Hi all,

After being a 'Rolex only' watch guy for a long time I recently caught the Speedy bug and decided it was time to get hold of a vintage pre-moon watch to wear occasionally while my daily wear Explorer 2 is self-regulating

I bought a copy of Moonwatch Only which really is a fantastic resource and spent hours browsing this forum and sp101.com to try and climb the learning curve. It didn't take long to realize that tracking down a decent, original example at a realistic price was not going to be easy. Anything original AND perfect sells for pretty crazy money these days (unless you're really lucky) so I decided that original but imperfect was the way to go and put the money saved to servicing and possibly restoration

Anyway, I found this one on ebay:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rare-Vint...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network
and decided to have a punt with a sensible low bid even though the seller's pictures were pretty rubbish and there was no picture of the movement.

I finally got the watch and I'm quite pleased with it As expected, it's not perfect - the bezel is damaged but not that badly IMHO and one of the pushers probably needs replacing. The movement looks clean and the serial number is in the correct range (22083xxx) but definitely needs a service as there is something weird going on with the chrono hour register. Sometimes when the start/stop button is pushed the chrono hour hand will jump forward or backward by a couple of hours!! Anyone have any idea if this is a common problem and/or an easy fix?

Much of the white paint has flaked off the hands and some of the lume is missing although the lume that remains matches the dial lume. I'm fairly sure the dial lume is original and although many people don't like the grey/green fading, I actually don't mind it too much. The big problem for me is the chrono seconds hand. Someone has painted it and covered the top section which should have lume matching the other hands This really spoils the look of the watch as it seems totally out of character with overall patina.

So what should I do... Should I just leave the dial and hands alone and only only have the movement cleaned and serviced? Should I just have the chrono hand restored to match the whole package? Or, should I have the dial relumed and the hands painted/relumed by someone who will do a good job? Any help, criticism and advice would be appreciated

Pictures (I hope)...

 

Get your watch guy to stabilise the hands and get him to "correct" the chrono hand with some matching paint.

 

Depends on whether you want to wear it every day or "collect" it.

If you're going to wear it, get the dial, hands, and bezel replaced. If you're going to collect it, just get the movement serviced.

Tom

 

Painted that seconds chrono hand with what, dunobug? Is it heavily applied coats of some Lume or white model enamel paint? It looks like a pretty rough job. Does it Lume in the dark after you charge it with light?

 

If its to be your everyday beater I'd have watchmaker clean and lume hands as well as touch up insert. No use spending high $ on it, just clean it up and enjoy.

 

Looks to me like model enamel paint or something similar and there's no sign of any lume from it I'm really glad that it was only the chrono hand that has been messed with as the rest of the dial and hands are still in original if somewhat 'aged' condition

 

Last week I received the watch back from Christian Dannemann (watchguy.co.uk) who has done an excellent job of restoring the dial and hands. The relume was done by his assistant Mitka and to my eye appears to be absolutely flawless. As part of the service the chronograph driving wheel and hour recorder runner were also replaced. Reluming a vintage watch dial is not something that everyone agrees with but in this case I'm now convinced that I did the right thing. you can read his blog for my watch at http://watchguy.co.uk/service-omega-speedmaster-105-012-64-calibre-321/