I’ve read the thread above with great interest, as I have always thought that someone eventually will come with a way to restore or produce acceptable replacement dials at a reasonable cost using modern technology. So far it hasn’t happened. Here are two examples where people got close.
First person is Sonny Dewan. Please read this article from Desmond’s Blog.
https://download1647.mediafire.com/...le2I-Q/95vk6v80cli5h8z/Seamaster_Conserve.pdf
Sonny would only conserve solid gold dials. He knew that other metals used for dials like brass and silver would chemically react with his mix of lacquer solvents. Eventually, the U.S. government declared one of his ingredients as a hazardous material, and the suppliers could no longer legally sell to him. So that was the end of Sonny’s gold dial restoration business.
The 2nd example was Internatonal Dial. This company, originally based in Ohio, was a supplier of dials for Hamilton, back in the 1920’s through the 1940’s. They developed the “Baker” finish and used it to restore dials of certain American made watches. They also owned, or reproduced dies using original methods from the early 20th Century. If you had the right kind of American wristwatch, you could basically get an as new dial, using the methods and dies that were used when it was new. However, their work on Swiss dials was less than stellar as they did not have access to the original materials and processes like they did for American watches.
Unfortunately, this is a very niche business. The original family sold it off around 2018. The new owners moved it to Arizona. It didn’t last long there, and the dip in the business during the COVID pandemic killed International Dial off for good.
The issue with redials with Omega, as I see it, is that no one has access to dies, materials and knowledge of the thousands of different patterns used to originally produce dials that would be up to 80 years old today.
Time is not on our side.
gatorcpa