I own this great however beaten beauty and I have restored it to its present state; The movement is serviced and running acceptably, the hands I have relumed as the existing lume fell off. The bezel ring has been to Aldo for a repaint as this too was just a little black paint. I have fitted a ned crystal, new crown and otherwise tried to keep it as unpolished and original as possible. It has a good quality divers bracelet, sadly not Omega but very charming still.
My aim is to sell it when I feel it is ready.

My question is wether I should relume the dial. I can make it the same color as the hands, and I am confident I can make it blend in nicely, working under the microscope, but will it ruin the watch?? I have already made such great changes to it, so perhaps it doesn't matter?

Your view on this is greatly appreciated! Thanks.

 

Personally I would prefer to leave as it is now , I would not touch the dial
Congrats for a nice watch

 

Beautiful watch!

My two cents - for a collector, you'd want to keep it in as original condition as possible. With good intentions no doubt, you have already eroded the value to many by refinishing the bezel and hands. The bezel, restored, looks out of place to the rest of the watch. Touch the dial and any other visible parts, and it'll lose more value.

If it's your intention to sell it, leave well enough alone and sell it as is, disclosing of course, the restoration already done.

 

Thank you for your input! Yes I know, to many collectors this will be ruined already, however I am more comfortable with it now that when I found it in a bottom drawer about a year ago...

 

Agree

 

+1 ...
Dial could be worse and relume is hard to get right in those deep wells. Will always stand out ugly IMO.
Relume of the hands is the way to go. Have been in similar situation. Have a really nice 2913 dial with some hands that have to dark radium lume. Thinking of getting the hands relumed, but never the dial. Hands relume can be changed again. Relume of the dial is a one off chance only.

 

Totally agree with the advice given here.

For me the bezel being re-done and the hands re-filled is enough, I wouldn´t touch the dial either. These old 300´s can look very scruffy indeed without a bit of TLC but a line has to be drawn somewhere.

Here´s my 2913-7 before and after what I feel was a sympathetic restoration during which the bezel was redone and the lollipop hand was straightened, the paint touched up, the lume stabilised and a very small hole in it filled. Quite a lot of work on a seconds hand but to me it makes all the difference between a watch looking over worn and one that looks attractive.

 

cristos71, thank you so much for your advice! Your watch is truly beautiful now. I leave mine as it is, and now I just posted it FSOT... I am a Speedmaster kind of guy, and not a collector really