I’ve been here for half a year now and haven’t written much about my watch journey, so here we go with a bit of self-introduction. I’ve chosen to keep this thread alive in case of further updates in the future, like a journal for my 116500 Franken project.
I hail from Regensburg in Bavaria, Germany. I’ve been addicted to watches since the 1990s, occasionally buying gens like Rolex, Omega, IWC and so on. In May of this year, I began the search for a nice 116500 rep, and I was lucky enough to find this place. I lurked for a month, reading nearly every article here about Daytona reps and how to acquire one. Finally, in June, just before I decided to go for a Clean 116500 V3 from @sead1999 , I joined this fantastic community.
A week after I bought it from Sead, I received my rep, thanks to his EU stocks! After initially playing around with it for a while, I decided to send it to @Nikz19 for a full service and started to franken it bit by bit. Since I didn’t have any experience with this, I only changed the gen crown and gen clutch (815) this time.
After the full service and the installation of a gen crown and clutch, the watch came back, but problems arose. When Nik completed his work, he checked everything for me, and it proved to be fine. However, after being transported by the courier, the watch’s accuracy went from +-4 secs per day to +-10 secs per day! After a detailed discussion with Nik, we realized that the problem was the rep balance not being shockproof, which was causing the issue. He suggested that if I truly love the watch and am willing to invest in it, I should replace the entire set of gen balance, including the bridge and hairspring. The downside is that this alone costs €1.3k…
After some brainstorming, I decided that if I were to invest this much, why not create a superfranken? So, I began to compile a comprehensive list of parts I wanted to replace and divided it into a few categories. The first part of my list includes:
After just over a month, Nik completed the work, and the watch returned to me from Italy. I tested it on my wrist for 72 hours, and the accuracy now stands at approximately ±1–2 secs per day. Great job, Nik!
From the very beginning until now, I have already invested €4.3k (including everything) into this project. I’m certain that the total will continue to increase since I plan to replace nearly every component of the movement, excluding the minor parts.
I plan to do another upgrade in 6 months’ time, and I plan to change the entire wheel train, hammer, and the rest of the keyless work. For the exterior, I will change the gen handset. I will keep updating this post. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
I hail from Regensburg in Bavaria, Germany. I’ve been addicted to watches since the 1990s, occasionally buying gens like Rolex, Omega, IWC and so on. In May of this year, I began the search for a nice 116500 rep, and I was lucky enough to find this place. I lurked for a month, reading nearly every article here about Daytona reps and how to acquire one. Finally, in June, just before I decided to go for a Clean 116500 V3 from @sead1999 , I joined this fantastic community.
A week after I bought it from Sead, I received my rep, thanks to his EU stocks! After initially playing around with it for a while, I decided to send it to @Nikz19 for a full service and started to franken it bit by bit. Since I didn’t have any experience with this, I only changed the gen crown and gen clutch (815) this time.
After the full service and the installation of a gen crown and clutch, the watch came back, but problems arose. When Nik completed his work, he checked everything for me, and it proved to be fine. However, after being transported by the courier, the watch’s accuracy went from +-4 secs per day to +-10 secs per day! After a detailed discussion with Nik, we realized that the problem was the rep balance not being shockproof, which was causing the issue. He suggested that if I truly love the watch and am willing to invest in it, I should replace the entire set of gen balance, including the bridge and hairspring. The downside is that this alone costs €1.3k…
After some brainstorming, I decided that if I were to invest this much, why not create a superfranken? So, I began to compile a comprehensive list of parts I wanted to replace and divided it into a few categories. The first part of my list includes:
- 510 Driving wheel for the ratchet wheel
- 520 Intermediate wheel
- 540 Reversing wheel, mounted (x2)
- 570 Oscillating weight (essentially the entire winding module)
- 201 Winding stem
- 205 Sliding pinion
- 305 Ratchet wheel
- 310 Barrel with arbor
- 311 Mainspring
- 335 Centre wheel with cannon pinion
- 820 Chronograph wheel (LIGA version)
After just over a month, Nik completed the work, and the watch returned to me from Italy. I tested it on my wrist for 72 hours, and the accuracy now stands at approximately ±1–2 secs per day. Great job, Nik!
From the very beginning until now, I have already invested €4.3k (including everything) into this project. I’m certain that the total will continue to increase since I plan to replace nearly every component of the movement, excluding the minor parts.
I plan to do another upgrade in 6 months’ time, and I plan to change the entire wheel train, hammer, and the rest of the keyless work. For the exterior, I will change the gen handset. I will keep updating this post. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
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