Thursday, 18 April 2019

Franken Mod : Mon5ter Wave #1 (Challenge Completed)

Cooking up a storm over the infamous Seiko Mon5ter Wave

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa was a well-known picture amongst us Seiko enthusiasts. After all, it was featured on the caseback of our preferred Prospex and MarineMaster series. In fact, starting from this month, Japan was issuing JPY1,000 with this picture on the new note. However, I have yet to come across this new more during my week there.


Most of my mod parts came from established brands in the modding community e.g. Dagaz, DLW, Crystaltimes, One Second Closer, and the likes. When a micro-brand i.e. Lucius Artelier that was based in Singapore, made an enamel dial of the Great Wave, I knew that I had to make an order and gauge for myself on the quality of the dial. I placed an order and in just a few days, the dials were soon on a sold-out status.


If you were interested, you could still make a pre-order as they were running a batch of 36 dials in hand-painted format. Priced at USD147, it ain't cheap but in return, you would have a watch that would not be repetitive across the wrists of many passerby. At the time of writing, there were still 20 dials available.


With such a limited edition dial, I knew that I had to get a suitable watch that could pull this off. Initially, I wanted to go with my normal route with SKX007, Turtle Re-issue, or Sumo; but on second thought, I decided to go with the Seiko Ice Monster model no. SRP481. This was a rarer watch in the wild, befitting of a rare dial of this caliber and workmanship.


It had the perfect bezel and chapter ring that would pull off the design of the dial; and priced at USD188, it would also not break the bank. An order was placed and I soon have the watch from Japan.



As usual, I sent the watch and parts to my panel watchsmiths; and waited for them to ship back the finished article back to me. It would soon be shipped back with the Great Wave dial, Dagaz hands, and Isofrane straps. 


Note that I have utilised the hands in similar design as Longines Hydroconquest LE, as these really fit well with the metal indices on the special dial.



I call this Franken Mod the Seiko Mon5ter Wave.



Check out the Dagaz hands that matched the dial indices down to the tee. These were discontinued hands and no longer available; and I regularly stocked up on parts from these mod brands as one can't be sure when the parts could be very suitable for a certain mod concept yet no longer available. 

Check out how cool the Mon5ter Wave looked placed in the Seiko collection Pelican!





This was truly a beautiful piece and I'm glad that I modded this to be a special piece in my collection. I have another Great Wave dial in Day-Date format, and would be modding it into another Mon5ter soon. 

Look out for the power duo in these Mon5ter Wave5!

A modder's Land Mon5ter Wave as found on the Net

NEXT : Franken Mod @ Underwater Demolition Team Timer


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1 comment:

  1. Hi Datuk, I ordered the dial after viewing your watch at the gathering the other day. Can you help me to mod into my Seiko?

    ReplyDelete