So I picked up one of these babies (I am growing fond of this model), with the hope of my conservator saving the dial.

For some of you who have read about her previous attempt at restoring a Breitling 806 dial last year - it went really well until she tried reluming it, so lesson learned, stick with conservation. Given her background in art conservation (instead of watchmaking), I continue to believe providing her with more and more experience with watch dials will eventually provide me with a specialist that can salvage dials that would otherwise be sent to a refinisher

I suspect that the main issue here is that the clear coat on the dial has degraded, and that the careful removal and re-application of new clear coat can fix most of the problems (Connie experts please disabuse me if this is not the original dial before I throw some $$$ into fixing it)



The best article I read about this approach was from Desmond's website:

http://users.tpg.com.au/mondodec//Seamaster_Conserve.pdf

After some research and effort I was able to subsequently contact Mr Dewan, who did the miracle job in the article. He told me he had retired 10 years prior and has moved on to other endeavors, but was gracious enough to provide some more detail on his process that I subsequently passed on to my conservator, who will attempt the same process on this dial.

I'll keep the forum updated on the progress

 

Best of luck, but looks absolutley fine to me as it stands

 

Like the idea of ‘dial conservators’ as a profession that can help preserve our precious dials, and touch up the damaged ones. So far even the best in the field seem to have mixed results. Good luck

 

I've watched a bunch of the Baumgartner videos on fine art restoration, and it's astonishing what a good conservator can do. I hold my breath when he starts removing the old varnish from a painting, but it comes off without harming the paint beneath.

If you really value this particular watch, you might buy a rat watch on eBay with a similar dial for your conservator to practice on.

 

I would have left that dial well alone too.

 

hmnn.. I am getting swayed.. it DOES look better the longer I look at it.. maybe a good idea to start off with a beat up IWC cal 89 dial.. for practice?

 

I look at the dial and absolutely think the bumps at 4 look like they are from the dial side and not the top side.

 

+1 on keeping the dial as-is if this were mine. I actually find the dial quite appealing. Thanks for sharing anyway. Looking forward to seeing the progress if you decide to go ahead.

 

I'd leave the dial as-is as well...

 

Sorry, crown is original? Tks

 

For me this is a vintage watch with a beautiful dial that shall be preserved for the next generations as it is. Champagne, chocolates, mother of pearl... I get several emotions when I look at the stunning vintage dial Please leave it untouched.