Always amazed to see watches and parts travel far and wide.
Step 1- lone dial sells on Ebay last October.
Step 2- dial reappears on a watch also on Ebay a couple months ago (a nice but unsigned 32mm case).
Step 3– dial now resurfaces on a 35mm tre tacche, on the Instagram account of a Japanese dealer. The dealer does not mention the dial comes from another watch.
See below the pictures I took (and saved) from those successive steps.

 

I believe this is called adding value

 

Exactly. If you’re going to go that route better use it on a 5k watch than on a 500 euro one.
Of course if it were pristine the value would be much higher.

 

Yea Syrte!

 

Thats the good thing about patina - it's like a fingerprint, dead giveaway. Good detective work @Syrte !

 

@Syrte

How the heck did you make that connection? Did the dealer in step three buy watch 2? Spill.

 

This kind of research would make an interesting coffee table book, in time.

 

At least they didn't clean the dial.

 

Old-fashioned sleuthing and intuition I suspect. Certainly not a Rando-m observation

 

Outstanding detective work!!! What is the name of the dealer? He deserves the tarring and feathering treatment.

 

I simply have been following 1940s Longines very closely, saw the dial when it came on sale, and keep pictures of stuff I like.
And since I saw that dial on another watch (picture above) two months or so ago, we have to conclude the dealer bought the watch — or someone else who did sold the dial and hands separately. But it’s an unusual dial and quite obviously the same one.

The name is above.... and the price is below. About 13.9K euros according to Xe.com.

 

Ah Ha! Now we know.

@Syrte = Syrte Clouseau!

 

Fantastic!

But if i were your other half, i'd be quivering in my shoes....

 

That's interesting. And why would that be?
Just because I have followed closely a certain brand /period of watches?
Isn't that true of a number of people here? Or do men enjoy certain privileges which women should not?

 

Very interesting! @Syrte

Would be nice to know the diameter on a original dial on the
35mm tre tacche. Didn't know they were interchangeble with smaller
variants.

 

Thank you dear gents for the kind appreciation, puzzles are always entertaining! Especially when truth is a good cause!

Dang, it would take a scary number of those to reach that point! But the numbers are certainly growing with the prices... not yet Rolex levels I suspect though.

 

Great detective work S. That's a lovely dial, now residing in a lovely timepiece, but certainly not original. Simple disclosure would make everything above board here, but that disclosure would likely make $15,000 rather challenging.

 

This gives me a headache. Of course headaches come easily these days. Guys talk about swapping parts left and right on speedmasters and no one seems to care as long as the parts are correct for the reference. Some with other brands. What is the sin here? Is the dial correct in its current case?

 

The main problem here is the lack of transparency.

 

I'd say that is an increasingly problematic aspect of this thing of ours.