Would like to share a story on a franken watch - my first vintage watch experience.
Having a car passion, I started my ‚real watch career’ with a re-edition of the Heuer Carrera ten-ish years ago. Doing the wruw-competition with a friend, it happened i got thrilled by the blue dial of a seamaster 176.005.
I did not like the case, so I started to look for a 176.007 occasionally - when I stumbled over a clean case with blue sunburst dial and needle pin hands, but missing the movement. The buy-it-now option was my friend, so I was sitting there with a bunch of very reasonably priced remains of a 176.007\176.001 double ref.
And you can imagine … took nearly a year for a proper movement to come along - serviced, and reportedly from a 007. Did not care so much about serials at that time. Another buy-it-now, shipping from Italy was quick, and I ended up with a strange but thrilling serial.
Sourced a genuine dial spacer ring, movement holder and gave it to my local jeweler (amongst others, rolex and omega dealer, having employed two very experienced watchmakers) for assembly.
The matching 1170/653 took another six months to find, because the easy to get 1162/172 service bracelet I mounted straight after getting it back from the watchmaker was .. hmm … not at all meeting expectation
So here we are, super happy with a franken, but a perfect watch to wear.
BUT ... the movement always caused some „suspicion... low serial for a 007/001, different serial number on bridge and rotor (but only 85 count apart), and further more a „0000“ at the end of the rotor serial. Was it an early replacement / service, or was it simply done like this in the beginning of the production that rotor had a more generic serial, or just reassembled during restauration (which is quite unlikely considering that you need to have two very early serials to match)?
So I did order an EoA to get more clarity, and surprise surprise, the serial goes with a 176.001. Delivered only in 1973, despite the early serial !! Mystery continues ... but maybe some valuable data for caliber1040.com
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