What The Heck Is A "Franken" Watch?

Origional:



Modified:

It's interesting to see this thread revived and that there's still relatively little consensus about what falls under the pitiable estate of "frankenwatch".

richardew said:

Is a modified watch a Franken? I don't think so. A Franken is put together from different watches and passed off as an original.

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I think this is pretty much my view. But it's an interesting one in that the intent to deceive is what causes a watch to cross the threshold into disrepute. This implies that there is no watch which is intrinsically a Frankenwatch - only when it becomes the object of misrepresentation or fraud does it become so. As a corollary, when such a watch is discovered to be fraudulent, say after a sale, it no longer remains a Franken so long as its owner remains honest.

So, taking an example from my own collection, this watch is an entirely legitimate custom watch:

But becomes an illegitimate Franken if I try to pass it off as a rare 1965 "transitional" Straight-lug Pro.

Does that definition satisfy people?

georges zaslavsky said:

I am not into frankens but to each their own

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I imagined that you'd say that, Georges. It's certainly a reasonable position, but how would you define it exactly? This is the question that I think we've been trying to grapple with: the term has negative connotations, so I imagine that a large majority of WUS participants are "against frankens". But what this means is up in the air because we never define it precisely.

I think we can probably all agree that a brand new watch purchased from an AD is not a Franken. I think most people would agree that a new watch purchased from a gray-market dealer is also not one. I think that we'd probably also all agree that, say, the fake made-in-India Ranchero redials can be considered Frankens.

It's the edge cases that are tough.

What about:
1. A watch that has been serviced at an AD with parts matching its originals?
2. A watch that has been serviced by Omega with different replacements parts because the originals have gone out of stock (e.g. pre-moon Speedy with dot-next-to-90 bezel)
3. A watch that has been serviced by a third party watchmaker with different replacement parts?
4. What if these parts are "major" parts like the dial, movement, or case (e.g. Omega replacing a cal. 863 Speedy with a cal. 1863)
5. A watch that matches original specs, but every part been piecemeal replaced over the years (e.g. Ship of Theseus)
6. A watch newly made from such original parts (e.g. watchco SM300, but with an entirely NOS cal. 5xx movement created from parts)
7. A Watchco SM300?
8. An original Omega watch with some parts replaced by non-Omega parts (e.g. generic crown or crystal)
9. An original Omega watch customized by an non-watchmaker amateur (e.g. nearly my entire Omega collection)
10. An original Omega watch customized as to resemble another Omega watch, but without deception (e.g. a Gen 1 X-33 modified with Gen 2 parts)

As is evident throughout this discussion, there's alot of gray areas that make it necessary to really dive into semantics. I don't imagine that we'll be able to form any kind of forum consensus on the matter, but I'm interested in what people really mean.

Legitimacy is an interesting property - especially when it comes to luxury goods, where it is the central commodity. From what I've read over the years here, it's even taken on a quasi-theological significance, whereby a watch is instilled with a soul upon its assembly, never to be divided or transmuted except by its Creator lest it be turned into some kind of forsaken monster.

Frankenberry