Found my grandfather’s Seamaster and it broke my heart...

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.

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: