My 168.005 connie has been off for a service with The WatchGuy in the UK and part of the service includes photographing the various stages of the work.
I was particularly struck by how beautiful the dial is in closeup. This is a 1968 SS Constellation original dial untouched, no refinishing etc
I thought it may be useful as a reference for new collectors when looking to purchase - note the serifs on the letters the spacing and the minute markers. Obviously the Omega and the star should be showing as silver but they are reflecting black. You really do need to get your magnifier out to spot the clues.
image courtesy of The WatchGuy

 

as a comparison I found this refinished dial on the net at first glance looks OK but then you start seeing lots of clues.
No serifs, no dot above the t , star slightly off, small and incorrectly placed, shape of the letters, T SWISS MADE T is wrong as there is no lume on the dial. Minute markers slightly heavy.
I'm sure there are other problems which experts can point to.

 

sweet dial

 

This dial is a bit earlier. The star is small and a small hour marker next to date window.

 

I'm glad you mentioned the size of the star
I noticed that different Connie have different size stars
is there a pattern to the size of the star?
case style/dial style/years of production?

has anyone written about it? -I don't think Desmond mentions it on his site

 

Interesting question, I have been wondering about the star sizes myself. I have not found any information about this particular subject either. My gut feeling has however become that earlier dials up to ~1964 can have the larger star while later ones tend to have the smaller one. I think it is also connected somehow to the smaller 3 o'clock index being there or not on dials with date (large star -> no small index). This is just my 'guesstimate' though, many reference images only state the movement and case, not the serial number or production year. It would be interesting to know if anyone has done any more in-depth research on this.

 

Here's my 168.005, picture also from watchguy.co.uk...