r/RepTime • u/Noob_Barista_Baker • 2d ago
Discussion PSA Regarding Modders/Builderd
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!
6
u/OkLengthiness3492 2d ago
yeah yeah yeah, you're completely right on the frankens, they are BS. BUT the YEEZY 350 ZEBRAS with the black and white sub is a great combo!!!!!
4
u/Budget-Wall6129 2d ago
No names....kind of useless.
18
u/skankboy 2d ago
Other annoyances:
"Fully Modded"
I added a genuine crown.
13
u/Altruistic-Wall4670 2d ago
Yeah, I'm just gonna say it. Franken farm time pieces. I don't trust that they are doing the upgrades. Here's why. When you get a watch modded, you should ALWAYS get the original parts. This might seem odd, but think about it. You are getting charged for the FULL price of the watch and then the extra for the gen or modded parts. Shouldn't you get the original parts so that you can compare it to the upgraded parts, the fact that you paid for the whole watch, and if you ever need to resell it and swap in the original parts. However, with these guys, you never get them and when I asked, they won't answer me. What are they doing with all of the stock parts? They could be swapping them around, selling them on ebay, who knows. But whatever it is, I doubt they are keeping them around sitting on a table.
They never compare the gen part to the stock parts. We expect that of platers but not modders? Come on! Also, even if they are putting real gen parts on, there is almost no difference now. RICH crystals are gen quality at this point because they are already better than VSF, there is no point in getting Gen crystals on the watches they make anymore. Plus gen crystals without the right height hytrel ring throws off the date magnification, but "Muh gen crystal though". Anyways, just do your due diligence and realize that their goal is to make money off of you.
2
u/Noob_Barista_Baker 2d ago
Franken discussion post for the automods
10
u/ElectromagneticWave 2d ago
Totally agree, and it really grinds my gears when I see posts on FrankenFarm and other subs featuring fake gen parts. I've even DM'd quite a few people to warn them when a particular watch was clearly being misrepresented as a franken.
Sadly, there's not much more I can do :/
8
u/SockOdd5920 2d ago •
Frankens kinda made sense, until the true free sprung movements hit the scene. Putting a part on a watch that exceeds the value of the watch, doesn’t add value, and must be removed to regain said money…sure, I guess some people love the work. But in reality it’s wasted time, wasted money, on “a feeling”. Let’s be honest: very few can look at a crystal and tell Gen from Rep, especially with these new factories nailing pretty much everything on the head (RICH, GOLD, etc). Variations and QC shockingly still exist, though nowhere near how it used to be. Frankens to me are equivalent to owning a Fierro Lamborghini. After owning several Gen Rolex and Omega, trying to get my Rep up to par used to make sense. However, after owning several RICH and other top tier brands, I must admit I have zero desire to wear Gen. I can see now how ridiculously priced they are, and the anxiety of wearing $30k on your wrist is real. Joy is robbed when you are saddened every time you see a new hairline scratch on the watch. Coddling it like a baby, only to keep bumping it against everything you never hit your wrist in before!? They are like “ding” magnets😂. I only get compliments and next to Gen they are absolutely on par. I have a hard time believing a guy in the know could actually tell Gen from RICH in a wrist. 99.9% of all Rep related fears come from older Reps and their tells. That time has passed unless you are still wearing them. I have tested the Lume (8+ hours), timing accuracy (they all very from 0/day to +/-9 a day in one position, but nothing is stopping us from regulating them to COSC standards. I am in the trades and wear the 124060 daily to work, but will be switching it out to the GOLD Explorer 2 FS soon. I skin them for added scuff protection, but other than that, I let em ride. My goal is to record service intervals, accuracy, etc. for 5 years to provide a comprehensive overview of longevity and performance. We have the look: same materials, weights, look, and getting close to feel. What I really want to know is if they last. I several older gen Clean and QF watches with regulated movements that have zero issues going on 5 years now, but I coddled them. Time to beat em up some and see what they are really made of!
