Railmaster Alteration ~ Opinions Sought:

Lume is one of the aspects of a watch that has gotten overblown (imo), especially with the Omega crowd. Aged lume on a 60 yo Railmaster is righteous, but a new homage piece where Omega picks a dial and lume color approximating what an aged dial would look like is sacrilegious. Cheating, even. In my view it's a design choice and the bottom line is, does it look good? If you can't get your head around that you should just move on and buy something else. You can certainly have it relumed to whatever shade or color you want, but why franken your watch from the start? All you are doing is putting your own idea of what the lume should look like, your own fauxtina. You're just second guessing Omega. But it is your watch and if that will improve it for you than you should do it, costs and devaluation be damned.

I have the Trilogy Speedmaster, the Ultraman and a New321 which all have an 'aged' lume color to some extent, all are attractive to me. I don't fret or obsess over Omega's dial design, that is up to them.

Note that this may have implications at the time of service - Omega may change the parts back to the original lume...and charge you for the parts.

All great points, thank you.

For the sake of the sake though... if one knew they were keeping a watch how does resale factor into it, I still can't see it but maybe I am missing something?

Moving beyond only money and into design & aesthetics: arguably people "alter" their single most expensive "investment" daily no? That of course being their house ~ add-ons, teardowns, paint, remodels, landscaping decisions and more. A watch is nothing by comparison - or at least an Omega Railmaster - cost wise.
Even more so, if a human knows they're keeping something (in the case of a house, staying there until the Black Wall greets them) they go even deeper into making it their own... as such, not sure why then it is generally viewed as sacrilege when it comes to a watch ~ something that typically falls far below the cost of a house or another spendy yet occasionally altered purchase, cars.

As to other assertions: for me, this isn't "second guessing" Omega. No, it's me taking something nearly perfect and attempting to help it cross the finish line. Let us not forget, not a single original Railmaster in any shop in the year 1957 had this hue for its lume. In essence, I am taking a beast of watch (meant in the best way: the materials and movement are so much better than what Omega had at their disposal in 1957) and visually returning it back to whence forth it first came.
Said differently, and maybe it's only me, fauxtina for me is like buying high end, acid washed, pre-ripped, denim pants or a jacket. No thank you, I want me, and my usage/my daily life, to age the product.
So am I second guessing Omega? Perhaps I am or am not but - again for me, only me - having a beautifully made, robust, spendy watch on my wrist from my favorite brand AND being told it has to look somewhat pre-aged or weathered or pre-owned is cheapening the philosophical aesthetic for me.
Again, caveat, these are only my, MY, opinions so no need for anyone to go Full Warpath on my ass.

Moving on... the implication that this would somehow "Franken Watch" my Railmaster: Really? Come on.
I wouldn't be having my Great Aunt Ethel relume the hands and dial with her favorite nail polish for fυck's sake. It's not like I'm having the Omega script or Greek symbol painted over in high viz lime green paint and substituting in "Rolex" & "Milgauss" to pull the wool. I'm not considering a Monster energy drink logo on the dial.

Not taking the time to locate the thread but a day or two ago, when I was still weighing all this in my mind, I stumbled across a thread here at OF whereby a fellow member was slowly morphing his Speedmaster into, can't quite recall, an Ed White or something more rare than what he had... he had begun the transformation with a new handset and was, again if memory serves, contemplating a new dial at some point down the road, and by in large the response was 100% encouragement so I don't get how lume, which in and of itself is removable, on two hands and 12 triangular minute plots is akin to me pushing a heroin needle into my arm or turning to a life a crime or absolutely destroying a beautiful, and beautifully made, Swiss watch.

