So the story continues, but a warning, it will be long:
Bought some silver hands from Ofrei, minutes hand length was the same as this watch, but the hour hand turned out to be super long, wasted another $40
After the hands arrived, removed the original painted hands and dipped them in 25% ammonia by putting them in a jar, 25% ammonia is pretty extreme. The hands stayed in the jar for 2 days and by the looks of it, it was another wasted effort. I decided to remove the hands and try to remove the paint by light sanding with high grit - but removing the hands from ammonia wasn't going to be easy, since it immediately becomes airborne and even if you don't inhale, it hurts the eyes
Decided to make the sink drip, place a net underneath in case the seconds hand goes buoyant this net was going to capture it, opened the jar, placed it on the net inside the sink and left. Returned after an hour, the ammonia was gone and the minute hand and hour hand was inside the jar in water, yet the seconds hand was nowhere to be seen, the surface tension lifted it up, and instead of the net capturing it, it went through it like a needle. I went underneath the sink, removed the flex U part, no seconds hand came out ...
The sad part is, while I thought the ammonia didn't work, it actually worked by getting in between the metal and the paint, and it dislodged the paint like a film and I didn't notice it while things were inside the jar, as I was expecting it to dissolve the paint. So not a bad turnout, as the hour/minute hand is rare, while you can't buy a seconds hand directly I had a spare
Since our dog is ill, I'm staying with my parents to spend his last days together, told what happened to my mother since she helped me with ammonia (I had no experience, basically she did the pouring too). I had 0 hope as I went through it all, she wanted to try too and admittedly she's more handy than me. And turns out the seconds hand was stuck inside the sink before the drain and she managed to get it out. It wasn't even bent! Miracles like this is very common with my mother, one winter she lost her ring, we searched everywhere, and at the end of the winter, it was inside the last pile of snow that didn't melt, and we were living in an apartment back then, no one found it for months
😀
Here you can see the pristine seconds hand, and the white paint removed like a film:
The hour and minutes hand are silver as well, and there was no black paint underneath, which makes me believe these were the original hands, back when 561 movements were used, there were no thick baton hands either, only thin ones, these hands are thick silver. I believe this supports the watch not being a re-dial - the movement is also pristine, almost unused, the case is spotless - if it was a re-dial, I think it would've been a salvaged movement
This is the dial (the paper it's on is what Omega uses to store dials). Shiny parts raise a question mark, I consulted Archer, he said he'd need to see it in person but he also believed it could be a sign of re-attachment, seeing it in person would be needed
I have a newer 512+562 dial for comparison, entirely different dial. It has all different spots, they are all dark and dirty. Not supporting my case yet
I remembered this solid gold dial on eBay, same font style, same 50+562 marking, same era dial I assume - this one is solid gold, and it also has shiny spots, so I like to believe this was the approach for these dials:
Basically the dial above is 1:1 the same, the two "n"s have the same nuances
My theory is the owner getting the hands painted to increase contrast and for the time being, I want to believe this isn't a re-dial, and with the hands saved, it's almost 100% restored - even if it's a re-dial, it's a marvel, for example the dial above has a slightly thicker minute index near the date window, every other painted minute index is thin, mine also has the single thick painted minute index near the date window, I don't know whether re-dialers get details like this right
Hard to capture these nuances in photos, in person the thickness of the date minutes thick is clear, also the photo angle determines how close the star looks to the text, but I tried:
