My maternal grandfather, we were each other’s favorite, worked a blue collar job as a cutter in the women’s garment industry in Manhattan (back when there was such a thing!) He rode the 6 train to and from work everyday for decades. (Shout out to the ILGWU!, of which he was a member.)

When he passed twenty eight years ago (!), I was sent his Omega watch, along with a box of photos and other items. I put the watch aside and lost track of it.

I remembered that, unlike my other grandfather who also had an Omega but gold, this one was stainless steel with gold markers. I also remembered that it was nothing special and damaged.

Well, I ran across it yesterday by accident. It was dark so I saw Seamaster but no detail. Then I took a picture and looked closely. It broke my heart.



I don’t even need to ask if it’s a redial.


I knew it was going to be disappointing, but not this much. There is a bumper banging around in there. It does wind and run, but not for long. I’m guessing the caseback is wrong and, given the state of the dial, the movement is probably water/sweat damaged.

Oh well. Not every grandfather-watch-find can be a 2915.

 

Wear it with pride and as a constant " beater" and your mate will be with you often. It is only a watch but it was your grand fathers watch.

 

Case back seems fine? Open her up and see how it looks. Maybe all you need is a dial and hands.

 

I’m not sure about the case back but maybe you can find a replacement dial and set of hands. Then wearing the watch might be a happier experience for you.

 

FWIW........I had the same feelings when I finally received my paternal Grandfather's watch I had been promised 30 years earlier, shortly after his death. It was a Hamilton, a nice everyday, common man's watch......and a redial. I may sound horrible, but it lives in shame in a draw of my watch box. I wish I could sound more positive, like marco, but I remember all and I guess only the hurt.

McK

 

Redialing a Hamilton is not nearly as taboo as an Omega. International Dial Company has the original dies so you can usually get something that’s almost identical to factory.

You should go ahead and have it re-re-done correctly so there’s no need to hide it.

 

@ac106, you are 100% right!! International Dial does.....I knew that. Part of the pain is I am positive the redial was done after the watch was supposed to have been mine and during the 30 years it spent with another family member. Having the re-redial done is as close as I can ever come to making it look like my Grandfather's watch again. Why didn't I think of that? I appreciate your posting and apologize to @airansun for stealing his thread.

McK

 

Excellent!!! You can take some solace in knowing that it was probably redialed many times during its life. it seems like every American watch that was routinely serviced got a redial at some point.

Happy ending though !

 

Redial/restore it. I am sure your Grandfather would approve. If you end up passing it to your heir, the restoration will be your legacy as well as your Grandfathers.

 

If it makes you feel any better, my father's early 60s IWC automatic, which was his pride and joy and the watch that sparked my interest in watches ... is a redial. I realized it after he passed away and I inherited it.

 

These stories make me think redials aren't so modern of a development as we (or at least myself here) thinks they are. Maybe when you brought a watch in to be serviced, the watchmaker will also "touch up" the dial as well? Interesting stuff...

 

No ... service and redials were common. Watches were expensive and folks didn’t own 50 or more like some of us do. Unfortunately some redials are better than others.

 

Redials are not a modern development at all, if anything the practice is less common than it used to be. Repainting dials was a “service” that many jewelers and watch repairers offered and even advertised.

 

Funny thing is, I always had the opposite expectation -- that a "grandfather watch" would be messed up and unattractive or redialed by default! My dad told me he'd be giving me my grandfather's old Omega, and I waited more than a year to claim it because I'd just assumed it'd look like yours... got lucky I guess!

 

My grandfather gave me so many intangible things that are so much more important to me than the watch, honestly. The man taught me how to figure out who I was, starting at a very young age. He treated me like an adult and a serious person by the time I was five.

Boy, I completely get the feeling.

My other grandfather’s Omega, the gold one, was redialed on my watch, I’m ashamed to say. I don’t even have a photo of it. The dial face had been peeling its lacquer when I brought it in for service about 25 years ago. When I picked it up, the dial looked right. Only when I brought it home did I notice that OMEGA didn’t look right anymore. I’ve yet to forgive myself for that.

But, I do have the trench Waltham from my paternal grandfather.

My grandfather would be shocked at my watch collection. While he grew up ‘comfortable’, the Great Depression pushed the whole family into the Lower East Side. The man was very frugal. But, while the excess would disturb him, he’d also be jealous. He was a mechanical guy like I am and he’d love all the beautiful watches. So much so that he’d tell me not to waste the money on his watch.

I wanted to post this as a companion to all the hit-and-runs who splatter their family heirlooms in a thread, most of whom get bad news.

