Monday 29 April 2019

Watch Modders Anonymous


I received this e-mail earlier and it looked like having relative anonymity on our watch blog here was still the preferred modus operandi. I wouldn't want readers' spouses coming after me, grumbling about their horology hobby, would I?


In any case, I believed that the lady was referring to my Seiko Planet Ocean 007. I have written about this Franken Mod previously, and the 007 reference was not towards James Bond but towards the base watch i.e. the SKX007 case. It was a given fact that many modders liked to work on the SKX007 case as there were parts aplenty for the bezel, insert, sapphire crystal, etc.

In fact, Seiko had recently stopped production of the SKX007 admist groans from the watch modders communities; but third party companies e.g. Crystaltimes had started production of the equivalent cases so that we modders could continue tinkering with our own Franken Mod works.


Personally, give me a Seiko or 3rd-party case from the SKX007, Mon5ter, Sumo, etc and I would mix and match the necessary parts to create a Franken Mod of my own.


For movements, I preferred to have minimally the Seiko NH35/36 that had both hacking and hand-winding; while I had utilised  the more premium Seiko 6R15 on opportunities when I was able to get these at a good price.


For bezel inserts, ceramic was my preferred choice to avoid scratches and fading; but that too depended on the overall concept that I had in mind. Lumed bezel inserts were quite a nice touch too. The ones that I had been utilising were from Dagaz, DLW, and LCBI.


For dials and full hand sets, I have been mainly utilising Dagaz's as the lume was of good quality. Yobokies was also a good choice. Of course, whenever original MM300 dials and handsets were available, I had been stocking up on these too. Just Google for 28.5mm dials and one would be spoilt for choices as there were plenty of micro-brands and OEMs that were fun and cheap.


For sapphire crystals, stems, crowns, and case backs, I have no special preferences and would mix and match from various 3rd-party producers as long as the quality was acceptable to my standards.

Modding with good parts ain't cheap; and would most probably cost more than the RRP of a standard base watch like that of the SKX007, Mon5ter, Samurai, and Sumo. However, in return, you would get for yourself a watch that was created in accordance to your own taste and preferences.

For me, I enjoy the modding process so I derived satisfaction from the journey as well as the end result. Therefore, I would mod and flip off the Franken Mod pieces; and get more base watches to mod further. It's de-stressing for me, although some might find it distressing ;p

As for the Planet Ocean homage, just looked at both these watches compared like-to-like. While I have a few pairs of Omega Planet Ocean myself too, I derived more satisfaction from the one-of-a-kind that I have Franken Mod here, from the exterior parts right to the very movement.





So yeah, I did enjoyed the Seiko build as much as the Omega's. Had it been a typical Seiko SKX007 that everyone else had, then I guessed that it would not have brought as much enjoyment to me.

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