Frankenstein Watches: Blessing or a Curse?
Let’s say you have a stainless steel Rolex Pepsi. That watch only comes with a black dial from the factory. But, if you manage to get your hands on a meteorite dial, you can probably get the dial swapped from a watchmaker and your watch will look a whole lot different. Yes, it is an amazing modification and this is what is referred to as a Frankenstein watch.
What makes it dangerous is the fact that someone can try to sell this watch at a much higher price as the Meteorite dial only comes with the White Gold variant of the watch. Of course, somebody who knows watches can tell the difference between stainless steel and white gold by both the color and the weight. However, someone who is new to watches might easily get fooled by the seller. This is what makes these Frankenstein watches a curse more than a blessing.
Good Examples of Frankenstein Watches
Though when treated as a blessing, the possibilities of what you can do with your watch are just endless. Over the past many years of working at ChronoStreet, I have encountered many Frankenstein watches. One of our clients had a Rolex GMT Master II with a swapped case. He swapped his original stainless steel case with an aftermarket black carbon fiber case. It gave the watch a stealthy look and made it much lighter on the wrist. He also swapped the bracelet for an aftermarket Oysterflex strap making his watch really stand out.
So, yes you can do whatever you like with your watch. Want to put a green bezel on a regular Submariner? You can do that. Even though I have personally never liked the Submariner Hulk, if you like that timepiece, you can probably take your Starbucks and add a green dial on it, making it look like the Hulk.
Bad Examples of Frankenstein Watches
Well, that is the good part about being able to Frankenstein a watch. Now let’s come to the negatives of it. Just a few weeks ago, we had a client over who came in to authenticate his Patek Philippe watch. During our watch authentication process, we were able to determine that the White Gold case of the watch was fake. The case was still made of White Gold but it was not the original Patek case. Not only that, the rubber strap and the dial were also changed.
Also Read: 10 Wrist Watch Parts Every Enthusiast Should Know About
Upon further inspection, we were able to tell that somebody transformed a stainless steel variant of that watch and changed it into a complete White Gold setting. Since the Stainless Steel model came with a Black dial and the White Gold had a blue dial, they had the dial and the strap changed as well. The movement in the watch was still original. They even used the original dial and strap. It is just that they modified a watch to sell it for a quick profit.
So, these are the types of scams that have emerged in the market and this is why you have to be even more careful about not buying Frankenstein watches.
