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difference in patina on dial and hands - GMT Master I (1970s)

vonrozen
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Big question to the experts : Why are the hands sometimes so much whiter than the yellow-ish patina of the hour markers ? Sometimes both hands and hour markers match. Where is the truth ? Some watch sellers tell me 'its normal, the hands age differently' . But I would like to really understand this and thus be able to distinguish (better) the correct (authentic) dials from 'assembly' dials . (Happy to provide some examples on the way )
 
Davidt
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Generally I think this is normal but taken as a whole, it can indicate swapped parts if there are other alarm bells ringing.
Equally perfectly matching and attractive lume across both the hands and dial can be an issue as it sometimes suggests a high quality relume.
It depends on the serial range and model to some degree
 
vonrozen
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very interesting David, thanks very much. My watchmaker also said that there is a process by which the lume can be made to age artificially (and look more honey / yellow), you do it on a service dial , smack it on a later model and sell it for a song to innocent collectors . Sad reality.
 
Davidt
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It all comes down to honesty. There’s some absolute relume artists who can rescue otherwise sorry looking watches. I’ve done it myself. The issue is when this isn’t disclosed if the watch is sold.
 
vonrozen
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I totally agree , the desire to conceal and steal the buyer's money is shocking.
 
Dan S
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I would be suspicious if the lume in dial and hands are dramatically different. Sellers often spout BS that they think the buyer wants to hear. "Oh. yes, it's all-original and unpolished."
 
Larry S
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Yes they can age differently .. tbh if you have a specific watch in mind, let’s see it.
 
ATWG
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Absolutely possible to be different as hands are made by different batches of Tritium. But, doesn’t mean that they can be substantially different either.

Here is an example of my 16760, hands are a shade lighter.

1736639969614.webp
 
TasMike
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Sometimes it can be a deliberate, but not deceptive, act to relume the hands and leave the dial untouched.

Perhaps this watch had damaged lume in the hands (which have obviously been relumed) or they were relumed to reduce the overall amount of radium. Thankfully the dial remains untouched:
DSC_1621.webp
 
Dan S
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Straying a bit from the question here, but some watches deliberately used two different colors of lume for hands and dial, so it would be easy to tell the difference. Some used different color lume for hour and minute hands, and some used a different color of lume for certain markers on the dial (e.g. 6 o'clock).

orient_pair.webp
 
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