Let's say I take a relatively order piece, or even a vintage to Omega or Rolex service center for service. Some of the older pieces don't have applied indices on the dial (Brosnan Seamaster 2531.80, vintage Submariners). Would service center replace them with newer lumanova dials? Or they have old stock vintage dials?

 

Your question really isn't clear, as it seems to mix up a number of issues...

Forgetting Rolex for the moment, if Omega were to replace a dial in a watch, they would replace it with an appropriate dial, so for the 25318000 they would not use a dial with applied indices, since this model never had those. There are technical reasons why replacing a dial with flat painted markers with one that has raised markers would be problematic - hand clearance being the main issue.

If your 25318000 was old enough the have a tritium dial, and the dial needed replacing, they do not have stock of new tritium dials, as those are long discontinued. So in the event that a tritium dial needed replacing, it would be with a luminova dial.

But there has to be a reason why the dial requires replacing, so if the finish is flaking, the lume is loose and falling off, or something similar then yes they will replace it, but otherwise they likely won't.

For Rolex, they are a different animal altogether, and quite honestly I would never send a vintage watch top them - they are far worse than Omega in their willingness to kill the value of your watch.

Cheers, Al

 

Gotcha! Thanks! That answered my question.
But can I request a dial replacement even if the lime is not falling off?

 

Sure.