First off, this has been a boring day and with too much time on my hands, my brain begins to wonder. Plus, I,ve had some wine. While staring at my Ed White today I noticed what I felt the be the slightest hint of browness to the dial. It clearly is not jet black like the bezel. I then pulled out my 145.012, and in certain lght that dial also appeared slightly brownish, again when contrasting with the bezel. Now, my other two speedies, a 2998 and 105.012 I bought as tropicals and there can be no doubt about their browness. So, my mind started to ask itself, are the majority of early speedies destined to tropicality? You know, like old people destined to become wrinkled. It does seem that the earlier speedies (unique 145.022s aside) such as 2915 and 2998 are more frequently brown than newer models. Will my Ed and 145 soon become full fledged cocoa? Will the few dials that remain black become the most rare and desirable? We know that tropical dials don't just get that way overnight, and that all of these must have started out as just very faintly brown. And we know the color change is unidirectional. No brown dials become black! I wonder if any here who have had their speedies for many years have personally witnessed a transformation toward browness? Or, am I overreaching? Is the bezel always blacker than the dial, even in newer speedies? Am I getting cataracts and seeing brown hues everywhere? Anyhow, if this post is way too anicdotal, my apologies. But any kind feedback would be welcome.
Tricks of the light. That's why I always prefer to see any watch labelled as tropical - that is not outright and obviously tropical - in hand before making up my mind.. Nice watches though!
Not in any way implying my middle two examples tropical. Just that in a certain direct light they have a faint non-blackish hue and I am just not experienced to know if this is a very early stage of metamorphosis or just the way a speedmaster blsck dial should look? (Am I reading too much Kafka or Ovid?)
I believe we can correlate a wine to brown relationship based on red or white, then on wine vintage, accounting for relative humidity and factoring in glass type.
My brown dial Speedmaster looks to be a different shade of brown depending on the light. Natural overcast... natural sunny... indoor 100 watt bulb... indoor photographic flash??? Everytime I take a picture the dial appears to be a different shade of brown. Never really looks black though. Interesting point, because I can never seem to show how nice the brown dial is, in any of the photos I take of my own watch. My photography never quite does the dial on the watch justice.
Judging from my current collection, I think the OP is on to something. Many of the older dials do seem to take on, in some light, a brownish hue. I can’t see this same effect with later dials, even in the same ‘light’ as what makes the older ones appear to be browning. I’m not suggesting that this is the same as other established brown dial serial number runs. Just my observation. And photos don’t always capture it either. First under neutral fluorescent light and second in daylight thru a window, turned into the light. I know I’m opening myself up to further argument by posting ‘on the line’ shots of one of my Eds, but the dial is not the same color as the bezel. And, I’m not claiming it’s a ‘brown dial’, just that it’s exhibiting the phenomenon we’re discussing.
Try as I might, I can't see any brown. But personally, I think this had something to do with it. Do you see more or less brown under the influence of gin, for example?
@Vitezi : i grabbed a beer after I posted, not before, just for the record. You don’t have to call it brown. But, do you perceive the dial and bezel as the same color?
IMHO, there's a difference between a "tropical" or obviously "brown" dial and a dial that is not the same darkness as the bezel. but yeah, most of my dials have faded and are not deep, dark black... with the right light and angle, I can convince myself that all of them are a little brown too.
My 105.003 is what I consider a "brown tease" - in certain lights the dial is a rich brown, but it never ever shows up in photos. Might just be the iPhone I use though; it almost always seems to desaturate photos I take after the fact, strangely
Based on my handful of speedies the black dial turning a shade of grey seems more common than brown hints. Although I have a 2998-6 that has become noticeably browner.