Thought I'd give a brief update - my grandfather's 135.011 was given a sympathetic service by a repairer with an omega parts account and since returned to me. Only needed a new hesalite and crown, and has kept perfect time since. It's my oldest, smallest, and only gold watch, but I'm wearing it right now and loving it.
Speaking of patina - it only became apparent after replacing the crystal that the dial has a lot of spotting. I'm not bothered and happy to keep it relatively untouched, but just wondering what might cause this to develop? Mould? Moisture? Coronavirus?
Gummiplague
Thanks for your input @JwRosenthal, the crown was pretty knackered by the time I received it and it wouldn't surprise me if the seal had gone years ago.
But gummiplague??? Is that a technical term?
Lol! No, just made up the term (gummi in German means rubber) but seems to afflict all older water sealed watches when not maintained properly.
Hahaha I figured this was the case after I tried googling the term 🤦
It's a pretty fascinating form of 'patina' though, almost looks like a foreign body like mould sitting on the dial. Is it just raising / distortion of the dial itself? Or is it alive? Pretty interesting to think of wearing a watch that's grown a microbiome over the years...
