An Interesting Vintage Franken..............

[MAJ75]

Hi All,

I have developed a passion for these telemetre & medical dialed vintage chronos recently.

Whilst perusing Ebay earlier I stumbled on what I think is a rather beautiful franken. If the dial is gen & unretouched I think this piece has real character.

The seller seems to be fairly transparent & I would say a case of full disclosure with likely an end price to match it's shortcomings...

Anyway just thought a few here might appreciate seeing it as I did.............

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VINTAGE-ROLEX-CHRONOGRAPH-18K-SOLID-YELLOW-GOLD-RECASED-PLEASE-READ-THE-DESCRIPT/273105827172?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

 

[Stuessi]

Just asking out of interest and because it seems an event gaining popularity recently. Is it actually allowed to sell franken on ebay if the declaration is honest and when the seller states which parts are aftermarket and which are not?

 

[PlanetZoom]

Interesting question. Without knowing the answer, here is my guess based on how a manufacturer would view it. I suspect the bay does not want pressure and lawsuits from manufacturers, so they may view it the same way.

Once you buy a gen watch, you can replace whatever you want on it. If you replace some gen parts with after market parts, some in the gen community will calll that a Franken. On inspection, the watch would check out that it started life as a gen (matching serial number). I would expect there would be no problem selling a watch like that on the bay as long as everything is disclosed.

On the other hand, I suspect the bay would not be okay with a watch that started out as a rep and includes some gen parts.

 

[Stuessi]

Interesting question. Without knowing the answer, here is my guess based on how a manufacturer would view it. I suspect the bay does not want pressure and lawsuits from manufacturers, so they may view it the same way.

Once you buy a gen watch, you can replace whatever you want on it. If you replace some gen parts with after market parts, some in the gen community will calll that a Franken. On inspection, the watch would check out that it started life as a gen (matching serial number). I would expect there would be no problem selling a watch like that on the bay as long as everything is disclosed.

On the other hand, I suspect the bay would not be okay with a watch that started out as a rep and includes some gen parts.

I tend to agree but lately I have seen more and more of those "custom" vintage rolex builds on ebay where clearly very few parts were gen. Usually they had an aftermarket or "custom" case with a gen movement maybe a gen insert and what was called a "refinished" dial which essentially is a fake dial. The watches were sold for much more than they could ever sell on m2m.

 

[Stuessi]

This is one of the watches I had in mind, there is not much genuine on that one except the movement I think and it sold for over 4k.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Rolex-cal-1570-watch-movement-fix-Sea-Dweller-1665-in-custom-made-case-/183024601775?epid=219487162&hash=item2a9d1dcaaf:g:NgYAAOSwkrFaTz8J&nma=true&si=ERgQK3A8IIYM%2BVHUlh4VS1UHXIs%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

[PlanetZoom]

I tend to agree but lately I have seen more and more of those "custom" vintage rolex builds on ebay where clearly very few parts were gen. Usually they had an aftermarket or "custom" case with a gen movement maybe a gen insert and what was called a "refinished" dial which essentially is a fake dial. The watches were sold for much more than they could ever sell on m2m.

As big as they are, they have limited resources to police these things.

I’ve heard that watch companies hire people to look for reps on sites like the bay and A-zon. I suspect there are many people on our site that are much better qualified to identify what is real.

Also, with a Franken, it is probably more difficult and confusing for people to figure out what’s really going on with the watch and whether it violates site policies. So those sales are less likely to get removed.