I've been looking at buying a vintage Speedmaster pro and have noticed a couple things regarding the patina on the hour markers and hands that I'm hoping to get explanations for.

1) Occasiinally I notice uneven patina on the hour markers where they are more white on the top portion towards the center of the dial and then become patina as it moves towards the bezel. Is that typical or a sign of a dial that has been tampered with? This is on both the stepped dial and non stepped.

2) I'm also seeing some tritium hands that appear to have a dark grey color as opposed to patina. Is that normal as well?

Thank you!

 

This is an example of the uneven patina on hour markers.

https://www.chrono24.com/en/omega/s...1980--id6535836.htm?SETLANG=en_US&SETCURR=USD

 

Hands and dial look normal on that watch. Dial is painted white then tritium is applied over the paint (ink). Occasionally you'll see a watch where the owner thought the patina so ugly they scraped off the tritium and left a flat white-painted dial. On this particular watch the tritium may not have fully covered the marker, and/or may have shrunk a little over time to reveal a little white underneath. For reasons unknown (to me, anyway), tritium can age differently on hands and dial.

 

Thank you!