effect on the factory brushing? Excuse my ignorance but would the watches require an extra deep brush treatment prior to plating?
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For for it man.
Gold 15400 on leather is extremely under-rated.. I had one for years, absolutely loved it.
Gen black dials are not particularly expensive either, if you want to go down the semi franken route.
To put it in perspective for you since I have a little experience with this:
For gold cases, the surface is typically brushed (or polished) before sending it for replating, and plating does not affect the prior surface work done.
No need for special deep brushing, the surface intrusion depth done by brushing is typically more than the thickness of the plating. By similar logic, replating a surface which has been scratched and marred will not hide the scratches and marks.
Normally I’m twice per month with Domi. So normal time when I have the Watch is 3-4 Weeks.
Also the two tone Bracelet are possible but Domi needs to dismantle each Link with a tool and pressing it after together. That’s a bit time consuming.
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Legend described it on point. The plating is not effective the Finish (brushed or polished).
On the contrary, the gold actually makes the brushing look a little more prominent.
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- 1/3/13
- 2,950
- 232
- 63
Hey High Flyer !
hope you well buddy .Really how much would you say sounds reasonable for a gen dial ? Also rep dial is that bad ?
sourcing of gen dials on C24 ? Don’t trust eBay here....
Hey High Flyer !
Really how much would you say sounds reasonable for a gen dial ? Also rep dial is that bad ?
sourcing of gen dials on C24 ? Don’t trust eBay here....
Worth a look at legend's ad perhaps if you're looking for some GEN dials
https://forum.replica-watch.info/fo...essories/9759177-gen-ap-15400-and-15450-dials
Best of luck with the mods/plating, excited to see the final result.
Apparently the black dial for rose gold version - the markers are RG - is priced around $900/£650
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Worth a look at legend's ad perhaps if you're looking for some GEN dials
https://forum.replica-watch.info/fo...essories/9759177-gen-ap-15400-and-15450-dials
Best of luck with the mods/plating, excited to see the final result.
I had a look and felt outraged at the asking prices. Was about to send the seller a PM to chastise him when realization hit me.
Guys, I would love to send my stainless steel XF 15202 to be plated in yellow gold to have a rep 15202BA like the gen photo below, but what do you do about the hands, indeces, and AP logo on the dial? Do those get plated as well?
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hey High Flyer !
Really how much would you say sounds reasonable for a gen dial ? Also rep dial is that bad ?
sourcing of gen dials on C24 ? Don’t trust eBay here....
Sup bro
I use chrono24. I’ve seen a few go around £450 (for the SS versions), A little more for gold. Having said all that, a lot sell for £600-1000: which in the grand scheme of things isn’t too much, since you get a watch that is optically pretty close to the real deal.
- 1/3/13
- 2,950
- 232
- 63
Ok cool thanks so much for the heads up, I have a look at it and will keep you posted
cheers
- 9/10/20
- 455
- 375
- 63
I have been wanting to franken an Ap for a while. I always loved the gold ones but was scared to invest in a rep gold franken watch because of two reasons.
1) Rep gold color is not even close to the GEN.
2) I was afraid that if the watch gets scratches the silver stainless steel color will pop because at the end of the day reps have a thin sheet of gold plating or gold wrap.
I did some research and found out that it is possible to gold plate a rep to try to match the color of GEN as much as possible.
You can also increase the thickness of the plating, so when the watch gets a scratch the silver color will not pop easily.
I started asking the different people who do gold plating. What kind of scratches will a 10 micron thickness plating hold? Some people told me 3 microns is enough some said 10. I got lost because no one gave me definite answers based on facts and tests. I felt that they only know how to hold plate and did not understand the science behind it.
While doing all of this research. I found [mention]flying-tommy [/mention] and was amazed with all the great reviews he has on our forum.
I messaged him and told him about my franken dream watch and he was very convincing. All it took to convince me is one answer from him.
He sent me the bellow photo. He tested his gold plating thickness by scratching it with a screw driver. When I saw the picture I was shocked. The results are simply amazing and there is nothing more I could ask for.
Also the color matching is on point in my opinion it’s 100% like GEN.
To put it simply [mention]flying-tommy [/mention] is the Master of gold plating.
I always loved the the RGRC but a GEN costs around €30,000 which I could not afford.
[mention]flying-tommy [/mention] and [mention]dmuit [/mention] built an amazing watch for me with GEN parts. The rose gold plating is fabulous and simply perfect. He even gold plated the screws on the bezel white gold so they look identical to GEN. I also bought an extra bezel and matched the rose gold plating on the watch.
Thank you guys for such a great build.
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1) Rep gold color is not even close to the GEN.
2) I was afraid that if the watch gets scratches the silver stainless steel color will pop because at the end of the day reps have a thin sheet of gold plating or gold wrap.
I did some research and found out that it is possible to gold plate a rep to try to match the color of GEN as much as possible.
You can also increase the thickness of the plating, so when the watch gets a scratch the silver color will not pop easily.
I started asking the different people who do gold plating. What kind of scratches will a 10 micron thickness plating hold? Some people told me 3 microns is enough some said 10. I got lost because no one gave me definite answers based on facts and tests. I felt that they only know how to hold plate and did not understand the science behind it.
While doing all of this research. I found [mention]flying-tommy [/mention] and was amazed with all the great reviews he has on our forum.
I messaged him and told him about my franken dream watch and he was very convincing. All it took to convince me is one answer from him.
He sent me the bellow photo. He tested his gold plating thickness by scratching it with a screw driver. When I saw the picture I was shocked. The results are simply amazing and there is nothing more I could ask for.
Also the color matching is on point in my opinion it’s 100% like GEN.
To put it simply [mention]flying-tommy [/mention] is the Master of gold plating.
I always loved the the RGRC but a GEN costs around €30,000 which I could not afford.
[mention]flying-tommy [/mention] and [mention]dmuit [/mention] built an amazing watch for me with GEN parts. The rose gold plating is fabulous and simply perfect. He even gold plated the screws on the bezel white gold so they look identical to GEN. I also bought an extra bezel and matched the rose gold plating on the watch.
Thank you guys for such a great build.
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There is no plating on Earth which is immune to scratches. But having a thicker plating will of course allow the scratches to look gold rather than the color of steel.
Gold alloy is generally softer than stainless steel, and scratches will eventually show up. In fact the gen gold watches are scratched easier than the steel ones, and that is one good thing about wearing plated gold watches.. these are cheap and you won't feel bad knocking them around.
I have worked with watches with flying-tommy's plating and I must say that the color is accurate to genuine AP gold color. I will not call it 100% (I did a side by side comparison with 2 of my gold gens) but it is close enough to pass off without concerns in real life. Besides, both gen gold and plated gold will change over time when exposed to the elements, so there is no one absolute look to how a "gen gold" color should look. Some will be lighter and some will be darker, and the basis of comparison will therefore be when both are brand new from the respective sources.
Just be aware of the color oxidation, and also the fact that plating will eventually wear off, but I consider it a permanent process like how a car paint coat will last the lifetime of the car with maintenance and care and touch ups. This is just science and there is no magic formula. flying-tommy did a very good job with your watch and it is looking the best it can as a franken. It is a nice watch, congrats and wear it well.