Franken So What?
I was watching this video on the restoration of a toy Ferrari. Not sure if the toy is vintage or how old it is but at the start of the video it was quite destroyed. Now, the dude in the video did not just restore the toy, he made it better by adding features that weren't part of the original setup like seatbelts, upholstery (upholstery!), burn details on the exhaust pipes, etc.
Now, I happen to think new paint, parts replacements, changing up details are sometimes necessary to give an old thing new life. But not so with watches. I don't know if this is exclusively a watch community thing but it's only here that I could sense the heat emitting through my laptop from fanboys hating on anything "impure", to the point of us having a dedicated derogatory name for such a travesty: the frankenwatch.
Okay, fine. I understand it a little bit on the more expensive vintage pieces. I certainly would not pay an exorbitant amount of money if a watch is not "pure". The more expensive it is the more everything has to be original because, on the off-chance that I might need to resell it later, I don't want any excuses not to charge market price for the thing. But, in my defense, I am only following the advice of those who came before me. I'm slowly trying to get rid of that mentality for myself.
Here's my 1960s Laco:
After acquiring it in December, I fucked up by attempting to something I shouldn't have. I opened it to see how it ticks. I also pulled out the hands. As a consequence of this stupidity I lost the hour hand.
Afraid that I would do more damage, I sent it to a trusted watchmaker. He said that it would be difficult to find an era-specific, model-specific, size-specific hands. And those hands would probably come from abroad and would probably cost more than what I paid for the Laco in the first place.
Now, I have two options, let the watch sit for however long it takes until the planets align and we find the right hands. OR I put on my big boy's pants and get over it. I did the latter. It wasn't that difficult. It's just a watch, a thing, and a thing that would've been of no use (trash even) if it doesn't have any hands. I told the watchmaker to just put in whatever hands are the easiest to get, as long as they match the indices in color (I'm not a redneck after all).
Here's the watch now:
Does it really matter if these are not the hands that go with the watch? Did I commit some heinous sin against the vintage watch gods? No, of course not. It's just a watch. Is it a Frankenwatch now? Maybe. But so what?
I've got a god-shaped hole in my life that I'm trying to fill in futility with watches.
It's not a sin to the watch gods.
Too many people have taken advice on best practices (keep it original, don't put a diver on leather, don't polish, etc.) and turned these things into sins of the highest order. They are not. They are just preferences.
Most watches are mass produced goods and a hand here or a spring there might get replaced. It happens.
Really, the only person affected by doing any of the aforementioned things their watches is the owner of the watch. Not the community as a whole to any real degree. Sure, if there were only say 10 of a particular watch in existence and one got frankened, then the remaining 9 might rise in value, but how many real examples of that are there? We all need to lighten up a bit and quit trying to turn every watch into an investment piece.
Your Laco is still a nice watch and you'll get a lot of enjoyment from it. You just won't get full value if or when you decide to sell it.
No your watch is not a franken watch, your watch is a modified repair.
There is a difference between a franken watch and a watch that has been modified to work again.
This is a franken watch.
How do I know? I made it from literal garbage.
It is cobbled together from old Seiko parts that were lying around. It doesn't exist from Seiko's perspective. You will never find it in a catalog.
That's what a franken watch is. Just like Frankenstein's monster, life made from the dead.
If I had the coin, this PLUS a left hand conversion and a custom countdown/12 hr GMT insert OR dual countdown/up* + 12 hr.
*see the way Nth did Amphian the Mack. Big marker at 60, different at 30, hashes all the way around, numerals at 15/45.
The obsession with original coincides nicely with the reality that watches are now fashion accessories.
"Tropic" dials are the faded/ripped jeans of watches. They let people feel more "authentic" in a completely pointless, meaningless, and inauthentic way.
If you didn't wear that Rolex from black to grey, you just bought someone else's "authentic", it's not yours. It's akin to a virgin buying a mattress from a brothel, and being proud of the stains they had no part in making...
I don't have any real interest in model making, but that was an awesome video. Thanks for sharing.
As for watches. I wear what I like (and can afford). I would have no problem in buying and wearing a "franken" or modified watch that appealed to me, as long as I was certain of it's provenance beforehand and I knew what I was buying.
Likewise, if an original patina or tropical dial took my interest, I'd be fine.. as long as the movement was in working order.
If I spotted a beautifully restored vintage watch with repainted dial and replated case I'd look upon it in the same manner that I would admire a lovingly restored and repainted E-Type Jaguar or even a model Ferrari.. We're keeping them alive and giving them a new lease of life.
But.. I'll submit to "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and "each to their own".
