Dates for Step Dial Pie Pan Constellations?

Anyone have any information as to when Pie-pan Constellation dials started and stopped being "stepped?"
I think I've read through nearly all of Desmond's blog, but I have not yet seen the dial step mentioned in his site, nor in his very thorough overview of Constellation dials. (Not referring to the venerable Deluxe models here, although I suppose there doesn't seem to be a lot of information on those step dials either.)

I knew that Speedmasters got their step dials during the 2998-reference, and lost it at the start of the 70's, but I know not of a similar time frame for Constellations. From what I've seen, step dials start appearing during the introduction of the 55X/56X series movements, commonly in references 14393/14381, 14900/14902, 167.005/168.005. Curiously, these references are usually mixed with step and no-step dials. Is this natural? Or a sign of a Franken? And if nobody yet knows why/when these step dials were made, perhaps we could compile a series of posts with images and production dates to try and narrow down the time frame?

I'll start:

14393/1962 - Step


168.005/1966 - No step

Explain again what you mean.

There are Domed dial and PiePan dial Constellations.

And Desmond talks about both extensively in his Blog.

I apologize if I wasn't being clear enough. What I'm referring to is how the stepped Constellation dials have the central dodecagon raised slightly, whereas the facets of the no-step dials are flush, edge-to-edge, with the center. In my post, I mean to only refer to pie-pan dials, not the stepped/disc dome dials of the 2652. Those, I assume are constrained to the production dates of that reference, as it is a feature not seen on later Constellations (as far as I know).

Good luck with your quest.

Like I stated, there are dome dials and Pie Pan dials for Constellations. And some Pie Pan dials have a very radical change in direction and some more of a smooth transition.

Sorry about that! I probably should've pointed out the step in my images. I've done so below. The top picture is the 14393 dial, and the bottom picture is the 168.005's dial.

I’ve always put it down to different dial manufacturers.

There is a third variation, which is the generally earlier more rounded-edged pie-pan.
There also appears to be trends for dial styles in certain references.

However, it does raise an interesting point as whether there is a start and end date for this less common ‘stepped’ style of dial.

hope fully members will post their examples.

Another spanner on the works is that a heavily stepped dial can look less so once refinished.