Horror - dial peeled? What should I do?

Maskelyne · Jul 22, 2020

Heisen0erg
I don't think this is an untouched dial.

If you look at 43 sec of small seconds, you can see that the ends of the circle don't fully meet each other.

Furthermore, if you look at the outer ring of the minutes track near the 7 hour position, you can see the same thing.

To me, this looks like a poorly refinished dial that has peeled off. The dial might have been painted with a cheap protective layer after the redial to fixate the paint on the dial. Cheap because it wasn't meant for this type of underground. And as a result you can see that a whole piece has fell off taking the markings with it.

I would try to put it back, maybe with a little bit of glue beneath the broken piece.

Back in the old day´s it was not uncommon with dials showing small imperfections, if you study samples there are imperfections in many Omega dials. (Example below.)

The dial is genuine in my opinion and the printing was done on the laquer. That´s why you can se this devastating result.

- With all do respect, it would be appreciated if opinions regarding redials and likevise were posted with some evidence or explanation. There are already a lots of people shouting "redial" out there.

An Omega from around 1940 - flaking with loss of print.

Irregular printing of markers...

Heisen0erg · Jul 22, 2020

STANDY
Like the way you have taken feedback, we have had some newer members telling us we don’t have girlfriends and need a life at this point before 😉 👍👍

Gotta love the ad hominem attacks 😀

Well, I am from a field where if criticism is never brought up and accepted it can be deadly. And as a future professional myself I try to listen to anyone's advice/criticism and try to learn from it. After all the criticism is meant in good intention and not as an insult.

(I know, unnecessary answer containing an off topic. Gotta reach the 200 posts somehow 😉 )

Now back to watches!

Archer · Jul 22, 2020

This is why Omega will test dials on vintage watches sent to them for service. The check along the edge of the dial with a piece of peg wood, to see if the dial finish lifts off easily. If it does, the dial is either replaced or refinished.

Rasputin · Jul 22, 2020

You may be better off leaving it be. An attempt to reattach the broken piece may cause it to break apart further or, if successfully reattached, make the dial look worse.

SkunkPrince · Jul 22, 2020

And, of course, there is always the factory refinish option, which I know is rarely approved of, but still remains a possibility.

MoclovFlop · Jul 22, 2020

That's a shame since the rest of the dial seems to look very clean.

As for the outer track not meeting, looks to me like it's the start of another flake. Even has a hint of the silver finish peaking, just like the area left behind by the first flake.

airansun · Jul 22, 2020

To OP: Sorry for your loss. All of us here can imagine your horror at discovering this.

From the single, partial photo, it looks like a beautiful watch. Always heartbreaking to see such deterioration. I think @Rasputin might be right, unfortunately.

Ted1858 · Jul 22, 2020

So sorry to see this, Ollie! We were just talking about this one yesterday 🙁

OmegaP99 · Jul 22, 2020

This may be overkill but if you can get a watchmaker to carefully remove the dial for you an art conservator may have the know-how to correct this in a way that it wouldn't be noticeable, and stabilize it from further losses. Those folks can do some astounding things, but you must choose the right one and seek references and reviews. A good one will go over the process in advance, how it will be done, and what to expect afterwards. You want to make 100% sure they understand you want it "conserved" and not "restored." Contact your local art museum for references if you can't find any listed nearby.

OllieOnTheRocks · Jul 22, 2020

Hey guys thanks for all of your responses - I will have to do some more exploration into experts in this field. For those interested here is a before photo 🙁 Only recently got its new strap made by @Duracuir1

nkhandekar · Jul 23, 2020

You should be able to reattach the flake with the appropriate adhesive. Painting conservators reattach flaking paint all the time on pictures worth...do I really need to say much a painting can be worth! And I have seen great work done reattaching flaking paint on the interior of clear glass apothecary jars. Its not impossible, but don't try to do it yourself.

Traveler · Jul 23, 2020

OllieOnTheRocks
Hey guys thanks for all of your responses - I will have to do some more exploration into experts in this field. For those interested here is a before photo 🙁 Only recently got its new strap made by @Duracuir1

From that photo you can see a significant amount of damage in that exact spot already - looks like scraping. Sorry, but this looks like it was bound to finish up with a sub standard sub seconds dial.

Horror - dial peeled? What should I do?

Maskelyne

Heisen0erg

Archer

Rasputin

SkunkPrince

MoclovFlop

airansun

Ted1858

OmegaP99

OllieOnTheRocks

nkhandekar

Traveler

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