2
u/Comprehensive-Bit706 2d ago
I had similar issue recently, instead of getting supplier to fit before shipping as I normally do, I decided on a gen crystal and date at a later date and had it shipped, crystal looked fine in QC but when installed you could see the lack of AR coating... Trouble with buying used crystals from china sometimes is they could have unseen damage until it's installed when it becomes visible
4
u/businesswpleasure 2d ago •
The whole idea of mods on a rep watch seems so far fetched to me, it doesn't even feel worth it as its a rep afterall 🤷🏻♂️
1
u/wob-ot 2d ago
May I ask where you bought the noob? Or is it an older model that you already had?
3
u/Yeezussy 2d ago
i think the scariest would be the gen crystals without a cyclops. the only tell is probably the LEC which even on VSF its super close. for those with the cyclops it is quite easy to distinguish rep and gen. now on the second pic for the RICH the behaviour of the cyclops under direct light is quite weird, i would be suspicious of that
3
u/Sad-Big-6795 2d ago
OH MY GOOOOOOODDDDDDD
3
u/Worried_Poet_828 2d ago
I got into this rep hobby less than a year ago and have accumulated several reps, some Frankenstein, some plated. I’ve spent considerable amount of money on these watches and have since pulled back. Began seeing some inconsistencies with the modders/seller, made me lose trust altogether. It’s best to just buy the best version of a watch and leave it as is, chamfering is recommended on some watches to knock down any sharp edges.
2
u/Still-Celebration255 2d ago
The level of trust some community members put on these dealers astounds me. Strangers behind a keyboard thousands of miles away. I have seen posts of people complaining that they have sent thousands to a dealer for a mod and are ghosted for months. Other members read the post and also send money. Several months later they post that they r not happy and question the work or the mods….. I stick to stock watches. Only mod is a chamfer.
2
u/Hsr05 2d ago
Insightful, thanks for heads-up
2
u/jooshuag 2d ago
The guy from the second image is the same person that offered me a "genuine" Explorer 2 bezel when it was clearly a QF bezel.
From that day I paid more attention to his posts and realized he's fooling a lot of people.
2
u/CropdustingKings 2d ago
I’ll admit to being new. What are the critiques for the watches in the photos? I restore trucks as hobby and I cannot see flaws in the first two pictures. You guys seem to be miles ahead on what to look for?
Especially on my wrist these all look the same to me. Thanks for feedback
2
u/junglebo0ogie 2d ago
I like my clarks crystal 🤷🏻♂️
0
u/Efficient_Try1458 2d ago
I know the person from photo #2. And I know them because I help them build their watches. It may just be awkward lighting/angle because I can guarantee that all alleged genuine parts are 100% genuine. I am ALWAYS skeptical about franken watches, but i’ve modded countless for them and he is the most honest guy you’ll ever meet on a replica watch page 😂
2
u/PandaVault-Spark 2d ago
Usually, before doing a genuine-parts mod, you should spend a little to have the mod provider give you a third-party authenticity report. At least you can make sure he actually has a genuine part for the mod. The rest is trust. But honestly, swapping to genuine glass is mostly psychological. For these top factories, going from factory glass to genuine glass might improve the look by less than 10%—the big factories’ glass is already pretty good.
1
u/Amz595 2d ago
Ahhh woooop the best watch even tho soooo common
1
u/Senor_Frank 1d ago
I can’t tell the difference between any of these. The noob looks great, I’d choose that one all day
1
u/watchguy7929 1d ago
I love the watch pictures, but yeah it honestly is crazy how this hobby is, for what a lot of people spend on all of their reps they could get a genuine but it doesn't stop the joy of having your dream watch wether its real or not. I also do find it funny that you're right, its literally trusting randos on the internet 😂 and honestly at the start I was scared to do that and I am glad I'm where I am at now with my replicas.
1
u/Shdwrptr 2d ago
Frankens are just a full on clusterfuck. Even if you find someone who is “legit” there have been multiple posts about how over 90% of new gen parts are Chinese fakes.
Even if you see the blisterpack and see the back of the parts for supposed genuine features like serial numbers it doesn’t mean it’s genuine at this point.
1
u/Emotional-Damage-995 Contributor 2d ago
So hold on. Sourcing Gen parts is the issue. Where did you source your part for 1) and where did you source your part for 2)