To dial retore or not restore, that is the question!

[Variomatic]

Picked this up today, satisfyingly cheaply, as a present for my father in law. It's a 1953(ish) Seamaster cal.342 bumper auto, mechanically good but with a slightly less than pristine dial.

Curiously, if I go to order a crown or crystal by case number (2576-3c) Cousins want me to have gold plated versions. The Omega vintage database lists the basic 2576 (stainless steel) but none of the variants, so I have no easy way to know whether it was originally gold plated or steel finish. The gold hands and dial markers seem to suggest gold finish, but the case doesn't appear to have been polished and there's no sign at all of plating anywhere on it.

Anyway, the real decision to be made is - should I have a dial restoration done or not? Personally I don't mind the finish as it is, but not sure where the consensus draws the line between "patina" and "worn out". If it was sales stock I'd probably cop out and leave any prospective buyer to decide what they wanted. As a gift, I can't really do that.

So, what does the Wisdom of PH say? Is this dial beyond the pale or charmingly aged? Also, if the decision is to restore, bearing in mind the steel case and gilt markers, would you guys go for a silver, white, or champagne ground?

Edited by Variomatic on Sunday 12th October 22:49

[clockworks]

Too far gone for me, I'd replace it.
Actually, if the markers are applied, I might be tempted to strip the dial and paint it, save a few quid.

[Variomatic]

The markers are applied, but trade price on a resto is probably going to be cheaper than the time I'd spend stripping etc.

[GC8]

Do you have a good redial man Joe?

[Variomatic]

Used to use David Bill years ago and they were fine, I'm counting on them still being that way

I know Omega purists will avoid re-dials at almost any cost, but FIL isn't a WIS by any means, so I suspect he'd rather it looked presentable to his golfing friends than retained originality

[Snubs]

Too far gone IMO. Is that mould i can see? I think having a patina as a sign of originality is something I'd happily accept in a purchase for myself. I wouldn't trust others necessarily seeing it in the same light though...

[Variomatic]

No mould, just a mix of peeling lacquer and radium lume. Will be saving the radium for a little experiment.....

[Snubs]

Ahh, i see. Have you told the IAEA about your radium experiment? Is it something that those of us in west London are likely to find out about via a huge fireball? If so, could you avoid Loftus Road please.

[Variomatic]

Don't worry, I'm on Anglesey and they'll be decommissioning Wylfa any day now, which is probably a slightly bigger risk than a microgram or so of radium from a watch dial

Of course, if it works then the experiment is only the start.......

[mikeveal]

Too far gone. If that's just bubbling lacquer, get it stripped and re-applied.

There's no way I'd let anyone paint it with anything opaque. Doing so would lose the dial texture - currently very visible in the sub seconds, no idea what's under the rest of the dial.

[CardShark]

Another "too far gone" vote. Patina can look great and would be expected on an older watch, that one just looks like it's knackered rather than aged.

[Variomatic]

Thanks guys. It's going in the post this morning, hopefully they'll get somewhere close to how it should be

[Variomatic]

Well, dial arrived back today and I'm reasonably happy. Sadly for Mike, they did use an opaque grond because the original silvering was too badly damaged. So the texture of the seconds circle is gone (well, not gone but far less obvious).

Still, I'm happy with the lettering and the print quality, and FIL is over the moon, which is what counts

[ecain63]

Vast improvement. Good job jobbed!

[Paul Drawmer]

Is that a Fixoflex wrist depilator strap?

[Variomatic]

Paul Drawmer said:

Is that a Fixoflex wrist depilator strap?

It is.

Not my personal choice, and I was happy to donate a nice genuine croc skin to the cause. But FIL likes stretchy straps, so that's what he got

[mikeveal]

I tried to reply yesterday, but it seems that the ether dislikes me.

That's a huge improvement. If you asked the dial restorers to go for a lacquer and it wasn't possible then the only alternative is to leave it as it was. I'd call that a thoroughly rescued Seamaster.

Restoration is always a hard call. Personally, I wouldn't buy a watch with a dial restoration like this, it's too far from the original for me. But then I wouldn't have bought this with the dial in it's unrestored state either. What you've done is turn a knackered old Seamaster into a perfectly wearable desirable watch with another 50 years of life in it.

What I'm trying to say is that there was no way of restoring this one to please the purists. So it's a good restoration. You can and should be pleased and proud.

[Variomatic]

Thanks. It could have been done better by hand re-silvering then sending it for printing and lacquer only but, given the intended recipient, that would have been several hours of extra work that I simply couldn't justify.

Alternatively, looking for a better dial but that could have meant him never getting the watch. Besides, both those options are still open for the future - nothing completely irreversible has been done apart from removing an unsalvageable original finish.

By a happy coincidence it turns out it's exactly the model that he first fell in love with as well - that his army pay never quite stretched to buying right the way from enlisting as a Driver to retiring as a Major