Inherited 1943 Longines questions

[nemrod]

Hi! I recently inherited a 1943 Longines from my uncle and am wondering about a few things. Already reached out to Longines and they kindly responded with some info about when and where it was sold, which adds up. Case is 30.5mm, cal 12.68Z.

The dial numbers have turned black; is it metal that has tarnished or radium that's deteriorated or something? To what extent if any can a professional make it legible again without "ruining" it?

The top lugs have through-holes (perhaps not from factory? Don't look perfectly round to my eyes, but could be wrong) and a spring bar but the bottom lugs don't have holes and the bar looks soldered in to me. Is that normal, and what would the purpose have been? Guess that means normal straps can't be used, would need NATO or similar?

Would kindly receive any other thoughts Also curious about value, though I have no intention of selling.

 

[TexOmega]

 

[707mm2]

Hi,
This watch seems to have been messed up effectively. One of the two lugs is not the original (Longines still used both fixed and removable lugs in the 1940s, but never the two systems on the same case), but also the movement is not in its original condition, the mainspring bridge has obviously been replaced (it should be in the same gilded finish as the overall movement, not in a grey colour).

 

[nemrod]

707mm2

Hi,
This watch seems to have been messed up effectively. One of the two lugs is not the original (Longines still used both fixed and removable lugs in the 1940s, but never the two systems on the same case), but also the movement is not in its original condition, the mainspring bridge has obviously been replaced (it should be in the same gilded finish as the overall movement, not in a grey colour).

Thanks for the response! Yeah, steel bridge looked out of place and as mentioned the lug holes don't look very nicely drilled, totally makes sense. Interesting to find out about fixed lugs, hadn't seen those before and curious about what kind of straps would have been used at the time. Presumably both were fixed from factory then, one broke too much so they just had it drilled to put a spring bar.

 

[Dan S]

It's very hard to see the markers in your photo, but my guess is that it is radium, which does turn black sometimes. There's nothing that can be done other than to totally remove it and replace it with something else. I wouldn't recommend it. The hands have replacement lume that matches very poorly.

Fixed lug bars use open-ended straps. You can google them.

 

[nemrod]

Dan S

It's very hard to see the markers in your photo, but my guess is that it is radium, which does turn black sometimes. There's nothing that can be done other than to totally remove it and replace it with something else. I wouldn't recommend it. The hands have replacement lume that matches very poorly.

Fixed lug bars use open-ended straps. You can google them.

Did google around a bit, interesting.

Yeah no I wouldn't try to have that done to it, very unfortunate though. The other things don't really affect potential usage and just shows it's history, but the invisible numbers feels like a bummer. I went and took a look with better lighting and magnification and I suspect you're right. On the 1 and 2 it looks like parts of the lume might have fallen off revealing the white numbers on the print? Would've been better for me if it had all done so and revealed the white numbers to make it more usable, but I wouldn't have the heart to have it done myself...

 

[Bruce235]

If it comes down to a choice of never wearing it vs reluming the numbers and hands to match, I would go ahead and relume. The watch as is is worth sentimental value so why not?
Get it serviced and enjoy.
On the other hand, you don't really need to see the numbers to tell the time.

 

[Pastorbottle]

Many a dress watch has no numbers or markers, folks can still use ‘em to tell the time

 

[Dan S]

The dark lume isn't ideal, but I would probably just leave it. Alternatively you could just have it removed, without re-luming, which would improve the visibility. This should be done carefully by someone who knows how to deal with radium lume. I would also have the hands re-lumed a more appealing color. They aren't radium.