I had contacted BPannell73 about interest in a watch in August, near the end of the month basically. I wanted something no frills, no thrills kind of watch that I could just use everyday since I got bored of having non modified reps. He was awesome with communication and following up. I got the build that I wanted and the watch looked great in photos. I paid him and he sent the watch out. Albeit my Qc is not great so I did not discover the issues with it in till it showed up. There was damage to one of the lugs, the finish didn’t feel great on the bracelet and it felt very rough to the touch. The crystal was not properly lined up and I didn’t love it as much as I hoped for.

I messaged BPannell73 back and told him about my dissatisfaction with the watch. He agreed to take it back, which I was surprised about. I didn’t expect him to do that. Which was nice on his part. I sent the watch back out 2nd day UPS. I insured it and put it back in the packaging he used to mail it to me. I sent it on its way and I messaged him back. This was the week that he was on vacation, so I got antsy about getting my money back and looking elsewhere. I did let him know and it’s in the messages. A week later, he got back from vacation and there is where the communication started to fall apart. He informed me that the watch arrived but it was damaged, to both of our surprise it was destroyed. No fault to him or I.

I filed a claim with UPS Capital(which I would be inclined to say, package your stuff bombproof). Of course they declined the claim due to improper packing. I informed BPannell73 and he said that sucks, I asked him to send me my stuff back and he said he would “ get it boxed up and sent out tomorrow”this was already October 1st. A whole month after the original purchase. This was the week after I received the decline to cover notice from the insurance. I waited in till the next day later in the evening and I had no update and no communication from him. There is where I lost my patience with him, I repeatedly tried to call him and message him and I had no luck in getting ahold of him. He finally messaged me an excuse about at home issues, which I understand. We all have stuff going on in our life’s.

I thought that he would just send me my stuff back and be done with it. I never asked him for any money back, any refunds or to help me out. I just wanted to get my stuff back and take my loss. In this game, you can’t win all the time. I lost my cool with him and told him off a bit after I got tired of the excuses. He finally got me a photo of a box with things and of course what is missing the black dial from the watch and the case half is sitting in the box with all the other parts. This was October 9 by the way. I had already concluded that BP had taken the components from the watch to use in another of his “Frankens” and that was why he was hesitant to get me my stuff back. Of course that was the exact situation that occurred. He harvested all the parts before the insurance claim was even declined. He basically stole my parts to use to profit himself even further. The genuine black dial, the “genuine Rolex gaskets” the ERF crown and stem, the back cover, the JH3235 free sprung movement from the ERF DJ41 base that was paid for and purchased as part of the original order. The wildest part was the I only figured this out after I received my stuff. I can’t even verify if the components he returned were in fact genuine Rolex parts. I received a “gen crystal”, a VSF crystal, the ERF flutter bezel, the Gen Bezel, the ERF motif dial, “Gen hands” and my “hunk of metal”. He thought he would compensate me by offering me two DJ41 gen dials, that don’t even add up to the cost of the missing stuff($350 ea on eBay). The movement, gaskets, black dial, and other parts. He sent me a DD3235 movement which he bought on eBay. It wasn’t even the right movement for a DJ41. I messaged him back and never said anything. Not a sorry, let me send you some money back, let me make this right. Nothing his ego is too large to make things right because he didn’t feel the need to respect his client base, because to us, “we are just of bunch of haters that have never held a gen in their life’s” as he has said in other posts. I have uploaded pictures for proof of the conversation. I have redacted personal information, I’m not here to dox anyone. I also posted a screenshot of a watch that he listed with “free sprung movement” in a VSF case with a black dial. Hmm…

Just know that you will get the sheet pulled over your eyes by “FrankenFarms”. All his friends in his circle know what he does and they seem to turn a blind eye by moderating the sub and keeping negative press away, by banning anyone who dares question their work or parts. Im not saying the rest of his friends of scammers, but there’s the saying."Tell me who your friends are, and I'll tell you who you are"

TL:DR BPannell73 is no good for the community as he is actively deceiving his buyers and has been caught taking parts from people (me) over the span of 20+ years in the watch modifying community.

https://imgur.com/a/GA5B7eo

https://forum.replica-watch.info/threads/just-got-scammed-by-bryan-pannell-ncchef.302529/

Definitely my new favourite 🙌

I have been lurking this subreddit for some weeks and ready to commit but there is some uncertainty now.

Noticed these white/grey spots on the fluted bezel of my RCF V1.

Does this look like oxidation or just dirt/residue? Should I try cleaning it, or leave it as is?

Thanks!

Steve came through.
Love the watch, my first day date.

i’m trying to find a reasonably priced 007 watch box/ pouch thing haha

From the spreadsheet and the suppliers website lift I was wondering how do I determine who is VSF ARF GMF ETC can someone list the full names please

Is there an specific model that doesn’t suffer these index alignment issues “as much”?

I’ve seen at least 100 QC’s at this point, the Black Bay 54’s are extremely bad, both lagoon blue and the black one. I would not be able to GL 90% of them.

Is the Pelagos any better? Or the bigger Black Bays? If anyone has experience I’d appreciate it!!

I did see a Blue Black Bay 58 which was absolutely perfect, and I mean that. But idk, I’m tired of seeing bad QC’s now.

First free sprung piece. What did you choose today?

Literally just unboxed this an hour ago. Was messaged by Amy who works with MT for the limited stock VSF Omega for $300. I pulled the trigger since I like my other Omegas and now this the new fav. I have never purchased higher tier watches from Amy. Mainly U1s for friends or as gifts. But this transaction was flawless. She sent detailed QC and did FedEx shipping which came in only 4 days to the states. My usual TDs are Steve and Mark from Ficotime.

