Okay, so, I’ve been messing around with watches for a while now, and I’ve always wanted to try my hand at remaking something really fancy. So I thought, why not go big? I decided to remake a Patek Philippe Gondolo, specifically the 7042/100G-010. Yeah, the one with all the diamonds and stuff. It’s a crazy beautiful watch, and I was like, “I gotta try this.”
First things first, I started by looking up everything I could about this watch. Turns out, finding detailed info on how these things are put together isn’t exactly easy. But I managed to find some good pictures and articles. The serial number is super important on these watches, it tells you everything about when and where it was made, so I made a note of that.
Then, I got to work on the case. This Gondolo is made of white gold, which is way out of my budget, so I had to find something that looked similar. I spent a few days checking out different materials. I did not use white gold, I used a similar-looking material. This took quite some time to search for it.
Next up was the movement. Now, this is where things got really tricky. The original has a manual winding movement, and replicating that from scratch? Forget about it. I searched around and finally found a movement that was close enough. I am not going to tell you where I found the movement, I am not a professional. I am just an amateur.
- Disassembled the movement I got, you know, just to see how it all worked.
- Cleaned each part carefully. This was a pain, but I figured it’s important if I want it to look decent.
- Put the whole thing back together, which took forever. I swear, some of those screws are smaller than ants.
The dial was another big challenge. The original is covered in diamonds. I’m not made of money, so I went with some shiny stones that looked the part. Gluing them onto the dial was a nightmare. My hands were shaking the whole time, and I had to redo a bunch of them because they weren’t straight. The dial itself, I had to custom-make it to get that right shape and look.
Finally, I put it all together. The case, the movement, the dial, the hands. It was like building a tiny, complicated puzzle. I attached the bracelet, which I also had to source separately. White gold, like the original, but again, not the real deal, just something that looked close.
The Result
After all that work, I finally had my own “Patek Philippe Gondolo.” Of course, it’s not a real one, and anyone who knows watches could tell in a second. But, man, it looks pretty good! It’s shiny, it’s got that classic Gondolo shape, and it actually tells the time. I wear it sometimes, just for fun, and it always gets a few looks. It’s a good conversation starter, that’s for sure.
This whole project was a huge learning experience. It showed me just how much work goes into making these luxury watches. Would I do it again? Maybe. It was definitely fun, but also super frustrating at times. We’ll see what other crazy watch ideas I get in the future!
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