Polerouter 204503 Evaluation Help

Hi fellow UG lovers,

I have the opportunity to buy this Polerouter Ref. 204503 / 1 tomorrow, my thoughts so far:

Dial seems legit with a fair bit of patina, but still attractive to me
Case seems only lightly polished or even unpolished
Crown is original
Crystal is a generic replacement
Hands seem to be relumed with some black stuff?



At first sight it seems like an honest example, it is freshly serviced. Any input from the community will be highly appreciated. Thanks a lot in advance!

Agreed, all looks correct. I suspect the lume is original, just old and dirty.

We included one in the book because it's one of the earliest Date references, they are not common and have a different look.

I personally much prefer the more conventional models with the marker ring but one man's meat is another man's poison.

Thank you very much @Mazoue really appreciate your reply! 😎👍

I already compared this example to the one picured in your book (one of THE best watch books ever btw, huge congratulations) but I always want to hear a second opinion in case I missed some detail. One thing that sticks out to me is the length of the seconds hand, most examples I could find online have a longer seconds hand that extends all the way to the edge of the dial, this one looks like it has the shorter hand from the "classic" dial variants with the silver engine turned bezel. So maybe a replacement from a previous service or is it possible that it left the factory this way?

The dial itself is sn acquired taste but as I already have a "classic" Polerouter in my collection I like to add a bit of variety and these seem to be quite rare, only built from 1959-60 if I'm not mistaken...