Marvellous and the softened case edges

I bought a vintage-style 5513 from Marvellous Replica, paid by bank transfer and spent between EUR 280 and 330. My interest is old references rather than modern watches made to look freshly cut. Even so, the case in the initial photographs looked rounded in a way I did not like. I asked whether they could sharpen the case lines before sending it. In retrospect that was a rather loose request for work involving the removal of metal.

They asked me to mark the areas on a photograph and explained that they could offer a different case, but would not promise to recreate edges on this one. I accepted the alternative after seeing it beside the original. Payment to final approval took eleven days; approval to arrival in Cork took twelve more. There was no separate machining charge because no case work was actually performed.

The replacement has clearer lug edges without looking like a new block of steel. I am pleased with it and glad my first suggestion did not become an enthusiastic polishing exercise. I have owned enough old watches to know that photographs can flatter a tired case, yet I still nearly ordered an undefined correction by email. My outcome was a better selected example, not a restoration service. If anyone has paid them for actual case work I would be interested in seeing the result, with the before pictures as well as the flattering after ones.

I prefer vintage references too and would have taken the alternative case. I can forgive a soft edge when the whole watch makes sense, but I dislike an oddly sharpened lug beside a rounded crown guard. Your request could have meant three different things to three people. Their pause probably did you a favour.

I have a franken Submariner with one lug that reminds me why photographs need to be square. I would want measurements as well as a nice reflection before calling a case improved. Swapping the example seems a decent outcome here. Once somebody removes metal, the next round of emails will not put it back.