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airansun
·The Mimo Loga had to go in because it was not winding properly. Turned out it was a damaged bushing on the barrel arbor (hope I got that right).
My watchmaker is semi retired, in his seventies and very knowledgeable. He’s serviced and repaired all my high end watches to my satisfaction. I’ve never had a previous lume loss on any of my vintage watches that he’s serviced.
I picked up my watch earlier today. It looked beautiful and now works properly.
I was wearing it and took a photo for WRUW. When I was examining the photo, I realized that some of the numerals had lost lume. By the naked eye, the damage was not really detectable.
Before
After
Closer before
Closer after
So, first — I am more than a little sick at heart.
But, I knew that the lume was very puffy and looked fragile, the way I’ve sometimes seen radium lume. In fact, some of it had already shaken loose and was dirtying the dial.
My conclusion: I’m not inclined the blame my watchmaker at all. Between how fragile the lume was/is and the need to at least get the accumulated dandruff off the dial face, some more of the loose lume came off. The watch needed service and this was a predictable risk/trade off.
BTW, the hands suffered no damage and the lume is already flaking not the dial again.
Old stuff is old. Even pristine looking stuff is still old. And worn out sometimes, like I’m feeling at the moment.
I’m inclined to leave it the way it is and accept what happened.
What do you all think? I particularly am interested in hearing from the watchmakers out there about their thoughts.
🍿
My watchmaker is semi retired, in his seventies and very knowledgeable. He’s serviced and repaired all my high end watches to my satisfaction. I’ve never had a previous lume loss on any of my vintage watches that he’s serviced.
I picked up my watch earlier today. It looked beautiful and now works properly.
I was wearing it and took a photo for WRUW. When I was examining the photo, I realized that some of the numerals had lost lume. By the naked eye, the damage was not really detectable.
Before
After
Closer before
Closer after
So, first — I am more than a little sick at heart.
But, I knew that the lume was very puffy and looked fragile, the way I’ve sometimes seen radium lume. In fact, some of it had already shaken loose and was dirtying the dial.
My conclusion: I’m not inclined the blame my watchmaker at all. Between how fragile the lume was/is and the need to at least get the accumulated dandruff off the dial face, some more of the loose lume came off. The watch needed service and this was a predictable risk/trade off.
BTW, the hands suffered no damage and the lume is already flaking not the dial again.
Old stuff is old. Even pristine looking stuff is still old. And worn out sometimes, like I’m feeling at the moment.
I’m inclined to leave it the way it is and accept what happened.
What do you all think? I particularly am interested in hearing from the watchmakers out there about their thoughts.
🍿
Edited:
