1959 Constellation PiePan - repair it or not?

In short don't do it. It's a redial and likely worth less than any of the quotes you have been given. Don't throw good money after bad.

Bad news, I'm afraid - definitely a redial and while I don't want to be too blunt I gotta admit it's a rather bad one...

I'll +1 @padders recommendation, dont invest any more money in it. Many people here (including me) will tell you that it's value is basically what the usable parts are worth. I cannot really see how the case is, if the crown is correct etc. but let's say it's 500$ at best if the movement looks good (even though it needs a service). That's not to say someone who doesnt know better might pay more in an eBay auction, but it'll be a stretch.

Note that even at Omega, they wont replace the dial with a factory-finish one but will just redial it once more, and it'll still be very apparent. You'll likely be investing 1k+ to have a watch that's probably worth less than the service cost. Wear it as-is or sell it to recoup some money and look for a good example. It's a relatively common ref and they're still comparably affordable (if looked at vs. dogleg or the 50s examples).

Besides the far too thick and sloppy printing, cross hairs are supposed to go through the text. Overall quality is very bad / uneven. Zero chance it’s not a redial I’m afraid…

If you Google "omega 14381 arrowhead 1959" and you look for examples on OF you will immediately see the difference with your 14381. The text on your dial is sloppy with thick font. The genuine dials are elegant and subtle. Thin font, etc. Some examples here:

https://omegaforums.net/threads/my-new-omega-14381-with-arrowhead-markers.114610/

Personally I like this watch, it is close to the sort of thing I collect and love servicing myself. They are not diffucult to service.

In my ignorance back in the 1990s, when I was activly collecting, I sent dials out for repainting, then started learning how I could use the technology from work to re-create dials. I think one of my seamasters has a dial that I set out for repainting and I was not impressed with the result.
The original dials were done with a pantograph and engraved into the master die. This is an art unto itself. This process as I recall is called gravieur[sp] and is mostly used for currency and other financial and legal documents.

The repainted ones are done with photo etching using the same acid processes that make printed circuit boards or silk screen masters for t-shirts. This process leaves ragged edges where the acid (or reactive base) eats away at the copper. Photo etching can be used to produce nice masters if the resolution is high enough (how computer chips are made,) most of the time however the repaints are basically done with a copy machine with generational loss.

Printers and copiers have anti-counterfitting features (required by some governments such as the Swiss.) This is one reason why printers use a lot of yellow ink. Special serial numbers called a MAC address are encoded onto the printed sheet in microdots.

I guess technically this would make repainted dials true currency counterfeits and violations of all sorts of trade and hallmarking laws.

-julie

I would love to find a reputable service person in the SF bay area. While I could clean and service my speedy and am planing to redo some of my other lemania movements, I really want a good 'factory' service on this. Not so much in having brought back to water resistant, I sort of want it brought back to be 'space rated.' I am after all the ex-president of ERPS. I think I last wore the speedy when we did some preliminaries for the KISS re flight and the space X tour. Since then I have been favoring the chronostop, which I would also like to have a nice 'factory.' service.

As for the locals I once knew, Dorian Clare only works on clocks (and may be retired.) Don Levison's name came up on the chatroom things with springs chat, so I guess he is still active. There was some guy in Santa Rosa who recognized my chronostop that I was going to check out. I did check out the place in the dying Sun Valley mall. They had the equipment, but the guy behind the counter was a total salesd**k. There was evidence from certs on the wall than some brothers might actually do the work. Such people are not too social. Which is a real problem.

The guy and his wife in the east bay ACE hardware stores do good work for things like basic cleaning, but when I wanted more advanced work (Like the mainspring on my 650 saffette) I got the same excuse (parts not available at Otto Frie and Borrel.) I figured that they would have access to online sources I could only dream of. Guess I did dream of them, because in the last month I have found all sorts of online parts sellers.

As can be seen from my other posts, I have decided to take up my own watchmaking again. Not something I would recommend to the average collector. There are a number of you tube videos, which show the basic process. They also show 10,s of thousands in tools in specialized tools to replicate the automation that are needed. Such vids claim not to endorse the top swiss brands, but they do all the same.

While the vids are 40 to fifty minutes long, my estimate it probably takes 2 and a half to four hours to service a watch, if one is doing it the Swiss way. That would mean 2 to three watches a day. This tech dates back to the 1940s. These watches were designed to be serviced every 2 and a half to five years. That they have been working without service (probably in storage) for 60 to 70 years is a testimonial to the over engineering and material science that was done. This same tech pretty much put these companies out of business by 1973.

The few that remained, realized they had to limit production and build the luxury brands. Then they got a scare when it was predicted that there would be no watchmakers left in the early 2000s. So they quickly created new training programs. Sadly most of these trainees only would work with watches that start with R. And they are now of retirement age. The 40s service techniques can also lead to a lot of repetitive stress as much is training the mussel memory and is designed for efficiency of motion. Such things are not conductive to employment in this day and age of ponzi stock offerings and cryptocurrency fantasies.

-j