Hey guys,
This thread is something that some of you were waiting for. A thread about my ultimate franken. I feel I have taken this franken to a much higher level compared to the current existing frankens on the forums that we know off.
Basically the story starts in June-July 2012, I wanted to build my own franken so I started looking for parts. Sourcing a dial was easy, in fact I bought several dials, being a blue classic baton dial, grey dial, black rubberclad dial, safari dial, white rubberclad dial, black themes dial. All of them except the safari and white rubberclad dial were sold to nice members here. I even assisted two of them with their build.
After studying the current frankens I was not pleased with them. They look close but in fact they are not that close. All of them have the flaw of the mid case that is too thick. Next to that, all of the frankens around have thinned rubber gaskets between the bezel and the midcase, which is wrong too! The replica rubber gasket is 1:1 as per gen, believe it or not, both on front and on the back of the case. So I wanted to keep this correct.
Above you see an example of a current existing franken compared with a gen on top, notice the differences?! To me these are huge differences, but I’m a nitpicker.
Offcourse I knew this would make the project more difficult but it’s an adventure and I’m a perfectionist so I wanted to find out how to.
I was able to buy a gen rubberclad bezel with gen screws, then I also bought a gen crystal and crystal gasket set as well as genuine rubber gaskets (not really necessary). The gen bezel cannot use rep screws. It also needs a gen crystal. Here you see why:
(gen on the left, rep on the right)
(gen on the left, rep on the right)
The gen screws are smaller at the head and have a thicker head as well.
Another important thing about a rubberclad bezel is the fact that AP uses a stainless steel bezel with a rubber coating on top. The rep rubber bezel is pure rubber and plastic. The difference in quality is big imo. Here you see some comparison shots:
(gen on bottom, rep above)
(rep)
(gen)
(rep on top, gen on bottom)
Also, on the forums there is a lot of whining about the gen crystal having AR etc. Well, I have a gen crystal and it does not have any AR!!! So AR’ing your crystal might look nice and does look nice imo but I don’t like it as the AR hue makes it a huge tell. If you however decide to AR your crystal, get a proper coating on the inside of the crystal. Some pics of gen vs rep crystal:
(gen on the right)
(gen on the right)
(gen on the right)
(gen on the right)
I also bought a gen set of pushers and a crown, but I decided not to use these as the pushers sit too deep in the case which makes it less gen like. As you can see the gen and rep screws are slightly different:
I started off by milling my mid-case to the correct height as per gen. Therefor I used a gen piece and measured everything side by side. A cool feature is that there is a slight difference in height on the mid case, this on the outside of the gasket channel and the inside of the gasket channel.
So, after the milling the midcases got blasted a second time and there I had my 1:1 thickness midcase.
The cyclops I bought from Uwe 2 years or 3 years ago (with purplish blue AR, closer to gen!). Since I was building a white rubberclad my datewheel window had to be matte black as per gen. So I disassembled the Dubois Depraz 2000 module from the ETA2892 movement, pushed out the window, sanded it, painted it and installed it back.
(on the photo above the incorrect datewheel is visible. It’s quite good but not close enough to me)
In the meanwhile I was able to install my gen spec datewheel as well. This datewheel is also part of my project and to help other members with their build. Everyone was using the LWO datewheel which is always wrong. I wanted mine to be correct as per gen, what is the point of making a franken?
So I did the datewheel production, which was a success. After installing mine I was even more pleased with the project.
I was able to install the hands, datewheel, cyclopse and dial on my own. The tachyring was easy to install as well. But for the drilling of the case, to replace the crown tube I needed a competent watchmaker.
Therefor I contacted a German watchmaker (not Domi ) to do the work. He is the watchmaker of a watch customizing company. He agreed to do the work as it was a very nice project. I also asked him if he was able to change the caseback engraving, he said he would take care of it.
He also suggested to make a custom movement ring as he felt this watch needs it. Imo it does need it. The gen piece also uses a movement ring.
So, after a while he finished the job of the assembly and I received my watch. The only thing I have to do now is blast the caseback, brush the caseback with the circular finish and then it’s completely done!
I can attest that my AP White rubberclad has a thickness of 14.52mm, gen is 14.50mm in height. I did not shave any rubber gaskets, only caseback and midcase. Which makes my piece amazingly close to gen.
Specs:
- Gen bezel
- Gen gaskets (all of them)
- Gen screws
- Gen crystal + gasket
- Gen hands (all of them)
- Gen dial and tachyring
- Rep crown and pushers (closer to gen dimension wise)
- Rep midcase with my own milling mod + sandblasting
- Rep caseback with custom engraving
- Rep rubber strap (no need to go gen, I sold my gen rubber strap)
- Sead’s deployant. Imo the best one available as it has the proper stamps
- LWO 283 movt. NOS with custom Edge datewheel
Total cost is about €3250 - €3500 (USD 4.485 - 4.850), but the joy I got with this build is priceless!
That’s about it. I hope you guys enjoyed it and I hope it was a helpful read. Any questions, just shoot.
