I managed to get my hands on a Rolex 116400 Milgauss (from GMF Factory with VR3131 movement) to franken.
The ingredients:
- Base watch
- Gen dial
- Gen hands
- Gen crystal
Looks like a simple plug and play job? Nah, as I will mention below. Overall, I can see the usual half-ass / mid-tier effort from the BP/ GMF 116400.
I have a love-hate relationship with BP/ GMF. They tend to screw up the simplest things:
- Their Day-Date 40's fluted bezel angles still look bad for more than half a decade and remains to be corrected, despite day-date 40 is probably their best seller and other factories like ARF and VSF have much improved the fluted bezel angle
- Their Day-Date 40's day/ date font remains flawed for nearly half a decade
- Their latest version of the 16600 went 1 step backwards for no apparent reason: bezel wire assemble and stubby cg shape
- Their 16710 / 16610 are half-assed at best: larger rehaut diameter than gen spec (how can you screw that one up?) and they still use bezel wire assembly (non gen-spec bezel assemblies) which is a decade old technology. Their latest 16610 apparently uses a 116610 bezel assembly (yea, wtf?) to save cost by milling 116610 cases into 16610 cases
- Their 16570 polar has floating rehaut dashes. Instant tell.
- Their vintage Rolex line is poor and remains to be updated.
But I also love them because they make obscure models that no other factories would currently touch:
- e.g., 16570, 16710, 16600, 116400, ap 3800 (discontinued?), 116238 (discontinued), and 126303 (smooth bezel two-tone datejust 41... Not even clean, vsf, etc makes this one)
And they offer mid-tier prices, if affordability is a concern.
However, the GMF 116400 cost 438 usd, so that's nearly clean factory's datejust 41 pricing territory (https://trustytime888.io/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_237&products_id=26842)
Pros
- No other factories currently makes a Milgauss with a clone 3131 movement. Noob/JF/ARF discontinued their Milgauss, while GSF seem to have vanished (and they have outrageously poor SEL)
- Looks decent right out of the box (and if you don't plan to franken it).
Cons
- The orange lume parts on the dial do not glow. I believe it should glow on the gen,
- The crystal simply has green AR with a green gasket, when other factories like DJF are selling green sapphire crystals. The green AR/ green gasket trick is so outdated and dates back to a decade ago.
- The VR3131 movement has the same hour wheel, seconds wheel, and cannon pinion height as a VR3130. Therefore, gen hands cannot be used. Instead of BP/ GMF using proper parts, they countered this problem by simply offering hands will taller posts. This flaw has been here since more than half a decade ago when i first ordered a BP milgauss with SA3131 movement.
Solution
Considering the above flaws, I will be changing the dial, hands, and crystal to gen anyways, so these aspects are solved.
As for the movement, I am currently figuring out which cannon pinion, hour wheel, and seconds wheel did the 3131 used. According to ebay/ google search, the 3131 movement used 3155 seconds wheel. I am therefore inclined to think that the 3131 also used 3155 hour wheel and cannon pinion.
I would greatly appreciate if anyone can confirm the 3131 parts number for seconds wheel, hour wheel, and cannon pinion.
More pictures below:
The watch disassembled
The stock hands have taller posts (lazy solution from BP/ GMF):
Gen dial installed. The hour wheel, cannon pinion, and seconds wheel are all too short to clear the height of the antimagnetic cage with the gen dial on
The ingredients:
- Base watch
- Gen dial
- Gen hands
- Gen crystal
Looks like a simple plug and play job? Nah, as I will mention below. Overall, I can see the usual half-ass / mid-tier effort from the BP/ GMF 116400.
I have a love-hate relationship with BP/ GMF. They tend to screw up the simplest things:
- Their Day-Date 40's fluted bezel angles still look bad for more than half a decade and remains to be corrected, despite day-date 40 is probably their best seller and other factories like ARF and VSF have much improved the fluted bezel angle
- Their Day-Date 40's day/ date font remains flawed for nearly half a decade
- Their latest version of the 16600 went 1 step backwards for no apparent reason: bezel wire assemble and stubby cg shape
- Their 16710 / 16610 are half-assed at best: larger rehaut diameter than gen spec (how can you screw that one up?) and they still use bezel wire assembly (non gen-spec bezel assemblies) which is a decade old technology. Their latest 16610 apparently uses a 116610 bezel assembly (yea, wtf?) to save cost by milling 116610 cases into 16610 cases
- Their 16570 polar has floating rehaut dashes. Instant tell.
- Their vintage Rolex line is poor and remains to be updated.
But I also love them because they make obscure models that no other factories would currently touch:
- e.g., 16570, 16710, 16600, 116400, ap 3800 (discontinued?), 116238 (discontinued), and 126303 (smooth bezel two-tone datejust 41... Not even clean, vsf, etc makes this one)
And they offer mid-tier prices, if affordability is a concern.
However, the GMF 116400 cost 438 usd, so that's nearly clean factory's datejust 41 pricing territory (https://trustytime888.io/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_237&products_id=26842)
Pros
- No other factories currently makes a Milgauss with a clone 3131 movement. Noob/JF/ARF discontinued their Milgauss, while GSF seem to have vanished (and they have outrageously poor SEL)
- Looks decent right out of the box (and if you don't plan to franken it).
Cons
- The orange lume parts on the dial do not glow. I believe it should glow on the gen,
- The crystal simply has green AR with a green gasket, when other factories like DJF are selling green sapphire crystals. The green AR/ green gasket trick is so outdated and dates back to a decade ago.
- The VR3131 movement has the same hour wheel, seconds wheel, and cannon pinion height as a VR3130. Therefore, gen hands cannot be used. Instead of BP/ GMF using proper parts, they countered this problem by simply offering hands will taller posts. This flaw has been here since more than half a decade ago when i first ordered a BP milgauss with SA3131 movement.
Solution
Considering the above flaws, I will be changing the dial, hands, and crystal to gen anyways, so these aspects are solved.
As for the movement, I am currently figuring out which cannon pinion, hour wheel, and seconds wheel did the 3131 used. According to ebay/ google search, the 3131 movement used 3155 seconds wheel. I am therefore inclined to think that the 3131 also used 3155 hour wheel and cannon pinion.
I would greatly appreciate if anyone can confirm the 3131 parts number for seconds wheel, hour wheel, and cannon pinion.
More pictures below:
The watch disassembled
The stock hands have taller posts (lazy solution from BP/ GMF):
Gen dial installed. The hour wheel, cannon pinion, and seconds wheel are all too short to clear the height of the antimagnetic cage with the gen dial on
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