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Franken of the week...

366K views 2K replies 318 participants last post by  Odessa200 
#1 ·
My contestant and personal favorite :-d

Greetings
Phil
 

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#506 ·
#507 ·
Perdendosi said:
I don't know if this is a franken or not, but the addition of the crazy military bezel and... what IS that band.. makes the "Big Zero" just look sad.
(By the way, whose picture is that on the cuff strap?)
MENS Soviet Raketa / Paketa Made in CCCP Watch | eBay
I see this dial, case and bezel as genuine, Raketa aka Peterhoff aka Cornavin quartz. The strap is a soviet leatherette bund, with a cheesy vignetted picture of Gagarin.
 
#508 · (Edited)
I've been getting rather perturbed at the audacity of certain sellers lately.
Take for instance this "find":
WOSTOK KOMANDIRSKIE ZAKAZ MO USSR SOVIET MECHANICAL WATCH Perfect USSR Au

Analog watch Watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Number

At a glance one might be inclined to think that this is a rare NOS in the box Komandirskie,... but no,... it's just another crafty fake. Check out the crown stem visible between the dial edge and the case. The case even shows visible signs of use. No "PERFECT USSR" here! Some folks call this a franken,... but it's just an out and out fake as the seller is clearly trying to dupe you. This would be robbery at the listed price of $99 !!! I glad there are no bidders.

Then there's this ( among others) at one of our favorite fake-masters:
USSR slim watch Poljot de luxe 23 j NOS new 1MChZ Kirov russian wristwatch

Analog watch Watch Watch accessory Silver Fashion accessory

Sure the case looks pretty shiny, and the photos are spiffy enough to entice, but this again is just another fake. This dial has been "outed" a few times in various discussions. Look at the slip shod alignment of the dial. All of the indices are terribly placed. The dial lettering even runs right into the indices at times. The angle of the 3 indices at 12 o'clock is also a dead give away. The real dial has indices that are parallel to each other.
Going by the title of this sale,... one can only come to the conclusion that this is just fraud. The seller clearly knows better.
The ridiculous price tag of "buy it now" for $195 is an insult. SHAME!!!
Please folks,... refrain from doing any business with these types of sellers. Your purchase of even their legit goods only enables them to do this even more and flood the market with garbage watches. There are plenty of honest sellers out there,... buy watches from them!

OK,... friday night rant complete. :(
 
#509 ·
I've been getting rather perturbed at the audacity of certain sellers lately.
Take for instance this "find":
WOSTOK KOMANDIRSKIE ZAKAZ MO USSR SOVIET MECHANICAL WATCH Perfect USSR Au

View attachment 769467
At a glance one might be inclined to think that this is a rare NOS in the box Komandirskie,... but no,... it's just another crafty fake. Check out the crown stem visible between the dial edge and the case. The case even shows visible signs of use. No "PERFECT USSR" here! Some folks call this a franken,... but it's just an out and out fake as the seller is clearly trying to dupe you. This would be robbery at the listed price of $99 !!! I glad there are no bidders.(
Good rant!
The thing is that the mostly excellent seller sovieterawatch had one up just like it! Asking price was actually higher than the watch featured here. Not with the box and NOS baloney, but the same type of watch, the same stem-issue. I thought it was legit for the fact that he had it up. Glad I ended up not bidding for it.
 
#510 · (Edited)
Here's another annoying case of frankenization brought to you this time by eBay seller sulfejo.
This time the advertisement is a little tricky.

Note the following points:
The watch is never claimed to be totally authentic,...
The seller only states that it is vintage 1971 - 1983, and titles the watch as: SLAVA Automatic Russian Soviet Men's Watch,... which is true.
The measurements and specs of the movement are also clearly stated,... most likely correctly.
It is also stated that The watch is in good condition and working.... and You receive a product which see on pictures!

So far the seller has been carefully correct with the advertisement, and it's not until you check the photos until you see that the watch is a fraud/franken.
Here is the seller's photo:
Watch Analog watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Strap


I recognized the watch dial immediately as one not meant for this case. Notice how the dial markings along the perimeter describe a more rectangular shape rather than a circular one. Both at the top and the bottom of the dial one can clearly see the empty space between the markings and the case edge.
Almost everyone knows that this dial belongs to the very often seen Slava TV watch.
Here's a photo of one:
Watch Analog watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Jewellery


... and the case is from another Slava watch design as seen in this photo:

Watch Analog watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Metal


So,... there we have another attempt to have you spend your money on a mish-mashed franken that has even less value than the $19.95 that this watch is currently being offered for.
If one isn't careful, you could eventually end up with a whole drawer full of worthless frankens that nobody wants, nobody collects and with the only historical value being that on such & such a day, you wasted your money on this junk.
And,... now another seller joins my list of eBayers to be wary of.
 
#511 ·
frankenization brought to you this time by eBay seller sulfejo .... another seller joins my list of eBayers to be wary of
This seller is so cheap that i almost don't mind that some of the stuff he/she has is junk. The photos are poor and you really can't see what condition the watches are in. Then again, most of the offerings are in the $15-20 range. I have acquired a few watches from this seller. some of them were tattier than I htought they would be, but some quite a bit better. At this pricepoint I am really not that bothered, for this outlay I can live with having to be the expert. Now the other sellers like cherry_ua are much trickier. They will shamefully ask the same kind of $$ for a frankenized watch that a respected seller like ruslan of romantic_time or roman of sovieterawatch or sovietrarities ask for an original.
 
#512 ·
//roman of sovieterawatch//

Since his name's been mentioned, I can say that I have probably bought over a hundred watches, and have never had cause to complain. His prices are creeping up, but then the market is going up and he's still very reasonable.