As far as pissing off Omega and running into servicing issues if I do decide to move forward... well, @Archer (since you brought it up) that's where you'd come into play as my watchmaker of choice for a service, no? 😉

Anyway, I'll await more input from you folks but it might already be a moot point as I just heard back from a very talented watchmaker whom I reached out to as a candidate to undertake this project, and he replied with the following bit of bad news:

"Scott,

Glad to hear from an Omega Fan versus the usual Rolex crowd. Also glad someone else out there finds Omega's faux patina as annoying as I do. You aren't the first but you are rare.
Sad to report I will not undertake this otherwise rather simple project because a simple "paint over" leaves too much height and worse, a brownish under hue beneath the new lume (trust me I've tried). And removing the lume on a newer watch is going into a place that concerns me when the watch isn't mine as I don't fully know or understand what Omega is using these days for acrylic binders with their pigments but I do know this, it is very hard."

So there ya go, it might be staying faux-aged after all.

Not upset at all. Still wanting to discuss, still thinking out loud, still wanting opinions.

Yeesh, now I feel like I am in the Rolex Facebook Group ~ watches as investments.

Okay, since we've now entered the pissy/sarcastic zone... I can only assume you own your Railmaster to guarantee a plush retirement too?
Do you take off your Railmaster to wash your hands, floss your teeth?

Let’s get back on track-

Folks buy new speedies with bright white lume and have them relumed lemon yellow all the time. Tintin and racing dials swapped into run of the mill speedies- it’s done all the time, no reason this is any different.
So the watchmaker (relumer?) you contacted brought up an interesting point, he doesn’t have enough experience with these newer materials to know how it will turn out and what limited exposure has, hasn’t gone well.
You could offer to really be the test subject- release him of any liability in writing and let him have at it. I personally would want a second dial & hands to let him play with. Then no great disaster (other than the expense of the replacement dial and hands) if he doesn’t have success

Thank you, seriously thank you... not sure why me asking for opinions, getting some opinions - and then me asking more questions based off those opinions - immediately makes me into a destroyer of watches or laughable or into a foe but thank you for pulling this back on track.

I am going to reach out to a few more watchmakers and gather a general consensus and report back here as I do value the OF member's input ~ which I thought was made clear by A) initially asking here B) taking the time to respond to all the replies with more questions/thoughts.

Also, when you mention "second dial and hands" are referring to an actual Omega Railmaster dial and handset or just any dial & handset ~ for the watchmaker to woodshed on?

ideally you would have a new in package dial and hand set from Onega for your reference. Then the person doing the work can use those and if they ruin them, your watch remains untouched (and you just eat the cost) or if the results are excellent, you can have them swapped out and keep the originals from your watch in the packaging if you ever choose to put it back to factory or sell the watch (which I know you said you don’t want to- but things can change rapidly in life). The next owner would then have the choice (which would be the best of both worlds) of which dial they prefer.

But, I can’t think of any place you can just walk in and buy an omega dial and hands. You would have to get them from an omega parts account holder and they are not in the habit of selling loose parts.
Which leaves you with option B:
Send your watch to the person willing to do the work and waive all liability in writing if they are hesitant because of the possibility of failure. If it’s a complete disaster, then you send the watch to a certified omega service provider or back to Omega and they will replace the dial and hands as part of a service (and if within a recent service period may just charge you for the parts and labor on the dial and hands). You get your watch back to factory spec and have invested in an experiment that although may not have yielded the results you wanted, will provide you with the satisfaction that you tried.

This is The Way.

"Speaks about him as if he's not here", forgot to add that one.

Who do I PayPal for the therapy analysis session -- you or OO2019, both?

And still not upset, yet still open to further discussion on the lume -- even if my questions, answers & opinions create a perception to the contrary for you.

Hey I love a bit of controversy…. but the best way is just do it then post it.

Seiklex submariner……

Just for the sake of argument, gentlemen…can those who have had modern SL dials on their Speedmasters (or others) relumed with a more pleasing (to you) color- please stand up.
Further…can those with complete dial swaps on their modern Speedmasters please stand up…I’m look at you Aaron @Scarecrow Boat

Asked about it at first Speedmaster service (as watchmaker is a specialist at it)…will probably pay for it at my second service.