Omega “cone” dial cleaning advice

[Mattyd199]

Good evening!

I picked this up on eBay the other day for what I consider a steal! Non runner

I’ve always fancied an f300 and thought why not, what’s there to loose, worst case it’s goosed and I relist for parts or I take a punt at repairing, anyway if came today and despite what looks to be water damage on the dial inside the case back is immaculate, threw a battery in and it’s humming away nicely!

Anyway I digress, the dial as you can see has what appears to be some water damage to it, I bought a Constellation Quartz recently that also had water damage and I used water to clean the dial which resulted in removing all marks, logos everything off the dial like it never existed,

Does anyone know the best way to tackle this job without me casing more damage?

Finally, without removing the movement at the moment, does anyone know what would be causing the day to incorrectly align its either up or down and never centred?

Thank you as always,
Matty

 

[TexOmega]

I would say what you see now will be the best it will be after you try a cleaning.

Buy a new dial when you find one....or a part's watch with a good dial.

 

[Pvt-Public]

M Mattyd199

Anyway I digress, the dial as you can see has what appears to be some water damage to it, I bought a Constellation Quartz recently that also had water damage and I used water to clean the dial which resulted in removing all marks, logos everything off the dial like it never existed,

First, you can't clean off damage.
Second, trying to clean dials has a 99.8% failure rate.
Third, DON'T DO IT
I think I've said enough.

 

[Bruce235]

An analogy is to picture attempting to clean a butterfly's wings.

 

[Canuck]

The calendar rings on this model are made of plastic! The watch s likely 55 to 60 years old. It is common for these plastic rings to fail when the triangular teeth (31 of them on the day ring) chip, over the years. The watch could well benefit from thorough servicing, but repairing the calendar function could be a challenge.

 

[malilis]

calendar/dat disk need to be changed for steel ones ..

 

[Mattyd199]

Pvt-Public

First, you can't clean off damage.
Second, trying to clean dials has a 99.8% failure rate.
Third, DON'T DO IT
I think I've said enough.

So all in all, don’t do it?

I was hoping I could brush off the mess with a really soft brittle sort of make up brush?

 

[Mattyd199]

malilis

calendar/dat disk need to be changed for steel ones ..

Fair enough I did wonder, guess I’ll have a good scour on eBay over the coming weeks

 

[andrewgzz]

I thinks it's mostly tritium dust..isn't it? Once you gently blow it away (es. with a air dust blower) you get a dial in fairly good conditions without the need to brush anything...

 

[Mattyd199]

A andrewgzz

I thinks it's mostly tritium dust..isn't it? Once you gently blow it away (es. with a air dust blower) you get a dial in fairly good conditions without the need to brush anything...

I did wonder if the blower would do the trick, guess I will open it up and have a look. Nothing ventured nothing gained. But yes it does appear to be dust more than anything

 

[ketiljo]

The black dials on these are almost always damaged in some way, usually bubbly. You a try gently brush off the dust with a soft, clean brush. You _must_ remove the oscillator plate before you remove the movement. You will damage the index wheel if you touch the second hand without doing so.
The date disk on cal 1250, date only, is commonly broken but the cal 1260 disks are different and not prone to breaking. If someone has changed date around midnight, it may break anyway and that seems to have happened here. The 1260 disk are much easier to get hold of.