Hi there,

on the hunt for a nice 1601, someone is offering this one, from 69, wide boy dial.

is there any red flags or anything to check before going further?

 

Looks to be in good shape. The lume on the hands are almost too good... hard to say with the low quality pics but it’s pretty rare to find lume on wide boy hands fully intact and/or without some discoloration. I’d suspect they’ve been relumed, so I’d ask for a black light pic.
Other than that, you really need movement pics as well.
Good luck - I passed on a wide boy a few years back, at a really good price and have been kicking myself ever since!

 

Indeed lume looks maybe too good... but it seems homogeneous to me when comparing hands and minutes dots... so well, maybe worth it!
Sellers say it has been serviced a year ago but do not have any proof, I’ll try to call the one who should have serviced it to see if he has any history of it...

 

Again, hard to say with these pics but I think I can see bruising and discoloration to some of the hour marker lume. Which is to be expected, and makes the hands stick out - lots of lume on those wide boy hands, which is why they are rare to find mint. Even if they have been color matched, not the end of the world as long as that’s reflected in the price, in my opinion.

 

was that date wheel replaced? if you care about that. believe it should be open 6s and 9s

 

Even on an exemple from 1970? I’ve understood that early version has hooked 7 and closed 6.
Isn’t it supposed to be like that?

 

Yes. I have a 1972 and it’s all even under black light and falls off at the same rate when the light is removed. It’s not a fool proof method but worth looking at.

There are a lot of theories on date wheels, and some timelines overlap. I believe that should have open 6, mine does. And I think your example does too, the first pic, although very blurry and low quality, seems to have open 6. Then the 6 on 26 is closed, which is correct. Then should be open 29. I’d ask to see pics of the date wheel at 4 (flat top) 6, 7, 9, 16, 19, 26, and 29. Or at least a few of those.

 

agreed, due cyclops sort of distorts the 6 a bit

my 16030 is from 1980, and so happened to have stopped on the 29, and its open 6s, nonhook 7, open 9s

 

I wouldn't want to make any judgement based on those photos.

 

i think it looks good

 

The hands would make me ask for better pics