I just bought this on Ebay and have not received it yet. I paid $250 USD and should get it sometime early next week. I tried to be fairly conservative on my first purchase. The plan is to send it to the watchmaker for a cleaning. I have read the posts regarding cleaning dials and I realize it is a mixed bag. I welcome your thoughts on the watch.

Thank You

Justin

 

The dial has an honest patina. I say, leave it as it is - but that's just me. Trying to clean it risks screwing it up completely and then you are into having it repainted. Screwed up dial or repainted dial = same loss in value.

 

I agree with Stewart

 

I like the dial age. It's not too heavy IMO.

 

Thank you for your replies. I am going to leave the dial surface alone. Can the markers be cleaned carefully by a watchmaker without impacting the dial pr os that too risky? Can the hands can be rinsed in a machine like the movement parts?

 

Dial markers can sometimes be cleaned carefully, but you have to decide if shiny new looking markers are going to look correct with the patina on the dial. I would NEVER put hands in the cleaning machine, but will clean them by hand. Since these do not have lume, they would be fairly easy to clean by hand.

Cheers, Al

 

What, I wonder, are the hands on Omegas made from? I would assume that the less costly gold-capped and steel models perhaps have brass gold-plated hands, and the solid gold cases maybe have solid gold hands? Does anyone know - because it would determine your cleaning strategy.

 

It depends on the watch in question. Some are plated brass, some are solid gold, and some are blued steel.

Really it would have no impact on how I "clean" them though...in any case, hand are far too delicate to be put in a cleaning machine.

Cheers, Al

 

Al, I take your point. It's just that I was thinking if the hands were solid gold they would be less likely to need cleaning. The hands that would be most likely to have tarnished or lost their plating would be GP brass, and that would be the most delicate and difficult to deal with, that's all. In which case (unless the watch was historically important) you might be better off fitting new hands . . .

John

 

I find solid gold also tarnishes quite a lot, so plated or not does not seem to make a huge difference with the watches I see. Certainly solid gold is a bit nicer to work with and there no concern with losing plating as you clean...

Cheers, Al

 

Thanks I think I am going to have the hands clean but leave the markers alone. I dont have the watch yet. How does the movement look? I thought the watch did not seem to have much wear. There is a case like it on Ebay right now that is NOS and it is not much better.