Hello everyone, I need help with my aero compax that I just recently acquired. I’ve been trying to find out the size and style of hands I need for this watch to be correct. The reference number is 12440 if anyone could help me I’d greatly appreciate it.

 

The ref alone does not tell us, depends on the dial, the caliber, and the rest of the hands. What do you have so far? Pics would help. I have a set of NOS blue radium hands for a cal 281 that you can have at cost if you want.

 

If we are talking about this one (from a thread at WUS) I suggest you return it. VERY poor redial....

 

Here’s the hands. Perfect gingerbread radium. Bought them a while ago but never used.

 

Yeah I’ve thought about it but right now I’m only $820 Into it an ended up finding a dial for it I’m just waiting to get the hands before I go to my watch maker to have him fix it up. he told me to get the correct size which unfortunately I don’t know.

The watches movement is a cal 287 I don’t think they would work. The correct hands I believe are gold and needle like I think..

 

What's the size of the watch - are these what you're looking for?



Edit: it's a cal 283
Edit 2.0: Forget it - Ranfft says they are different sizes.

 

there are no correct hands for the watch, there’s a correct pairing between the dial and hands, so it completely depends on the dial. Your optional dial examples were lumed if I recall, so gold leaf hands are not correct for such a dial, even though they might be correct for whatever the previous version of the current reprinted dial.

hope that makes sense. You should post a pic of the dial you intend to use

also, what about the rest of all the hands? What are you using? Is it everything on the above pic, but you want to replace the hour and minute hands?

 

That is the style of hands I need but mine’s cal 287 an it’s a 37mm watch. And to be 100% correct I’d need a gold dotted dial and gild leaf hands if I’m correct.

 

This is the dial I got off Chrono24 and these are the hands that are on the watch currently. I think the style of hand you have would be the correct hands for this dial.. I think. I want to replace all the hands as you can see the seconds hand is way to small for this watch.

 

that's a lumed dial, so it would not look right with anything but lumed hands. It would definitely not look right with gold color leaf hands.

Do you know the dial will fit? Even if it's from a cal 287 doesn't necessarily mean it will work. You might want to check that first before worrying about hands.

Anyhow getting a complete set of hands is not easy and not cheap. Do you have both hands on the momento dial, I cannot tell ?

Once/If you know the dial will work, then my suggestion would be to get lumed H/M hands, use all the rest of the existing blue hands, and just replace the one (thin) running seconds hand.

The chances of getting all the hands you want for a cal 287 are low. A good watchmaker should be able to broach the holes up a size, to go from the smaller calibers up to the 287, and also if necessary to adjust the tube sizing on the running seconds hand, etc

That's all assuming you are determined to do the project. As others have said, it's not a project I would do personally.

In closing here's a shot of a gold (14K) cased Aero from Sala with a similarish dial as your proposed swap (hands and dial look relumed in this example).

 

The dial you bought is for a 281 calibre.
The watch you have has a 285 inside.
This dial will not fit the movement, unless you broke dial feets and paste it on the movement with some glue. That should be illegal in every country of the civilized world! But it would be anyway too small for the case.
To find a proper original Aero-Compax spare dial is a pretty difficult thing. Sometimes it's smarter to buy a nice watch and enjoy it!

Anyway, once you've found an original dial, you can think about matching it with correct hands.

 

Yeah I would never do that and agree with you 100% on that but I’m sure it’s a 287 what makes you think it’s a 285? All the 37mm gold 14/18kt ref #s I’ve seen all have 287s and all the 35mm steel cases have 285s. I’m not disappointed with it though I mean there are watches that you can buy and enjoy for 750 dollars but I didn’t pay out the you know what for it I’m only down $840 which isn’t much. I’m thinking of just saying screw it an finding someone to just redo a dial for me. If the one I have doesn’t work.

 

Case reference remebered me about 285 movement. Then probably I am wrong but 285/287 use same dials, as well as 281/283. So in the end things are the same. But anyway that dial is not good for your watch That dial is a dial for a 22289/22290 reference watch.