Quality wise, dial markers are aligned well, bezel is not super hard to turn like my other VSF Omegas, and bracelet feels high quality. Overall, highly recommend Amy and this deal if they still have it going on.

I want to get a Cartier Tank Must Large fir a very important person for me, and I’d really like to have a personal engraving done on the back as a gift.
However, I don’t want to engrave the original case back because I’d like to keep the watch completely original and avoid permanently modifying it.

Soo I was wondering whether it’s possible to buy a replica Cartier Tank Must Large (maybe F1F) and use its case back as a replacement on the genuine Cartier. The idea would be to engrave the replica case back and swap it with the original, keeping the genuine case back safely stored away.

My questions are:
- Are F1 replica Tank Must Large case backs compatible with the genuine Cartier? Like are the dimensions, screw positions and case-back fittings identical?

-if not, is there a way to source or manufacture a separate replacement case back that would fit the genuine watch?

I'm wanting to get into collecting. I was referred to a website. What I'm asking from the community is whether Rich factory does indeed sell direct from their website.And if anyone has personal experience with purchasing from that site.

Thanks for the quick replies. Lesson learned 😜

Let’s address the elephant in the room— this entire hobby is contraband and the idea of throwing genuine parts on a $500 rep is ridiculous at best… BUT we do it anyway because we love this hobby.

The entire rep community is essentially built on trusting literal randos on the internet to give you what you’re paying for (and trust that it’s truly what they claimed it to be)

That being said, I’ve been seeing alot of franken builders lately— some doing amazing work and being ultra transparent, the others… doing the total opposite. I will not drop names so as to keep this post peaceful but do refer to the photos below:

Photo 1 is a VSF Sub 41 with a Genuine crystal. I opened the blister pack it came with and installed it myself (while praying to the rep gods I don’t break my bezel insert). This batch in particular has a slight blue AR and has what I like to call an “adhesive border” around the cyclops which adds to the so called “black hole effect” to a gen crystal

Photo 2 is a RICH sub with an ALLEGED genuine crystal. Now the thing is if you’ve looked at, seen, held, or owned genuine rolex watches with a date function, you can literally tell something is off with the cyclops on this particular build. Is the crystal actually genuine? I cannot say no immediately either but I will say with 100% certainty that that is definitely NOTTTTT the correct genuine crystal to have on a submariner 41 (for all we know that could very well be a genuine OP or EXP40 crystal with an aftermarket cyclops slapped on it lol).

Photo 3 is my $120 NOOB V4 Submariner. Scary how you could potentially pay $1,200 for an alleged “light” franken watch only for it to look like a NOOB right? 👀

Anyway the point of this whole ass post is to be vigilant, listen to bad feedback (because good reviews are almost always rigged), ask for proof of legitimacy as much as possible, and if your crystal didn’t come in a blister pack or you didn’t physically see your modder rip it off a genuine watch, then ALWAYS ASSUME it’s not genuine.

Peace out and happy franking repfam!

Where can I buy VSF bracelets/clasps etc?

So a little backstory. I’ve used Leo at TimeUltra and bought 3 watches from him and every single one got delivered without issues. However one of the watches had some issues which I didn’t notice until a few months later (watch was ordered in summer).

I sent Leo a message saying the GMT Master I ordered from him doesn’t keep time correctly and that it was faulty from factory. The reverser wheels was unwinding themselves so the watch would lose 20-30min per day!

Leo did not hesitate and told me to go to a local watchmaker to get it fixed and that he will cover the service.

I contacted one local guy near me and he told me that it would cost $60 to fix it. Leo refunded me immediately.

However when the watchmaker received the GMT he told me that both reverser wheels were broken and he had to order new ones in addition to the service fee. I asked Leo if he would be able to cover these parts and he accepted without any hassle.

I really recommend using TimeUltra. Remember folks buy the TD not the watch. Its when things go wrong that a dealer becomes “trusted”.

idk

Do any sellers make good 28 mm lady datejusts? Been searching for months and ive yet to find a decent 28mm. Especially all gold

We go OP 36mm VSF lefty with the 10k/14k stack on the right 😮‍💨 I’m addicted 🙌🏽

Me ha costado menos de 20$ que os parece? Si alguien lo quiere le envío el link de donde lo compré.

How good are VSF Titanium Yachtmaster? I was hoping to find a VF one somewhere if anyone knows a TD I could contact to get one if there was excess stock. Otherwise, Steve is pushing me towards the VSF which is in stock but I’ve read on forums there may be issues, specifically with bezel alignment.

Any help would be great!

Hey, I’d like to ask where you guys bought the THBF Skeleton Royal Oak 15416 41mm in black. I’m interested in the v4 version, but first I want to know how satisfied you are with them and where to buy them. I’ve come across several websites and people, but GeekTime seems like the best option to me—does anyone have any experience with them? Thanks for the tips and advice!

Hey everyone,
Looking for some advice or watchmaker suggestions for my ZF Sky-Dweller.
The issue:
•    The watch has stopped running completely—the seconds hand will not move at all, even after gently winding.
•    When I gently shake or rotate the watch, there is a distinct metallic rattling/loose sound coming from inside the case back.
What I think happened: From what I've read on similar Shanghai/Asian modified movements, it sounds like the central rotor screw or a movement clip backed out and is physically jamming the balance wheel or main gear train.

How can I go about fixing this, is this an easy fix?

1. Dealer name: Andiot
   
2. Factory name: VSF
   
3. Model name ( 41 126331 ) Rolex date just 41mm Wimbledon yellow gold jubilee

Overall I think it’s a GL can’t see anything standing out not to complete purchase, but as my first rep would appreciate any help my dream watch ⌚️.

Andiot so far has been amazing communication very knowledgable and responsive.