Paul
 
#513 ·
//roman of sovieterawatch//
Since his name's been mentioned, I can say that I have probably bought over a hundred watches, and have never had cause to complain. His prices are creeping up, but then the market is going up and he's still very reasonable.
Paul
I love roman/sovieterawatch. Just got 5 watches off his site the other week.

Yet he sold the same watch as mentioned above, for twice the price that the seller above was quoting. I entertained the thought of getting that cheaper "NOS" watch as exactly the same watch was listed on sovieterawatch. So I assumed it to be OK.

VOSTOK KOMANDIRSKIE ZAKAZ MO USSR SOVIET MECHANICAL WATCH Perfect USSR | eBay

Caveat emptor.
 
#515 ·
mysterian said:
I am a little puzzled. I too am very fond of the seller sovieterawatch and consider him to be selling quality goods.
But this watch with the large gap between the dial and case just cannot be the way this watch was intended to be. I'm certain the original designer(s) would be upset at this.
This gap serves to compensate the differential expansion coefficients of watch case and dial at 2500 degrees Centigrades.
 
#520 · (Edited)
When I'm not able to find anything worth buying, I do love a good game of "Find the Franken" !
Today, I have this watch from a well known seller fialkin77:
LINK
Watch Analog watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Jewellery


I suspected something fishy about this one immediately. It was a square case designed watch screaming out in agony that someone had rudely dissected part of the inner "bezel" and crammed in a dial meant for a round shaped case.
Here is what the original watch probably looked like,... from the awesome ussr-watches.ru site :
Watch Analog watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Rectangle


I feel sad for the person that might spend $95 on the fialkin77 franken. Am I wrong?
 
#521 ·
:roll: A portion of the "XII" marker is hidden. How to believe in the authenticity of this watch.

I have found this "strange" Mayak for sale on the german bay :

Analog watch Watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Jewellery


Here is mine, shown in the WRUW topic today.
:think: This one seems redialed. Ok. But what is the meaning the two mysterious dates: 1770 1990. Could it be a "commemorative Mayak" ?
 
#526 ·
A very odd watch, mysterian. Aside from the dial, the watch has a 2409 movement usually found in later amphibia. Maybe they were running low on 470 and 420 bodies but had a 119 lying around!

I have a Vostok Almaz 18 jewel with the same dial and I always thought it was a franken but I'm not so sure anymore. I have seen this style Cornavin dial around enough to begin to believe it might be legitimate.
 

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#527 · (Edited)
Rarityclub is a bit of an oddball. I have just purchased a handful off his site about 10 days ago includnig what I think is a real old Signal with the Roman XII on top as seen on Mark Gordon's site, as well as what seems to be a genuine Saturn, again when referenced to MG's site. He typically also has some very obvious fantasy wathes. I was going to post that Cornavin fibby myself in its own thread. In fact, I may just do that because it may escape attention here.

Flaiklin disappoints me with that horrid square Poljot Alarm, he is supposed to be one of the good sellers.

I have not been able to fault romantic_time and sovietrarities so far.
 
#529 · (Edited)
I recently bought those two Amphibian Tonneaus from timepieces_ua:


Left one was quite nice, only hands where franken, modern ones. All other: Crown, caseback, closing ring, glass, movement.. were correct...

But the black one on the right... must have been suspicious that the seller had several similar ones in such a good shape...
Dial was "varnished" in a crude way, and when I tried to clean it it was sticky, so I cleaned it with alcohol... and both varnish and what I suppose was a decal went out... I have cleaned soviet Vostok dials before and apart than they are matt finished and with some elevation in the markings, they do not fade out with alcohol...



Glass was a perfect spherical shape... more similar to actual 1967s... very nice but not authentic at all... as you can only appreciate that from the side, I didn´t notice that in eBay pictures...

Crown was a modern one in the corresponding 2209 axle... at least movement was correct...
I feeled real shame, as far as I though I was becoming an "expert" in collecting vintage Amphibias... and I got such a monster...
 
#530 ·
You are being a little hard on your choice, in my opinion. The crystal looks fine although more completely round like the type 350. It could have been used as they were both in production at the same time. The one to hope you don't get is the replacement with height at the edges, not a smooth curve from the bezel. It is hard to see in ebay pictures except that some distortion can be seen sometimes at the edges of the dial.

As far as the "decals", I think you were lucky before. Someone's attempt at "preserving" the dial may have altered the chemistry a bit so that when you removed the preservation you removed the original varnish too. Doubtful that someone would go to the trouble and expense to create decals for anything but the most expensive watches. Start looking for a new dial (contact Amil!).
 
#533 ·
A Sportivnye 2634 hides itself behind a fresh Shturmanskie mask!
Watch Analog watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Jewellery

310406819815
 
#534 ·
Regarding Sovieterawatch (Roman Buvdoy), I've probably bought 100-150 watches from him over the years, and I have had very few which I consider suspect. Not to say he's perfect, but he's one of my favourite sellers and I'd like to support him.

Azbukaua is a different story. I bought lots of watches from him for several years, and they were good and reasonably priced. But then suddenly someone gave him a paintbox for Christmas, and he went to the dark side. His latest horror is below. Not only is the dial badly repainted, but the case has been given a quick visit from the aerosol can.
 

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#535 ·
Time for another sad fakery by Azbukaua. This time a mismatched dial that doesn't belong in this case. Oooop's,... look at where the "Made in USSR" inscription landed.
Also,... with this being a Raketa dial,... and an English inscription, shouldn't the date also be in English?
Watch Analog watch Watch accessory Fashion accessory Strap
 
#536 ·
#538 ·
Thanks for the clarification, Ch196.
 
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