But hey, one out of three is still pretty good. And of the three, the trench watch is the one I’d want the most. That one was saved because the eisenglass crystal broke in the 20’s and the watch was set aside. I had it fixed and running in the mid 80’s, for the first time in 60 years.

I guess that’s the real lesson. You want to leave your watches for your children and grandchildren? Go put them in a drawer. Right now!

As for this? Back in the drawer it goes.

 

Thanks for the education @Larry S and @Andy K. And that is one bad ass Waltham @airansun, cool story too.

 

I think there is no need to be upset.
It is inherited but still a wonderful piece that can be worn and since you know it is a redial and you did not pay any "noob-tax" it is not that bad at all.
Besides collectors nobody will really notice. Just enjoy the emotional value of that piece.

I am very new to this entire vintage thingy but I am still a bit confused about the entire redial deal.
I mean I understand that having really unmatching dials or badly restored dials is hard to bear but if they are well done it could be fine (if the Seller let's you know and does not charge same price as the original). Also back in the days to keep using your watch it needed to be serviced and fixed and people probably really had only one everyday watch. People also had less money left for these kinda goods at the end of the month because they had to spend more of their all over income on rent and groceries I believe.

How are you gonna know if you do not have a detailed service history if the crown has not been changed, or the hands or any inner part of the movement at any part of the lifespan?

 

Before all this expensive watch craziness of the last 30 years or so watches were made to be used, not collected. The American wristwatch business was brisk with Hamilton, Bulova, Elgin, Gruen and others vying for the public's attention. Many were gold filled with little protection from dust, dirt and moisture....they didn't have gaskets. Hence every couple of years or so you'd take your watch down to your local jeweler for a cleaning and general maintenance. If the dial was scratched, stained or broken it was redialed, no big deal. People wanted their watches to look decent and nobody ever thought much of their watches other than utilitarian items.

I inherited my father's Hamilton many years ago after he passed away, it was on a Speidel twist-o-flex bracelet, didn't work and was in very poor condition with a hole in the chipped crystal that obviously let it dust, grime and moisture as my father wore it. Certainly unwearable, and it was out of style by the time I got it in the 70's, but I remember that watch when he used to take me to the St. Louis Cardinals baseball games in the early 60's and sit in the cheap $2 General Admission section way down the right field line in the upper deck. Why didn't he have it fixed once the crystal was broken? He didn't spend money needlessly and as long as it worked why spend good money on a cosmetic issue. Besides, at that time automatic watches were coming into use and he was hankering for one of those new fangled inventions, so once the Hamilton quit running it was put in the dresser drawer and forgotten about.

About six years ago I pulled the watch out and started some research on it, it was The Sutton from 1938 and sold for $52.50 in a natural gold filled case. My dad graduated from Marquette University in 1938 with a Mechanical Engineering degree, it was most certainly a graduation present from his proud parents. But my grandfather ran a small hardware store in central Wisconsin and during the depression that would have been a princely sum to pay for a gift for his son's graduation, the first in the family ever to attend college. I found a Hamilton watch restorer in CA (now retired) who said the watch was worth about $400 and it would cost just about that much to get it back into shape. The movement was in excellent condition. Of course it had to be redialed but I really wanted that watch to look like it looked when it was presented to my father, complete with a period correct pigskin strap. I sourced a Hamilton bakelite case from that era and the watch sits in my display case along with my first watch that my grandmother bought me, and my Omega Speedmaster MKII from 1972 given to me by my future wife.

I think a lot of this latest craze that no watch should ever be polished or touched up, or the dial touched up if damaged is a bit silly. Very few watches went through their working lives without some intervention that is now considered heresy like hand replacement, redialing, mismatched movement parts, polishing, etc. Don't get hung up on the 'all original' mantra.

Anyway, if you inherit something from a close relative don't feel bad if you have to do some work on it to make it look decent. Or just have it repaired and wear it like it is. I couldn't do that in my case.

BEFORE and AFTER:

 

Seconded! I’d have it serviced and wear it as a memory. All I have of my grandfather’s worldly possessions is his left glove (the right one has been somewhere in Paris for a number of years).

 

I know your disappointment is in quotation marks, and you're hamming it up a bit for the rest of us poor dumb watch fans. It's obvious that your grandfather meant the world to you and I'm glad to know this story.

You don't need my insight to realize this, but here's what I think: That handsome son-of-a-gun was your grandfather, and you not only carry his genes, but you also have in your possession a luxury item he picked out himself and cared for according to the custom of the time. He had impeccable taste in watches and obviously didn't worry about getting it redialed. Get it back in working order and look into restoring the dial to what it looked like when it first caught his eye. It deserves to see the light of day again.