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Omega Fat Arrow redial

COYI
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That's pure vandalism! Reading this thread made me angry so I can appreciate how you must feel.

I can't believe someone who works in the industry would butcher a family heirloom like this. It's just as well it wasn't a Thin Arrow.
You should ask the proprietor of the business to read this thread. I hope he is ashamed.
 
Brindlehill
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Another question if I may gentlemen.
Did the original Fat Arrow's have a glass crystal?
Reason I ask is I wore the watch last night and scuffed the face whilst shopping in the Trafford Centre in Manchester. Not badly, just a glancing blow.
I popped into the Omega shop to see if they could polish it out.
The guy tapped the crystal, took the watch and returned with the scuff removed saying they have a solution that removes blemishes off plastic glass.
 
rkman11
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Brindlehill Brindlehill
Original reply to initial quote below....

Hi guys.
Thanks for the quote.
I have a couple of questions if I may.
£984 is a lot of money to spend bringing a watch up to its former glory. Sentimentally worth every penny but what will the watch be worth once renovated in your opinion? It was my grandfathers watch so wont be sold but I don't want to put money into the project if the watch will only be worth half of what I am putting into it. I'm sure it wont but need the expertise of yourselves to ease my mind.
Will all the authenticity be kept once the watch is finished? This is important to me, as I'm sure yourselves, and I don't want to loose this.
The strap attached to the watch can be scrapped. This was used by my father and has no purpose whatsoever going forward. I asked if the strap could be replaced with an original on the slip I returned with the watch but your quote doesn't mention this? It does however state bracelet worn? Could you clarify what this means please.
You quote an optional dial restoration. What does this entail? If its not critical to the watch I could possibly put this money into a strap?
I need this to be right. My father passed the watch to myself and I want to do the watch justice.
I appreciate your time in helping make this achievable and am excited to hear back from you.
Many thanks,
Paul.

Could I have made it any clearer?

Honestly yes. If you agreed to any dial restoration of any kind, that’s what you got. And that really hurt the value of the watch. They can claim it is still original, as you asked, as that is still the original dial. That’s where the clarity was missing, depending of course on what your response was back to them before agreeing to have them do the work.

Now the lugs are another story, that’s just a crime against humanity.
 
kaisiang098
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Reading this made me real depressed, i feel so bad for what they did to your beautiful piece especially what happened to the case and lugs.
 
ANALOGUE
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Hi!

I am sorry that you did not get happy with the jon, and the polish is really bad so I totally understand!

But honestly, IMHO, the main problem is that you had the dial remade. That is what really destroyed this watch, and text etc almost never look identical so I dont think the redial is particularly bad. It should just not have been made regardless of how identical they would have manage to make it. And frankly I am happy as long as redials look like redials so that I dont buy one...

Sorry for sounding hard but I get really sad that people do these redials. I can somewhat understand if the dial really looks like shit, but your dial looked good under a scratched plexi. So many nice watches gets in my opinion totally destroyed...

The problem is the demand, not the supply and I think all these redials is what will totally destroy the vintage market one day...

Again, I feel soory for you and am sorry if I sound hard. Nothing personal but I think that people need to stop doing like this, or at least be aware that collectors like me (there are others) never will intentionally buy a redialed watch...

Lastly, I Hope they will do what is possibly to make you happy in the end!
 
Brindlehill
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Keeping you busy now guys, another question if I may.......
I wore my watch at the weekend whilst it was raining and the crystal steamed up as shown in the pictures below. Should this happen? I know the watch is old but after the work its had, which included water resistance and pressure testing, I feel it shouldn't.
What are your thoughts or experiences?
Misted watch 1.jpg Misted watch 2.jpg
 
MCC
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I would not have expected the watch to be water proof. If they told you otherwise then you should certainly take it back to them.
 
N
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I think you better take it back to the shop. The condensation will damage the dial.
 
ANALOGUE
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N NobitaD
I think you better take it back to the shop. The condensation will damage the dial.
Not necessarily. It depends on how much moisture have entered into the watch. If it is only minor it does not need to damage the dial. Also as @MCC say, one should not believe that this kind of watch is water proof, and I assume that the test was not at any high Atm level...

@Brindlehill you should "open" the watch as much as you can - pull out the crown and take away the case back. Then let it be for a day or so. Then put back the case back and test to put something could on the crystal (like ice or a frosen piece of something) shortly just so that it gets cold (and not too wet). If the crystal steams up again, it is still wet inside. Good luck!
 
Archer
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ANALOGUE ANALOGUE
Not necessarily. It depends on how much moisture have entered into the watch. If it is only minor it does not need to damage the dial. Also as @MCC say, one should not believe that this kind of watch is water proof, and I assume that the test was not at any high Atm level...

@Brindlehill you should "open" the watch as much as you can - pull out the crown and take away the case back. Then let it be for a day or so. Then put back the case back and test to put something could on the crystal (like ice or a frosen piece of something) shortly just so that it gets cold (and not too wet). If the crystal steams up again, it is still wet inside. Good luck!

You can see the moisture in the photos, and I would not consider it "minor" based on the photos.

Also, recommending that someone remove the back off a watch that is likely still under warranty is bad advice. If it was pressure tested and passed, it should not be fogging up like this.
 
ANALOGUE
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Archer Archer
You can see the moisture in the photos, and I would not consider it "minor" based on the photos.

Also, recommending that someone remove the back off a watch that is likely still under warranty is bad advice. If it was pressure tested and passed, it should not be fogging up like this.
Hi!
I know you are skilled and will not go into any debate!

However, I did not say it was minor, only that it did not necessarily mean a damaged dial if it was minor. I cannot juge if it is minor or not.

Why is it a bad advised to remove the case-back? Is it better to let the moist be kept in the watch? Sure if you open the caseback it might not be water proof after but it seems that it is not anyways. I have myself got a steamed crystal and solved it by removing the caseback and letting it "air out".
Edited:
 
Archer
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ANALOGUE ANALOGUE
Hi!
I know you are skilled and will not go into any debate!

However, I did not say it was minor, only that it did not necessarily mean a damaged dial if it was minor. I cannot juge if it is minor or not.

Why is it a bad advised to remove the case-back? Is it better to let the moist kept in the watch? Sure if you open the caseback it might not be whater proof after but it seems that it is not anyways. I have myself got a steamed crystal and solved it by removing the caseback and letting it "air out".

Because the watch is under warranty and opening it will void the warranty, and eliminate any recourse the OP has with the service provider.

In addition, just opening it and letting it "air out" is not enough to limit damage. You also have no idea what the skills of the person you are suggesting this to has, and they could easily do more damage than good by doing as you are suggesting.

And to be clear, I never said it should be left as is - he needs to contact the people who serviced it and go from there.
 
ANALOGUE
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Archer Archer
Because the watch is under warranty and opening it will void the warranty, and eliminate any recourse the OP has with the service provider.

In addition, just opening it and letting it "air out" is not enough to limit damage. You also have no idea what the skills of the person you are suggesting this to has, and they could easily do more damage than good by doing as you are suggesting.

And to be clear, I never said it should be left as is - he needs to contact the people who serviced it and go from there.
Hi,
Ok thanks for your answer!

I appologise for the bad advise! I got the same advise when it happend to me and it worked so I though I should share that when I saw that the watch have had the moist for a while as I though it would be bad to keep it that way. I did not think about the fact that it would limit the warranty, nor that he possibly could not open the case-back in a fairly safe way. My bad!

Then I hope he did not follow my advise (that of course was with good intentions) and will think more before I give advise in the future.
 
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