I guess that I am the old guy in the room, when I developed my watch affectation back in the 70s but became an expensive hobby in the 80s we didn’t use the term “Frankenwatch”, they were referred to as cocktails or mix&matches. Additionally only watches cobbled together to deceive an honest buyer were given those disrespectful names. I realized that vintage watches were not how I wanted to blow my disposable dollars when the sympathetic watchmaker at the old Rolex HO Repair centre explained that the late 50s, 60s subs that I brought in for repairs were not worth servicing: cases, dials, movements were a jumble of Rolex parts forced together to produce attractive timepieces that could be easily sold.
I believe there is a value in keeping a watch in an as original state as possible. So was your intention as well. This time you didn’t manage. So you choosed the 2nd best option and still have a nice watch.
Having said that the most important imo is to be honest about what you have. Could be substituted parts, like the hands, a mod or a franken watch as the one @Chronophobia presented. As long as the condition is transparent everything goes in my book.
There is still a possibility you’ll find a set of original hands and then your watch is back on track as an original. If not it’s still a good looking watch with a story to tell.
You don't have a Franken. You have a watch you've repaired in the best possible way - no different to how someone else might have repaired it in their own way, 10, 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years ago. Would it have been better if you didn't screw with it at all? Of course. But you know that now, so no need to dwell on any of this. Wear it in good health.
Watches are mechanical things that wear out. Originality is relative.
Replacing the movement is a major amendment, especially if it is a different movement. But you may replace a dial, or hands, or a crown, or a crystal. And there are the minor amedments: replacing the watchband/strap. The Casio W96H I got from ebay had no keeper, but I own its Skmei knockoff, so...
The obsession with original coincides nicely with the reality that watches are now fashion accessories.
"Tropic" dials are the faded/ripped jeans of watches. They let people feel more "authentic" in a completely pointless, meaningless, and inauthentic way.
If you didn't wear that Rolex from black to grey, you just bought someone else's "authentic", it's not yours. It's akin to a virgin buying a mattress from a brothel, and being proud of the stains they had no part in making...
That simile... LOL
I love that restoration channel- so relaxing!
The main analogy I’ve heard regarding this topic is for a boat: “How many parts can you replace before you have an entirely different boat?”
The point this is trying to make is that if your intentions are to keep the same thing the way it was when you bought it, then take care of all the parts consistently and replace as few of parts as possible to ensure the thing you bought is as it was when you first acquired it.
However, I am not part of that camp only because watch collecting to me isn’t about keeping the original. For me, it has more with the enjoyment of a beautiful piece of engineering and craftsmanship and the sentimental value added from when I received it to all the experiences after with that watch on my wrist. For example, I happily replaced the crystal on my fathers Rolex he handed down to me because it was illegible. The Authorized Rolex boutique questioned me first about it to make sure she heard right and was surprised since people like to keep the scratches and scars as memories. But those weren’t my memories. Those were my fathers. The essence of the watch and the meaning is still there in the piece (to me), but if I can’t read the time then why am I wearing the watch? He even admitted that he wasn’t able to read the watch effectively and over time just stopped wearing it altogether. So, to some people I lost a chunk of the heart of the watch by replacing the crystal, but to me the sentimental value of a handed down timepiece still remains, even if my child and my child’s child continues to replace everything about the watch. It will still be meaningful in my eyes.
Laslty, that’s not to say I don’t respect people who do everything they can to keep things original. I think there’s beauty in that sustainment. The only place I draw the line is when people bash one way or the other. We all have our own reasons we love to collect. Be steadfast in your reasons you collect and let the people who yell “frankenwatch” just be drowned out noise in the crowd. If your watch aligns with your tastes, be proud of it. You should be.
To me, a frankenwatch is a watch cobbled together from many different parts, that someone then tries to pass off as the genuine article. You are not doing that.
What you are doing is building a "kit watch" or a "project watch"; you're taking an old watch, and restoring it with as close as you can get to original parts, but with one or two compromises along the way. It's a custom piece. And having different hands doesn't devalue it; in fact, quite the opposite. Your watch is one of a kind. Lovingly restored by someone (YOU) who loves horology. There's nothing wrong with that; in fact, there's EVERYTHING RIGHT about that! 😀
Cheers! 🍻
I’ve also seen the frankenwatch term applied to watches for sale being misrepresented as vintage when only a fraction of their parts are truly vintage. “Reproduction” would be more honest in that particular case. A bit like the homage vs fake distinction — one is used when the intent more to deceive than honor.
Repairing a personal watch doesn’t really fit the term IMHO.