It's a nice old "Ranchero"/Seamaster that I bought on this forum a few months ago. It's got the manual wind cal. 267 in it, and the plating on the hands is shot. Any idea of what I should look for that would work? I don't know if Seamasters with gold dial furniture and a cal. 267 are common or uncommon beasts... thanks, Todd
Note the style of the lume grooves. From my experience, this style of hands is going to be difficult to source. You can try searching eBAY. Other than style, you will need to know a few measurements. The hole sizes are 0.75/1.40 and make sure to measure the length of your hands.
The hands look consistent with the wear on the rest of the watch. A good watchmaker may be able to polish them. I highly doubt you'll find exact replacements for those, although you may find newer OEM Omega hands that will fit. In either case, I'm not sure that you would like the results. gatorcpa
Thanks guys, this is helpful. I am actually pretty good at very gently cleaning hands as well as sympathetic re-luming. But this looks more like a plating issue. And yes, gcpa, in the picture, the hands look consistent with the wear on the rest of the watch. But in person and under the loupe, they are quite blackened and oxidized and detract from the appearance of the watch.. And Joe, thanks for the hole size measurements. I have my little hole measuring gauge thingy lying around somewhere but cannot seem to find it..
If the hands are gold colored. They have a very thin plate and even gentle rubbing will wear the plating off if they are as blacked as you say. Steel. I would look for the highest grit wet/dry sandpaper which is about 7000 and try that and work your way down if needed. Cut tiny squares and glue to the ends of flat toothpicks. More control than holding a larger piece Be careful around the luminous and always blow on the area to remove any of the dust, so it doesn't contaminate the luminous and darken it. DON
Thanks DON. I am familiar with a similar technique for polishing steel hands. Unfortunately, these are the thin-gold-plate variety, so nothing I can really do without removing the rest of the plating.... As far as luminous, usually I remove the old lume and then do a sympathetic re-lume using non-glow material and careful tinting to match the dial markers. I've become pretty good at this. thanks, Todd
How about re-plating the hands then? The lume will be wasted, but if (1) you're good at re-luming, and (2) you were looking to replace the hands altogether anyway, then it might be an option.
you took the words right out of my mouth! I was going to ask about replating, but don't know if it works well on hands...was wondering if it might "thicken" them or something. I'm not worried about the pinion holes as I have a broaching kit that can easily get them back to spec.. but will certainly look into it.
My old refinisher replated my hands if they weren't pitted or damage. thickness is very thin Check on line for jewelry replaters and you might find a company that will do it. Maybe 5 micron Only one problem. My dial guy also replated the indexes to match the hands, so everything looked right Other choice. Look for some lightly used hands. DON