Longines Tre Tacche 35mm

LesXL · Mar 5, 2022

S Sam11
Thank you for the detailed information regarding tre tacche dials. I'm guessing this one is a redial given the poor longines font and open minute tracks?

I'd say so... The 6 o'clock marker of the second and minutes one are not aligned on top of it.

hejsam · Mar 5, 2022

S Sam11
Thank you for the detailed information regarding tre tacche dials. I'm guessing this one is a redial given the poor longines font and open minute tracks?

Yes def looks like a redial of at lest a bad clean attempt.

What size is the case?

Zapatta · Mar 5, 2022

hejsam
Yes def looks like a redial of at lest a bad clean attempt.

What size is the case?

33

septentrio · Mar 5, 2022

Zapatta
33

Nope, 35mm.
Sold on ebay for 2,6k just now.

hejsam · Mar 5, 2022

septentrio
Nope, 35mm.
Sold on ebay for 2,6k just now.

Did you get an confirmation about the size or just based it on the picture with the ruler in the listings?

I have learned its very difficult to determine the 2mm difference with such a ruler and poor pictures, I asked the seller for an exact size but did not get an answear.

But pretty expensive anyways? ~2.65k USD for a bad (repainted?) dial and without movement pictures.

Here is the listing btw:https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Lo...p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

LesXL · Mar 5, 2022

septentrio
Nope, 35mm.
Sold on ebay for 2,6k just now.

Nom de Djieu... That hurts, if it ends up being s redial. That said, it is always worth what the wearer is happy with

kpaxsg · Mar 5, 2022

The winner after reading the post here probably will back out I suppose. The inscription on the back looks dodgy as well. Should have bought my NOS 😉

Rumar89 · Mar 5, 2022

The photos are so bad it’s tough to tell, but I’m not convinced that’s a redial.

https://omegaforums.net/threads/longines-dial-fonts-and-us-market.33758/page-2

DirtyDozen12 · Mar 5, 2022

The width of the bezel makes me think 35 mm. Also, I do not recall if 32 mm cases came with case-backs that had the Waterproof, Anti-Magnetic, etc. markings. While the signature of the dial does resemble known, sans-serif variants, the dial strikes me as incorrect. The design of the sub-dial does not look right, and I would only expect a sans-serif signature on an American-market watch, which I doubt this is. Let's see if it turns up with another dial. For posterity: order number is 2367 and case number is 55.
EDIT: I have added a photo of the movement (serial number: 5'809'827).

septentrio · Mar 6, 2022

Well, I think it’s clear for everyone that there’s something wrong with the dial. Next question then, is this worth 2,6k usd of 35mm parts? I’m inclined to say ‘yes’.

hejsam · Mar 6, 2022

septentrio
Well, I think it’s clear for everyone that there’s something wrong with the dial. Next question then, is this worth 2,6k usd of 35mm parts? I’m inclined to say ‘yes’.

I guess you are right because if you have a good spare 35mm tre tacche dial you will have a very valuable watch. There are 35mm tre tacches sold here on the forum for 10k+, and that is not even by inflated dealers.

hejsam · Mar 6, 2022

Found two more of this kind of dial from a dealer on ig so thought I should share.

How many of these dials should be considered swapped before start wondering if they actually could be original @DirtyDozen12? Or am I just seeing the same examples from different owners

DirtyDozen12 · Mar 7, 2022

The two dials shown above are identical (see below). So, either there was a mistake in the descriptions (implying that these are two different watches), or the dial was swapped from one watch to the other. I think that this confusion neatly illustrates how the absolute number of 35 mm tre tacches, with black (sei tacche) dials, has been made to seem larger than it really is. The same watches are getting passed around a lot.

Unfortunately, I do not think that there is a critical number of watches that, once observed, will indicate that these dials are correct. Instead, I would want to see evidence that supports the fact that convex dials are correct for these watches. Additionally, I would want to confirm that the examples we see originally had black radium dials. This may or may not be possible, depending on Longines' archive.

hejsam · Mar 8, 2022

DirtyDozen12
The two dials shown above are identical (see below). So, either there was a mistake in the descriptions (implying that these are two different watches), or the dial was swapped from one watch to the other. I think that this confusion neatly illustrates how the absolute number of 35 mm tre tacches, with black (sei tacche) dials, has been made to seem larger than it really is. The same watches are getting passed around a lot.

Unfortunately, I do not think that there is a critical number of watches that, once observed, will indicate that these dials are correct. Instead, I would want to see evidence that supports the fact that convex dials are correct for these watches. Additionally, I would want to confirm that the examples we see originally had black radium dials. This may or may not be possible, depending on Longines' archive.

Yes you are right that it looks like the same dial in both of these, so probably the seller have swapped the dials since he is clearly stating it is different watches (with different ref numbers and origin country). Looks like the second one have different or relumed hands as well? Or is it just the different lighting?

I specifically asked Longines when asking for an extract of mine and got this answer:
"I'm sorry to inform you that we don't provide any information on the dial. Regarding your second request, we only provide historical information kept in our archives on the basis of the serial number that is engraved on the watch.

In our registers, the original serial number 6'461'428 identifies a wristwatch in stainless steel bearing the order number 22243 and the reference 4142. It is fitted with a Longines manually wound mechanical movement, caliber 12.68N."

So unfortunately Longines don't seem to provide any more information regarding the dial.

hejsam · Mar 11, 2022

Put mine on an early GF stretch oyster bracelet, a very nice combo I think 😀

septentrio · Mar 11, 2022

Dibs 😎

Rumar89 · Mar 17, 2022

It’s 35mm. The crystal isn’t helping, but having seen it in person I’m very much of the opinion that this dial is original.

DirtyDozen12 · Mar 17, 2022

Rumar89
It’s 35mm. The crystal isn’t helping, but having seen it in person I’m very much of the opinion that this dial is original.

Thanks for posting additional photos. May I ask what makes you think that the dial is original? The quality of the printing looks very poor, which is highly atypical of an original dial. Additionally, the sans-serif signature is highly atypical of an original tre tacche dial. The same is true of the sub-dial and minute scale designs. I also notice that the minute hand, which could well be original, overshoots the minute scale. As well, the second hand and crown are incorrect. All in all, this is far from an unmolested example. Do you have photos of the movement?