Hello, Is this genuine? The movement looks so, but what about the dial? Never seen the text down there. Thank you very much for any help.
The upper side of the dial looks cleaned so perhaps the logo has been washed away? I still am very unsure of the "taches" on the caseback. Also the lines on the dial are way too off to be a crosshair, right?
Impossible to say. Looks like it was ridden hard and hung up wet. Pictures are terrible, too. IMO, it’s good only for parts. Others may differ. gatorcpa
Is there any hope of finding a correct replacement dial? I have asked for better photos. He will send in a few hours.
If you are talking about the SAS Polarouter dial, there are very few genuine examples known (maybe 5-10?), so no hope in finding a correct replacement. I would think it easier to find a normal Polerouter in good original condition at a reasonable price. gatorcpa
It always amazes me how folks are trying to sell their watches worth hundreds of dollars, and take pictures on par with your Nokia phone quality from 1999. I would ask the person to take proper pictures.
The seller reached out to me through a "wish to purchase" listing and quickly sent some pictures he had laying around on his phone, hence the bad pictures. He sent better pictures afterwards. I purchased it now for around $350. Worst case scenario I'll scrap it for parts and sell them hopefully for a profit, but the plan is to wear it and try to enjoy it as much as possible. From what I heard this is a very special watch despite the horrible dial. Very excited nonetheless.
The watch has arrived. For those who wondered; the serial number is 1648545. On the back there is a very unclear engraving that looks like it says H.C. Niande or H.C.N Jande. Not sure. The dial looks to be painted over by nailpolish or something. Feel free to ask more questions about it.
I think there is a reasonable chance that this watch started out as an SAS Polarouter. Check the serial number on this example sold at auction: https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/important-watches-ge1804/lot.pr.9YCLX.html There have been a few others on this forum and they all seem to be in that 1,648,XXX range. https://omegaforums.net/threads/1954-sas-universal-polarouter.3806/ The questions are 1. What is under that “nail polish”? 2. Can you get any information about the inscription on the watch? gatorcpa
I do not know how smart it is to rub away the paint. Any thoughts? I do not know much about inscriptions either. My guess would be that it's just a service inscription. Is there a database for watchmaker's signatures? There is a smaller one below the serial number, but I can't make out the letters.
I decided that the dial is too messed up so I tried to scrape away some of the paint. It looks to be the only layer before bare metal. Hope it doesn't affect the value of the watch too much.
The case is certainly from an SAS Polarouter as they are the only known watches with the 20217-6 reference. As you say, the serial number is also within the known range. The marker ring is also of the rarer early type with thin hour markers that we would expect to see. The dial is almost certainly original to the watch as only the SAS Polarouters have the Universal Geneve text in the lower half of the dial. I would be interested to see the reverse of the dial. I would expect to see the 94*076 Stern Freres stamp.
I know it's not very seemly to comment after the horse has bolted but I would have tried a range of solvents on the overpaint before scraping. It is very difficult to discern between 2 layers of very thin paint.
The thought occurred to me that maybe the dial was painted over at the Universal factory? I don't think it would be possible to ever know the true origin of this dial or why it was altered. gatorcpa