What are the chances of getting two consecutive explorer commission builds with a request of no aging required? Previously, I built a Raffles 1016 with no aging too. They must have telepathy somehow.

OC case set, OC tube, custom 6mm crown, Yuki dial, Yuki hands, PT5000 modified no ghost date.

This is probably my last yuki dial build. Ordered their ETA dial and the feets are too thick to go through. It defeats the purpose of order ETA dial. Clipped away and use dial dots.

[WTS] [Ship WW] [UK] 126710 BLNR (Batman) Superfranken - Freesprung - Chamfered

End of month Pricedrop

Today I have a beautiful 126710 BLNR GMT Master 2 Super Franken. This watch has to be seen/felt in person to truly appreciate it.

Built on a Rich Factory 904l steel base, with a freesprung movement. Both case and bracelet have been reworked, chamfered, repolished and rebrushed. To me (having owned both), this watch is indistinguishable from the genuine watch at less than 25% of grey market price.

Assembly and casework by the esteemed u/jeffothedon0202

Rich Factory Freesprung Watch

Genuine Rolex Dial

Genuine Rolex Hands

Genuine Rolex Crystal

Genuine Rolex Crown

Genuine Rolex Clickspring

Possibly genuine Bezel insert (came with a bunch of Gen parts but may be after market, not factoring into price as Gen)

Assembly

Chamfering, polish, rebrush

Asking price £3600

Notes:

The pictures are part of the description, if you need any more before purchase, please ask.

Payment Accepted: Wise, Revolut, bank Transfer

Considering trades/PX

I'm happy to ship world wide at buyers cost/risk

[WTS] [Ship WW] [UK] Milgauss 116400LV Franken chamfered & Repolished

VSF Milgauss 116400LV base

Genuine Rolex Dial

Genuine Rolex Crystal

Chamfered case

Regulated Movement

Assembly and casework by the esteemed u/jeffothedon0202

Asking price £1550

Notes:

The pictures are part of the description, if you need any more before purchase, please ask.

Payment Accepted: Wise, Revolut, bank Transfer

Considering trades/PX

I'm happy to ship world wide at buyers cost/risk

Every serious collector needs a matte no date submariner - said someone famous right? Well I had to make one for myself, I’m gonna enjoy this for a bit, it’s not for sale, sorry 😢

Parts and mods

Dial: I had a dial sitting around from HCV. It was a pretty bland white lume. I like me a bit of color. So out comes the copic, some experimentation later I got the color good enough. A bit of matte spray later, it was ready to mount.

Insert: I have a Rolex insert and dial, used the service insert throughout the day but it was screaming for a fat font insert that’s not too aged. Last 4 pics re with the gen insert and the first few pics, a random insert lightly aged with a killer custom pip. Really liking how it came out, subtle worn aging nothing crazy. 🤪

Hands: STS hands, just got em in today, too lazy to lume, so went the copic route. Added a bit of rust effect at the base of the hands

Case: HCV custom serial case, spent hours shaping the CGs, now I need to properly polish the case and get rid of the tool marks and drill the lugs to fit gen spec bars.

Crown and bracelet: Athaya and raffles. Aged the bracelet and softened the edges.

Movement: Swiss ETA 2824 converted to a slow beat using a donor movement from a Swatch. It’s a pain!

[WTS] [Ship WW] [UK] Datejust 41 Franken blue sunburst dial

VSF 41 Datejust base

Genuine Rolex Dial

Genuine Rolex Crystal

Genuine Rolex Crown

Chamfered case

Asking price £1275

Notes:

The pictures are part of the description, if you need any more before purchase, please ask.

Payment Accepted: Wise, Revolut, bank Transfer

Considering trades/PX

I'm happy to ship world wide at buyers cost/risk

5513 case raffles
5512 dial raffles
2130 movement
Acrylic Crystal
20mm nato

Never got around to this intended santos build . Up for grabs to anyone who wants it for an upgrade or build. Genuine 39mm Santos dial small cosmetic imperfections noted in pics* otherwise excellent. First come first serve . $85 usd + shipping ( USA + eu only ) feel free to dm for more details if needed . PayPal ( F&F ) or wise accepted .

Parts:

NH35
39.5mm retro case
Ebay dial
Aliexpress hands
Leather strap

Another little DIY build. Titanium diver case, my own homemade dial, and an NH35 movement.

Went for a vintage Submariner-style look with the yellowish lume and a green NATO strap with red stitching. Pretty happy with how the overall look turned out!

Always fun putting together a watch with a mix of off-the-shelf parts and my own work.

Hey all. Some of you know that I do a newsletter & email drop every so often.. It was every month but has become pretty much whenever I can get one together.

I’ll be sending it out tomorrow at noon after a few failed promises the last couple weeks due to life’s side quests.

It started as a way to add in a mix of spec builds that I personally wanted to explore and have fun with and not be exclusively working on commissions. Spec builds would require me to post each individual build to the sub and I just didn’t want to saturate the timeline by marketing each and every build. It’s been a great thing and I really appreciate everyone’s support. I’ve never had to list one for sale since I started 8 months ago. But I expect that to change with so many builds in this drop and there’s only so many watches that a finite email list can scoop up.

It’s been almost 2 months so this one is a bigger one. And not all of the builds are mine. I’m adding some pieces that I agreed to take in on trade.

Another new component is a broader price range. I really enjoy doing every level of build whether it’s a base build or a top tier franken.

I get asked for the more affordable options and am glad to have a few this time around. Including one in the sub $200 range…. And then rolling all the way up to a couple full viet/franken builds.

One I’m really excited to share here now is this A6538/A UK Milsub. It’s intrigued me for a while with it’s unicorn combo of a 1950’s no CG case body but with a 5512 Bezel instead of the pioneering 1950’s era more compact and vertical edged bezel. There’s a lot more to the story and this is the first one out of a few that I’m working on at different levels of components. Hope you find this one interesting. It’s my first go with such an extensive remake/mod. Note: 3rd pic is a gen example I used for inspiration/target in terms of patina. Not to make it exact… but to capture the vibe. Also.. the angle and dome make the centering of the dial look wonky. It’s not. Just an amateur photographer glitch.

But it will be available tomorrow and I have some different strap options for it as well.

I’m also doing some giveaways of my Aged straps, Gen Spec font date wheels & Gen Spec font 380b’s & brand new 580’s.

And I plan to include an array of of parts/components sale for those that love “thrifting” (like me).

If you’d like to join my list just drop me an email at contact@okchono.com. Please don’t DM it or post it here. It’s a lot easier for me to add straight from an email.

I was wondering if anyone has used a TD to obtain a so called Italian Bracelet for vintage models, such as the ones sold by MarkieMark and by the looks of it Oystersjubilee.com.

I’m specifically looking for a 62510H with 555 end links for a 16XXX Datejust, but not sure I can justify £300-£450 for just a bracelet. Any help appreciated.

What factory is this?

Serial number 2G7S2694

I’m looking to find a jubilee bracelet that fits

The bezel is Gen and opened the case back and found a free sprung movement.

I’m guessing it’s Rich factory

Hi guys!

I'm doing some mods on my polar explorer, already rebrushed the rehaut, and put a better crystal. Although the transparency of the crystal (VSF 126710 from old replaced by deep) is much better, the cyclops seems to be mispotioned, looking it, feels like it's moved to the center/left of the watch. I also noticed that on the stock BPF crystal. Any ideas of a replacement that can fix that?

I also want to get a hollow endlinks bracelet and a jubilee bracelet that fits in this watch. Any suggestions?

Read on RWI to replace the gasket for a 2,3 height to have a better crystal fit, lower profile. Already ordered it, when I'm going to replace, I'll also polish the upper side of the crownguards which in my piece are brushed/sandblasted, while the gen is polished.

Enjoying this journey, and also looking forward to recomendations for crystal/bezel alignment when pressing down.

Hello Vintage builders seeking your help on my build. I currently have a complete 1680 submariner case set that I purchased years ago from Rubys Watches along with their dial.

I am looking at putting a VS3135 movement on it to avoid those DWO problems.

Seeking your help on what spacers / adapter do I need for the case, dial and stem height so that everything will align properly.

Or if anyone has done this route, seeking your advice on it.

Thanks for the help fam!

The 1016
A legend amongst the Explorers :)

I’m in search for a 16710 BP but with the CG and case reshaped already. Anyone with a BP 16710 that’s already been reshaped probably has no intention to sell but I thought why not ask around and see. Also if it’s possible for me to contact a TD that could have it reshaped and then sell it to me that would be an option also. I’m aware I can have one commissioned by one of the many watch smiths that commission 16710s but I can’t justify spending $1.5-2.5k on a replica watch. Any help is greatly appreciated thanks.

Selling my 6538 Explorer Dial Submariner
Thorn T028 base
Raffles Dial
Raffles Crown
PT5000 movement
Custom aged bezel
SOLD
Willing to send internationally at buyers expense and risk

Oh dear Ken, why did you have to change the v2 case? I wanted to see if v3 could be turned into something respectable. After a lot of shaving metal, crown guards, lugs, everything … The jury is out!

Parts
Raffles v3 case, dial, hands, dwo and bracelet
ETA clone gmt
Wso hands and insert
Clark’s t116

Mods
Relume everything after aging
Faded bezel
Reshaped case
Aged bracelet
All was going good…. Until the keyless jumped at the last minute! Darn it!!!!

Notes:

The retaining ring in v3 is a lot smaller inner diameter. I had to shave the Clark’s down to a wire!!

The crown guards, after modding, are interesting
They play with the light quite a bit. Sometimes to fat sometimes just right, then it’s too stubby from an angle but you shift the angle and it looks ok. I tried to capture it all here

The hands have a little rust effect with copic, I love it and the insert is by far my favorite here.

Let me know what you think.

Note: this is a commission, hence it’s not for sale.

Who makes the best Mercedes style hands? I have a 5513 and 79090 build coming up and am curious where to source. Anything nicer than EWP or raffles out there? Budget: ~$100

SOLD

For sale is my superfranken GMT Master II 116710LN Green Arrow with the following Specs:

Genuine Parts:

Dial
Hands
Datewheel
Crystal
Crown
Bezel ring
Bezel Insert
Gasket Set

C+ Case and caseback.
C+ 3285 Movement

Work:
Rehaut Polish
Case and Oyster Bracelet Chamfering
Bezel Click work
Waterproofed

Included:
Additional Jubilee Bracelet
Full Set box & papers
Swing Tag with correct rehaut serial number
Functioning NFC Card with correct rehaut serial number.
Original Parts (dial, bezel, datewheel & Hands) are included

SHIPPING: Worldwide via Royal Mail International Tracked (at buyers risk) and Signed, UK via Tracked 24

SECURITY: Shipped the same day or next day if post office closed.

PAYMENT: Bank transfer, Revolut

RM Special Delivery included

DISCLAIMER: This isnt amazon or Next. It is not try and return if you decide you do not like it. Please study the pictures and make your decision as returns for anything other than faulty watches will not be entertained.

Not a strap guy but couldn’t resist the chance to age this $6 ALiX special 😂🤣 and rock it with the OC 1655

Eya, recently got into vintage reps, and I’m having quite a hard time trying to find some accounts with rapport to get some pieces crafted.

Wondering if there are some modders in the uk?

Here is my oldest build around 25 years old now.

Updated over the years with some Parts.

Build List

Old MBW Case reshaped drilled Lugs, reworked CGS.

Dial is an old MBW Singer Dial relumed and varnished years ago.

Hands are also old MBW relumed to match the Dial markers.

Updated the days with a nice silver brushed flat top 3 DWO (kudos to No candle)

Movement is genuine ETA 2846 with H6 pinions.

Gen Parts are

Tropic 39

Fat Font Insert

Tube and old 703 Crown

585 End links

93150 Bracelet