Hello All, This specimen had been in a drawer ever since I was old enough to poke around in things I wasn't supposed to (circa 1975ish?) It was given to me some few years ago, and I promptly put it in my own drawer. My father's passing, and subsequently inheriting all of his (and my grandfather's) other time pieces, has renewed my interest in his Omega. I was always told it was a graduation gift, I assumed high school, but the serial would indicate college (1954.) What I thought was an original, unmolested piece- would appear to be a redial/repaint through my searches here. I'm not sure that it matters, as I have no intention of selling it. The Seamaster script across the sub second dial is likely to make some of you cringe (perhaps even nominated for the "worst redial" thread? ) I am curious as to your thoughts- my knowledge of it's history, and the patina would indicate it was redone early in it's life? Why would they repaint it in such a fashion? (I almost thought it might have been fake after scouring pictures and not finding another like it.) I will likely send it off for service and wear it occasionally. I really like the look of it. Anyway, thank you for sharing your knowledge, the bug has bitten!
Value is sentimental only as your assumptions are correct. It has lived a hard life looking at the case/dial/movement Thick lug is a slight bonus.
I remember him saying when he gave it to me he wished he had taken better care of it. I know he wore it during his time in the Army as I have pictures from that time period (he was stationed in Japan 56-58.) There's really no telling what it's been through. The fact that it had been retired for some time already when I discovered it as a child would speak volumes.....lol
This might be a case where factory service is warranted to bring it back; you can replace a bad redial with a good one and they'll make any parts they need to for the movement. Sort of expensive but perhaps worth it to you. Tom
Don't need to make parts. Enough of these movements around that even discontinued parts can be found if needed and his movement looks clean. Redial, new hands, crown and a cleaning DON
Another option would be to scour ebay etc until another came along then swap the dial. Or go movement service only and look upon the same dial that your father used to tell the time.
This is the way I'm going. I'd like to keep it as much "his" watch as I can, while making it a semi-presentable piece for my own occasional use. A side note: The level of knowledge and expertise contained in this forum is astounding. I've been collecting dive watches of a lesser brand for years, and never really strayed outside of my little nitch. This is a whole new world I look forward to participating in. I read somewhere in here these watches are like potato chips "you can't have just one." It would appear to be true......
A couple of years into my journey as a collector, I took a closer look at the IWC that I inherited from my father (it was his pride and joy) and realized it was a redial.
I was initially disappointed, and then I came across this post from Andy K https://omegaforums.net/threads/im-guessing-redial.106978/page-2#post-1404315 which helped me with some much needed perspective. I can imagine our fathers would both have a story to tell about what precipitated such a repair. - and- I have a theory on the script placement (very dangerous, I know ) Did watchmakers of the day have a drawer full of "factory" decals? Is it conceivable a smaller watchmaker in a smaller town didn't have the proper decal for the 2576, and just used what he had in the drawer? (Something without a subdial?) I'm struggling with why somebody would go through the trouble to create such an obvious variant from original. I suppose the above can be applied here as well, in that "make it functional" perhaps took precedent over "make it correct." Again, thank you all for your time in responding.
Not really. Watchmakers typically used companies for redialing, and when they sent it off the redialer would look at the existing plates they have in stock for the pad printing process, and find the one that was closest, and use that. In this case, the closest one wasn't very close. Redialers still work the same way for the most part, so on the very rare occasion when I sent a dial out to be redone, I have to specify if I want "closest available" or if I want to pay for "as good as we can make it". In the second situation, they will typically make new printing plates using photos I provide, and this gets you closer to the original - still not perfect, but much closer.