Thanks!:notworthy:
This thread is something that some of you were waiting for. A thread about my ultimate franken. I feel I have taken this franken to a much higher level compared to the current existing frankens on the forums that we know off.
Basically the story starts in June-July 2012, I wanted to build my own franken so I started looking for parts. Sourcing a dial was easy, in fact I bought several dials, being a blue classic baton dial, grey dial, black rubberclad dial, safari dial, white rubberclad dial, black themes dial. All of them except the safari and white rubberclad dial were sold to nice members here. I even assisted two of them with their build.
After studying the current frankens I was not pleased with them. They look close but in fact they are not that close. All of them have the flaw of the mid case that is too thick. Next to that, all of the frankens around have thinned rubber gaskets between the bezel and the midcase, which is wrong too! The replica rubber gasket is 1:1 as per gen, believe it or not, both on front and on the back of the case. So I wanted to keep this correct.
Above you see an example of a current existing franken compared with a gen on top, notice the differences?! To me these are huge differences, but I’m a nitpicker.
Offcourse I knew this would make the project more difficult but it’s an adventure and I’m a perfectionist so I wanted to find out how to.
I was able to buy a gen rubberclad bezel with gen screws, then I also bought a gen crystal and crystal gasket set as well as genuine rubber gaskets (not really necessary). The gen bezel cannot use rep screws. It also needs a gen crystal. Here you see why:
(gen on the left, rep on the right)
(gen on the left, rep on the right)
The gen screws are smaller at the head and have a thicker head as well.
Another important thing about a rubberclad bezel is the fact that AP uses a stainless steel bezel with a rubber coating on top. The rep rubber bezel is pure rubber and plastic. The difference in quality is big imo. Here you see some comparison shots:
(gen on bottom, rep above)
(rep)
(gen)
(rep on top, gen on bottom)
Also, on the forums there is a lot of whining about the gen crystal having AR etc. Well, I have a gen crystal and it does not have any AR!!! So AR’ing your crystal might look nice and does look nice imo but I don’t like it as the AR hue makes it a huge tell. If you however decide to AR your crystal, get a proper coating on the inside of the crystal. Some pics of gen vs rep crystal:
(gen on the right)
(gen on the right)
(gen on the right)
(gen on the right)
I also bought a gen set of pushers and a crown, but I decided not to use these as the pushers sit too deep in the case which makes it less gen like. As you can see the gen and rep screws are slightly different:
I started off by milling my mid-case to the correct height as per gen. Therefor I used a gen piece and measured everything side by side. A cool feature is that there is a slight difference in height on the mid case, this on the outside of the gasket channel and the inside of the gasket channel.
So, after the milling the midcases got blasted a second time and there I had my 1:1 thickness midcase.
The cyclops I bought from Uwe 2 years or 3 years ago (with purplish blue AR, closer to gen!). Since I was building a white rubberclad my datewheel window had to be matte black as per gen. So I disassembled the Dubois Depraz 2000 module from the ETA2892 movement, pushed out the window, sanded it, painted it and installed it back.
(on the photo above the incorrect datewheel is visible. It’s quite good but not close enough to me)
In the meanwhile I was able to install my gen spec datewheel as well. This datewheel is also part of my project and to help other members with their build. Everyone was using the LWO datewheel which is always wrong. I wanted mine to be correct as per gen, what is the point of making a franken?
So I did the datewheel production, which was a success. After installing mine I was even more pleased with the project.
I was able to install the hands, datewheel, cyclopse and dial on my own. The tachyring was easy to install as well. But for the drilling of the case, to replace the crown tube I needed a competent watchmaker.
Therefor I contacted a German watchmaker (not Domi ) to do the work. He is the watchmaker of a watch customizing company. He agreed to do the work as it was a very nice project. I also asked him if he was able to change the caseback engraving, he said he would take care of it.
He also suggested to make a custom movement ring as he felt this watch needs it. Imo it does need it. The gen piece also uses a movement ring.
So, after a while he finished the job of the assembly and I received my watch. The only thing I have to do now is blast the caseback, brush the caseback with the circular finish and then it’s completely done!
I can attest that my AP White rubberclad has a thickness of 14.52mm, gen is 14.50mm in height. I did not shave any rubber gaskets, only caseback and midcase. Which makes my piece amazingly close to gen.
Specs:
- Gen bezel
- Gen gaskets (all of them)
- Gen screws
- Gen crystal + gasket
- Gen hands (all of them)
- Gen dial and tachyring
- Rep crown and pushers (closer to gen dimension wise)
- Rep midcase with my own milling mod + sandblasting
- Rep caseback with custom engraving
- Rep rubber strap (no need to go gen, I sold my gen rubber strap)
- Sead’s deployant. Imo the best one available as it has the proper stamps
- LWO 283 movt. NOS with custom Edge datewheel
Total cost is about €3250 - €3500 (USD 4.485 - 4.850), but the joy I got with this build is priceless!
That’s about it. I hope you guys enjoyed it and I hope it was a helpful read. Any questions, just shoot.
Thanks!:notworthy:
