Alright, so, I got this idea in my head, right? I’m gonna remake the Patek Philippe Calatrava 5088/100P-001. Yeah, that super fancy watch. I saw some folks online talking about how much it costs, some saying over $100,000, others saying around $88,000, even $85,000. Crazy, huh? Anyway, I’m not made of money, so I figured, why not try to make my own version?
First off, I started digging around, you know, seeing what makes this watch tick, literally. It’s a self-winding one, meaning you just wear it, and it winds itself up. Pretty neat. I spent days just looking at pictures, reading about it, trying to get a feel for it. It’s called the Calatrava 5088, and then there’s some numbers after it, 100P-001, I think. That’s what they call it.
Then came the fun part – getting the stuff I needed. Now, I’m not using real gold or anything, but I found some decent materials that wouldn’t break the bank. I got myself a little workbench set up in the garage, got some tools, and started tinkering. It was a lot of trial and error, I won’t lie. I messed up a bunch of times. Bent some pieces, scratched some others, even broke a few. But I kept at it.
Main Challenges
- Crafting the Case: Trying to get that smooth, fancy look of the real deal was tough. I spent hours just polishing this one piece.
- Making the Dial: This was a real pain. Getting all those little details right, the tiny numbers, the hands, sheesh.
- The Movement: Okay, so I couldn’t make a self-winding thingamajig from scratch. I cheated a little and used a basic movement I got online. But hey, it works!
After what felt like forever, I finally put the last piece in place. I stepped back, looked at it, and you know what? It wasn’t half bad. It’s no Patek Philippe, that’s for sure. It doesn’t have that fancy box or the papers that make it worth a fortune. But it looked like the Calatrava 5088/100P, at least a bit. I even wore it around, and a couple of folks asked me about it. I just grinned and said it was a little project I was working on.
So, there you have it. That’s how I spent a good chunk of my time, making my own little version of a super expensive watch. It’s not perfect, it’s not worth much, but I made it. And that’s something, right?
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